Michael Lindenberger

A Walkable S.M. Wright Freeway is Not Happening, But the Fight is Far From Over

The proposed redesign of the S.M. Wright Freeway, a stretch of Highway 175 that runs parallel to I-45 south of Fair Park, will solve a lot of problems. It'll turn the road from an indisputably ugly slab of concrete into a landscaped urban boulevard, and will straighten out the connection with North ... More >>

If You're Into Biking, Just Go Ahead and Move to Fort Worth

Dallas and Fort Worth are similar. They're both in Texas, both have oversized conceptions of themselves, and both came of age in the automobile era. The cities also developed similar bike plans, involving miles of designated bike lanes, at about the same time. And that's where, transit-wise at least ... More >>

Our Tollway Guys Can't Even Collect Tolls -- and That's Just the Start of Their Problems

If I had one of those framed crochet mottos on the wall over my desk, it would say, "Give Credit Where Credit is Due, asterisk." Below the asterisk at the bottom of the frame it would say, "Except for the Dallas Morning News." Ah, but you know. Sometimes you gotta stretch. Gotta do it, even if it ... More >>

Public Shaming Complete, NTTA Now Wants to Boot Your Car

A few years back, the North Texas Tollway Authority took out those pesky toll booths and replaced them with cameras that, if you happen not to have a toll tag, snap a picture of your license plate and helpfully send you a bill -- or send a bill to the address at which the car you are driving is regi ... More >>

Supreme Court Upholds Health Care Law

Update at 9:40 a.m.: Check out the full decision below. Original post: We were planning to try to localize the Supreme Court's decision this morning on the Affordable Care Act, do some sort of informed, level-headed analysis like the DMN's Michael Lindenberger prepared last night. But that would re ... More >>

DART Still Badly Aimed

The longer the Dallas-area light rail system is around, the less of a habit it becomes, according to a story in this morning's Dallas Morning News. The trend over the years has been for ridership to diminish at many stations after people get over the novelty of a train station nearby. In Michael A ... More >>

TxDOT Calls BS on its Own Figures Showing Benefits of Project Pegasus

Last week, when Mayor Mike Rawlings announced he had hedged his support for the Trinity toll road after receiving additional data, it seemed like a victory for City Council members Scott Griggs, Angela Hunt, and Sandy Greyson, the project's opponents. The figures Griggs rustled up from the Texas De ... More >>

Trinity Toll Road Decision Could Have Dire Consequences? Like What? Stoning?

Dallas is a weird little speed-trap town in its own way. I often wonder what visitors think. What they need to think is, "I've got to be really careful and keep my mouth shut until I get out of this burg safely." These musings come to me after reading a dire little piece in today's daily newspaper ... More >>

The Bogus 'Detour' Argument for the Trinity Toll Road is Finally Dead

Wait. Click the pause button. Freeze this. There's a huge point here that some people do not want us to notice. In the last 24 hours, the entire debate about the Trinity River toll road has completely shifted ground. I was just now on the phone about it with City Council member Scott Griggs. He poi ... More >>

Good News About the Trinity Toll Road: Eventually, We All Die

At some point during last evening's North Texas Tollway Authority/Texas Department of Transportation Incredibly Boring Event, I realized I was having almost as much fun seeing all the same old pro-toll road partisans again as I was running into my fellow usual-suspect road-haters. These things have ... More >>

Transportation News is Bad, But the Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades

​Straws in the wind: 1) Rick Perry, toll czar of Texas, still pushing private highways; 2) DART a dismal failure; 3) North Texas Tollway Authority still run by the good old boys. This could all be good. You know where we need to wind up with all this? A toll road from Dallas up to Lake Texoma ... More >>

Picking Apart The Dallas Morning News' Smug Sense of Its Own Virtue

​Quite a bit of chest-puffing harrumphing holier-than-thou going on over at The Dallas Morning News editorial page today, with a self-congratulatory ditty about that dirty Rupert Murdoch, about those nasty dirty Brit tabloids and about how happy the News is with itself for being ... well ... y ... More >>

Down the Trinity, Where Tom Leppert Misleads While Mike Rawlings Just Pleads the Fifth

​Before we put the Trinity River toll road story down for another much-needed nap, we have two very important items of laundry to attend to. One is called Tom Leppert. The other is named Mike Rawlings. First, did former Dallas mayor Tom Leppert, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, lie or not ... More >>

Hey, Mike Rawlings, Pick Up a Damn Paper, Will You?

Because in it, you'll find everything you need to say no to the Trinity River toll road.

Slow Learners: Dallas Morning News Plants Another Nail in Trinity Toll Road's Coffin

​Michael Lindenberger had a great piece in The Dallas Morning News yesterday about public distortions of fact by former mayor Tom Leppert and backers of the Trinity Toll Road like the Trinity Commons Foundation before the 2007 toll road alignment referendum. The main thing the story got acros ... More >>

The Dallas City Council's Bridge Builders: Not Exactly the Best and Brightest

​Forgive me, or just slap me, if this is way too tea-leaves for you, but I can't help trying to read the dregs, you know, trying to see what's behind the burqa, since this city is such a Talibaptist mystery some of the time. And lately I think I definitely see signs that somebody at The Dallas ... More >>

Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson: The Latest In A Long Line Of Pols To Dance To The Mayor's Tune For The Trinity River Project.

So, No Solar-Powered Water Taxis, Then? But ... But ... But We Were Promised!

Mayor Tom Leppert, seen here during the Trinity River toll road referendum​So tomorrow, on some page of The Dallas Morning News (I assume Page One), Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert will concede that the Trinity River Project has hit the wall. Wall, wall, wall. A story posted on The News's Web site this ... More >>

Now That Army Corps of Engineers Doesn't Want Trinity River Toll Road, It's Time to Shift the Blame: Preservationists!

​The story in today's Dallas Morning News about possible historic designation for the Trinity River levees falls squarely in the Unintentionally Hilarious category. It says the idea of building the Trinity River toll road project between the flood control levees may be in trouble because the U.S. ... More >>

The News Points the Finger at Angela Hunt. She Points One Back.

Hunt Wants to Know Why She's to Blame For City's Failure to Make Levee Repairs

​Jim's wrapped up his review of Michael Lindenberger's Sunday story in The Dallas Morning News -- you read it, right, the front-pager headlined "Analysis: Dallas' crucial levees only weakened amid debate on park, toll road." Schutze's essay is forthcoming shortly. But till then, then, here's what ... More >>

Maybe News's Story on Cause of Levee Delays Was First Step to Rehab? Nah.

​The headline of Michael Lindenberger's big front-page to-do in the paper version of Sunday's Dallas Morning News was "Grand Plans Delay Levee Fix." It was, in many ways, a remarkable story for The News to publish, exposing as a serious public lie the repeated assurances of Dallas Mayor Tom Lepper ... More >>

The News Finally Tells the Truth on the Toll Road, But Where's the Gotcha?

Hunt: Trinity Toll Road's Dead, So Let's "Get Going on Some Park Improvements"

Sam MertenAngela Hunt from way back when she dropped off the petitions launching the Trinity River Toll Road vote​OK, Jim, so Michael Lindenberger didn't ask Angela Hunt for a "told-ya-so" quote. Didn't need to, because, after all, the District 14 council rep has her own blog, to which she just po ... More >>

The Only Dallas Project in Obama's Transportation Budget Is DART's Green Line

The Inwood Station, part of the Green Line expansion, as it looked in November​I saw early this morning that Michael Lindenberger was teasing potentially big news for Dallas via U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pending announcement concerning FY2011 budget expenditures. Which I thought odd ... More >>

Wherein Schutze Asks The News: Where's the "Trinity River Toll Road Dead!" Headline?

​Ah, you know, even a blind hog can find the truth buried somewhere in The Dallas Morning News if he knows how to root-hog-or-die. Reminds me of the thing I wrote about two years ago, when The News waited until the day after the Trinity River referendum to reveal something its transportation write ... More >>

Hunt to Corps of Engineers: Really, Take Your Time With That Levee Remediation Thing

​After the jump, you'll find a letter Angela Hunt sent today to the Fort Worth District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in which she begs Troy D. Collins, the deputy district engineer, not to hurry up the approval process for the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. She wants the Corps to be as careful ... More >>

Cracking the Mystery of TxDOT's Proposals to the Corps: Do Nothing and Build a Pile of Dirt.

Sam Merten​In case you missed it, Michael Lindenberger reported in Saturday's Dallas Morning News that the Texas Department of Transportation finally submitted its proposals to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aimed at solving the soil issues currently stalling construction of the approaches t ... More >>

Texas-OU at Night? Doesn't Sound Like It.

Danny Fulgencio​Maybe you saw Michael Lindenberger's story in The News this morning about the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board meeting yesterday, during which DART officials found that DART officials didn't do anything wrong during the Fair Park eff-up that resulted in folks missing a big hunk o' T ... More >>

This Morning at City Hall, Mayor Tom Leppert Put Lipstick to Levee and Said It'll Be Fine

Sam MertenEddie Bernice Johnson and Kay Bailey Hutchison were the levees to Mayor Tom Leppert's Trinity River at City Hall this morning.It almost isn't possible to describe what Mayor Tom Leppert and a line-up of loyal politicos were trying to accomplish this morning in the Flag Room of Dallas City ... More >>

If It's Hot Fudge Friday, It Must Be Time for Another Schutze-Rodrigue Throwdown

Natilee DeeYesterday Dallas Morning News managing editor George Rodrigue took issue with my April 1 column in which I took issue with his attack on the Dallas Observer last month. At this point, I'm sure it would be better for everybody if George and I were locked in a sound-proofed room with Nerf s ... More >>

If only The Dallas Morning News had attacked its Trinity River reporting with the same punch it attacked us.

Buzz: Craig Holcomb Speaks the Truth. Gotta be a Mistake.

Late to the Party, The News Somehow Emerges As Geniuses For Calling Out Mayor Leppert Regarding His Trinity Toll Road Promises

DMN transportation blogIf Michael Lindenberger could be any animal, he'd be one that lives on the beach "with opposable thumbs to drink libations." Just thought you'd like to know. The publishers of D Magazine and the Advocate this morning are extolling the greatness of Michael Lindenberger and The ... More >>

The News Must Have Amnesia Regarding Mayor Leppert and the Toll Road. And Just What The Heck Does "At Risk" Really Mean?

Patrick MichelsMayor Tom Leppert with DMN writer Michael Lindenberger (right) ... we think.To my delight, I returned from vacation and discovered that the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Trinity Turnpike has finally been released. It would have been a nice read on the plan ... More >>

Meet Jim Schutze, DART Cop

More Truth About What the Trinity Parkway Will Really Cost Us

This Little Piggy Goes to Town

Michael Morris, King of the Roads

Jim Schutze Doesn't Forgive or Forget

Trinity Toll Road May Cost More Than Promised

Jim Needs The News' Help With a Little Fact-Checking

Lies My Mayor Told Me

Selling You Down the River

Letters from the issue of March 13, 2003

On the Spot