Katy Trail

Katy Trail Robber's Tale of PCP Addiction, "Purse Snatching" Fails to Win Jury's Sympathy

Dominique Thornton did not testify in his trial for charges that he committed a string of armed robberies along the Katy Trail last May. It probably wouldn't have done any good. He was IDed by victims as the gunman in the heists, and police found Thornton's thumbprint on a stolen purse they later re ... More >>

Angela Hunt, Sandy Greyson Promise to Quiet the Katy Trail Ice House

When the Katy Trail Ice House opened two years ago, it was an immediate hit with the young professionals and SMU students who populate the Uptown area. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, they come for the basketball-sized beers and stay for the decidedly frat-like atmosphere. The complaint ... More >>

Patio Drunk: Ten Of Dallas' Best Patios

Editor's note: we originally published this list last fall, just as summer's swelter faded into blissfully cool September weather, but this guide works just as well for the spring. Get ready for the weekend, Dallas. Oh, and the first cold one is on you. Goodfriend (pictured above) OK, so the view i ... More >>

A Shift in the Force: Lombardi Restaurant Empire Moves Taverna Pizzeria And La Fiorentina

If you're a fan of Taverna Pizzeria in Uptown, you'll have to walk a few blocks north of their current location to enjoy their pizzas, salads and really big pork chops crowned with a fried egg. The Lombardi group just announced the restaurant would be moving to Knox Street, right next to Toulouse. ... More >>

The Dallas Police Are Clearing Homeless from Along the Katy Trail

Dallas police were out in force near the Katy Trail earlier this morning, with four squad cars and at least as many officers gathered in the grassy area at Hall Street sandwiched between the trail and Turtle Creek. A few officers were by the brush along the trail, near where a blue folding chair sa ... More >>

For Four Days This Month, Knox Will Become Dallas' First "Complete Street"

In June, the city of Dallas unveiled its Complete Streets Design Manual, a rather dense set of guidelines for the city as it dabbles with the idea of building certain roadways less as places that cars blow through en route from Point A to Point B and more as boulevards that are at least as accommoda ... More >>

Lombardi Family Restaurants Annouce Newest Offspring: Cafe Des Artistes

Lots of changes for the Lombardi's this month. Last week we heard that the Screen Door was closing and Lombardi Family Restaurants would be taking over the space to open a bistro concept. This week the group released details about the new spot. Cafe Des Artistes will focus on a culinary mix of Frenc ... More >>

Just What You Always Wanted: Health Food Vending Machines in City Parks

Six months ago, Peter Stone was working for Apple in Manhattan when he decided, somewhat randomly, to move to Dallas. "He liked the idea that he could golf and play tennis year-round without the mounds of snow and icy winds of New York City. "I came here, and it is so bloody hot here. I was playing ... More >>

They Ain't Heavy ...

Dallas Police Has Even More Explanation for its Response to That Whole Katy Trail Thing

The Dallas Police Department is continuing to explain away -- and maybe overcompensate for -- their initial silence concerning the armed robberies on the Katy Trail and the dozen-or-so incidents police believe they're linked to.A pair of press releases from police hit the inbox yesterday evening, on ... More >>

In the Katy Trail Robberies, Police Reports Paint Portrait of Bumbling, Brazen Criminals

We know a lot more about the string of recent armed robberies at the Katy Trail since the Dallas Police Department initially released some details on the incidents yesterday. We know, for example, that police think all were committed by a pair of black men in their 20s who were driving a silver, fou ... More >>

Dallas PD: Katy Trail Robbery Suspects Are in Their 20s and Considerably Armed

Question: Is Jim Schutze a prophet, or does does the city just go to him for its marching orders? Just a few short hours ago, he was grousing about the piddling response by the Dallas Police Department to a string of armed robberies on the Katy Trail.Immediately DPD officers, who we presume were bre ... More >>

Be Cool with the Uptown Gang

Back, Pedal: Dallas Bike Lanes Won't Be Easy, But They Just Might Happen After All

The bureaucratic red tape for bike lanes is loosening in Dallas. Well, OK. There's talk of it loosening. Which, for those who like to want to ride their bicycles, who want to ride them where they like, is better than nothing. At today's meeting of the city council's Transportation and Environment C ... More >>

Five of Our Favorite Dallas Patios (Because It's Going to Be 70 Degrees Today)

Editor's note: If you're thinking this item looks familiar, it is. I was talking with Rallo about how today's weather demanded an outdoor lunch, and like idiots we sat there for five minutes trying to think of good patios. Then we realized that we run a web site that exists solely to solve these qua ... More >>

Company Cafe's Second Location is Open, and She's a Looker (Photos)

Lauren Drewes Daniels​Company Café's second location is open, in a renovated building tucked behind Texas de Brazil alongside the Katy Trail. Its modern design is coupled with vintage flare where patchwork walls made from old barn wood contrasts with contemporary pieces, like metal chairs and ... More >>

Katy Trail Ice House: Soon With More Fire

You're going to miss that hot, awful weather very soon​While it may be 80 today, Fall is definitely here. With evening temperatures falling, patio drinking is becoming more of a challenge. I was at the Katy Trail Ice House this weekend and saw several waitresses wearing gloves to protect their ... More >>

A Better Ross Ave. and "Tactical Urbanism"

​At some point the conversation below, concerning the plan to create a so-called quick-win trail that would link Bishop Arts to the Katy Trail across the Trinity, took an odd swerve, with someone insisting that Jason Roberts, Andrew Howard and the rest of the Better Block-ers are trying to "kill t ... More >>

Western Swinging Through the City's Star-Studded "Happy Trails" Music Video

Happy Trails 2:00 from Jake Ferguson on Vimeo.Like I wrote Tuesday, the city's about to officially unveil its "Happy Trails" campaign intended to make those 104 miles' worth of hike-n-bike paths safer following the death of Lauren Huddleston on the Katy Trail in October and another car-on-cyclist co ... More >>

Katy Trail Ice House's Snafus Might Be Coming to an End

Katy Trail Ice House promised us these beers and gave us a Shiner. Not that we don't like Shiner, but damn.​When Katy Trail Ice House opened along the eponymous exercise trail on March 25, it was feted as the next it-bar. Capitulating to this hysteria, I too visited the bar on opening day, muc ... More >>

From the Mailbag: You've Got Questions, People Who Know More Than We Have Answers

​Every so often, Friends of Unfair Park send in e-mails full of questions to which we only wish we knew the answers. And I'll send those queries to the experts. So, this morning, we tackle two topics pulled at random from the grab bag. First up ...Friend of Unfair Park Wyatt asks: My neighbors and ... More >>

Liveblogging Today's Trail-Tastic Quality of Life Committee Meeting

Mind the gap?​Greetings to you, Unfair Friends, from City Hall, where the Quality of Life Committee kicked off their meeting about trash and trails today just after noon o'clock -- and after David Neumann gave a clowny and enthused interview to a TV camera. Willis Winters, Assistant Director of Pa ... More >>

(Trail Safety) Signs o' the Times

​Exactly two months ago, Angela Hunt spoke to Unfair Park about the work the Friends of the Katy Trail had done to put on paper "a really thoughtful, long-term plan for how to deal with safety needs" along the city's hike-n-bike trails system following the death of Lauren Huddleston in October, wh ... More >>

Last Night, a Vow That New Bike Plan Will Lead to "A Radical Transformation of Dallas"

A proposed cyclists' bridge over N. Central Expressway​The third public meeting for the 2011 Dallas Bike Plan, billed as an opportunity to review the first full draft of the document City Council will see this spring, was as much pep rally as policy session. The map unveiled last night has been ... More >>

Potemkin Village: Signs Urge Dallas to Keep the Homeless in its Heart. What Heart?

​As a community, we get horrible leadership from City Hall. Terrible. City Hall brings out the worst in us. On Monday, Building Community Workshop (called bcWORKSHOP), a housing advocacy group, began installing plywood silhouette figures of homeless people around town with cardboard signs urg ... More >>

City Council to Get a Peek at Initiatives Intended to Make Katy and White Rock Trails Safer

​After the death of Lauren Huddleston in October, when a cyclist crashed into the jogger along the Katy Trail, and a car-and-cyclist collision two weeks later, council member Angela Hunt wrote that she'd met with city staff and Friends of the Katy Trial to "address trail safety for all users." A p ... More >>

TxDOT to Help Dallas Pay for "Enhancing the Safety of the City's Shared-Use Pathways"

Click to embiggen one of the suggestions for improviing safety standards along the Katy Trail​Not far from the Harvard Street-Cole Avenue stretch of the Katy Trail where a cyclist and motorist recently had their head-on how-do is the Knox Street intersection, which city planners have long identifi ... More >>

DPD Reports a Cyclist Hit on Katy Trail

​Speaking of the need for Complete Streets ...On Sunday morning, Angela Hunt wrote on her website:Last week, I met with city staff and Friends of the Katy Trail board members to discuss ways to make the trail safer in response to Lauren Huddleston's tragic death. We will have a plan to address tra ... More >>

Purple Onion: Good Things are Worth the Wait. This Breakfast Wasn't.

​Purple Onion 1838 Irving Blvd. 214-747-0101 Promised Delivery Time: 20 minutes Actual Delivery Time: 50 minutes Getting my favorite meal of the day delivered to work: 50 Getting that meal 30 minutes late: -20 Big menu, small prices: 20 Short-tempered employee: -10 Lingering scent of French ... More >>

Two Years Later, City Council to Get Peek at Southwestern Medical District Area Plan

​Actually, it's the "Stemmons Corridor-Southwest Medical District Plan," which has been simmering since 2008 as officials from UT Southwestern, Love Field, Crow Holdings, Parkland and so forth worked with area residents to hash out the (transit-oriented) development details. Nothing's final yet -- ... More >>

Taking One More Step Down Katy Trail

The city expects to begin construction of Katy Trail Phase III by no later than March.​On Friday, the Friends of the Katy Trail posted photos of two new entrances: the Beasley staircase at Hall Street and the Tao of Warren at Armstrong Boulevard, paid for with private funds. On Wednesday, the coun ... More >>

Line Goes Deep as Troy Aikman Helps Friends of the Katy Trail Kick Off Membership Drive

Photos by Sam MertenNFL Hall of Famer and Fox broadcaster Troy Aikman braved the stiff winds and cool temperatures Thursday night while promoting the kickoff of the inaugural Friends of the Katy Trail membership drive. Joined by his two daughters, 7-year-old Alexa and 8-year-old Jordan, Aikman graci ... More >>

The Bridge On the Lane Mockingbird

​What you see above is the "841-ft long, 16-ft wide signature pedestrian bridge over Mockingbird Lane" that the city hopes to have up and running (see what I did there?) by December 2011, fingers and toes crossed. Of course, that's if the city can find the walking-around money to fund Phase VI of ... More >>

Stop, Look And Cycle

The Wyndemere Cries, "Quarter Mil"

View Larger MapThe New York Times' Great Homes and Destinations blog wonders what kind of pad you can get for $250,000 and comes up with a few options: a three-bedroom, three-bath 179-year-old house near the Fore River in Portland, Maine; a five-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath house in Athens, Georgi ... More >>

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 ... More >>

Halvsies

Split a long run in two at Victory Park

If You Were Naked and Painted Orange on the Katy Trail Yesterday, DPD Wants a Word

And now, from KXAS-Channel 5, the story of the naked, "terracotta-colored" man spotted along the Katy Trail Thursday morning. At first, the woman who saw him thought he was a statue. Till he moved. And, please, do keep in mind: "This is very offensive and something that is not funny, not funny at al ... More >>

Dallas, So Close to "World-Class"

The view of the city from the pool at the Belmont HotelOn this Friday morning, let's sneak a peek at the Sunday New York Times travel section, which spends "36 Hours in Dallas" and serves up this howdy-do: "DALLAS may not be a world-class city, but it's pulling out all the stops to get there." Alas, ... More >>

You Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching You? Well, Rockwell, Get Used To It.

Another item of interest from this afternoon's Public Safety Committee get-together: a sneak peek at where the city plans to put its surveillance cameras downtown (not to mention a color-coded map containing the location of every single camera already in place). Says the briefing memo, crime's down ... More >>

Aural Ambush: Los Campesinos!

Sarah WilmerThis week, two new interns joined the Aural Ambush squad and our $20 Discman was replaced with a borrowed iPod. A few weeks/months off and suddenly this is a high class operation? Well, actually, that's fitting: Only the best would do for the esteemed Knox Street patrons and joggers of t ... More >>

This Katy Trail Arts Loop Sounds Interesting. But That's a Lot of Green.

Looks like the meeting at the Nasher Sculpture Center was last week, but the Friends of the Katy Trail only today posted the sneak peek at the proposed Katy Trail Arts Loop, which is just what it sounds like:This connection improves the bicycle and pedestrian facilities between the Katy Trail and Do ... More >>

A Trinity Project That's Awfully Hard to Argue With -- Right, Jim? Jim?

A postcard scene from the Wycliff Trestle ... in the future! About a year ago, Mayor Tom debuted a slice of land that'll connect the Katy Trail to the Trinity Strand Trail -- you know, that 7.8-mile-long hike-n-bike that goes from the Katy Trail to the Trinity River Project slated to begin taking ... More >>

Bonus MP3: The O's -- "California"

Lesse. Do You Want the Katy Trail or an "Attractive Alley"?

Happy (Katy and Trinity Strand) Trails

Katy Is A Friend of Ours

"On Your Left!"

Face Off

Big D and Cowtown take the court

Beaten paths

A plan for hike-and-bike trails faces gridlock