City Hall’s Kennedy Conspiracy

And they say Dallas has no focal point, no Central Park or Trafalgar Square. On this bright jewel of a Saturday in early April 2011, Dealey Plaza at the western entrance to downtown is the city’s beating heart. President John F. Kennedy, his wife Jackie, Governor John Connally and his…

Tom Leppert May Forget His Past. We Don’t.

Did anybody else have a serious gag reflex reading our former mayor’s what-a-good-boy-am-I essay on the op-ed page of The Dallas Morning News yesterday? Does Tom Leppert just assume people don’t remember a single thing about him? Or does he not remember a single thing about himself? His op-ed piece…

Challenging the Business-Growth Gospel

What is this crap about the importance of attracting more businesses to the city? They throw it out like a line from the Bible or something — especially mayoral candidates Mike Rawlings and Ron Natinsky. Got to “grow that tax base.” Only way we can grow that tax base is…

What’s Wrong with DART? The Suburbs.

No, no, no — not that same old crap again about how we need to get more suburbs to join Dallas Area Rapid Transit, our regional rail system. The suburbs are what’s wrong with DART. Screw the suburbs. Dallas needs to quit DART and let the suburbs go build their…

Not Even The News Can Endorse Neumann

The Dallas Morning News has just endorsed attorney Scott Griggs over incumbent District 3 council member Dave Neumann in the May election. If Neumann were a high school quarterback, this would be like his parents going across the field and cheering for the other team. Switching metaphors, for years Neumann…

How Texas Got Fracked Over By Gas Drillers

We added insult to injury a long time ago in this whole business of fracking in Dallas — you know, the kind of natural gas drilling where they blow up underground rocks in a geological formation called the Barnett Shale, releasing trapped gas. Now, if you don’t mind, I need…

A Former Public Transit Whore Gets Religion

I used to be such a mass transit whore. I had this post-’60s idea that cars and highways are bad, which they are, so that must mean trains are good. I examine that reasoning now, and I think, “So if smoking crack is bad, does that mean meth is good?”…

Look Out, Motor City. Here Comes Big D.

Really interesting story in yesterday’s New York Times about my hometown, Detroit, where the population is now half what it was when I bailed in the late 1970s. It seems Detroit is now on the cutting edge of the “shrinking cities” movement, and I wonder if Detroit may have valuable…

We Need a Mayor Who’ll Cut Up City Hall’s Credit Card.

Honest question. Are you even aware there is a race going on now for mayor of Dallas? Honest answers only, please. It’s OK. Especially in the early phase, the mayoral election is a boring thing. I don’t expect you to be on the edges of your seats clicking updates every…

Why Should You Pay for Park Cities Dowagers’ Trinity Baubles?

Check me on this. In an atmosphere of federal, state, county and city funding crises, where we may even see the defunding of federal health care reform, the gutting of the Environmental Protection Agency, an absolute decimation of support for public schools and impoverished children, drastic cuts in Medicaid and…