Not that you asked, but here’s what it’s like to be me. I’m walking my dogs, Penny and Dorothy, up and down alleys in East Dallas, and I’ve got my little cell phone ear-bug deal going so I can talk to people and keep my hands free for clean-ups. And…

We spoke here last week about a large section of the city near the new University of North Texas campus that has never had city sewer service. Newcomers and people unfamiliar with the city’s southern hemisphere might find it hard to believe, but we have substantial expanses of unimproved ranch…

Odd little contretemps in recent weeks on the pages of our city’s only daily newspaper: On December 4, education writer Matt Haag had a story in the The Dallas Morning News under the headline, “Dallas ISD teachers left at high rate in Superintendent Mike Miles’ first year,” purporting to show…

The Ethan Couch story is a tough one for me, because you know I always like ragging on rich people. And it seems hard to read District Judge Jean Boyd’s sentence any way other than as a get-out-of-jail-free card for a kid whose parents could afford to put him in…

Tuesday I talked to Mayor Mike Rawlings about the car wash on MLK Boulevard that I have written a lot about lately — well, a lot about over the last eight years, as a matter of fact. It’s the one the city recently threatened to take by eminent domain. We…

Segregation. The word itself feels like a tough question on an American history exam. In the year 2013, how in the world could Dallas, the nation’s ninth largest city, have put itself in a picture most Americans probably associate with police dogs snarling at children in black and white newsreels…

Here’s a question about the big initiative to spur development and employment in the city’s heavily poor and minority southern hemisphere. Does it really benefit southern Dallas to redevelop it if before you do so you manage to get all the land out of the hands of the people who…

As the full implications gradually become better known, the federal investigative report released late last month accusing Dallas of segregation will shine a bright national light on the city. One housing policy watcher is already calling the case “Westchester on steroids,” a reference to the last big case like this…

In its own peculiar way, yesterday’s editorial in the city’s only daily newspaper was the perfect expression of the dilemma Dallas faces in choosing a new bureaucrat to run the city: Most of the people who even talk out loud about the topic are afraid to say out loud what…

Hey, I have a reader challenge for you. I need your take on something. A week ago I told you the city sent a letter to the owner of a car wash on MLK telling him it was planning a project and his property “will be needed for the project.”…

A scathing federal report on housing policy in Dallas, unveiled this week after two City Council members demanded copies from the city attorney, has stirred local debate about federal desegregation law. But that debate raises two questions. See also: The Feds Say Dallas City Hall Has Promoted Racial Segregation in…

Last week late one afternoon I had a long chat with Sam Merten, former colleague, now the spokesman for Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, about a letter the city sent to a South Dallas businessman, also a guy I have known for years, threatening to take his business away from him…

Yesterday in its first official response to a federal investigation that found Dallas guilty of misappropriating funds and furthering segregation, Dallas City Hall said the feds were in on the whole thing themselves from the beginning: “It is important to note that HUD has given final approval of all projects…

You own a business and the land it’s on. You get a letter from the city. It says the city needs your property for a project. Stuffed in the same envelope is a little pamphlet explaining how the city can force you to sell even if you don’t want to…

Elected officials and city staff in Dallas colluded over a decade to break federal housing and civil rights laws and promote and worsen racial segregation across the city, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has found, dealing City Hall a scathing, and potentially costly, blow after a…

The Kennedy commemoration is behind us; I have written too much about it. Now I have a confession to make, and I sincerely hope the conspiracy authors and scholars with whom I have been talking over the last year will not take this as a betrayal or a sign of…

So now eight years after this began the city finally shows its hand, and we learn the solution to a very old local riddle: Why in the world eight years ago was the city of Dallas sending armies of cops and code inspectors out to harass two guys who had…

I have a column coming up in this week’s newspaper calling Austin radio personality Alex Jones a “Jeremiah,” which is supposed to be a good thing — that is, a prophet calling to awaken his people from their slumber and corruption. But I admit, it’s a tough swallow, even for…

The only truth-teller Friday was Alex Jones, who said the whole thing was a lie.By now all of the responsible parties are congratulating themselves for the seamless passage of the 50th Kennedy Assassination Anniversary event at Dealey Plaza last Friday and especially for the way the massive security apparatus worked…

1:52 p.m.: Spent the last couple hours freezing my intellect off with Austin provocateur radio host Alex Jones and a gang of about 150 of his “InfoWars” followers who matched to Dealey Plaza chanting “No more lies.” I called ahead to a foreign documentary crew inside the barricades to tell…

Not that the office of district attorney isn’t political anyway. In the old days when the Republican old guard dangled the local district attorney on puppet strings, the office functioned as a kind of collection agency for the well connected. Walk away from a deal with one of those guys,…

Getting pretty stoked, have to admit it, pretty revved up for the 50th Kennedy Assassination Celebration downtown tomorrow. Lots more calls coming in from the curious. Friend called from New Jersey asking if there will be a parade. Had to tell him no, sadly. They were afraid they wouldn’t be…