While searching for something very unrelated on Flickr moments ago, I stumbled across this collection of 61 photos just posted by a Seattle man named Steve Lundeen. Steve didn’t take these photos of the State Fair of Texas in 1977 — his late father-in-law, Nick DeWolf, did (some from the…
Speaking of the Dallas Police & Fire Pension System, which is investing $200 million in the looooong-in-the-works Museum Tower in the Arts District, I was reminded that way back in ’06, the system made another investment in Tucson, Arizona. As I noted in July of that year, the fund bought…
If you’ll recall it was Bloomberg News, not The Wall Street Journal, that broke the news last week that downtown-based Blockbuster was talking to bondholders about extending the video-rental company $150 million in loans should the debt-ridden company have to file for Chapter 11. But as soon as The Journal’s…
Welcome to Day Three of our continuing coverage of Park and Rec’s proposal to sell, among others, Samuell Farm and Samuell New Hope Park, which will be taken up by the park board at its meeting tomorrow morning at City Hall. (Which Andrea’s covering, thank God.) So far we’ve spoken…
Later today I’ll post at least the first part of my chat with City Manager Mary Suhm about how she plans to gutcut the city’s FY2010-’11 budget, which needs to shed $131 million even after last year’s $180-some-odd-million bloodletting. But here’s a relevant sneak peek related to an item on…
Several Friends of Unfair Park are wondering this morning when Jim’s going to weigh in on the news that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison added to the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2010 two exemptions that will make it easier for the city to build the Trinity River toll road between the levees,…
For as long as I can recall, Brook Partners has been trying to build Museum Tower downtown, in the heart of the Arts District. The real estate developer’s Ross Ave. HQ has long been littered with renderings and mock-ups; a conceptual rendering hovers over the firm’s Web site and has…
When W.W. Samuell left the city of Dallas thousands of acres of park land upon his death in 1937, he left very explicit instructions: “Real estate to the City of Dallas Park Board for park purposes – not to be sold.” Yesterday we broke the news that the Park and…
We’ve got July 12 circled in red on our calendars: That’s when Ron Slovacek goes to trial in U.S. District Judge Barbara M. G. Lynn’s courtroom — making him the way last defendant to be tried in the Dallas City Hall federal corruption case. Hard to believe we’re not done…
This isn’t our first item about Park and Rec’s proposal to sell Samuell Farm and Samuell New Hope Park, and it won’t be the last. I’m waiting to hear from the Texas Attorney General’s Office how it feels about Thursday’s agenda item, given that it was but 14 months ago…
Last night’s episode of The Good Guys, “The Broken Door Theory,” is on the other side for those who missed it — and, says Uncle Barky, quite a few of you most definitely did not tune in. Writes Ed, the shot-here FOX series, which last night featured the Hotel Palomar…
If you were to drive by 4526 Leland Avenue, near the intersection of Hatcher Street and S. Central Expressway, you’d think nothing of it — as you can see, it’s two stories of stucco worth, according to the Dallas Central Appraisal District, a few cents more than $90,000. But tomorrow,…
Today or tomorrow, depending upon when she’s got the time to wrap up our chat, we’ll post the Unfair Park Interview with Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm concerning this year’s $131-million budget cutting that’s more like a gutting following last year’s to-the-bone. So far in our conversations she’s used words…
Three weeks ago, AMC Entertainment Inc. sent word that 15 years after it revolutionized the big-screen business with the 4,960-seat Grand 24 off Stemmons Freeway and W. Northwest Highway, it was leaving the building. Reason: rent dispute with its Kansas City-based landlord Entertainment Properties Trust. One week after that, EPT’s…
Earlier this afternoon I got a call from a phone number beginning with the 903 area code — and, hey, we were just speaking of first thing this morning. Sure enough, the man on the other end identified himself as Eric Foster, who is indeed the gent behind that DFW…
Man, those were good times back in February and March — headin’ down to the George Allen seemingly every other week for a hearing in City of Dallas v. Museum of the American Railroad. But there hasn’t been a court date in a long while, and there may not be…
I just spoke with Willis Winters, assistant director of Park and Rec, about the potential sale of Samuell Farm and how it landed on the board’s agenda this Thursday in the first place. Says Winters, it actually came up when the City Attorney’s Office was asked to prepare docs regarding…
Actually, it’s more or less one key revelation — and we already had an idea what it was anyhow, which is: Houston’s Jim Crane offered more for the Texas Rangers than Chuck Greenberg. And, according to e-mails from Hicks Sports Group’s legal counsel and Major League Baseball made public in…
The latest Newsweek ranking of Best High Schools in the U.S. of A. is out, and, yet again, The School for the Talented and Gifted at the Yvonne A. Ewell Townview Magnet Center is at the very tippy-top. And it’s joined by eight other Dallas schools — though one’s Highland…
The city has spent the better part of six months trying to come up with a proposal that’ll allow neighborhood farmers markets to keep operating without cutting into the city-owned downtown market’s business. The latest proposition goes in front of the city council’s Transportation and Environment Committee this afternoon –…
I expect this won’t be our last item on this subject today, given the years of blood, toil, tears and sweat that have been spilled over Samuell Farm. But just a little more than a year after the city and Texas Attorney General’s Office hashed out an agreement over the…
While I report out some more, um, substantial items, here’s the perfect kick-start to your work week — because, so I hear, everyone love lists. And the DFW Most Powerful — based, so it says, on “thousands of hours of compiling” using “in-depth analysis and [a] proprietary algorithm ranking system”…
