Woodall Rodgers

Jim, The Mayor Would Like To Speak With You...

Gary Griffith Opens the Books. Has To, Really.

Enquiring Mind

Public, Private -- What's the Dif? It's Eye Candy, Baby!

Transforming One Ugly 1980s Office Building, a Single Floor at a Time

Mr. Mayor, Meet Your Nightmare

Frustrated, fed up, and ready to fight, Laura Miller trades muckraking for a run at City Hall

Look on the bright side

City bureaucrats do in a report on closing Harwood Street for the Nasher garden

Corps of Engineers' Yogi Berra, "This Project Isn't Going to End Until It's Completed."

Courtesy the City of DallasThe Pantanal arriving in Houston with the first shipment of steel for the Margaret Hunt Hill BridgeJudy Schmidt at Dallas City Hall forwards along the following message from Mayor Tom Leppert: Till he hears otherwise, Santiago Calatrava's Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is getti ... More >>

Woodall Rodgers Park Just Got Stimulated

A more recently updated conceptual rendering of the Woodall Rodgers ParkI had intended to watch the Texas Transportation Commission meeting this morning -- it's being Webcast over here, for those so interested -- because among the agenda items for this morning was approving stimulus dough for those ... More >>

Wait, Portland's Jealous of Dallas? Nice.

The Woodall Rodgers deck park, as it more or less oughta look upon completionIn Portland, where a former mayor once toyed with the idea of turning an overpass into a park, one columnist is very jealous that in Dallas, we're actually doing that very thing with the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park. And getti ... More >>

Laura Miller Speaks

The Woodall Rodgers deck park, as it more or less oughta look upon completionIn Portland, where a former mayor once toyed with the idea of turning an overpass into a park, one columnist is very jealous that in Dallas, we're actually doing that very thing with the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park. And getti ... More >>

Tell the Truthiness

The Woodall Rodgers deck park, as it more or less oughta look upon completionIn Portland, where a former mayor once toyed with the idea of turning an overpass into a park, one columnist is very jealous that in Dallas, we're actually doing that very thing with the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park. And getti ... More >>

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.

Old Building, New Lives

How do you help the homeless? Duh, give them a home.

First Things Last

How do you help the homeless? Duh, give them a home.

Flood Blood

Politicians create flooding, not the Bible

Stepford Mayor

Laura Miller's husband orders a shift for City Hall

Uptown Girls and Boys

Take a scenic race along McKinney Avenue

Surf's (Hanging) Up

Take a scenic race along McKinney Avenue

No Later Than October, Harwood Street Will No Longer Drive Over Woodall Rodgers

​While I was at City Hall today, Joanna Singleton sent word that the Texas Department of Transportation has selected Archer Western, which has done work on the rail expansion for Dallas Area Rapid Transit, to handle construction of the $43-million-plus Woodall Rodgers Deck Park. Her press release ... More >>

You Say You Want Some Downtown Dallas Progress Reports? Well, Then, You Got 'Em.

Justin TerveenOur old pal, The Urban Fabric, grabbed this shot of downtown just last night, matter of fact.​I had Karl Zavitkovsky, head of the city's Office of Economic Development, on the phone this afternoon, so I asked him for a couple of updates per several Friends of Unfair Park's requests p ... More >>

As Work Begins on Woodall Rodgers Park, What You Can Expect (Spoiler: Traffic Delays)

​Speaking of downtown parks ...Maybe you've heard: Woodall Rodgers Freeway is about to be a mess from now till ... oh .. lessee here ... "late 2011." That's when the folks in charge of the Woodall Rodgers deck park expect to have the sucker done, with "amenities" following in '12. And so expect co ... More >>

Pulling Up Few More Main Street Garden -- and Downtown Dallas Park -- Details

The Lily Pad cafe and the light-sculpture canopies, part of the Main Street Garden scheduled to open next month​More than a few Friends of Unfair Park have asked privately and in the comments of yesterday's Main Street Garden sneak peek how the city expects to deal with the homeless. So happens, t ... More >>

U.S. Transportation Secretary to Pay Woodall Rodgers Deck Park "Surprise" Visit Monday

Ray LaHood​Schutze clearly has some issues with the Woodall Rodgers deck park, currently under construction. Which is why I am sending him togoing to beg him to attend Monday's site press conference with U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, who just confirmed that he's dropping by the cons ... More >>

We're Guessing the Waterfall on Woodall Rodgers Isn't Part of the Deck Park Plans

Photos by Sam Merten​Word that a contractor working for Atmos exposed a water pipe (which eventually ruptured) at Olive Street and McKinney Avenue was enough to convince me to head over there to chronicle the chaos -- most notably a traffic clusterfuck on the Woodall Rodgers Freeway service ro ... More >>

What Does Elm Place's Closure Mean for Downtown Dallas? Is the City Worried? Well ...

Elm Place​Elm Place's closure, announced this morning, comes as no surprise: A section of George Dahl's 52-story office tower, at Elm and Akard Streets, fell into foreclosure in the early part of '09, and the former First National Bank of Dallas and Bank of America building been shedding tenants f ... More >>

Wow, They Sure Did Fancy Up That Video Sneak Previewing Woodall Rodgers Deck Park

As promised last week, here's the latest "virtual fly-through" of the Woodall Rodgers deck park -- which was playing on a screen outside yesterday's press conference announcing Chase's $3-million donation for The Promenade. Our thanks to Kristen Gray and Joanna Singleton at The Park for shooting it ... More >>

First Look: Naga Thai Kitchen & Bar

All the fashionable people these days wear ballon hats.​Thursday night was the grand opening bash at Naga Thai Kitchen and Bar, and the who's who of Dallas was out in full force for the event in Victory Park. Who are we kidding? We don't know the who's who from the who's not, but there was a r ... More >>

Council Committee Approves New "Prairie Look" For Central Expressway

​Two years after Texas Department of Transportation officials told Dallas that they could no longer afford to cough up the cash needed to maintain the plant life in the medians and window boxes along the stretch of Central Expressway between Woodall Rodgers and LBJ Freeways, the city council's Tra ... More >>

DPD Wants to Know How Baxter Odom's Body Wound Up Beneath Woodall Rodgers Freeway

Baxter Odom​Perhaps you saw the story: At 8 a.m. Monday, a Dallas Area Rapid Transit bus driver noticed a body lying along the Clark Street sidewalk just beneath the overpass where North Central Expressway becomes the Woodall Rodgers Freeway. The body was eventually identified as that of 24-year-o ... More >>

LEGO My Dallas Cityscape

Photos by Harry WilonskyThe American Airlines Center and Victory Park​I did indeed let the boy loose with our in-need-of-replacing Canon PowerShot in the Dallas Cityscapes exhibit at NorthPark Center Saturday. We walked right past it at first -- it's tucked away inside the old Robb & Stucky ne ... More >>

Does This Billboard Look Like It's 100 Feet Away From the Freeway? Didn't Think So.

Photos by Patrick Michels​Yesterday Friend of Unfair Park John M wondered if we had any spare interns who'd be able to snap a photo of the newly installed billboard next to the Woodall Rodgers ramp that dumps into northbound Stemmons Freeway. And when I say "next to," I mean "right on top of," as ... More >>

The City Blames DART For That Woodall Rodgers Billboard. DART Says, "Pardon?"

Patrick Michels​'Bout an hour ago I heard from City Hall about the black hole no wait 2001 monolith whoops Phantom Zone gateway pardon I mean Spinal Tap album cover dang itbillboard hovering but a few feet from the Woodall Rodgers ramp spilling into northbound Stemmons. Per Frank Librio, who says ... More >>

Billboard's So Close to Woodall Rodgers Because Access Ramp Ain't a "Travel Lane." Say What?

Patrick Michels​Don't know what to tell you -- certainly didn't think we'd be into our third item about that Woodall Rodgers billboard. But Frank Librio, the city's spokesman, has, as he promised last night, looked into how it got there; so too Morgan Lyons, Dallas Area Rapid Transit's chief talke ... More >>

Mayor Leppert Wants That Woodall Rodgers Billboard Adiosed. Like, Yesterday.

Patrick MichelsSooner or later, this sucker's gonna be gone. Mayor Tom'll see to it himself.​One week ago today we introduced you to the latest downtown Dallas attraction -- that Clear Channel billboard that damn near touches the Woodall Rodgers exit that dumps into northbound Stemmons. And while ... More >>

After Years of Letting Central Expressway's Green Go Brown, Council's About to Vote on Fix

Texas Freeway​From the in-box, this from one good Friend of Unfair Park: "What the h is going on with the landscaping on Central? Is TxDOT letting everything die? It looks like crap."Good question(s). And I have the answer.First, let's flashback to a meeting of the city council's Transportation an ... More >>

Tomorrow, City Hall to Look at How to Park Food Trucks Downtown (and Elsewhere!)

Perhaps it's but a matter of time before the city finally lets one of America's most-favorite food trucks park downtown.​Nancy Nichols did a bang-up piece in the August issue of D chronicling the myriad reasons mobile restaurateurs have had issues parking their burgeoning parade of food trucks in ... More >>

City Hall's Debate Over the Tax Hike Was About More Than Curtailing City Services.

Perhaps it's but a matter of time before the city finally lets one of America's most-favorite food trucks park downtown.​Nancy Nichols did a bang-up piece in the August issue of D chronicling the myriad reasons mobile restaurateurs have had issues parking their burgeoning parade of food trucks in ... More >>

From High Atop Hunt Oil, A Look at The Park Over Woodall Rodgers Freeway, Which Is Now $9 Million Closer to Being Paid Off

Photos by Patrick MichelsMayor Tom Leppert looks out at construction of The Park moments before stepping in for what may be his last big photo op as mayor.​The Woodall Rogers Deck Park Foundation's still $17 million shy of its fund-raising target, but with construction well under way, the series o ... More >>

Powerful Sports Marketing Agency Concerned Employee Left With Confidential Trade Secrets

​There's no shortage of stories extolling the genius of John Tatum, the 45-year-old who in 1994 co-founded Genesco Sports Enterprises, the Woodall Rodgers-based consulting group that marries the right product with the right athlete, sport or major league. Sports Business Journal noted in '08 that ... More >>

Ron Paul Supporters Prove, Once and For All, That Meetup is Still Good For Something

Honk if you find politically motivated honking sort of annoying.​Driving home last night, I saw a few lonely sign wavers on the north side of Northwest Highway. "Bring our troops home now," the signs urged, and I thought: Hey. That's nice. A totally depoliticized protest of our country's ongoi ... More >>

On Thursday, "Occupy Dallas"

​There's a HuffPo piece this morning about how the pepper-spray-flavored Occupy Wall Street protests moved to the West Coast yesterday -- San Francisco, specifically, and the Bank of America building in the Financial District. Next Thursday, though, they hit a little closer to home. Without Radioh ... More >>

Infowars Host Alex Jones and His Followers Occupy the Dallas Fed Friday

Photos by Stephen A. MaskerAlex Jones amongst fans and followers at Friday evening's "End the Fed" rallyFriday evening, two groups of protesters, Occupy Dallas and Occupy the Federal Reserve, lined opposite side of N. Pearl Street at Woodall Rodgers in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "W ... More >>

Scary for Charity

Photos by Stephen A. MaskerAlex Jones amongst fans and followers at Friday evening's "End the Fed" rallyFriday evening, two groups of protesters, Occupy Dallas and Occupy the Federal Reserve, lined opposite side of N. Pearl Street at Woodall Rodgers in front of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. "W ... More >>

It's Been a While Since Our Last Deck Park Update. But, Many To Come in Coming Days.

The Learning Tree in the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park, as seen in the virtual fly-through​There was a small wingding at Dallas City Hall this afternoon at which it was announced that the Rotary Club of Dallas is kicking in $500,000 for the under-construction Woodall Rodgers Deck Park. For its donatio ... More >>

Woodall Rodgers Deck Park Got Dirty Today

​We were driving over Woodall Rodgers Sunday afternoon when the boy espied what he believed to be bags of dirt sitting on the one-day site of the deck park. "They're gonna need more than that," he opined. But, sure enough: Joanna Singleton said sooner than later just last week, and that's exactly ... More >>

Didn't Take Long at All For Perot Museum of Nature & Science to Make Its (Big, Big) Money

Photo by Anna MerlanApparently, this is how you announce you've raised $185 million a year earlier than expected.​For days we've been promised a major announcement today from the Perot Museum of Nature & Science; as in, said the week's worth of press releases, "a MAJOR announcement" would be m ... More >>

Up East Dallas Without a Paddle

​Very mixed feelings about the city council briefing coming up this morning on proposed East Dallas storm-water projects. On the one hand, my paranoia is confirmed, which is always satisfying. On the other hand, there's not much I can do about it. Yes, just as I thought, my house in East Dall ... More >>

Council Told City Can't Afford Bike Lanes, Which Is Why BFOC's Looking for Donors

From today's briefing on why the city can't afford bike lanes​So much for that Bike Plan briefing. The council's transpo committee didn't have time to get it today, so it's been backbenched for now. Shame too, since Street Services second-in-command Beth Ramirez's pavement markings briefing was so ... More >>