This morning, as expected, Turkish developer Mukemmel “Mike” Sarimsakci sat among city officials in charge of downtown development at a meeting table flanked by colorful posters representing the future of 1401 Elm, the 1.3-million-square-foot office building that’s been vacant since January of 2010. The developer’s contract to purchase the property…
Speaking of mass transit …Today the Regional Transportation Council of the North Central Texas Council of Governments met with the local citizenry at a public meeting at the pleasantly named Center for Community Cooperation on Live Oak. Much of the conversation picked up where Robert’s chat with Dallas Area Rapid…
This morning, Charles Allen, who runs Trinity River Expeditions, pulled his white 15-passenger van into the parking of the Sylvan Avenue boat ramp, positioning the bulky vehicle so he could easily move the neat stack of green canoes towed in back a little closer to the water’s edge — a…
Yesterday afternoon, the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce hosted what was essentially a baby shower for the nascent neighborhood on the other side of Dallas’s ballyhooed architectural statement, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. The luncheon at Salon Las Americas — across Fort Worth Avenue from Smoke, which catered the affair…
With a bright blue Frisbee on his head and a blow-up ball hanging from his lips by its mouthpiece, 9-year-old Emanuel spins around in circles so fast, his new camouflage backpack lifts from his body like a parachute at the moment of landing. Today is his birthday, but it feels…
Like any father trying to stay ahead of his responsibilities, Don Hardge faced plenty of tension-filled, fist-pounding days as he juggled family, work and social commitments. Life as an Oak Cliff drug dealer and gang member was muddled with fights, drug deals and crack-addled customers to confront. At 18, Hardge…
In the end, council members Delia Jasso, Dwaine Caraway and Scott Griggs skipped Mayor Mike’s shindig to sit amongst the public at last night’s hearing in front of the city’s gas drilling task force. And they were surrounded: The council members were joined by about 100 people who addressed many…
After much talk about his civil liberties and all the spiritual good his clubs were offering young adults and couples, Wyakie Glenn Hudson, who operated DarkSide and The Playground, agreed to shut down both locations. His approach was significantly softened as he addressed reporters outside this morning’s hearing at the…
My Exposition Park apartment has an urbanely picturesque view of David’s Garage, an auto repair shop whose gated parking lot has recently been packed with cars like the screen of a Tetris game. As I make my coffee, I’ll notice the garage doors roll open, and sometimes, when I go…
Hundreds of former Dallas Independent School District teachers flocked to Harold Wendell Lang Sr. Middle School late yesterday. They were hoping to find new jobs after being told earlier this week that they were caught at the fault line of a shifting, budget-tightening rearrangement. The school’s parking lot was packed…
Today, the day I happen to wear black skinny jeans, leather ankle boots, and um, bowling socks from Brooklyn Bowl (seriously), I come across a video in which NYU hipsters mock NYU hipsters — yes, the cultural phenomenon has become that evolved. It’s the nexis of the universe or something…
The city’s gas drilling task force slurped down a hearty helping of alphabet soup last night, with visits from representatives of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), the TCEQ (Texas Commission on Environmental Quality) and the RRC (the Railroad Commission of Texas), all of whom provided a breakdown of the regulatory…
Greg McEvilly and his co-workers typically hold their meetings tethered to branches, poles or anything they can find that will support their body weight. They do it because they don’t have an office, but also because they hope you and your friends or family or coworkers will one day be…
According to the Dallas City Attorney’s Office, a self-proclaimed church near Northwest Highway and Webb Chapel Road is anything but. Says a complaint filed today in advance of a late-afternoon hearing, whatever Glen Hudson says he’s operating at 3027 W. Northwest Highway, not far from where all those Bachman Lake-area…
Tuesday, Dallas gas drilling task force members — and city council members Angela Hunt, Linda Koop and, but of course, Sheffie Kadane — poured out of two white 15-passenger vans and into the 100-degree heat at XTO and Chesapeake natural gas sites in various stages of production throughout Arlington. Mayor…
This afternoon, the Dallas City Council-approved gas drilling task force will take a field trip out to where gas wells are more abundant than Tex-Mex joints and compressor stations roar as though ready to blast off. That place is Arlington. The band of day-trippers leaves from Dallas City Hall at…
When breasts are compared to cantaloupes, it’s usually a stretch of a metaphor. I mean c’mon, most are peaches … mangos, at best. Not so at Gay Bingo, where one of the night’s hostesses, Jenna Skyy, is so well endowed up top that a shimmy of the shoulders leaves the…
Shortly after the release of that Fort Worth air study, three reps from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality took a bit of a verbal beating last night from locals who told them, over and over and over again, that their agency is not sufficiently protecting the state’s air quality,…
The much-anticipated Fort Worth Natural Gas Air Quality Study, a major million-dollar undertaking to determine the air quality effects of natural gas drilling, was released toward day’s end yesterday and indicates there’s no need to get your gas masks out just yet — for the most part. The study, conducted…
Earlier this year, state Rep. Marva Beck looked up at the elegant light fixtures above the House floor in Austin and decided they would be ruined by “squiggly” energy-efficient bulbs. So she delved into the bulb issue and co-authored a bill, recently signed into law by Governor Rick Perry, that…
Today’s first meeting of the city’s gas drilling task force meeting played out like the pilot episode of a new TV series: It laid out the basic plot line without giving away too much. Which is to say it opened with an introduction of the nine task force members, as…
About 40 homeless people descended on Main Street Garden this morning, beginning just a little before 6. They congregated on the patio of the Lily Pad Cafe; as far as we could tell there were no “bums” in the crowd. These people were midway through their morning run. The group…
