Subject: Alexa Schirtzinger

• Sloppy Seconds: Another Week Bites the Dust

  Damn, we're clever. They're springs--get it?Ah, the first day of spring. How better to celebrate than a look back a those long, dreary days of last week--you know, when some holiday kept you away from the computer. Well, here's some of what you missed. And if these are the highlights, the rest must be total...The Week in Review(s):Your own Dallas Observer: Dave looks at Citrus Bistro (or as we put it, "Good Things Come From Big Packages", which apparently slipped by our wary editorial checker ty

  March 20, 2009

• Burning Question: What's Going On At City Of Ate?

  Hey, wait a minute...this is a government waste disposal schedule.Someone posted a comment under our new Veggie Girl segment this week wanting some kind of alert when the column pops up--RSS, we think they called it.The Burning Question crew, of course, knows nothing about technology...which is probably for the best. If we could figure out our mobile phone camera, crew members would waste workdays in much the same way we used to waste them back when the photocopier worked.Too smudged to copy--th

  March 20, 2009

• Forest Grumps | Blowin' In The Wind | Home Improvement | Baby One More Time

  April 2, 2009

• At SMU Over the Weekend, the Art for Darfur Event Raised Money and Spirits

  Alexa Schirtzinger Check out more photos from the auction in our slideshow.In front of a room at SMU's Meadows School of the Arts crammed with fine art and well-dressed folks sipping coffee, Ismail Omer gingerly approached a microphone. "I left Sudan in 1994," he began "I had friends who died in jail. I realized, I have to leave, or I die." Omer smoothed his pressed button-down shirt and started to explain the conflict in his native Darfur, a subject that quickly got complicated. Almost as soon

  April 20, 2009

• In West Dallas, Bulldozers Clear the Way for New Homes and New Residents

  Alexa SchirtzingerClaudia Hernández didn't know the house across the street from her home would become bulldozer fodder until a few minutes before it happened Saturday afternoon."We saw people looking at the property [over the past few weeks]," Hernández said. "But we had no idea they'd do this!"Not that she's upset. For years, the eyesore of a duplex at the corner of Pueblo and Puget Streets in West Dallas has been a problem for neighbors and police alike. Hernández, whose family has lived i

  May 4, 2009

• At West Dallas Luncheon, Optimism, a Hotel Pitch ... and Talk of a Water Sports Park

  Alexa SchirtzingerMayor Tom at the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce's annual "State of the West" luncheon yesterdayAt the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce's annual "State of the West" luncheon yesterday, nearly 200 people filled a sunny room at the Lake West YMCA to hear about the future of West Dallas -- and, in a keynote address by Mayor Tom Leppert, still more about the convention center hotel.The mood was upbeat and positive. There were fajitas from Primo's, a vast dessert table and lots of ta

  May 8, 2009

• Last Night Around White Rock Lake, the Ride of Silence Still Said Plenty

  Alexa SchirtzingerThe "ghost bike," painted to symbolize the death of a rider, at last night's Ride of SilenceAt last night's annual Ride of Silence, thousands of bicyclists rode silently around White Rock Lake to commemorate cyclists who have died. It's become an annual event attended by all kinds -- couples on tandems, parents with children in tow, men reclined in their recumbents, even one guy with a fluffy white dog tucked in his messenger bag. They're representative of cyclists around the w

  May 21, 2009

• In Dallas, "Day of Decision Rally" to Follow Cali Court's Ruling to Uphold Gay Marriage Ban

  Alexa SchirtzingerOne of the messages greeting Katy Trail-ers this morningThe Katy Trail's morning exercise contingent saw something new today: a series of musings on the meaning of marriage. Every few yards, there was a message scribbled in sidewalk chalk, among them: "What is marriage worth?" and "What are marriage values?" There was even some awkwardly phrased Spanish: "Que es valor de casamiente?" with a backwards question mark.According to Dallas Park and Recreation employees, who were busy

  May 26, 2009

• Last Night in Oak Lawn, a Call "to Forge a Proud and Dignified Civil Rights Movement"

  Alexa SchirtzingerAt last night's "Day of Decision Rally," timed to coincide with the California Supreme Court's ruling on Proposition 8, the cries of "We're here! We're queer! Get used to it!" rang out above the roar of traffic at the corner of Cedar Springs Road and Oak Lawn Avenue. "Se-pa-rate, church and hate!" chanted the crowd of about 60. "Gay rights for equal rights!"Some drivers kept their windows up and their eyes on the road, but others honked in support, prompting loud cheers and who

  May 27, 2009

• Strange and Passioniate Emissions From Yesterday's EPA Cement Kiln Hearing

  Alexa SchirtzingerIf this picture were at all legible, you'd see Deirdre Tinker testifying while dressed as a cement kilnAmong the first 60 commenters at yesterday's public hearing on proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations intended to reduce emissions from cement kilns, there was obvious consensus on a few points: They liked the EPA's new rules. They felt they needed them, because the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), depending on whom you ask, falls somewhere betw

  June 18, 2009

• Riding Somewhere South of Heaven, Heading Back to the Newly Opened Santa Fe Trail

  Alexa SchirtzingerWhere the Santa Fe Trail ends ... at Hill AvenueThis weekend marked a quiet little victory for East Dallas: the opening of a section of raised street crossings on the Santa Fe Trail, from South Carroll Avenue southwest to Hill Avenue, which means cyclists can now ride from Woodrow Wilson High School all the way -- well, almost all the way -- to Deep Ellum on a paved, car-free trail rather than braving the wilds of Elm or Live Oak Streets.Though the Santa Fe Trail has, in some c

  June 22, 2009

• At Homeless Games Day, A Respite From Life on the Street (But Not From the Heat)

  Sam MertenCheck out our slide show! To a casual observer, Homeless Games Day at Reverchon Park looked like a typical company picnic or a church field day. The adults played volleyball, touch football, horseshoes and engaged in plenty of good-natured trash talk on the basketball court, while the kiddos had a blast in the bounce houses and on the playground. A pair of big barbeques churned out grilled chicken and burgers, and the older men played dominoes and chess in the shade. The only differ

  June 27, 2009

• Just Why Is the EPA Considering Waste Management's Lobbyist For Dallas Director?

  Alexa SchirtzingerThis morning, in the reflection of Dallas's Fountain Place building, a small group of environmental activists gathered as previously announced to oppose the nomination of former Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission head John Hall as the new regional director of the Environmental Protection Agency. Some were outraged at Hall's past and current ties as a lobbyist for oil, gas and waste companies, but others openly shared their personal experiences with Hall -- and some,

  June 30, 2009

• In East Dallas, Wrestling With How to Turn a Neighborhood Into a Conservation District

  Alexa SchirtzingerHow the sausage gets made: Karen Casey writes down neighbors' suggestions at the conservation district meeting Monday night.In the cozy auditorium of the Lakewood library last night, some 30 members of the Abrams-Brookside Neighborhood Association met to put the final touches on their proposal to make the neighborhood a conservation district. Neil Emmons, the Dallas City Plan Commissioner for District 14, which includes much of East Dallas, was in attendance to settle some deba

  June 30, 2009

• Is the City of Dallas Really Going Green, Or Just Talking Till It's Blue in the Face?

  The city of Dallas has made much of its efforts to "build a greener city" ... which means what, exactly? That, more or less, was the question posed earlier this week during a confab at the downtown Dallas library during a program billed as a dialogue on the "green economy," a catchphrase that's become increasingly popular but is seldom well-defined. According to Cyrus Reed, the Sierra Club-Lone Star Chapter's conservation director, that's because a green economy isn't necessarily a defined thing

  July 2, 2009

• Top 10 Vegan-Friendly (But Not Vegetarian-Only) Restaurants in Dallas

  Alexa SchirtzingerHey Olivella's -- think this is good enough to land you on our list? Yeah, it is.Dallas, as we've discovered over the past half-year, has a surprising wealth of options for vegans and vegetarians. And though its shining stars are usually the veg-only places--Spiral Diner, Kalachandji's, Veggie Garden and the like--that doesn't always leave room for vegans to bring along our good ol' meat-eating friends. With that in mind, we've produced this list of places where the most red-b

  July 8, 2009

• Damn Good Joes | Mule-Headed

  July 23, 2009

• Girl Drink Drunk: The Windmill Lounge

  Behold, the Windmill's ZenTini​A couple of weeks ago the Dallas Observer and its readers bid farewell to Alexa Schirtzinger, aka Veggie Girl. She was heading out to travel in South America and have fantastic adventures, and we just had to send her off with an after work bon voyage. Veggie Girl and Girl Drink Drunk had collaborated on columns before, and we were going to do it again. At the Windmill. From the specialty drink menu. And for free for the very first time as the clouds parted, light

  July 30, 2009