Subject: Microsoft PowerPoint

• Corn Hole?

  October 25, 2006

• Bible Girl: The Big, Happy Family Quiz

  July 16, 2007

• At Least Tom Leppert's Done Bullshitting

  September 12, 2007

• With the Statler Hilton's Future in Question, Last Night a Loving Look Back at Its Past

  Scott DornJo Fischer, who worked at the Statler Hilton even before it officially opened in 1956Organizers of last night's "Story of the Statler" presentation at the Dallas Center for Architecture expected, oh, maybe 30 or 40 folks to show for architect Marcel Quimby's talk about the historic, neglected hotel on Commerce Street. But it was standing-room-only -- 150 and then some, among them Mayor Tom Leppert's chief of staff Chris Heinbaugh; former council member Veletta Lill, now executive direc

  June 3, 2009

• Warning You Now: A Lot of Math Ahead

  January 21, 2008

• The City's New No-Tell Hotel

  February 12, 2008

• In the Absence of a Trinity River Project, Fun and Fascinating Meetings

  September 2, 2008

• Full Speed Ahead: Council Hoping to Get Dirt Flying on Hotel By April

  October 16, 2008

• Hey, Look, They've Already Built the Convention Center Hotel -- In Miniature!

  October 16, 2008

• Grab for Privates

  Should we turn local government over to a corporation?

  February 12, 2004

• Trinity Parkway Already Taking Its Toll

  The Dallas City Council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee gets a briefing at 9:30 this morning on hurdles facing the Trinity River toll road project. They'll have people there from the North Texas Tollway Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I really wish they had thought to ask me. I could have whipped together a PowerPoint for them called "Biggest Hurdle: Really Dumb Idea to Begin With." Ah, but there I go again.At one point this morning, they are supposed to talk about the

  January 27, 2009

• Trinity Chairman Sees "Many, Many Obstacles" With Turnpike Project

  Sam MertenFrom left to right: Gene Rice and Kevin Craig of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Dan Chapman of HNTB and project manager for the NTTA and Rebecca Dugger, director of the Trinity River Corridor Project As Schutze mentioned earlier, the council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee met this morning to get an update on the Trinity Turnpike, with reps from the North Texas Tollway Authority and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on hand to walk everyone through the PowerPoint presentation

  January 27, 2009

• In West Dallas, Finding MMDs

  On Wednesday, as you're no doubt aware by now, the Dallas City Council voted to create three municipal management districts, or MMDs. They're the first in Dallas, though Houston is often invoked as proof that MMDs do wonders for development. Which is no surprise, as they're made for development -- or, more specifically, developers, who would be allowed to create self-governed districts in which they could issue public debt and then levy taxes, assessments and other fees to pay down that debt. In

  February 13, 2009

• Better Now Than Never, the City Council's Gonna Get a Civics Lesson Tomorrow

  Here we are, one full decade -- 10 years, count 'em, one-10th of a century -- into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and City Of Dallas's Trinity River Corridor Project, and tomorrow the city council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee has a briefing scheduled that I would summarize as, "The Corps of Engineers: Just What in the Hell Is That Thing, Anyway?"Ah, well. Better late than never.The briefing, scheduled for 11 a.m. in Room 6ES of City Hall, is actually titled "Overview of United St

  February 16, 2009

• We Know Where Those Downtown Streetcars Might Go. But How Will We Pay For 'Em?

  Courtesy Justin CozartIn 1945, Dallas city and transit officials, among them Mayor J. Woodall Rodgers, introduced "the first of twenty-five new, silent, streamlined street cars."It's been a year since the word "streetcar" started circulating through the halls of City Hall; as Jim noted upon his return from a so-called "streetcar workshop" in May '08, "It looks like the best idea since Mad Max Goldblatt's scheme for a downtown monorail." In January of this year, the Dallas City Council's Transpor

  June 5, 2009

• A Good Idea, But...

  June 20, 2002

• City, Heal Thyself: Words of Wisdom From Last Night's Affordable Housing Forum

  Alexa SchirtzingerFrom left last night, Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm, architect Brent Brown and Regina Nippert of the Dallas Faith Communities CoalitionLast night's affordable housing forum at Temple Emanu-El was a lesson in getting things right by "thinking wrong," as architect Brent Brown likes to say. "Wrong," in Brown's view, really means "creatively." Despite an intermittently functioning PowerPoint presentation, Brown wowed the mostly middle-aged, well-dressed audience of about 160 with

  March 27, 2009

• YACHT

  November 6, 2008

• Flavor Pulls a Disappearing Act at the Second Floor

  October 9, 2008

• Sob Story

  Buzz sheds a tear for 2003

  January 1, 2004

• Gunfight at the Trinity

  The biggest shoot-out in Dallas' political history

  October 18, 2007

• Baby Mitch

  What happened to city council's sharpest fiscal conservative?

  September 13, 2007

• Neighborhood Watch

  May 17, 2007

• Culture Wars

  The toll road referendum will squash the big-hairs

  July 12, 2007

• At Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, The Cemetery Club has gallows humor in spades while WaterTower hits a false note with Totally True Story

  April 23, 2009

• What a Woonerful World

  Ed Oakley gets himself a Dutch treat

  April 19, 2007

• We See England, We See France...

  Hey, Frank Librio, pull up your pants

  April 12, 2007

• The Fragile Fourth Wall

  Details, details: This year's FIT stands or falls on the little things

  July 20, 2006

• Deep-Sixed

  Hollywood pounces on 6-6-06 with a needless Omen revival

  June 1, 2006

• Don't Fret

  Dallas Guitar Show plays on

  April 7, 2005

• Show Me the Lake!

  City Hall talks fast, hides lake up sleeve

  November 13, 2003

• Pointless Exercise

  How they got the media to miss the point on the Trinity River

  July 3, 2003

• Big-Ticket Laura

  No fix for potholes, but big parks for the fat cats

  November 28, 2002

• The Opposite of True

  How The Dallas Morning News spins the Trinity River project

  November 15, 2001

• A (Small, But Spirited) Effort Afoot to Shine a Little Light on Dallas's Buried Creeks

  Dallas Public Library/Dallas History and ArchivesAn old map of one Dallas's buried creeks, Peak Creek, which SOS would like to dig up and "daylight."In the high-ceilinged shadows of the old Pump House at White Rock Lake, Bud Melton clicks through PowerPoint slides of apartment complexes, shopping malls, even public schools. Underneath them, he explains, is a crisscrossed network of the creeks and streams that used to be part of Dallas's landscape, long before Dallas was, well, Dallas. But those

  May 4, 2009

• Sooner Than Later, DISD Wants a High School "Geared Toward the Nontraditional Student"

  Tonight, of course, is the Dallas Independent School District board of trustees' called board meeting, at which the board will discuss and approve campus staffing formulas for the 2009-'10 school year; Schutze is attending, but of course. But at this very moment is the lengthy warm-up: a regular ol' board briefing, during which the board will be briefed on, among other things, how the district's dealing with the so-called over-age/under-credit student.Here's the PowerPoint presentation, in which

  May 14, 2009

• Mayor Leppert on City's Budget Woes: "We Just Gotta Deal With it and Move Forward."

  Mayor Tom Leppert kicked off today's budget briefing by acknowledging that "the challenges will be significant" as the Dallas City Council finds ways to eliminate a $190-million deficit. He stressed that national and international issues are the cause of the shortfall, and the mayor likened it to the economic struggles faced by households and businesses. "We just gotta deal with it and move forward," Leppert said. After City Manager Mary Suhm explained that the budget problems are "rev

  May 20, 2009

• After City Approves More Than $1 Billion in Bond Funding for South Dallas, Task Force Finds Ways to Spend Another $100 Million

  Sam MertenSeveral members of the Mayor's Southern Dallas Task Force packed the city council chambers Tuesday afternoon as they unveiled plans to revitalize 10 areas of South Dallas. The task force, consisting of approximately 250 folks split into 13 groups, recommended the city include a minimum of $100 million in the 2010 bond package to help alleviate infrastructure deficiencies and provide funding to "respond to the immediate needs of the marketplace." The plans also call for increasing the

  June 11, 2009

• 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 make the Save Deep Ellum coalition happy, as they sent out fliers claiming, "The parking companies have hired a high-priced lobbyist in order to get their way." Friend of Unfair Park "Mark" speculated t

  June 23, 2009

• Dot Games Highlight Exercise in Futility at White Rock Lake Last Night as Residents Offer Little to Help Solve City's Budget Crisis

  Sam MertenYippee! Red and green stickers!It was standing room only last night as approximately 200 folks battled the heat at White Rock Lake's Winfrey Point for the final of four community budget forums, where several city staffers were on hand to get input on how best to address the city's $190 million budget shortfall. City Manager Mary Suhm, who has whittled the deficit down to $38.6 million, told Unfair Park after the meeting that the forums gave her a couple ideas to cut costs such as impl

  June 26, 2009

• Hunt Attributes Delayed Car Booting Ordinance to Budget and The Reeds; Deep Ellum Group Uses Petition to Lobby Council

  Sean FitzgeraldThe Deep Ellum Community Association used a petition measuring more than 50 feet with more than 850 signatures to push the council to take the car booting issue more seriously.We're already breaking our promise, but because we're strangely obsessed with the city's struggle to get a car booting ordinance on the books, Unfair Park probed Angela Hunt regarding the city council's decision to bring the issue back to the Transportation and Environment Committee in August. To catch eve

  June 25, 2009

• Plethora of City Attorneys Unable to Push New Demolition Ordinance Past Committee

  Sam MertenCity plan commissioners Neil Emmons (right) and Robert Ekbald (left) watched as Katherine Seale of Preservation Dallas spoke this morning to the Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee.Much to the chagrin of the half dozen city attorneys attending this morning's Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee meeting, members voted 5-1 to postpone a decision on a new ordinance regarding the demolition of structures in historic districts. The motion to postpone, made by vice-chair Ann Bagley, also urg

  July 16, 2009

• Last Night, Pete Sessions Turned Health Care Debate Into an Easy-to-Swallow Pill

  Kimberly Thorpe​The debate surrounding the proposed health care bill can seem distant. The bill is some 1,000 pages. Those who claim to have read it become experts either for or against the legislation. But last night, a cherry-faced, white-haired politician successfully tied this unwieldy document to a singular concept his constituents can really get behind: freedom."Freedom will be lost if we have a government that tells us how to do everything," said Republican Congressman Pete Sessions las

  August 6, 2009

• From California, a Note of Concern Sent to City Council Regarding Dallas Zoo Transfer

  Robert Cabello, Dallas Zoological Society​On Wednesday, the Dallas City Council will more than likely vote to approve turning over management of the Dallas Zoo to the Dallas Zoological Society -- and, more specifically, its management arm, Dallas Zoo Management, Inc. Further details concerning the transfer of power can be found in Item No. 9 on the agenda's addendum. Chief among the reasons for the hand-over, which will begin October 1 (the start of FY2009-2010) and run for at least 25 years:

  August 10, 2009

• City Misses Samuell Trust Reports Deadlines; Texas AG Threatens Dallas With Legal Action

  Once a popular hangout at the Samuell Farm, the Pavillion is a rotting, open-door shell of its former self.​Long story short: Since March 2008, the Texas Attorney General's Office has been investigating precisely how well the city of Dallas is taking care of the park properties and money left to the city by physician and philanthropist W.W. Samuell. In March of '09, we first caught wind of the specifics of the investigation, which included a long look-see at the much-fought-over Samuell Farm -

  August 28, 2009

• Ain't Gonna Work on Samuell Farm No More? Per City Docs, Four Options for the 320 Acres.

  The Pavillion at Samuell Farm, which the city is considering tearing down -- unless a gust of wind beats it to the punch​Last Friday, we broke the news that the Texas Attorney General's Office is threatening to take control of the W.W. Samuell Trust if the city of Dallas doesn't turn over by September 11 documents that were due July 15. What the AG wants: an accounting of "current operations of all Samuell Park Properties [and] a future plan for the Samuell Park Property known as Samuell Farm.

  September 2, 2009

• The City's Budget in Just Under 45 Minutes

  Courtesy Angela Hunt​You know why it seems like Angela Hunt's always on Unfair Park? Because she's the only council member with a regularly updated Web site to which she posts items of significance to Dallas residents. Hey, Carolyn Davis gets herself a blog, we'll post the hell out of it; same for Dwaine Caraway or Dave Neumann or Ann Margolin or the mayor or anyone else sitting at the horseshoe. Till then, all we have is the District 14 council member, who last night posted the entirety of he

  September 11, 2009

• The City's About to Clamp Down on Unpaid Tickets. As In: No Registration For You.

  Flickr user: vgsgeek​Here's a friendly little heads-up from your pals at Unfair Park: If you've received a citation from the Dallas Police Department and haven't taken care of it, you might want to settle up sooner than later. That's because the city's this close to signing a contract with Dallas County that'll ensure drivers with unpaid tickets can't get their cars registered until they pay up.On Monday, the city council's Public Safety committee will be briefed on the Scofflaw Vehicle Regist

  October 29, 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

• Even Stephen Hawking Couldn't Figure Out the Fuzzy Math Behind How We Are Going To Pay For the Trinity River Park.

  November 12, 2009