At long last, the Dallas City Council’s set to tackle the subject: What to do about allowing natural-gas drilling on city property. According to a presentation prepared by city staff for Wednesday’s briefing, the council can choose from one of the following options: form a task force, hire a consultant…
More than three years ago, some residents living in the Disney Streets in Northwest Dallas proposed turning the neighborhood into a Conservation District in an effort to protect some of its mid-century marvels. But as former City Plan Commissioner and Northwest Dallas lifer Robert Ekblad told Unfair Park back in…
Back in late January Oncor told the Public Utility Commission it wanted to raise Dallas residents’ electricity bill by, oh, let’s say $4 to $5 a month. Even though there’d been a three-buck jump in your bill only two years ago. Said Oncor, look, it had no choice: People aren’t…
Perhaps you recall: We had a pretty good back-and-forth back in December ’09 over city staff’s thoughts on Cityville at Cityplace, the mammoth mixed-use development that’s been planned for the former Loews Cityplace site since forever. After Kroger asked for that variance to sell beer and wine closer to Alex…
Now that you’ve had time to chew on our analysis of the mayoral candidates’ fund-raising prowess, we thought it was time to take a quick look-see at how the city council races are shaping up. Unfortunately, eight candidates still haven’t filed their campaign finance reports online as of 2 p.m.,…
On the other side you will find a report William H. Whyte — The Organization Man — gave to the Dallas City Council on June 15, 1983. Whyte, then a fellow at the Dallas Institute who often came to town to give speeches on how to make our city “livable,”…
After the comments began streaming in on yesterday’s preview of the public art proposals for the Ross Avenue Underpass, there was no way we’d miss a chance to hear direct from the artists about, well, what exactly they were thinking.Two general thoughts on the artists’ live proposals: For one, all…
Till a few minutes ago, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano and I had been playing a marathon game of phone tag in recent days, following District 2 council candidate Billy MacLeod’s efforts to get the city, county and even the Department of Justice to remove Esperanza “Hope” Medrano Elementary…
Saw a story on Channel 5 last night, which follows below, about how Chad Lacerte’s building a wakeboard park up in Allen — you know, the one that was supposed to open on Fish Trap Lake last summer, before Dallas Housing Authority president Mary Ann Russ drowned it last July…
Former TracyLocke CEO Mike Rawlings easily outpaced the field of mayoral candidates by raising a whopping $1.03 million — nearly three times the combined haul of Ron Natinksy and David Kunkle — during the reporting period that ended April 4. Council member Natinsky reported $239,000 in donations, and ex-Dallas Police…
On Monday KERA’s BJ Austin asked the four candidates for Dallas mayor: Why you? At which point Mike Rawlings whipped out his wallet, David Kunkle flashed his badge, Ron Natinsky cued up an eight-track cassette and Edward Okpa offered his campaign’s catchy catchphrase, “Busboy to Mayor.” Today Austin and the…
For as long as I can recall, the city’s been talking about making the Ross Avenue underpass at Central Expressway in the Arts District an art project all on its own. Tonight, it inches closer to reality: On your way home, you’re all invited to an open house meet-n-greet at…
In case you forgot…
As Sam notes below, Angela Hunt was the lone council member to vote against paying architect Santiago Calatrava $10.7 million to design a second version of the Margaret McDermott Bridge. The District 14 council rep believes spending all those many millions on a “signature” component added to a bridge TxDOT…
City Hall was kind enough yesterday to pass along a recording of Monday’s meeting of the city’s Transportation and Environment Committee meeting. That’s the meeting during which DART board member Jerry Christian told council member Jerry Allen he was no longer associated with the litigation attempting to overturn the vote…
The city council by a 13-1 vote this morning approved a $10.7 million contract with architect Santiago Calatrava to design pedestrian and bicycle components for the proposed Margaret McDermott Bridge, but not without strong opposition from council member Angela Hunt. Through a series of questions aimed at Assistant City Manager…
No doubt you recall the show Mayor Dwaine Caraway put on April 1 in front of the Luxury Inn on S. Buckner, where he was joined by the Dallas City Hall All-Stars to proclaim the motel closed due to its myriad “unpleasantries,” with rampant prostitution and drug-related crimes high on…
By week’s end, District 2 council candidate Billy MacLeod expects to file in state and federal court a lawsuit over the city’s decision not to remove Esperanza “Hope” Medrano Elementary School from its list of polling locations for the May 14 election. As you’re no doubt aware by now, MacLeod…
At tomorrow’s meeting, the city council is expected to approve a tax abatement estimated at approximately $1.7 million and an economic grant of $250,000 for Dean Foods. Pete Schenkel, a consultant for Dean who previously served as vice chair of its board, says the nation’s largest dairy producer will proceed…
… but instead, he’s running for mayor. Above you’ll find the spot set to premiere on local TV tonight, which is good timing — Sam’s cover story about the Dallas mayoral race is set to hit newsstands tomorrow. And in it, he discusses when and why “bringing businesses to Dallas”…
It’s been, what, four whole months since last we visited 508 Park Avenue and the surrounding properties, which remain in limbo at this late date. (Though better that than a heap of bricks.) First Presbyterian Church of Dallas acknowledged way back in August 2010 that it wants to buy the…
From the beginning of last night’s forum at the Avalon at Kessler Park, questions from the crowd of nearly 100 District 3 residents focused squarely on natural gas drilling and incumbent city council member Dave Neumann’s ties to the industry. Neumann said the city is monitoring the results of several…
