Economic Issues

Produce Dealers to Help Round Out Farmers Market for One-Stop Shopping

Yesterday, City Council voted unanimously to move forward with the Dallas Farmers Market privatization, news that was undoubtedly cheered by many stakeholders with interest in the development and marketing project. Blair Black is one of those stakeholders. He represents the Dallas Farmers Market ... More >>

Things Got Ugly at an Event Touting Southern Dallas' Horse Park and Golf Course Last Night

Last night the city held a shmooze event for people who live near a proposed exclusive private golf course and horse park in a poor part of Southern Dallas, but the shmooze blew up. A carefully choreographed scene of friendly information booths and party favors turned into an angry shouting match. ... More >>

Texas Gives Away $19 Billion Each Year to Lure Business, More Than Any Other State

Over the weekend, the New York Times took a hard look at the tax breaks and other incentives state and local governments dole out by the billions to lure businesses. As the magnitude of those gifts has increased over the years, corporations have learned to shop for the most lucrative deal, dangling ... More >>

While You Waited for Tanks to Flatten Lubbock, the UN Conquered Texas Through Sustainable Development

We all got a good chuckle when Lubbock County Judge Tom Head warned of that impending United Nations invasion of West Texas, but the laughter may have been premature. InfoWars, the website run by Austin Austin radio host/all-around crazy Alex Jones, published a low-budget, Onion-quality newscast tha ... More >>

Rawlings: We Must "Take Notice" of High Number of Dallasites So Close to Asset Poverty

If you need a new benchmark to measure just how broke you are, try "asset poverty." Asset-poor households would be unable to survive for three months at the federal poverty level if some crisis caused them to lose their source of income. As Robert mentioned earlier, asset poverty is the subject of ... More >>

LINC'd In, Or: Next Up, Trying to Really Connect Downtown Dallas with the Trinity River

​If you've got time this afternoon you may want to dial up the meeting of the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee, which will hear from Dallas CityDesign Studio second-in-command David Whitley about "community and economic development" around the river. Not sure how much Whitley's going to ge ... More >>

"Trees Do Not Vote" and Other Highlights From Contentious Council Talk About a Walmart

​Speaking of Dwaine Caraway ...The city council just voted on that Walmart Supercenter proposed for Ledbetter and R.L. Thornton, and though it ultimately passed unanimously it was no simple thing -- far from. It was quite the discussion -- heated at times, thoughtful at others. On the surface it w ... More >>

As Occupy Protesters' Camps Are Broken, Pause to Consider What They've Accomplished

​Wait. The "occupy" part of Occupy may be over, but that's not the story. The story is what the movement has accomplished already. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has evicted Occupy from Zuccotti Park. Our own mayor is making it plain that the Occupy Dallas camp behind City Hall is soon to ... More >>

Neiman Marcus Debuts Its 2011 Christmas Book With Another Showcase of Absurd Stuff

Photos by Anna Merlan​This morning the Dallas Contemporary was closed to the public, but a bunch of reporters were inside taking first looks at the most exorbitantly priced, publicity-getting items, otherwise known as the Fantasy Gifts from Neiman Marcus's 2011 Christmas Book. Eight of t ... More >>

City's Working on a Real Estate Deal Called "Project Wall-E." Top Secret, Exec Session Stuff.

​There's a curious item posted on the city council's Economic Development Committee's agenda for Monday morning: "Project Wall-E." And that's all it says, save for the fact it will be discussed entirely behind closed doors in executive session. The reason: "to deliberate the purchase, exchange, le ... More >>

Rick Perry's Manufactured Miracle

Rick Perry's Texas is a job-making, low-taxing oasis of prosperity. It's also pure fantasy.

Inland Port, Executive Airport Land on Council's Radar During Talk of Economic Development

​Before the council's Economic Development Committee got 'round to talking about Dallas's employment figures -- and it was a brief briefing -- familiar Unfair Park figure Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the Office of Economic Development, gave the council an hour-long-plus overview of what his office of ... More >>

Council Members Wrestle Over Park Clean-Up, Pothole Fixing and Cleaning Up After TxDOT

Scott Griggs and Jerry Allen at this morning's meeting​A little after 9 this morning, the city council just took up those budget amendments we mentioned Saturday morning. First up was the slam dunk: the en masse suggestion, led by Mayor Mike Rawlings, to eliminate one more city-worker furlough day ... More >>

Jubilee Park'ers Celebrate Plan Commission's Rejection of DISD's Expansion Plans

Photos by Leslie MinoraJubilee Park residents visited City Hall once again in protest of an elementary school parking lot planned by DISD.​For Jubilee Park residents, it was a party atmosphere in the Flag Room outside council chambers Thursday afternoon, when the City Plan Commission denied Da ... More >>

Jubilee Park Residents Still Aren't Jubilant About DISD's Plans For School, Parking Lot

Photo by Patrick MichelsJubilee Park Residents and DISD have been brawling for well over a year.​Residents of Jubilee Park, the neighborhood of modest single-family homes just north of Fair Park, have become conditioned to distrust, if not fear, the Dallas Independent School District. For as l ... More >>

Why Did Council Just Approve $10.7 Million For New McDermott Bridge? Because "No One Remembers the Little Things We Do."

Photo by Sam MertenWe're not sure what the Margaret McDermott Bridge will look like, but this version's already been scrapped.​The city council by a 13-1 vote this morning approved a $10.7 million contract with architect Santiago Calatrava to design pedestrian and bicycle components for the pr ... More >>

Natinsky Reveals His "Priorities For Dallas"

Photo by Jesse SidlauskasRon Natinsky at The Cedars Social yesterday​Ron Natinsky asked members of the media to join him Monday afternoon at The Cedars Social -- not for a drink, sadly, but so he could announce an endorsement (from the MetroTex Association of Realtors) and unveil a handful of "pri ... More >>

Author Engaged in Legal Tussle With HP Developer Tired of Being SLAPP'd Around

Carla Main testifying down in Austin yesterday​We've written a few times in recent years about author Carla Main, who remains locked in a legal tussle with Highland Park developer Hiram Walker Royall over Main's '07 book Bulldozed: "Kelo," Eminent Domain and the American Lust for Land, which chron ... More >>

"Nonsense" and "Rubbish": It's Natinsky's Turn to Respond to Rawlings's Campaign Mailer

​We've already gotten former Dallas Police Chief-turned-Dallas mayoral candidate David Kunkle's response to Mike Rawlings's latest campaign mailer. Now, it's Ron Natinsky's turn to respond to the flier, which says -- without naming him -- that Natinsky served as chair of the city council's Economi ... More >>

Two District 14 City Council Candidates Promise Not to Raise Taxes But Don't Have Concrete Solutions to Pending Budget Shortfall

James Nowlin​Late last week, we took a look at three of the five potential candidates for Angela Hunt's District 14 city council seat -- Jim Rogers, Vernon Franko and Brian Oley -- one of which (Rogers) said Hunt's decision to run for a fourth and final term caused him to put his campaign on h ... More >>

Visiting Jubilee Park and Greenville Avenue During Today's Plan Commission Liveblog

Just remember: If and when that Lower Greenville Ave. PD passes, this is what you'll get next summer. Ish.​Put down your Angry Birds Seasons, it's time for the City Plan Commission public hearing! Today the big item on the agenda is the rezoning of Lower Greenville into a Planned Development Distr ... More >>

Inside Job: This Meltdown Memoir Will Make You Seethe.

Under Madrid With Mayor Tom, or: How a Tunnel in Spain May Hint at Dallas's Rail Future

Chris HeinbaughA postcard from Mayor Tom and the Dallas delegation from the tunnel in which they spent part of their first day in Madrid​Funny thing: Yesterday, in the comments below, longtime Friend of Unfair Park Montemalone asked this about the Dallas delegation's trade mission to Europe: "I wo ... More >>

About Those Proposed Permit Fee Hikes ...

​For months Theresa O'Donnell, director of the city's Sustainable Development and Construction department, has been meeting with contractors and developers about how to loosen up the permit-granting, inspection-making logjam caused in recent months by departmental layoffs and other budget-busters. ... More >>

Big-Time Builders Insist Proposed "Effective Business Strategies" Are Quite the Opposite

​Earlier this month, the city council's Economic Development Committee was briefed on something called "Effective Business Strategies to Support Sustainable Growth." Translated, that means hiking building inspection fees in order to "recover the true costs of delivering services to our customers" ... More >>

Oak Cliff Activists--Between Their Bikes And Gardens And Chickens And Goats--Seek To Redefine Their Community Without Destroying It

Match Game: Before Council Takes NCTCOG Development Funds, a Peek at the Projects

Angela HuntThere was a competition to redo the Routh Street underpass that serves as an Arts District gateway. That was in '06.​At its August 25 meeting, the city council will be asked to sign off on taking close to $14 million from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which, in June, a ... More >>

City to Refocus Its Attention at Southwest Center on Macy's, Which Is "Still Alive"; Penney's Owner Will Consider All His Options

​Back to Southwest Center Mall for a moment -- or, more specifically, the city's plans to keep the "dead mall," per the Urban Land Institute, alive. Karl Zavitkovsky kept the council's Economic Development Committee behind closed doors for almost an hour this morning, during which point it was men ... More >>

Says Mayor, Thanks to UNT Dallas Is Finally About to Become a College Town

Get to know the University of North Texas at Dallas from UNTD Webmaster on Vimeo.That video above was just posted to Vimeo by the University of North Texas at Dallas -- but says here it was sent out a couple of weeks ago to "the Board of Regents, potential donors, the Texas legislature, and elected ... More >>

Locals Didn't Pony Up the Dough at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie This Season

​It would appear Norm Hitzges alone cannot keep Lone Star Park's numbers from suffering a dramatic decline in the midst of a recession. The 65-day spring meet wrapped in Grand Prairie yesterday, and track officials noted with great disappointment the drop in both attendance and wagering, on-site a ... More >>

The New York Times Goes to Jerryworld

Patrick MichelsJerry Jones, showing off his new big-screen TV at Cowboys Stadium back in MayA condensed version of Richard Sandomir's visit to Cowboys Stadium, which appears in this morning's edition:Jerry Jones, tour guide, was showing off. Lost in the excitement of the show and tell, Jones trample ... More >>

It's a Grind in Deep Ellum is more than just a coffee shop, it's a sanctuary for second chances.

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 beco ... More >>

Reeds Confirmed as "High-Priced Lobbyist" Pushing to Allow Car Booting Without Receipts

Save Deep EllumUpdated at 3:07 p.m. As we mentioned yesterday, the freshly inaugurated city council is set to approve a booting ordinance after the Economic Development Committee voted unanimously June 16 to put a modified version of the staff recommendation on tomorrow's addendum. This didn't mak ... More >>

Look, It Has Always Paid to Be Royce West

Sam MertenState Sen. Royce West and friendsFormer Dallas Observer ace reporter (and sometime-Unfair Park contributor) Matt Pulle has a great piece up today on the Texas Watchdog Web site revealing that in 2008 alone, state Sen. Royce West's 10-person law firm billed the City of Dallas, Dallas Area R ... More >>

There's a Plan to Redevelop the Old LTV Tower. But, Good Lord, It Ain't Cheap.

From the proposal for 1600 Pacific AvenueA few days back, a Friend of Unfair Park wondered what was up with the old LTV Tower, once a crown jewel in downtown courtesy its bright night lights. Turns out, a couple weeks back there was a joint meeting of the Downtown Connection TIF Board and Downtown D ... More >>

In Dallas, a Rise in Homelessness and Hunger Due to "Bleak" Economy

This morning, outside a rescue mission in Miami, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released a study concerning homelessness and hunger in 25 major cities, with Dallas among those participating in the survey. The section dealing specifically with the city can be found on Page 30 of the 85-page report, bu ... More >>

Hurrying the Hotel

City Hall plows ahead with convention center hotel despite petitions

You Betcha: Week 6

Can You Imagine If Bear Stearns Sponsored the Dallas Cowboys?

Without China, Dallas Dies. At Least, That's What It Sounds Like in This Story.

Gustav Isn't Screwing Around, and Neither is the City of Dallas

Mayor Tom: Man, What An Amazing Year! And It's Gonna Get Awesomer.

Calm Down, Dallas' Real Estate Market is Just Fine. Only, Till It's Not.

Oakley-dokey

Everything in Ed's world is OK with Ed

Mayoral Candidates Love South Dallas and the Arts. And You. They Love You.

Expenses Sure are Expensive

Re: Pie in the Face

New York, New York

You sure you wanna be a part of it?

There But For The Grace of God

As the Tenth Street freedmen's town crumbles, its would-be saviors bicker among the ruins