Whose community of interest?: Jim, I agree on one of your points in "Crocodile Tears" (March 8). Increased pay for the city council is a must. We are still probably the largest municipality in the country with a weak mayor/strong city manager form of government. What I don't agree on is your premise that in redistricting, communities of interest must prevail. You'd better check your law books and go back to the federal case law that mandated the one person/one vote concept of single-member districting. Those who were disenfranchised and sued were not urban pioneers or yuppies from Oak Cliff or Old East Dallas. Redistricting is about providing equal representation and parity for racial and ethnic groups that for years have been "gerrymandered" out of any form of representation.
If your premise was to be validated, many of our inner-city communities that are now predominantly Hispanic, with yuppies moving in, have less things in common as it relates to culture and values. Where do you see the commonalities? Many of these former suburbanites who are moving into the inner city and parts of Oak Cliff do not have children. Historical preservation issues and many other zoning matters will not have commonalities for Mexican families and their potential yuppie counterparts.
Once again, you are showing your lack of understanding and knowledge of the Mexican/Hispanic community...and more important, what many of us fought for in the 1960s and '70s leading to equal representation and disenfranchisement. You ought to be writing about what this city is going to do and look like five to 10 years from now when it is a majority Hispanic city.
Keep working on your learning curve.
Rene Martinez
Dallas
Cookie-cutter artwork: I loved the article and writing style of Christine Biederman and her view about the work at the DMA ("Still Wannabe," March 15). I recently partook in the bounty that the museum tells Dallas is good art, specifically the Correlations exhibit. One of the most outstanding characteristics of the show is the "felt suit," which reminded me that I had to ask if I was at Valley View Mall or a museum. The "art" of this exhibit embodies all the clichés of the modern scene: Anything becomes art, as long as you call it that. I am so tired of seeing the same cookie-cutter work coming out and the artist being crowned a genius for pouring a pile of candies in the middle of the floor. There is more to revolution than wearing a nice outfit; it is about creating art that is made out of sacrifice and evolution, none of which appears in these current exhibits. It is time for the DMA and all of Dallas to wake up and realize that just because it is in a museum, it doesn't make it brilliant; it only makes it accessible.
Ammit N.
Via e-mail
They've got their rights: Well, Jim Schutze has managed to write another biased article. A couple of comments on his "White Rampage" article (March 15): Since when are gentlemen's clubs referred to as "sex clubs"? There's no sex going on in these dance clubs. The police make sure of that. And since when are dancers called "prostitutes"? Erotic dancing and prostitution are not the same thing. Are all journalists porn novelists? You accuse the city of promoting and allowing these clubs to exist, but in reality, the police are constantly hounding these places, and vice is always trying to come up with new, underhanded ways to harass the clubs on Bachman Lake. The reason the city has not been successful in shutting down these places is not because it is taking bribes and looking the other way. You seem to be missing the real issue, which is that these places have a right to exist, just like any other business, and they just happen to have a good group of attorneys who are helping them protect their rights.
Whether you, the city, or the Bachman Lake neighborhood likes it or not, there are certain inalienable rights that everyone has to own their own business, as long as it's a legal venture. It's pretty scary to think that most people would allow or applaud the city "shutting down" any kind of legal business. If the mayor were to shut down gentlemen's clubs, then what's next? Gay bars? Swinger clubs? Dance clubs? How would you like it, Jim, if all that was left after violating everyone's civil rights were churches on every corner?
Name withheld
Dallas
Slander, plain and simple: Anyone with any sense knows that the "cleaning up" of the Bachman Lake area is just a shill by Realtors and investors like Randy Staff to push the high-dollar enclaves west on Northwest Highway. The people living around there can never be seen behind the gang of lawyers and other mouthpieces arguing about the "outrage" of this area.
Schutze sounds like another paid mouthpiece for the wealthy in his article. Calling the clubs in question "sex clubs," thereby inferring that sex actually takes place on the premises, is just a slur. Calling the employees of these clubs "prostitutes" is slander, plain and simple.
This is the kind of PR smoke screen crap I would expect from The Dallas Morning News, or another publication totally subservient to the wealthy, but not from the Dallas Observer.
Joel Greer
Dallas
