So do we love our cops here in Dallas or what? Will our cops be happy now that we’re about to agree to more pay for them? People who know a few things about police issues in Dallas say the same thing to both questions. Maybe not.
A Dallas school trustee suggests that maybe the public schools should not help seal their own doom by aiding unilateral exclusive gentrification.
Instead of waking up every day dreaming I have a fatal disease, I am going to concentrate on what’s good — and it’s very good — in my own East Dallas neighborhood.
The real challenge isn’t here yet. The real challenge comes four years form now when we really know what he is.
DART, our regional transit agency, is doing us all a big favor by being so useless. If we stare into the mess that is DART long enough, like a shaman stirring a pile of charred dog bones, we can see the pattern that will tell us what we need to…
Last week’s announcement of a $50 million gift to design and build a park along the Trinity River was scary, mainly because it’s possible to do so much damage with that much money. Word of people walking around with that much money in their pockets always puts me in mind…
There is a way of talking about bad things that happen in this city as if those things are irresistible workings of destiny. In truth it’s not destiny. It’s some guys doing some stuff. Last week I got a 1,700-word letter from the mayor’s spokesperson, Scott Goldstein, taking me to…
Based on the evidence of a mayoral media event Monday, somebody already has told a small private organization called The Trinity Trust Foundation that they will be taking the lead role in designing, developing and then running the city’s long-awaited new linear park along the Trinity River. What? In fact,…
Over the last several months a very pointed debate has been forming up behind the scenes over what kind of park the city should build along the Trinity River between the flood control levees downtown. One camp, made up mainly of younger citizens from varied walks of life, would like…
At various points in the election season just ending, each side complained bitterly about the media coverage of the other. During Trump’s good months, his Republican primary opponents and then later the Clinton campaign were convinced the media would never stop lavishing him with free publicity. And of course later…
City officials are ready to jump out of their skins. A series of recent City Hall internal emails, apparently already in the hands of the Justice Department in Washington, show Dallas’ city auditor, Craig Kinton, accusing City Hall of lying to federal officials about millions in unaccounted federal housing funds…
Mayor and allies talk nice but support discrimination when it’s time to vote
Editor: Jim Schutze is away from Unfair Park briefly to work on a cover story for us, but we snared this from his Facebook page because we liked the writing and because we didn’t know four-legged coyotes make it down to Swiss Avenue. Beautiful encounter with a coyote on Swiss…
Figuring out the Slumlord Battle Requires Us to Look Beyond Stereotypes
Khraish H. Khraish, the landlord locked in battle with the city over houses in West Dallas that the city says are substandard, says he met with Mayor Mike Rawlings and City Council Member Monica Alonzo Thursday morning to offer a settlement including the sale of more than 300 properties to…
Dear City Council Members Who Fought For Tougher Rental Housing Standards: It’s not your fault. The mess that Mayor Mike Rawlings has stirred up with landlords and tenants in West Dallas is not the product of the rental housing reform that you passed last month. Nor is it evidence necessarily…
The accusation against Khraish H. Khraish, who with his father owns hundreds of cheap rental houses in South Oak Cliff and West Dallas, is that he’s a slumlord who doesn’t maintain his houses within the requirements of city building codes, subjecting tenants to vicious living conditions. So how is it…
Let’s get real about what’s really going on with the Khraish family, called slumlords by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and WFAA Channel 8 for shutting down 300 low-rent houses in West Dallas and South Oak Cliff. This is a land play. The city has offered no provision, no contingency, no…
The battle for Fair Park is the story of the city right now. It’s a window on what the old leadership doesn’t get, but it also offers us glimpses of a smarter future. And that’s all before we even get started on fixing Fair Park, our sadly decaying 277-acre art…
Hey, I have to hit the pause button here and talk about a topic that has bothered me for years: tax increment finance district or “TIF” funds and property taxes. I am inspired to talk about it by an honest and sincere comment from a guy who wrote yesterday on…
Please note, dear Dallas, there is one place Donald Trump flies straight to with his coattails on fire when he needs an emergency injection of cash. Here. Yikes. His political castle crumbling at his heels, Trump knew there was one spot in this whole nation he could always count on…
Mayor Mike Rawlings called a news conference at City Hall yesterday to take credit for a 14-day restraining order granted by District Judge Ken Molberg to stop the Khraish family and their firm, HMK, from evicting 300 tenants living in low-rent single-family homes in southern and West Dallas. More on…
