Diane Ragsdale

OK, So Don't Bulldoze Fair Park. Let's Re-imagine It -- In a Better Neighborhood.

All right, maybe it wasn't enormously helpful of me to suggest last July that we bulldoze Fair Park, the 277-acre dilapidated wasteland one mile southeast of downtown that once housed 1936 Texas Centennial Exhibition. But, c'mon. Why would we just let it just sit there and molder into the ground? ... More >>

Dwaine Caraway Probably Violated Ethics Rules, Definitely Thought About Running For Governor

Last week, Dwaine Caraway sent us a little pre-Thanksgiving note. It read, in full: We are pleased to invite you to the District Four Community Celebration, on Monday, December 3 from 10am-2pm. The event will be held in the 6th Floor Flag Room at Dallas City Hall. Hosted by Councilman Dwaine Caraw ... More >>

Remembering Thabiti Olatunji, Fighter for Hope and Law in a Crime-Ridden Neighborhood

In the Northern Suburbs, Visiting a Deracinated World of Tomorrow

So dear to my heart, so very dear is my anti-suburban bias, born of the political battles of yesteryear, back when we actually believed white people could fly. Ah, those were the days, were they not? Good was good, evil was evil, and the city limits lay between. Now it's so perplexing. Last night w ... More >>

Dallas Area Habitat For Humanity Razes Ollie's Place, A "Crime-Ridden" Mill City Bar

Dallas Area Habitat For Humanity recently announced it would be razing Ollie's Place this morning, a convenience store turned bar turned "hidey-hole for drugs and other criminal activity" . It's the seventh building to be knocked down and eventually rebuilt as part of Fight the Blight, Habitat's 25t ... More >>

Coalition That Wanted Nolan Estes to Return as Interim DISD Super Now Has Name, Agenda

The Rev. Zan Holmes​Back in June, some two dozen educators, religious leaders and activists -- among them The Rev. Zan Holmes, John Fullinwider, Frederick Haynes III, Diane Ragsdale and Beverly Mitchell-Brooks -- urged the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees to appoint former DISD ... More >>

Poof! A Rundown South Dallas Building Crumbles, Making Way For a Habitat Home.

Photos by Leslie MinoraThe "after" shot, as the former Pete's Sandwich Shop on Baldwin near Fair Park bit the dust. Jump for the "just-before."​As a bulldozer chipped away at the sides of a hideously blighted cinder-block building in South Dallas this morning -- forward, reverse, forward, reverse ... More >>

Come On, DPD Chief Brown, Don't Let a Few Curse Words Get in the Way of a Good Story

​Oh, come on, Chief Brown. Please. You've been great so far. Don't go all Bolton on us. Earlier this week the Black Police Association of Greater Dallas threw in with former Dallas city council member Diane Ragsdale and some other black community leaders to do a serious race-card attack on ve ... More >>

Tennell Atkins, Dwaine Caraway Demand Four African-American Seats Stay On City Council

Photo by Anna MerlanCaraway and Atkins at this morning's press conference​Did you wake up this morning wondering what all the arguing's going to be about at Saturday's redistricting forum with Mayor Mike Rawlings and the city council members? Wonder no longer! At a City Hall press conference just ... More >>

"Raising Hell Till Heaven Comes": At Sunday's Fund-Raising Rally For John Wiley Price

​Yesterday's "Justice for John" event at the St. Luke "Community" United Methodist Church was all kinds of things: a rally in support of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who entered to chants of "John! John! John!" before taking his seat near the back; a fund-raiser for his legal defen ... More >>

Praying to JC for JWP: Attending the South Dallas Rally for John Wiley Price

Photo by Brantley Hargrove​At Kirkwood Temple C.M.E. Church last night, 120 or so congregants petitioned an Ecclesiastical Court on behalf of a decidedly earthly cause: that of embattledDallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, the target of a sweeping FBI probe. Matrons fanned themselves ... More >>

Coalition Pushes For Nolan Estes's (Temporary) Return as Dallas ISD Superintendent

Nolan Estes​As Patrick noted Tuesday, the Dallas Independent School District's board of trustees has narrowed down its short list of interim superintendents and hopes to name Michael Hinojosa's temporary replacement by no later than Monday. And while newly installed board president Lew Blackburn w ... More >>

Mayor Dwaine Caraway's "Calling a New Play"

Photos by Sam MertenMayor Dwaine Caraway, his wife and council member Dave Neumann this morning at the City Hall Flag Room.​Just minutes before presiding over his first meeting as the city's newly minted mayor, Dwaine Caraway assured a group of around 150 folks gathered for a light breakfast i ... More >>

At the Poor People's March, Davis and Caraway Demanded Tax Hike to Cover Budget Shortfall

Photos by Evan ClintonCarolyn Davis briefly joined John Fullinwider, left, at the Poor People's March in front of City Hall today.​About 75 people gathered outside Dallas City Hall today -- accompanied by a 20-foot banner that said, "To Redeem the Soul of America" -- and accused city leaders of wa ... More >>

TxDOT Dazzles Southern Dallas With Plans to Straighten Out "Statistically Dangerous Curve" on S.M. Wright

Photos by Daniel RodrigueDead Man's Curve, or as TxDOT likes to call it, the "accident-prone curve" or "statistically dangerous curve." ​As planners and staff from the Texas Department of Transportation and city of Dallas overwhelmed residents last night with maps spanning the length of three ... More >>

Democratic Party Chair Darlene Ewing Explains Why Admitted Felon Terri Hodge Will Win Today's Election

Sam MertenHodge with Larry Duncan, who's running for county judge and is one of many politicos wishing pics like this would simply disappear.​If you thought the efforts of former Dallas City Council members Diane Ragsdale and Sandra Crenshaw to get Terri Hodge reelected were futile, think agai ... More >>

Turns Out Jury in City Hall Corruption Trial Isn't the Only Ones Learning About CHDOs

It's good to know CHDOs are doing some good 'cause the City Hall corruption trial is teaching us that they're naughty.Among the dozens of acronyms we've grown accustomed to hearing throughout the City Hall corruption trial is CHDO -- Community Housing Development Organization -- which is why yester ... More >>

Prosecution Looks to Right Stumbling City Hall Corruption Case By Calling Brian Potashnik

Sam MertenDon and Sheila Hill left the courthouse Tuesday afternoon in good spirits.An admittedly nervous Steve Williams spent all of Tuesday afternoon on the stand discussing his eight-year tenure as Don Hill's administrative assistant, pushing the anticipated debut of developer Brian Potashnik to ... More >>

Last Men Standing

Leppert and Oakley show that what you think about Dallas politics could be wrong

Money for Nothing

A fund aimed at boosting South Dallas is hammered by deadbeat borrowers and city hall neglect.

Letters

Drug-free in '03!

And 149 other things I swear I'll do next year

School for Scoundrels

They get elected with stolen votes, and then they start divvying up the goodies

The Race Race

In the battle for the District 6 council seat, the dark horse has a white face

Déjà Vu

The new Farrakhan sounds a lot like the old -- anti-Semitic

Back in black

Former militant M.T. A'Vant has a new object of scorn: the black leadership he once supported

No respect

DISD trustee Se-Gwen Tyler explains why she cast her controversial vote for an Anglo board president

Peep-hole power

It's a scary world out there, but someone's gotta keep it under control. Jim Schutze uncovers the secret agony of the Dallas Citizens Council.

Saint Al

Will he die in prison for the sins of the plantation?

X marks the spot

A plan to rename Oakland Avenue for Malcolm X raises cries of racism in Deep Ellum

His own man

Sore losers say the white establishment bought and sold Ron Price. Don't believe it.

Peavy sues Observer

Former trustee says publication of racist, sexist comments invades privacy

BeloWatch

Letters

Kress and the merry morons

Dallas' political rabble takes after minority students' best friend

Attack of the Killer Gadflies (Part I)

You don't take Rick Finlan and Don Venable seriously? That could be a mistake you live to regret.

The Kirk connection

How Dallas' new mayor pulled it off

Another view

What City Hall isn't willing to hear about the new arena