North Central Texas Council of Governments

Citizen Council PAC Paves Way for Trinity Toll Road

City council members grilled over whethere they support a boondoggle

Boomtown Rats: Why is Dallas Being Left out of Region's Growth? Ask Our Leaders.

Story in The Dallas Morning News this morning touts Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington as the fastest growing metropolitan area in the country between July, 2011, and some unspecified date in 2012. Hold on, Dallas. That's not us. In fact the sad saga of our own city's growth, not mentioned in the story, ... More >>

Is Irving Ahead of Dallas in Preparing for Global Trade When the Panama Canal Expands?

Time to read the tea leaves. Avi Selk at The Dallas Morning News is report-tweeting this morning that the Irving City Council has slapped its mayor by voting to pay transportation consultant David Dean all of the two hundred grand he billed the city after his contract with the city expired last Sept ... More >>

Cabbies Say There's a Taxi Monopoly in Dallas, and They're Fighting to Break it Up

Jack Bewley and Jeff Finkel have spent the last several years methodically strengthening their position in the Dallas taxi market. Their company, Irving Holdings, was established with the merger of five local cab companies. In 2007, they brought Freedom, Eagle, and Jet taxi companies. Earlier this y ... More >>

Think the Proposed Three-Person HOV Lanes Are Stupid? Now's Your Chance to Say So.

Last month it came to light that the Regional Transportation Council was mulling requiring three, rather than two, people per vehicle in order to use the region's HOV lanes. You could still use the special lanes driving solo, but you'd have to pay a toll that would vary based on traffic and time of ... More >>

The Inland Port Can Still Win the Race for Jobs If We Don't Let Fixers Screw Us

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 >>

Mike Rawlings' B.S. Pro-Toll-Road Data Won't Be Enough to Get it Built

Fine. So the Toll Road Creature Who Comes in the Night paid a visit to Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings bedroom recently, and now he's a "Toll Road Guy." Yesterday the Toll Road Guy handed out an utterly specious document -- a near laughable and transparent fabric of lies and hoodoo -- and said it prove ... More >>

Mayor Mike Gets the Answer He Wanted on the Trinity Toll Road. But Don't You Believe It.

Dallas Mayor Mike ("I'm a toll road guy") Rawlings has pitched a bunch of numbers to the media that he says prove Dallas should build the Trinity toll road before it fixes the existing freeways downtown. But thanks to some very handy detective work by three anti-toll road city council members, you c ... 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 >>

The Trinity River Toll Road is Now an (Almost) Unstoppable Force

With Mayor Mike Rawlings' support, only deep pockets can thwart the $2 billion river-ride.

Mayor Mike's Version of Regionalism: Selling out Dallas to the 'Burbs

In his speech last week endorsing a new highway in the Trinity River flood zone, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings threw down a gauntlet. It was sort of a buried line. I guess not everybody heard it. I did. He said at one point, "I'm a regionalist," and then he said of people who oppose his view, "For tho ... More >>

Dallas versus Sprawl! It's a Fight-to-the-Finish Cage Death-Match, Not a Church Picnic.

If The Dallas Morning News and the University of Texas at Arlington sponsor a big seminar on regional cooperation, how many people at the seminar are going to come out against regional cooperation? Yeah. Not to be self-important or anything, but I believe that's my job, Pilgrim. So here it is: Regi ... More >>

This AKA Aaron Michaels Stuff Is Not Making Me Feel Terribly Homeland-Secure

Did anybody else feel less than homeland-secure after yesterday's fandango with the Dallas County Homeland Security Advisory Committee? First, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price tried to re-appoint to the committee the founder of an international anti-Semitic hate group -- a guy best know ... More >>

Are They Angels or Grinches at Dallas City Hall? Depends Which Project You're Discussing.

​Sometimes I think city staff may be demon-possessed. I'm sorry, I know it's a very weird thing to say. But I can't come up with another explanation. One day they're so bouncy and positive and totally can-do. The next day they've been taken over by the negativity goblin. I attended a city council ... More >>

"The Times Are A-Changin'": Hunt, Griggs Ask Pointed Questions About Trinity Toll Road

NCTCOG's Michael Morris​According to the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the Trinity Parkway will cost around $1.8 billion, give or take a few million. That money's not there. But, hey, what's the rush: As we mentioned this morning, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' environmental impac ... More >>

Let's Be Honest, Dallas's Minority Contracting Mess Didn't Come About by Accident

​If you start reading the lead editorial today in The Dallas Morning News, you're going to think at first that the editorial writers have done a good job explaining what has gone wrong with minority subcontracting in Dallas -- a central theme in the ongoing FBI Dallas political corruption prob ... More >>

"Big A, Meet the Even Bigger D"

​For the second time in as many days, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution pits The ATL against The City of Hate -- a common occurrence -- and rules in favor of Dallas, in part because we have toll roads to help pay for regional light rail projects that run to the suburbs, which is but a figment of a ... More >>

Dallas's Gas Drilling Task Force to Begin Meetings With Overview From Fort Worth

Via.​This morning the city posted the agenda for the first-ever meeting of the Gas Drilling Task Force, which kicks off Tuesday at 2 p.m., don't be late. The agenda's mostly a bunch of introductory what-whats: Chair Lois Finkelman will give some opening remarks, outline its scope and schedule, rev ... More >>

Clang, Clang, Crunch: The Truth About Streetcars

Why should Dallas build a tiny, inefficient streetcar line when it's broke? Because trolleys are groovy.

Before Council Votes to Up Lake Highlands Town Center TIF Dough to $40 Mil, a History

What one corner of Walnut Hill and Skillman was supposed to look like by now​Twice now, following a weekend excursion to the scenic, dancing-watered parkingscape known as Lake Highlands Town Center, we've checked in on the city's efforts to back-on-track that stalled-out mixed-use development. Goo ... More >>

DART's CFO and Linda Koop Talk About How Streetcars Will Be Funded and When They'll Operate (Weekdays Only, Unless ...)

This is for sale right now on eBay. Seven bids so far, up to $31, 23 hours left. Cheaper than a time machine.​So. David Leininger, Dallas Area Rapid Transit's chief financial officer, and council member Linda Koop just called to talk -- what else? -- streetcars, on both the DART board and city cou ... More >>

Fort Worth Council Votes Against Streetcar Project, Gives Up $25 Million in Federal Grant

​A couple of weeks back we posted that photo of the borrowed streetcar parked in downtown Fort Worth, which city officials said they'd put there to get folks excited about spending that $25 million Urban Circulator Grant. At which point, several Fort Worth-l-i-v-i-n Friends of Unfair Park cautione ... More >>

Dallas Can Go Ahead and Forget About Fort Worth Ditching That $25-Mil Streetcar Grant

City of Fort Worth​Last week, during the Dallas City Council's Transportation and Environment Committee meeting, chair Linda Koop dropped what appeared to be a bombshell: Fort Worth, she said, was going to return the $25 million Urban Circulator Grant it received in July for its Fort Worth Streetc ... More >>

City Expects $2 Mil In Federal Money Will Spur Development Around Four Light-Rail Stations

The Hatcher Station, one of four light-rail stations identified as by the city as a recipient of the feds' grant announced this morning​This morning we've received several press releases from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Transportation announcing ... More >>

HOT or Not: DART Board Mixed on Proposal to Turn Some HOV Lanes Into Toll Roads

​Some time after 6:30 this evening, the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board will approve the $1,256,451,080 FY2011 budget and the Twenty-Year Financial Plan prompted by the sales-tax shortfall -- "The Lost Decade," for those with short-term memory loss. But let's dig deeper into the DART meeting agend ... More >>

In the Loop: A Closer Look at MATA's "Urban Streetcar Track Extension" Downtown

Click to embiggen: DART sends this map of the MATA's downtown loop​Morgan Lyons, Dallas Area Rapid Transit's spokesman, and Jay Kline, DART's streetcar liaison with the city, were kind enough to forward along this map of the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority's "0.65-mile urban streetcar track exte ... More >>

Want a Say in the New Dallas Bike Plan? Then Ride on Over to City Hall on May 27.

​Two months ago we directed your attention to the fact that the North Central Texas Council of Governments and the city of Dallas had hired, at the cost of $375,000, Baltimore-based Toole Design Group to revamp the antiquated Dallas Bike Plan. Toole has developed bicycle master plans for 16 cities ... More >>

So Why Does the City Use Those False Trinity Drawings? It's All About the "Prime Real Estate," Duh.

Sam MertenCarolyn Davis to Jill Jordan: "Just tell it like it is."​Although the city council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee didn't vote on a plan to transform Riverfront Boulevard into a not-really-a-"complete street," committee members voiced support of the $54.5 million project, ... More >>

Downtown Dallas Streetcar Project Takes the TIGER By the Tail to Tune of $23 Million

One of the proposed alignments for streetcars through downtown Dallas. Here's the January City Hall briefing containing all the options.​Sooner than expected, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood announced the 51 projects across the country to receive Transportation Investment Generating Economi ... More >>

Before Dallas Gets New Bike Plan, Bids Will Be Taken and Committees Will Be Formed

On a related note, Bike Friendly Oak Cliff yesterday announced the route for this weekend's Tweed Ride.​Good news for anybody who has ever avoided bicycling in Dallas for fear of the automobile: The city's new bicycle coordinator, who moved here from Virginia, is on your side. Says Max Kalhammer o ... More >>

When It Comes to the Trinity River Project, History Keeps Repeating Itself, Repeating Itself

John W. Carpenter Papers, Special Collections, The University of Texas at Arlington Library,Ben Carpenter, son of John, is the one seen here pointing to a Trinity River canal master plan​Your Trinity River correspondent and advice-to-the-lovelorn columnist, which would be me, had two interesting e ... More >>

From Ithaca, New York, An Apology to the Citizens of Dallas. And, An Explanation.

David YearsleyDuring the weekend, I exchanged a few e-mails with David Yearsley, the Cornell University associate music professor who, as you'll no doubt recall, attacked the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts with all the subtlety of a Longhorn bull mounting a comely heifer. Turns out, more than ... More >>

Richard Allen brings jobs to the black community.That makes him racist?

A Killer F5 Tornado Rips Through Dallas County -- How Ready Are We for this Nightmare Scenario?

Dallas's Council Reps Send Very, Very Mixed Signals Over Int'l Inland Port

I'm working on a new theory of life. I used to think the City of Dallas was obviously the big cheese in the region -- the wheel -- and that all of the little surrounding municipalities were sort of cheese wedges. Maybe I had it wrong. Maybe Dallas has cheese for brains, and all of the communiti ... More >>

What's Commish John Wiley Price's Real Beef With the Inland Port?

Really, About the Trinity Parkway, Don't Hold Your Breath. Not Yet, Anyway.

Sexy Town

Imagine a city with flowing creeks, walkable neighborhoods and greenery. No, not Seattle, dummy.

Warning You Now: A Lot of Math Ahead

Michael Morris, King of the Roads

Fresh Eyes

Basically, it's Coats versus the Manchurian Candidate

Eye Candy

It's overpriced, it's gaudy and we have to put it on a credit card. Yep, that Calatrava bridge says Dallas all over.

Concrete: In the Bad-Air Mix

Puppet Samba

By pulling strings, road hustlers can make the city council dance

Rouging the Corpse

Miller wants to pretty-up a stinker on the Trinity River deal

Idiot's Highway

That toll road they want for the Trinity is a loser

Cash for Trash

The city's new recycling center is up and running, sort of

Big, honking white lies

Want to know the truth about the Trinity River project? Don't ask city staff. They fib.

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