Southern Dallas

Why All the White Wanna-Be Mayors Might Be Rooting For a Don Hill Candidacy After All

Of Course

There's Great Hope for Central Dallas Ministries' eMagazine

Larry James, president and CEO of Central Dallas Ministries, sent out an e-mail this morning directing folks to the second issue of CDM's online magazine, which is more or less a compendium of videos, all of them worth a peek. Among the contributions is the story of the great Brent Brown, the UT ... More >>

For Now, At Least, Mayor Leppert Won't Try to Sink the Inland Port

It's over.Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert just cried "Uncle!" in the battle over the Southern Dallas "inland port," an expandable map of which is available at right. Chris Heinbaugh, the mayor's spokesman, confirmed for me by e-mail mere minutes ago reports I heard yesterday afternoon that Leppert was pull ... More >>

Foster's Brook, or: The Dallas County Judge is Smarter Than He Lets On

This should be said: One of the heroes in the otherwise ugly stupid saga of the inland port development in Southern Dallas has been Dallas County Judge Jim Foster.First of all: He figured it out. A very good source close to the county commissioners told me, "He's like a little detective. He's quiet, ... More >>

A Dash of SALT, or: Inside the Infamous Inland Port Proposal

Santa came to my desk a day early. I have been papering City Hall with public-records requests for several weeks, and today, just in time, I finally got the one document I was hoping for: the written proposal to developer Richard Allen from three businessmen who wanted to be his Southern Dallas con ... More >>

Note to News Editorial Board: It's Not a "Conspiracy" When It's the "Truth"

The Dallas Morning News editorial page this morning takes another swipe at The Allen Group, the warehousing and logistics company trying to turn Dallas into a continental shipping hub. As usual, today's offering is an exercise in convoluted insider speak that, if to be understood, requires the trans ... More >>

Best African-American art gallery

Beaujour Galerie Des Beaux Arts

It's Not Like John Wiley Price Has Hidden His Intentions Concerning the Inland Port

The real tragedy of the Inland Port situation is illustrated by the sound file you can listen to at the bottom of this item -- an excerpt from Cheryl Smith's long-running program Reporter's Round Table on KKDA-FM (104.5). If you listen to this carefully, you will discover some important things about ... More >>

Jerry Allen and the Former Dallas City Council ... All-Stars? Sure. Go With That.

Bill Blayes, Alan Walne and Donna Halstead -- The Ex-Council Members out of costume!Few days back we peeked at Carolyn Davis and Dwaine Caraway's what-updates as served up on Dallas Delivers, the city's riotous no-holds-barred talk show served up on Time Warner Cable Channel 16. Alas, some of us don ... More >>

Nyuk-nyuk

To understand the new charter proposal, think Larry, Moe, Curly

Shoe One

...was the FBI. Watch out, City Hall. Shoe Two's comin'.

United They Stand

And the lion shall lie down with the lamb

Best Place to Eat in the Southern Dallas Dining Wasteland

Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen

Doo-doo

Mary Poss sure stepped in some, didn't she?

Miller Behind Closed Doors

She's cooler and more collected than the harpy you saw in those Dunning ads

Mayor Nuke

The bad guys in the Sheetrock drug cases better be up on their game

Fixing the Fixers

Dallas makes slow but steady progress in cleaning up mail-in ballots

A Hole in Every Pot

A city gone shabby yearns for a mayor to put things right

Down the River

Dallas is still using flood control money to scam black people

Absentee Minded

Hey, Mr. Zillionaire Developer, got a big public project you want to sell? Black Dallas has the votes you need--dirt cheap.

Filler

For immediate release

Trinity Toll Road Isn't a White Deal. It's a Bad Deal.

For immediate release

Before the Prayer Vigil, South Dallas Ministers Ask Eric Holder to Review Don Hill's Case

Hey, Don Hill, how many weekdays left till your trial starts, anyway?And the press releases keep coming from the Don Hill camp: Only a few days after inviting us to a Sunday-eve prayer vigil for Don Hill and Sheila Farrington in advance of Monday's start date in the City Hall corruption case, Ken Ca ... More >>

Brian Potashnik Will Appear in Federal Court -- To Testify Against Don Hill (Now, a Live Blog)

Cheryl and Brian PotashnikI'm at the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse waiting for the afternoon session of the City Hall corruption trial to launch. The feds presented their case this morning. The only substantial news was a confirmation that affordable housing developer Brian Potashnik ... More >>

Loose Ends: Layoffs at City Hall, Another Win for History and Blockbuster's Still Bleeding

​A few afternoon follow-ups to some morning items, plus a note from City Hall, where pink slips are going out in advance of tomorrow's scheduled layoffs. (Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm says she's laying off 840, with the hopes of hiring back 500.) Rudy has word about some losses at the Meyerson Sy ... More >>

Zoning Committee Amends Historic Demolition Ordinance: Houses Only, If You Don't Mind.

Back in August 2008, this was among the houses depicted in the council committee briefing regarding the need for a new teardown ordinance.​Speaking of vacant downtown buildings ... When Mayor Tom Leppert unveiled his list of Central Business District buildings that needed to be brought up to code ... More >>

One Day We'll Write a Book About the City and the Bama Pie Building. Till Then, We Wait.

View Larger MapWhen I was talking to First Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans yesterday about the city's decision to deny parking-citation scofflaws their vehicle registration, I also asked him about the old Bama Pie building across from Fair Park. No real reason why, except that three looong years a ... More >>

Remember That MLK Blvd. Business Facade/Revitalization Program? Um. Well.

Flickr user: Cheryl CowardI found this photo of the 1900 block of MLK Boulevard on the MLK Blvd site, maintained by former Dallas Observer writer Rob Walker.​Probably, oh, once every couple of weeks I get a call from a South Dallas shop owner complaining that the city won't turn over some of that ... More >>

Richard Allen Sounds Mighty Cheerful for a Guy in Bankruptcy

Flickr user: Cheryl CowardI found this photo of the 1900 block of MLK Boulevard on the MLK Blvd site, maintained by former Dallas Observer writer Rob Walker.​Probably, oh, once every couple of weeks I get a call from a South Dallas shop owner complaining that the city won't turn over some of that ... More >>

The City's Trying to Make It Easier For Public and Private Dollars to Partner Up

​Trying (but, so far, failing) to get down to Dallas City Hall this morning for the Economic Development Committee meeting this morning; so many interesting items on the agenda. We've covered some, but not all -- like, for instance, this review of the city's public-private partnership program that ... More >>

Something Stinks Near Cadillac Heights, And It's Not the Sewage Plant

​Couple weeks ago I wrote a column about the sudden anomalous enthusiasm of The Dallas Morning News editorial page for getting rid of scrap yards and a dead animal transfer station on Pontiac Street at Cedar Crest, next to the Cadillac Heights neighborhood. The News said they wanted to do it becau ... More >>

How Do You Get Your Constituents To Hate You? Tell Them Their Kids Aren't Very Smart.

Sam Merten​Lot of interesting murmurs going around Southern Dallas the last few days concerning Christy Hoppe and Todd J. Gillman's stories in the The Dallas Morning News about Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Democrat of Dallas, dishing scholarships to her own relatives and the children of he ... More >>

It Took Forever For City To Craft Hands-Off Garden Law. And That's a Good Thing.

Jeanine AttawayA thing of the past? Perhaps. Fingers crossed. Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise.​A hundred years ago, when I was a city desk reporter for the Dallas Times Herald, there was a certain dreaded 4 a.m. phone call I used to get from the late Ernie Makovy, one of the great break ... More >>

At City Hall, the Slow Demise of the Citizens Council? Probably Not. But We Can Dream.

​There's a lot of shape-shifting going on below the media radar at City Hall, a sense that some kind of realignment is in the works. A lot of it has to do with the fraying and maybe dissolution of the traditional Citizens Council/South Dallas Deal. Mayor Tom Leppert has been the standard-bearer fo ... More >>

From the Southern Sector to the Northwest, Walmart Plans $200-Million Dallas Takeover

​There is no shortage of Walmarts in and around Dallas. But City Hall sends word this afternoon: More are a-coming -- "more than a dozen new projects in the city of Dallas," per the release that follows, including three in the southern sector and one across the street from Bachman Lake, as I promi ... More >>

What Remains of Project Pegasus, For Now: Two Bridges. Says Hunt, This is Leppert's "Disaster."

This is the Margaret McDermott signature bridge. And it's not part of TxDOT's plans to replace the I-30 bridge over the Trinity.​To follow up this morning's item on Project Pegasus, which has been all but left for dead on the side of the Mixmaster ...I spoke earlier today with Bill Hale, P.E., the ... More >>

Solid Waste-rs Tell Caraway They Really Don't Want to Be Told Where to Dump Trash

​Last June, we took a look at some moneymaking brainstorms Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm presented to the city council, which Suhm hoped would offset some of the $131-million budget shortfall with which she was faced at the time. Among them was one in particular that didn't get very far, or so it ... More >>

Talking Trash With the City Manager As She Looks At Ways to Generate Additional Revenue

​In a few weeks, Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm will present to the city council some revenue-generating brainstorms she hopes could offset some of this year's $60-million-and-maybe-more budget shortfall. Among her proposals, she tells Unfair Park, will be one familiar to anyone paying attention la ... More >>

Before the Council Talks Trash This Morning ...

​No doubt most of you aren't all that concerned where your garbage gets dumped, so long as it's picked up and hauled off on time. That said, the subject's slowly but surely becoming a hot topic at City Hall, as City Manager Mary Suhm and Sanitation Services Director Mary Nix make their solid-waste ... More >>

What John Wiley Price's Supporters Are Really Saying About How Dallas Operates

​Gromer Jeffers has a pay-walled column in today's Dallas Morning News trying to explain community support for embattled Southern Dallas leader John Wiley Price, now the target of a major FBI investigation for money laundering and other crimes. I respect Jeffers for struggling with a very tough is ... More >>

Sorry, Guys, But Mortgage Subsidies Aren't the Answer in Southern Dallas

​Interesting blow-black -- so muted you might call it whisper-back -- to recent stories and an op-ed piece in The Dallas Morning News extolling so-called economic progress in Southern Dallas. One instance is on the paper's op-ed page today, a column from respected Southern Dallas blogger-jou ... More >>

Talking With the Trashman About Flowetry: Solid Waste Haulers Make New Pitch to City

​First, let me apologize for the headline -- I was listening to Billy Bragg and friends on the way into work this morning, and it could not be helped. Now, then. It's been a whole two days since last we discussed flow control -- I know, right? -- which, as you're well aware, involves the city forc ... More >>

Willis Johnson and JWP: Friends With Benefits, But Can the Feds Prove the Benefits Bogus?

​It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that string. Now everybody's talking about Willis Johnson. But nobody's got the connection. Last week Brett Shipp of Channel 8 reported on contracts between the county and Southern Dallas political consultant Willis Johnson, and over the weekend The Dal ... More >>

City's Now Taking Bids For Transit-Oriented "Area Plans" and "Catalyst Project Concepts"

From A New Paradigm: Strategies for Revitalizing Dallas' Distressed Neighborhoods​In November of '09 we were introduced to St. Louis-based housing developer McCormack Baron Salazar, which was hired by The Real Estate Council to take a long, hard look at potential for development along the DART Gre ... More >>

Dallas NAACP Will Meet With Local EPA Officials to Discuss City's Flow Control Proposal

​Speaking of flow control ...On the other side you'll find a letter that Juanita Wallace, president of the Dallas branch of the NAACP, sent to Environmental Protection Agency Region 6 chief Al Armendariz in which she decries the city's proposal that would force all solid-waste collectors to dump t ... More >>

Pardon, the City Owes the Corps of Engineers $15 Million For Floodway Work?

​The new-look Trinity River Corridor Project Committee meets for the first time this afternoon with two items on its to-review list: Dallas Floodway Extension Repayment Agreement Discussion and Trinity River Corridor Project Overview of Flood Control Components. Shortly after they were posted Frid ... More >>

Council Members Wrestle Over Park Clean-Up, Pothole Fixing and Cleaning Up After TxDOT

Scott Griggs and Jerry Allen at this morning's meeting​A little after 9 this morning, the city council just took up those budget amendments we mentioned Saturday morning. First up was the slam dunk: the en masse suggestion, led by Mayor Mike Rawlings, to eliminate one more city-worker furlough day ... More >>

"Tired of Being Ignored and Insulted," Paul Quinn Students Round Up Powerful and Familiar Faces for City Hall Protest

Photo by Danny HurleyPaul Quinn College President Michael J. Sorrell at the flow-control protest before the council's vote last month​New Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is in for the first serious grassroots challenge to his leadership -- a march on City Hall announced today by a broad-based coalition ... More >>

Central Market to Ask Council For Variance to Sell Beer and Wine Next Door to St. Mark's

The under-construction Central Market in Preston Royal, which used to be a Safeway, by the way. You can see the original walls from the Royal Lane side, matter of fact.​Used to be, a business situated too close to a school, church, hospital or daycare center that wanted to sell booze couldn't, exc ... More >>