We briefed you earlier about PARK(ing) Day Dallas, which organizer Noah Jeppson told us was supposed to help Dallasites and visitors “rethink the function of our public spaces … and have fun doing it.” I just got back from checking out the teensy-tiny parks that have taken over 30 or…
Forget what I just wrote below about council members turning in their redistricting amendments by 5 p.m. today. I just got a call from someone at City Hall informing me that, no, that deadline was just changed — at the request of the mayor’s office. The Redistricting Commission office confirms:…
Turns out, Mayor Mike Rawlings isn’t the only council member considering submitting an amendment to the final redistricting map sent to council. Last night I was told at least five other council members are planning on offering their own suggested alterations by today’s 5 p.m. deadline, among them Vonciel Jones…
Thanks to Anna’s unswerving dedication to documenting the entirety of the redistricting process, I’ve become addicted to the proposed maps that may or may not decide council districts for the next decade. So too has Mayor Mike, who may turn in his own amended map tomorrow by 5, the deadline…
The high-rise standing at 1607 Main Street looks nothing like the one built on that very spot in 1909, when it was known as the Praetorian Building — “the West’s first ‘skyscraper.'” Architect Clarence C. Bulger’s 15-story building, once an ornate, golden-hued tourist attraction, was gutted and stripped bare in…
Got a cryptic email yesterday that said someone from Dallas Fire-Rescue would speak to the council today (“if he is allowed”) about changes to DFR mentioned in the city manager’s budget. Those should ring a bell: A couple of months back we looked at concerns over plans to shuffle some…
Many of those Lower Greenville specific use permits approved by the City Plan Commission came before the city council today, which is why Bruce Richardson, repping a coalition of neighborhood associations, was perched at the podium for the better part of the last hour, saying nice things about some applicants…
During the morning portion of today’s city council meeting, Mayor Mike Rawlings told his colleagues he’s been “doing some thinking” about redistricting. Lord, haven’t we all. In reviewing what the Redistricting Commission has done, he said, “I believe the transparency was there.” This, of course, despite recent complaints by Ruth…
Come Friday downtown Dallas will be short around 30 parking spaces. They’ll be spending the day instead as tea gardens and 50-foot-long “trails” and public reading “rooms” and teensy-tiny soccer fields and bocce ball courts and other community spaces — think park, not parking. There will be music too, spread…
At some point this morning, Anna will be along with her account of last night’s Sylvan Thirty town hall, which, by all accounts, was civil enough. After that, you probably won’t read much about the proposed mixed-use development catty-corner from the Belmont, where the old Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts once…
Hey, maybe this will help Rick Perry shore up support with the Tea Party’s Ship-Em-Out Division and his new Arizona boyfriend: Those kooky activists at the ACLU and some of their libtard friends are pleading with the Devil HimselfUnited States Department of Justice to intervene on behalf of Texas’s minority…
Anna’s attending tonight’s town hall concerning the proposed zoning for the Sylvan Thirty development at Sylvan and Fort Worth Avenue; should be a good one, given the makeup of the panel that includes Brent Brown from the CityDesign Studio and Keith Manoy, head of transportation planning for the city. Till…
A week or so back, Politico reported that Rick Perry had reached out to Phoenix-area Sheriff Joe Arpaio, one of America’s fiercest illegal-immigration foes and a constant innovator in the competitive field of Being a Total Dick. It seemed like a weird play at first, courting a guy under federal…
It took Rebecca Rasor, director of the Trinity River Corridor Project, all of, oh, 15 minutes to walk the council’s Trinity River Corridor Project Committee through that PowerPoint we previewed this morning — you know, the one in which the U.S Army Corps of Engineers is demanding the city pay…
America is imploding, the world is ending, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. Our limited mortal power, however, can slow the process by spreading Christianity — at least according to First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress, who last night launched his 11-part series based on his forthcoming tome…
Caught the tail end of Dallas Police Chief David Brown’s crime-stats presentation to the council’s Public Safety Committee, a sequel of sorts to his September 1 meeting with the media during which he projected an eighth straight year during which crime will drop in Dallas — a first, he said…
Speaking of those new city council committees …This afternoon the Transportation and Environment Committee will meet for the first time since returning from summer break, and on its agenda you’ll find Transportation and Environment Committee Proposed FY 2011-12 Goals and Objectives. And high on the list of to-do’s is something…
The new-look Trinity River Corridor Project Committee meets for the first time this afternoon with two items on its to-review list: Dallas Floodway Extension Repayment Agreement Discussion and Trinity River Corridor Project Overview of Flood Control Components. Shortly after they were posted Friday night I sent them to Schutze, who’s…
We’re still a good month away from the Sylvan Thirty development coming before the City Plan Commission, since, as we noted last month, it was pushed back to the October 6 agenda following Belmont’s owner Monte Alexander’s letter to the city insisting that “more time is needed to evaluate the…
I’m watching the Dallas Independent School District board of trustee meeting right now, if only to see how committed the trustees are to Commit! — which, turns out, is a Mayor Mike initiative as much as a Dallas Regional Chamber idea. More to come in moments.But first, this bit of…
As we noted yesterday, during her presentation of the Redistricting Commission’s proposed map to the city council, chair Ruth Morgan mentioned that one member of the commission, whom she later identified as Domingo Garcia, held “private meetings” with other commissioners in the last month of the redistricting process. The whole…
OK, so we know now that whatever Rick Perry is readin’ this summer, it ain’t a science book. Because until 142 percent of all scientists agree on something, science is just theories, and people don’t need theories right now. They need jobs. Jobs and provocative rhetoric. Oh, and dead prisoners!…
