Subject: Dallas City Hall

• Zzzzz...Huh? Oh Yeah. That Mayor Thingy.

  March 9, 2007

• The Other Three Indictments

  October 1, 2007

• News Adds City Hall Blog, Eyeballs

  April 23, 2008

• Economic Development Committe to Hold Special Meeting Friday. You're So Invited.

  May 7, 2008

• Tom Leppert Has "Celebrity Appeal." So Does Terrell Owens, Incidentally.

  October 27, 2008

• OK, Now This Is Schadenfreude: Towing Company Gets Its License Revoked

  November 4, 2008

• Scenes from the Protest Redux

  Our correspondent for yesterday's anti-Prop 8 protest at Dallas City Hall had last-minute business to attend to, but plenty of folks among the thousand-plus on hand captured the event for the YouTubes. Probably the best of the video lot comes courtesy TreyCruz.com, where there's but the slightest hint of disappointment at the turnout: "We really expected a larger turn-out considering the masses of people that attends the Pride Parade and the Halloween Block Party, but the number of protester

  November 16, 2008

• Blowup in City Hall

  March 2, 1995

• Wide open town

  June 22, 1995

• Lies on Tape

  July 13, 1995

• BeloWatch

  July 27, 1995

• Clueless

  May 30, 1996

• Combat zoning

  September 19, 1996

• Let's Talk Trash For a Second

  Last night, the missus wondered why we received a postcard from the city's Sanitation Services Department inviting us to a "community meeting" with our city council member this Saturday to discuss garbage collection. "Um," I told her, "probably because they want to tell us that starting in February, the city's only going to pick up Northwest Dallas's trash and recycling once a week." To which she replied, "What the ...?"But, yeah, noticed this yesterday on the Dallas City Hall Web site -- the la

  January 22, 2009

• Should Paul Fielding go to jail?

  December 26, 1996

• Mommie dearest

  January 23, 1997

• Mr. Mayor, Meet Your Nightmare

  December 18, 1997

• Running Down That Hill: Yet Another Person Pleads Guilty in City Hall Corruption Case

  Hey, Don Hill, how many more folks pleaded guilty today in that City Hall corruption case?And then there were three -- which is to say, three folks who have pleaded guilty in the Dallas City Hall corruption case, scheduled to go to trial in June. Taking his cue from Andrea Spencer and Allen McGill, lawyer John Lewis -- among the 14 named by the feds in the low-income housing development corruption case at Dallas City Hall -- today entered his own guilty plea. And, in exchange, he will agree to

  March 6, 2009

• More, More, More: What to Expect If Yer Heading to the St. Patrick's Day Parade

  Just noticed this heads-up on the Dallas City Hall Web site, which may be of interest to those headed down to the 30th Annual Greenville Avenue St. Patrick's Day Parade Saturday morning. It's more or less a checklist of what to expect before, during and after the shindig, including the total number of police officers and where they'll be situated during the daylong event -- and this year it's 150 officers (an increase of more than 50), and 38 for the after-parade concert featuring the Old 97's,

  March 10, 2009

• Office of the City Auditor Reports That Dallas's Municipal Court Is Sorta, Kinda Broken

  City of DallasFrank Librio at Dallas City Hall was kind enough to pass along this a.m. the latest report from the Office of City Auditor, which has determined that the city's been losing a small fortune in muni court revenue since 2006. Why come? A bunch of reasons, actually, all of which are available in the 21-page doc, which you'll find here in its entirety. But long story short:Cases are not timely resolved. Dallas Municipal Court is overwhelmed by requests for court adjudication. ... Dallas

  March 23, 2009

• Why Corporate America Loves Dallas

  The short film below, posted to YouTube by Frank Librio at Dallas City Hall, isn't actually a city-made production. Rather, Librio tells Unfair Park, Destination Dallas is a Quin Matthews Films production made for the Dallas Citizens Council, which touted corporate relocations to the city during a recent power luncheon. Librio felt it worth sharing. Apparently, so do I.

  March 24, 2009

• Bring a Towel, as Mark Davis is Set to Explode with Righteous Indignation

  Last night's Passover seder no doubt kept some of you from attending the Dallas Tea Party planning session in advance of next Wednesday's rally in front of Dallas City Hall, scheduled from 5 to 9 p.m. -- and, do note, the time's been changed as the group says it's "been notified that a national news show will carry the event live at 9 p.m." But there's video from the packed prep get-together after the jump, during which WBAP-AM host and event MC Mark Davis offers a sneak peak at what to expect f

  April 9, 2009

• Courtesy Re:Vision Dallas, Six Visions of a "Self-Sustaining" Downtown Dallas Block

  From Portugal, one of the three finalists in the Re:Vision Dallas competitionIt was quite the confab at Dallas City Hall on December 8, when Mayor Tom Leppert welcomed  to a fourth-floor conference room about three dozen urban planners, architects and city officials who'd come downtown on a chilly morning to discuss turning a parking lot behind City Hall into a "self-sustaining community." It was part of Urban Re:Vision's grand plan for the city -- one that, as we've explained before, invol

  May 28, 2009

• Swallowing a Cup of Tea

  Daniel DaughertyIn front of Dallas City Hall, radio host and Dallas Tea Party co-planner Mark Davis poured the first cup of tea with a joke: "Those who oppose big government actually have jobs." To which the crowd of guestimated thousands responded with chants of "U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A." The scene at the Dallas Tea Party played out as it had all over North Texas, the U-S-A-U-S-A- and Fox News Channel throughout the day: Folks were told to show up and protest President Obama and the budget and the

  April 16, 2009

• Cut It In

  March 1, 2007

• Busted

  It's not just us; two state legislative committees find a culture of corruption at City Hall.

  March 9, 2006

• The Big Stick

  Ray Hunt gets one end of it; guess which end is reserved for the rest of us

  October 20, 2005

• Ruh-Roh

  Those silly officials from around the state think the law should apply in Dallas

  June 2, 2005

• The Juice

  If you got it, you can get what you want from City Hall

  January 20, 2005

• The Emperor's Checkbook

  Dallas City Hall finances could be our own little Enron

  November 21, 2002

• Crocodile Tears

  City Hall is sorry it can't help the White Rock water main victims... or anybody else, for that matter

  March 8, 2001

• Caraway: If You Vote Against the Hotel, Dallas Will Look the Same "50 Years From Now"

  We missed the pro-convention center hotel wingding in front of Dallas City Hall last night. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway did not. Here's his pitch for the hotel, and it apparently has something to do with ... cell phones?

  April 30, 2009

• If Nothing Else, This Is Our Last Item About Parking Lots Till August, So There's That

  Seconds ago, literally, Angela Hunt posted to her blog an explanation concerning what went down at Dallas City Hall this morning, when she and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Pauline Medrano convinced the council to yank from today's meeting agenda a vote on the proposed parking boot ordinance. As Sam mentioned earlier today, the item's off the table till council comes back from its summer break -- which means no relief till at least August for downtown and Deep Ellum patrons and business owners claiming t

  June 24, 2009

• Ooooh, Shiny: There Won't Be a Trinity Toll Road For a While, So a Photo Contest Instead!

  Patrick MichelsOne of our submissions for the Trinity River Project photo contest. Pay up, city.Meant to get to this yesterday, when Dallas City Hall first sent word, but was otherwise distracted -- the whole point, perhaps, of this city-sponsored Trinity River photo contest for which we'd like to submit several entries. It kicked off yesterday and runs through September 30, during which time you can send in offerings in four categories: Unacceptable Levees, Piles of Sand, Drowned Construction E

  July 1, 2009

• Don Hill’s Legal Defense May Be Less About the Facts and More About Martyrdom

  July 2, 2009

• Design for (Free) Living

  ​Earlier this year, the Dallas City Council said it wanted no part in plans to turn a former hotel at 1011 S. Akard Street into a home for the homeless. Perhaps you recall said brouhaha, the result of which will be 250 low-income apartment units once developers Ted and Larry Hamilton can give their undivided attention to the former Sheraton, Ramada and Plaza that sits across the freeway from and in the shadow of Dallas City Hall. But till then, the Hamiltons are allowing folks to live in the

  August 5, 2009

• The New Dallas Zoo Revue Will Be Coming Right at You By No Later Than October 1

  ​If the discussion at Dallas City Hall today is any indication, that outta-nowhere proposal to privatize the Dallas Zoo and the Aquarium at Fair Park is all but a done deal. Expect the city to turn over the keys to the Dallas Zoological Society by October 1 following a vote next week by the city council.At its briefing this morning and into the early afternoon, council members had but a few questions and concerns for DZS leadership, City Manager Mary Suhm and Park and Recreation director Paul

  August 5, 2009

• In About an Hour, We'll Have An Idea How Suhm Cut $190 Million From City Budget

  Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm​Unfair Park might be a little slow-going 'round 1:30 this afternoon, when I'll be down at Dallas City Hall to pick up the executive summary of City Manager Mary Suhm's final budget proposal for the coming fiscal year. Media attending this afternoon's shindig won't be given the entire document, but Frank Librio, director of the city's Public Information Office, tells us the line-item budget will be available on the city's Web site tonight -- "probably after 7." Als

  August 7, 2009

• Latest Lesson from the City Hall Corruption Trial: When You Ask the City Attorney for an Ethics Opinion, Check With the FBI Too

  August 13, 2009

• Federal City Hall Corruption Trial Gets a Little National Attention, Courtesy The WSJ

  Sam MertenDon Hill and wife Sheila. Like you didn't know that.This morning, The Wall Street Journal recaps the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial for outsiders and others not glued to Schutze's riveting running narration from the Earle Cabell, where Bill Fisher takes the stand yet again this morning. Since most of it's more than familiar territory to the Friends of Unfair Park, let's just skip to the end, where defense attorney Billy Ravkind and SMU politics prof Cal Jillson offer their t

  August 19, 2009

• You Say You Want Some Downtown Dallas Progress Reports? Well, Then, You Got 'Em.

  Justin TerveenOur old pal, The Urban Fabric, grabbed this shot of downtown just last night, matter of fact.​I had Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the city's Office of Economic Development, on the phone this afternoon, so I asked him for a couple of updates per several Friends of Unfair Park's requests piling up in the comment box. After the jump, a word from developer Larry Hamilton as well. And a message left for one city manager.Anyway. First off, some of you were wondering if the city was pursuin

  August 28, 2009

• Are the Plans To Build A Green, Sustainable Building of Tomorrow Smack in the Heart of Downtown Dallas Some Pipedream or A Reality?

  October 1, 2009

• Brent Brown, Who Rebuilt Congo Street, Will Head Dallas CityDesign Studio in City Hall

  Brandon ThibodeauxBrent Brown​Couple of weeks back we debuted the Dallas Urban Design Studio, a Trinity Trust-funded endeavor that'll get its own office in Dallas City Hall in order to "elevate the design consciousness and culture of Dallas, while working to balance social, economic, environmental, and design sustainability towards enhancing livability for all Dallas residents." Clearly, though, someone wasn't happy with the acronym "DUDS": In a press release sent in advance of tomorrow's form

  October 5, 2009

• Now That Don Hill's Been Found Guilty, What About "Business as Usual" at Dallas City Hall?

  Sam MertenDon and Sheila Hill and attorney Victor Vital after the jury handed down its guilty verdicts today in the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial​So, it turns out Patrick "Buzz" Williams was right. No matter how you do the accounting, how you structure the contracts, how you interpret arcane campaign finance laws and city ethics policies, getting caught on camera accepting 10 grand in cash out back of a church is still like getting caught naked in your neighbor's house.Moments ago

  October 5, 2009

• The Jury that Found the Defendants Guilty in the Federal Corruption Trial Was Also Indicting City Hall

  October 8, 2009

• Today's Sign of the Times: Where You Can Park for the Red River Shootout on Saturday

  ​Meranda Cohn at Dallas City Hall sends word for those heading to the Red River Shootout on Saturday: Take the Green Line or at least park on Fair Park property, where spots are $10. But if you insist on parking off-site, in one of the privately owned lots where spots run upwards of $15, just one favor: Keep an eye out for these signs.The city issued 250 of them before the State Fair of Texas, following new permitting procedures put into place shortly after last year's illegal-towing debacle.

  October 15, 2009

• In the Zoning, or: Someone Dipped Their Dallas City Council in My Ethics Reform.

  Carol Reed said to Schutze last month, there's no need for lobbyist registration: Because, look, "anybody knows that when I come down [to Dallas City Hall], I'm getting paid."​The council's talking ethics reform again this morning -- specifically, lobbyist registration, restrictions on campaign contributions and how the council votes on zoning cases. I believe Jim handled the first part of this, oh, 'bout six weeks ago -- recommended reading for those in need of a refresher. (Long story short:

  October 19, 2009

• The Mayor’s Proposal for City Council Ethics Reform Misses its Target: the City Council

  October 29, 2009

• U.S. District Judge Denies Two of Sheila Hill's Dismissal Motions. But She'll Now Interview the Juror Who Spoke to the Dallas Observer.

  U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn​Last week, as you no doubt recall, Sheila Hill's attorney, Victor Vital, requested a new trial or evidentiary hearing based upon possible jury misconduct preceding all those guilty verdicts in the Dallas City Hall federal corruption trial. Now we know how U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn will proceed -- by dismissing two of the three claims (those involving a newspaper found in the jury room and D'Angelo Lee's claim that a friend of his said a juror gave opinio

  November 5, 2009

• If Nothing Else, the Trinity River Corridor Project Inspires Some Awfully Nice Photos

  Paul Sokal's grand-prize winner in the city's Trinity River Photo Contest​Meranda Cohn at Dallas City Hall directs our attention to the winning photos from the Trinity River Photo Contest, for which our pal Allison V. Smith was one of the four judges. You can view as either a PDF or a PowerPoint. Schutze's entries failed to win, place or show; he's even more upset than usual.

  November 9, 2009