I sit up in the cheap seats in the city council chamber collecting the political equivalent of sports trivia. This week I was there waiting for an item to come up when a handsome young fellow with a familiar name went to the microphone to speak about something for Trammell Crow company. The kid's name was Dupree Scovell.
Sure enough, he’s the son of lifelong Ray Hunt operative and public-school activist John Scovell. I guess now Dallas City Hall is going to be like Jones Stadium at Tech, otherwise known as Scovell City. The kid’s old man will be remembered forever at Tech for running 175 yards to beat UT in 1967.
Dupree was the third of John Scovell’s sons to become a Red Raider walk-on. When Dupree finished his football career at Tech four years ago, Steve Uryasz, executive director of the Red Raider Club, told a reporter, “We just need more Scovells."
Dupree has been with Trammell Crow for the last three years. He was at City Hall arguing in favor of a plan to kick 1,000 people out of a low-income apartment complex and dump 30 feet of rubble into an unspoiled creek bed to make room for a big box store. Yeah, well, I think my philosophical position in relation to this Scovell is going to be roughly the same as it has always been with his old man -- pretty much loggerheads to the wall forever.
But somebody’s gotta argue in favor of displacing thousands of poor people and nuking the environment. And I do think he’s an improvement on the old man in the charm department. Probably just because he’s a young man. I’m sure the same could be said for me. I feel less charming every day. And fine with that.
And the kid’s got a job. I do admire that. --Jim Schutze
