Outdoor Recreation

City Will Add 70 Miles of Bike Lanes by the End of 2014. Beyond that, Things Get Complicated.

The city of Dallas has been criticized at times for the agonizingly slow implementation of its 2011 Dallas Bike Plan. Two years after its adoption, only about 10 percent of the planned 1,127 miles of bike lanes and trails have been been put in place. That would seem to indicate that the city is behi ... More >>

13 Things That Make for the Perfect House Show

The other day I told you about all of the super cool unofficial house shows and day parties that this 35 Denton has to offer. Turns out they don't disappoint. Or, at least the one all-day house show at 1401 Bolivar St. yesterday didn't. It had all of the correct elements for a perfect Denton house s ... More >>

Calatrava "Bridge" No. 2: We're Spending an Extra $7 mil to put Lipstick on a Pig

The Dallas City Council yesterday voted to spend some $7 million of your money to cover the latest cost overruns for the second Calatrava suspension bridge over the Trinity River. The city already had to cheap down the first Calatrava suspension bridge so much that now it's not even a real suspensi ... More >>

Audubon Center, Other Trinity Sites Would Be Better if City Gives Up that Bird-brained Road

A couple of days ago The Dallas Morning News reported that the new Audubon Center, a vaunted jewel in the tiara of the Trinity River project, is sucking wind already, failing to attract the visitors and income the city had hoped for. Being mean to bird-watchers is difficult even for me, but I can ... More >>

Gmail Got Petraeus; You're Next, Mr. All-Caps Commenter Guy

Hey, All-Caps Guy. We need to have a talk. Really. I sometimes poke you with a sharp stick. You poke back. That's what I want. But sometimes when you poke, I wince. Not for me. For you. You know, I hope, that every single thing you say online lives forever on servers. You know, I hope, that you ne ... More >>

Council Gets Specific About New Bike Ordinance

First, let's clear up once and for all the notion that cyclists in Dallas are renegade scofflaws whose disregard for traffic safety endangers the lives of the unfailingly law-abiding drivers everywhere: In the 89 car-on-bike accidents reported in the city so far this year, 58 percent were the fault ... More >>

City Hall Wants to Make It Clear to Drivers: Don't Be a Dick to Cyclists

Just last week, we noted that while those long-delayed bike lanes downtown are great and all, it'll be a long time before Dallas drivers give cyclists their space. Texas motorists tend to feel entitled to the road, which they are loath to share with some spindly, non-motorized conveyance. We learn ... More >>

There are Bike Lanes Downtown, But it Might Take a While for Everyone to Play Nicely

The four, soon-to-be five miles of new bike lanes downtown got the front-page treatment this morning in the Morning News (paywall), and deservedly so. Sure, they're not bike-only lanes, and it's taken the city a lot longer than it should of to paint stripes and little bicycle-man icons on the paveme ... More >>

Ex-Marine Alex Perez Danced with the Devil Six Times Saturday (This Story is Actually About Doughnuts. Crazy, huh?)

This past Saturday, Alex "Moose" Perez danced with the devil at the first annual Hypnotic Donuts, World's Spiciest Donut Eating Contest. The masochist battle started with a plain old glazed doughnut (a teaser), then went on to three subsequent flavors that were increasingly hotter. The fourth and fi ... More >>

Great, Now Dallas Is One Of The Least Fit Cities In The Nation

In addition to being smutty and un-hip, the DFW area is now ranking way down at number 47 on the American College of Sports Medicine's Fitness Index. And the bad news is that unlike some of the other lists we've been bitching about lately (looking at you, perv index) this one is backed up with actu ... More >>

Why the News Took Seven Months to Run its Kern Wildenthal Expose, and Why That's OK

There was a day when I might have come up laughing at the big investigative package in yesterday's Dallas Morning News on University of Texas Southwestern Medical School ex-president Kern Wildenthal and his expense account madness. It's not just that the News "buried the lede," as we say in the ne ... More >>

Where the Sidewalk (and Money) Ends, or: It Won't Be Easy Implemeting Complete Streets

​At the end of last week we glanced at those surveys conducted during those citywide Complete Streets workshops put on by City Hall beginning last fall, input from which will go toward the manual Sustainable Development's hoping to put together before year's end. Some of which, incidentally, will ... More >>

Park and Rec Posts New Pics of That Katy Trail Extension (The New Northaven Trail Too)

In case you wondering about this, says the city: "The trail will continue east next to the ONCOR substation."​Not sure I knew there was going to be a "Northaven Trail" till I drove past the under-construction path beneath the power lines on St. Michaels a few weeks ago. Very nice. Need proof? The ... More >>

Will Occupy Dallas Stay at City Hall? Will Its Case Be Heard in Federal Court? Who Knows!

Photo by Chris Howell​Right now we were supposed to be at the Earle Cabell for a federal hearing over Occupy Dallas's camp-out behind Dallas City Hall. Alas, that was not meant to be: Friday's agreement, which said the Occupiers could occupy City Hall's bathrooms and kept the city from making ... More >>

Experience Lots of Tweed and Small Portions at This Weekend's CliffFest

Bike Friendly Oak CliffRiding to OC for CliffFest.​This Sunday marks a fine opportunity to get a taste of Dallas' best restaurants without slipping into a calorie-induced coma. At the 3rd Annual CliffFest, from noon to 6 in the Bishop Arts District, local restaurants will serve smaller portion ... More >>

That Katy Trail-to-Bishop Arts Trinity Trail is Ready to Go. Now, to Fund and Fix the Streets.

​If, say, during your lunch break this afternoon you were to dip between the Trinity River levees, you would see the trail Jason Roberts first promised back in June -- the one that, when completed, will link Bishop Arts on one side of the river to the Katy Trail on the other side. It's nothing par ... More >>

At Long Last, Texas International Pop Festival In Lewisville to Receive a State Historical Marker

The scene in Lewisville during Labor Day weekend 1969​Longtime Friends of Unfair Park are by now well aware of my lifetime obsession with the Texas International Pop Festival, held during Labor Day weekend in 1969 in a Lewisville field. The roster, put together by, among others, Angus Wynne, was l ... More >>

Browse City's Options For Turning Riverfront Boulevard Into a Complete-Ish Street

Click to embiggen Riverfront Option No. 2, which would reduce it to six lanes for 1.5 miles and add two bike lanes​OK. So. About that Belleview Connector below.The reason it's on the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee's agenda tomorrow is because that bridge -- which, as more than a few Frie ... 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 >>

First, a Better Block. Now, Better Parking.

Courtesy Bike Friendly Oak Cliff​When Cliffdwellers were rating and debating the Bishop/Davis Land Use and Zoning Study, Bike Friendly Oak Cliff had but one significant demand: "allow businesses to supplement the zoning requirements for car parking with bike parking," per this morning's post on BF ... More >>

One Friend of Unfair Park Is Not Pleased At All With One Arts Plaza's No-Bikes-Allowed Policy

​This morning, a Friend of Unfair Park who lives in Austin but has come home for work sends in this disgruntled missive:I usually work and live in Austin. I ride my bike to work there frequently, and I've never once had an issue with a driver. I've worked in Dallas for a couple of weeks, ridden my ... More >>

League of American Bicyclists Says More and More Dallasites Want to Ride Their Bicycles

Click to embiggen the chart that explains the reasons Dallasites hop on a bicycle.​Above, that's another page outta the Dallas Bike Plan online survey to which I referred earlier this week. This one answers the question: "What was the purpose of your last bicycle trip?" And while I'd like to find ... More >>

Well, It Is Cycling Weather: An Early Look at Plans For This Year's Cyclesomatic

​For those who like to plan ahead (or for those of us who need a few weeks to, oh, I dunno, stop smoking and pump up their tires and generally reconsider several other unhealthy life choices), this heads-up: Bike Friendly Oak Cliff this morning released the details for Cyclesomatic 2010, a four-da ... More >>

Bike Plan Meeting Is First SAG Station on Long Haul From Ideas to Implementation

Angela Hunt via PlixiLast night at City Hall, Peter Lagerway debuted the draft version of the new-and-improved Dallas Bike Plan, set to roll in front of council in December​Dallas city officials haven't even begun to grapple with questions of how quickly they can implement the Dallas Bike Plan ... More >>

As 2011 Dallas Bike Plan Site Goes Live, News of a Second Town Hall on September 23

​Every now and then I check to see if the 2011 Dallas Bike Plan website's up and running, because ever since that jam-packed open house in late May it's been little more than a new-site-coming-soon place-holder with a survey. But, sure enough, I clicked over from City Hall's home page this afterno ... More >>

As Cyclesomatic Races Toward the Finish Line with OC Block Party, a Quick Bike Polo Match

Danny Fulgencio​Under improvised lighting and despite thunderheads rolling in from the north, polo players on bicycles commenced to crashing into one another while smacking balls with badly beaten homemade mallets. One of the riders sported a football helmet, wise move. Such was the scene on Tuesd ... More >>

Bid On Charity

Line Up Announced for Austin's 22nd Annual Old Settler's Music Festival

Hubbard's on the Old Settler's bill.A lot of you may be asking yourself--just as I just asked myself--what in hell's name an Old Settler's Music Festival is. But before getting dismissive about anything not called SXSW, you might want to check out the line up for this shindig.Over a four-day period ... More >>

Get Reel in 2009

Bass and bucks are all the talk at the ACC

For the Birds

See Compton's view of White Rock

The Big Heart of Eugene Lockhart

Wabbit Season

The Crystal Method

Friday, April 22, at Seven

Pants on Fire

Looking forward to even more whoppers next year

Don't Blink...

Dining Out joins the fray of come-and-go restaurant publications

Double Wide First Anniversary Party

Sunday, June 27, at Double Wide

Dem Bones

Learning can be a real workout

Scream Machines

Amusement parks insist their rides are safe, but who really knows?

To See the World

Best Scenic Drive

FM 1382 in Southern Dallas County

Best Children's Playground

Mesquite Parks and Recreations Debusk Park/KidsQuest

Best Daytime Picnic

White Rock Lake

Know the Ropes

Indoor rock climbers go over the wall

Blow It

Put the money where your mouth is

Best Place to Jog

White Rock Lake

Best Place to Get Wet

Oak Point Center

Chilled Venus

The fish has landed

Flock Together

Get a "birding briefing" this weekend

Speed Demons

Crusty Demons of Dirt

Events for the week