Ross

Aw, Nuts

You Better Work That Pride

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 >>

Meatless Monday at the Arts District Food Trucks: It Helps If You Like Mushrooms

With food truck mania showing no signs of letting up, I figured I'd hit up the Arts District at lunchtime and see if there were any viable options for veggie-friendly eating. A rotating group of trucks cluster on Flora Street between Leonard and Crockett (right across from the Meyerson) every wee ... More >>

The Hunger Games Rages Against Our Stupid Culture and Becomes Part of the Problem

Read, Then Comment On, Dallas Independent School District's New "Improvement Plan"

​Whilst trolling the Dallas ISD's website last night, I noticed that the district has posted its 2012-2013 District Improvement Plan, a 21-page look at all that ails DISD and offers general fix-its to accommodate its myriad needs. And needs there are: The word appears dozens of time over a handful ... More >>

Grading the Graders: Dallas ISD to Begin Testing New Teacher Evaluation System

​For the last few months I've been on my son's school's Site Based Decision Making Committee, as one of the Dad's Club reps, and last week was our first discussion about something that's been a topic of conversation at 3700 Ross for a good long while: the district's in-the-works teacher evaluation ... More >>

Step One Is Admitting You Have a Problem And Other Lessons Learned During Flores's Forum

​In the end, of course, the commenter was right: They took it easy on Edwin Flores last night at E.L. DeGolyer Elementary -- mighty easy. The audience was small, equal parts critics and cheerleaders; the faces, familiar -- Michael MacNaughton, Bill Betzen, one-time school board candidate Kyle Ren ... More >>

Dallas ISD Trustees Closed 11 Schools Last Night, and It Got Ugly Before It Got Done

They argued, they reasoned, they pleaded, they threatened, they chanted, they cried. But in the end, it just didn't matter. It never really did. It's over, and it was never in doubt. Under budget pressure, and after a final, five-hour session, the Dallas Independent School District's board of trust ... More >>

DISD Trustees Don't Want to Close Campuses. But They're Told: They Have No Other Choice.

​Late Thursday afternoon, and only because interim super Alan King had a flight to catch, the Dallas Independent School District trustees finally got around to discussing the 2012-13 budget and consolidating -- which is to say, closing -- those 11 campuses in order to save a guesstimated $11.5 mil ... More >>

What the Flunk: Commission's Report Says Dallas ISD's HR Department Is Basically Useless

​Just returned from a funeral to find the Dallas Independent School District board discussing 21 ways to get better candidates down to 3700 Ross and how to restructure human resources -- which, I know, sounds boring on the surface. But this is the so-called Star Employee Commission's report to the ... More >>

Doing the Math: Your Very First Look at the Dallas ISD's Proposed 2012-'13 Budget

​For several weeks we've known how 3700 Ross intends to deal with a budget shortfall in the coming school year -- by closing schools (guesstimated to save $11.5 million) and jumping kindergarten to fourth-grade teacher-student ratios from 22:1 to 24:1 per classroom (which could result in the loss ... More >>

Dallas ISD Board to Begin Discussing "Potential School Consolidations" Thursday Afternoon

​This story in last week's paper served to remind us of what we've known for months: Sooner than later, the Dallas Independent School District's trustees would begin discussing closing campuses to make up for the second round of budget cuts, a guesstimated $30 million worth, due to hit in the 2012 ... More >>

Grading the Graders: How Dallas ISD Principals Think Teachers Ought to Be Evaluated

Click to enlarge the results of a survey you'll also find after the jump.​Said it yesterday: Many interesting agenda items on the Dallas ISD board's to-do list Thursday. Among them is an update on that teacher evaluation system, of which we've taken note a few times in recent months as trustees sp ... More >>

School Till July 26? Sneak a Peek at Five Calendars DISD's Looking at For Next Year.

Dave Granlund, via​Used to be, you knew school was back in session day after Jerry Lewis was on teevee, teetering in a tux. Now, of course, kiddos report back at the end of August. But how long will that last? Not quite sure: Amongst the many, many, many items of interest on the Dallas Independent ... More >>

Footloose: Still In Step

2011 remake has the moves to bridge generations and capture two demos.

Dallas ISD Offers Detailed Look at Plans to Improve Its Academically Unacceptable Schools

​Speaking of Dallas ISD public hearings ...A few weeks back, in advance of a series of town halls, we sneak-peaked the district's vague suggestions offered to improve its 33 academically unacceptable campuses. But on the board's meetings-and-agenda website, you'll find the so-called School Improve ... More >>

The City Wants You To Take Photos of Streets You Love. And Ones You Can't Effing Stand.

​Yesterday City Hall put out the call: It's now accepting entries in something called the 2011 Dallas Great Streets Visual Essay Contest. Which is ...? Well, long story short, the city wants you to take up to six pictures or shoot a video no longer than two minutes in length featuring a single str ... More >>

"Welcome to the Future of the City of Dallas." Though Ross Could Use a Few More Trees.

Photos by Leslie MinoraJason Roberts took a moment to celebrate the birth of his brainchild, Ross Avenue as a much-improved Better Boulevard.​Yesterday afternoon, the stretch of Ross from North Hawkins to Pavilion temporarily became a pedestrian oasis of sorts as cars slowed into a narrowed t ... More >>

Scenes From a Better Ross Avenue

​Tomorrow, we'll have much more from the Build a Better Boulevard event presently slowing traffic along a stretch of Ross near and into downtown; maybe I'll even let Leslie run the photo she took of me submerged into the dumpster swimming pool parked in Fellowship Church's lot at Ross and Central ... More >>

City: "Build a Better Boulevard" Challenge For Ross Avenue a Preview of Complete Streets

Via.Click to embiggen this sneak peek at what to expect along a stretch of Ross beginning in a few days​"Complete Streets" is a catchphrase that's been rolling 'round Dallas City Hall since at least October 2009, when the council's Transportation and Environment Committee was first introduced to t ... More >>

What Do a Better Ross Ave., Dallas Bike Plan & Complete Streets Have in Common? This Item.

​The photo you see above was taken and sent our way today by, who else, Jason Roberts, for whom I happened to have many questions. So, good timing. As always.First thing's first: That's Three Sheets's double-decker, which will be rolled out at the end of the month as part of that Better Boulevard ... More >>

Jason Roberts and the Better Block'ers Dare You to Build a Better Ross Avenue in Three Days

​One week after turning the front of Dallas City Hall into the Living Plaza, Jason Roberts -- who'll sleep when he's dead -- sends word of yet another project: the 72-Hour Challenge to turn a stretch of Ross Avenue downtown into a complete street. There are some details on the Better Block website ... More >>

"Numbers Become Faces": Hinojosa Talks About Friday's Layoffs And Why "It Could Get Worse"

Superintendent Media Availability (4/29/2011) from Dallas Independent School Dist on Vimeo.As the Dallas Independent School District was sending word Friday that it had just laid off 203 from central administration, and eliminating another 247 presently unfilled positions, Dallas Independent School ... More >>

"North of Ross is the New Downtown."

Craig Hall's Arts District tower, which remains nothing more than a parking garage.​Wuh-oh. Hang on. Looks like you can forget that Downtown Dallas 360 plan. Why? Well, says right here: "North of Ross is the new downtown. South of Ross is a problem." At least, that's what Billinglsey Co. President ... More >>

DISD Board Officially Approves Buyout Offer For At-Will Employees, Beginning This Saturday

​Last week we asked: Will the Dallas Independent School District's board of trustees extend to at-will employees the same buyout deal given teachers a few weeks back in order to trim its budget in the way of the $86-million to $150-million budget shortfall expected over the next two years? To whic ... More >>

Dallas ISD's "Worst-Case Scenario" Not Nearly As Worst-Case As Originally Presented

​When Dallas Independent School District Michael Hinojosa initially told the school board last month about the coming budget cuts that could result in the district laying off 3,100 on-campus full-timers and some 600 at 3700 Ross, he warned that under the so-called "worst-case scenario," the losses ... More >>

In Through Dallas ISD's Out Door

View more videos at: http://www.nbcdfw.com.Above is KXAS-Channel 5's story from last night about teachers who camped out at 3700 Ross last night to sign up at 8 this morning for their up-to-$10,000 buyout; on the other side is WFAA-Channel 8's. In both I see my son's kindergarten, first-grade and a ... More >>

Sonofa ... DISD Says No School Friday

​I brought the boy into the office today. We had no choice -- even he was getting cabin fever, and better Unfair Park HQ than another day staring down his LEGOs. But now this from 3700 Ross:Breaking news: Dallas ISD schools will be closed on Friday, Feb. 4, 2011. Administrative offices will be ope ... More >>

Ice Day Redux: DISD Calls It Early

​This just in from 3700 Ross, via the Facebook:Because of icy road conditions that are not expected to improve overnight, Dallas ISD schools and administrative offices will be closed on Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011.I have not yet told the 7-year-old who lives in my house, who, at this very moment, is d ... More >>

Federal Grand Jury Indicts DPD Senior Corporal Who Headed Dallas Crime Stoppers

Andrea Grimes​That photo you see at top is Dallas Police Department Senior Corporal Theadora Ross, in the middle, being escorted out of DPD HQ yesterday by FBI agents. Andrea was out there Wednesday morning, but at the time, DPD and the feds refused to comment on Ross's arrest. They promised all w ... More >>

On a Barren Stretch of Arts District Street, the Sudden Creation of the Public Square

​Jason Roberts has a few thoughts about how well yesterday's Arts District Better Block-ing went; there's a highlight below. But long story short: It wasn't just about the food trucks (ate from three, only one of which I'd visit again -- and then, just for the salted-melon snow cone) and the crêp ... More >>

"Jurassic Park Comes to Victory Park": Breaking Ground at the Perot Musuem

Photos by Patrick MichelsRoss and Margot Perot enjoy the party alongside museum president Nicole Small.​When the city began work on the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park, they didn't just break ground -- there's no ground there to dig up -- they held a "ground-making" ceremony instead. When they invited g ... More >>

Who Doesn't Have Something at Arts Magnet With Their Name On It?

During today's closed-door meeting of the Dallas Independent School District board, the trustees will tell superintendent Michael Hinojosa whether or not they, ya know, trust the dude. As in: The board will "deliberate the appointment, employment, evaluation, reassignment, duties, discipline, or di ... More >>

DISD's Ghosts of Scandals Past

If history tells us anything, the recent security crackdown at DISD signals doom for its superintendent.

(Un)sound Bites: Southpaw's Organic Cafe, A Left-Handed Compliment

The DISD's Exigency Strategy

The Long Arm of the Law: Constable Jaime Cortes Talks Cesar Chavez

Ross for Mess: How We Got Into This Renaming Thing in the First Place

Ross for Less

Tacos y Mas

Devil Creek

For decades we buried our streams beneath concrete. Now they're baaaack.

Walking on Eggshells

Humpty Dumpty and Visiting Mr. Green find characters heading for big crack-ups

Capsule Reviews

Our critics survey the local art scene

The Kids Aren't Alright

Spun spins cranky youths into an American freak show

White Man's Burden

Spinning Into Butter spreads itself thin over racial prejudice

Across the Great Divide

Visiting Mr. Green asks if we can all just get along

Buzz

Day trippin'

East Dallas day laborers must relocate to a new corner, but doing so might be costly...for them

Hot Dish