Canoeing and Kayaking

So Long, Suhm

As the city manager rides off into the sunset, let's get a strong mayor in the saddle.

Audubon Center, Other Trinity Sites Would Be Better if City Gives Up that Bird-brained Road

A couple of days ago The Dallas Morning News reported that the new Audubon Center, a vaunted jewel in the tiara of the Trinity River project, is sucking wind already, failing to attract the visitors and income the city had hoped for. Being mean to bird-watchers is difficult even for me, but I can ... More >>

Gmail Got Petraeus; You're Next, Mr. All-Caps Commenter Guy

Hey, All-Caps Guy. We need to have a talk. Really. I sometimes poke you with a sharp stick. You poke back. That's what I want. But sometimes when you poke, I wince. Not for me. For you. You know, I hope, that every single thing you say online lives forever on servers. You know, I hope, that you ne ... More >>

City Dawdling Leaves Trinity Canoeists Up Shit Creek

What About Skinny Skiing?

While Dallas Chokes on the Trinity, the Suburbs Show Us How It's Done

Hop in the canoe with Schutze as he cries himself down the river.

A Week After They Found Pig Blood in the Trinity, Still So Very Many Questions

The back and forth between the city and Columbia Packing Pant on the January 19 river-of-pig-blood incident is fascinating on a bunch of levels. If nothing else, it would seem to raise urgent questions about the way industrial facilities all over Dallas pump waste into the city's sanitary sewer syst ... More >>

Here's a New Year's Resolution For City Hall: Stop Trying to Screw With the Trinity River

​Over the holiday weekend I spent a few very enjoyable hours on the Trinity River with Trinity Rivers Expeditions outfitter and canoe guide Charles Allen. We paddled from Trinity River Mountain Creek Preserve near the intersection of Walton Walker and IH-30 in Irving to the Sylvan Avenue Bridge i ... More >>

Council Opts Not to Study Trinity Whitewater Feature. Now, It's a Do-It-Yourself Project.

Conceptual rendering, meet The Real Thing​For now, at least, you can forget about the city spending an additional five figures to study the Dallas Wave, which Schutze calls in this week's paper version of Unfair Park "the unbelievably screwed-up man-made kayaking rapids" in the Trinity River. No d ... More >>

Drowning the Whistleblower on the Doomed Trinity River Wave

The man who warned of danger at the city's Trinity whitewater park gets sold downriver.

Cowabungle: Corps of Engineers Says Don't Blame Them for That Effed-Up Dallas Wave

​I have been dealing with both the city and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in recent weeks seeking answers to questions about the "Dallas Wave" or "Standing Wave" man-made rapids that the city has installed in the Trinity River just downriver from downtown. It was intended to be a recreation ... More >>

In The Heat of a Turbulent Summer, Charles Allen Keeps on Paddling the Trinity River

Photos by Leslie MinoraCharles Allen gives Trinity canoe tours extraspecially early to avoid the unbearable afternoon heat.​This morning, Charles Allen, who runs Trinity River Expeditions, pulled his white 15-passenger van into the parking of the Sylvan Avenue boat ramp, positioning the bulky ... More >>

Charles Allen Warned the City its Trinity River "Wave" Might Kill Canoers. He'll Pay for That.

​Should have seen this one coming. Hope it's not my own fault. On Monday I reported here that the city is going to spend some $76,000 to have its screwed-up and unusable fake rapids in the Trinity River digitally modeled by an engineering company that builds sewage treatment plants. That's ho ... More >>

The Standing Wave on the Trinity River Stands Ready to Wash Away More of Your Dough

​Somewhere in the saga of the Dallas Wave, formerly known as the Standing Wave, there is sanity. Things happen for a reason. I take this as an article of faith, but my faith is sorely tested by the wave. The standing wave is a manmade rapids in the Trinity River downriver from downtown that t ... More >>

Wave Bye-Bye? That Ill-Conceived Whitewater Feature on Trinity River Nearly Claims a Life.

​On May 5 I wrote a column about the city's bungled "whitewater feature" in the Trinity River -- a fake rapids for kayaks that cost $4 million to build -- and I included the following observation about a so-called safe bypass around the fake rapids for canoers: "One powerful current slams you ... More >>

No Paddling Allowed on Trinity River Paddling Trail. Which, Come to Think of It, Is So Dallas.

​Thank goodness. Finally reached Judy Schmidt, marketing director for the city's Trinity River Corridor Project, to ask about tomorrow's grand opening of the Trinity River Paddling Trail. I had been trying to reach her since last week to ask if she was going to warn people they might be killed. Bu ... More >>

The Trinity River's 'Standing Wave' Crashes into Reality

The city spent millions on a kayaking park that almost no one can use -- and the money's still flowing.

Trinity River Project's Standing Wave: Great, Now City Hall's Trying to Kill Us

​The city of Dallas sent out a lovely little notice earlier this week inviting people of the canoe paddling ilk -- which would be me -- to attend the opening of the Dallas Trinity Paddling Trail, a canoe "path" on the Trinity River, established as part of a statewide system of canoe trails. T ... More >>

Scratch That May 7 Dedication Off To-Do List, As Dallas Wave Is Closed Till Further Notice

Photo by Harry Wilonsky​Below, unhappy Friend of Unfair Park Ben notes in the comments that the Dallas Wave (formerly known as the Standing Wave) is off-limits -- meaning, you can wave adios to that May 7 dedication ceremony that's been on the books since last fall. Willis Winters, second-in-comma ... More >>

Breaking News: The Rich Get Richer While The Rest of Us Get Squeezed. Oh. Wait.

​David Cay Johnston, author of the best-seller Free Lunch, has a great piece out this week called "9 Things the Rich Don't Want You to Know About Taxes," providing powerful evidence that middle and working class Americans are being played for suckers and dupes by the plutocrats in this country ... More >>

Getting Wet on The Dallas Wave

Photos by Harry Wilonsky​For the moment, at least, it isn't easy to access The Former Trinity Standing Wave, known, for now, as The Dallas Wave -- though that's but an unofficial working title being floated out there (see what I did?). Willis Winters, assistant director of Parks and Rec, offered t ... More >>

In the Cheap Seats on White Rock Lake

Jim SchutzeAnd here's a whole slide show from our outing on White Rock Lake last night.​Last night I joined my cover-story-mate Ed Spencer and his daughter, Amy Hammer, at White Rock Lake, where we poached on the Asleep at The Wheel concert at the Dallas Arboretum from our kayaks. First time we ha ... More >>

Jim Schutze Joins The Urban Explorers Who, Amid The Poisonous Snakes, Bacteria And Quicksand Of The Trinity River, Seek To Reconnect The City To Its Natural Beauty.

Locked Out of LTV Tower Redo, Developer Sends City Council a Very Pointed Letter Today

​Curtis Lockey and Craig MacKenzie, erstwhile developers of the LTV Tower 1600 Pacific Building and subjects of my column in the current edition of the paper, have sent to Dallas City Council members and city staffers a letter alleging deliberate discrimination against low-income persons and famil ... More >>

Green Scene

On the Range: Chalupas

Wikimedia photo​Chalupas or tostadas? Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. Of course you know what constitutes a tostada. That's a flat, crispy disc made from corn, then loaded with all sorts of freight including lettuce, tomatoes, beans or meat, cheese, possibly pico or crema, and topped ... More >>

Here Oar There

Trinity River Corridor Project Creeps On, 10 Years and Millions of Dollars Later

River Town

With A Paddle

Letters

Pants on Fire

Looking forward to even more whoppers next year

River Boats

Paddle the Trinity

Best Camping Equipment

REI