Yesterday we took a sneak peek at City Auditor Craig Kinton’s audit that reveals the city’s code of ethics comes up awful short. As in, for starters: It doesn’t explicitly offer whistle-blowers protection. It doesn’t task one City Hall monitor with keeping the city on the up-and-up. Its ethics commission…
Whilst browsing through the YouTube moments ago I stumbled across the video you see above, which was just posted by the TEDx’ers: Jason Roberts on the OU campus talking, at times breathlessly, about how to build a better block on January 27. It’s but the first in a long line…
In the end, the council’s Economic Development Committee didn’t want to talk about economic impact studies or debate the risk of sinking $12 million into a project where its partner fell millions short when it came to raising matching funds. In the end, most of its members wanted to make…
Might as well put my faithful Voice viewing to good use, though no doubt in coming weeks Audra will follow Anthony Evans’s reality-TV travails over on DC9 at Night. But even before the Marvin Gaye-covering Evans was intro’d as a Dallas native last night it was clear who he was:…
Last night, on WFAA, Byron Harris reported: “DART says it doesn’t have enough police to put an officer on every train, but it is trying to place uniformed officers on platforms, where they can be seen.” But then, this morning, this from The Dallas Morning News: “‘Effective today, there’s a…
Back in October 2010 Schutze and I really did spend a good half hour poring over The Official Map of Dallas from 1875, which Heritage Auctions never did did sell off; guess the $1,500 asking price was a bit steep, though I see here you’re still free to make the…
One of the more intriguing council briefings tomorrow will be given by an old friend of Mayor Mike Rawlings: Mike Faenza, president and CEO of the Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance. The title of his PowerPoint isn’t very sexy — “Permanent Supportive Housing Plan” — but contained within is what Faenza…
Earlier this month the city council’s Housing Committee was told during this briefing the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs doesn’t have much coin to spare this year when it comes to doling out its Low Income Housing Tax Credits — just $7.6 million total for a region spanning…
I haven’t been to Paperback Plus’s La Vista location in about, oh, two months or so, when I picked up a copy of Schutze’s book … for Schutze, who collects such things. But a Friend of Unfair Park says it’s gone — has been for two weeks. That’s because the…
Whilst awaiting some return calls on this slow Presidents Day I was flipping through Mike Brooks’s two TicketStock slideshows, taken over the weekend at the Irving Convention Center. Toward the end of the first was this one, featuring Rangers lefty Derek Holland and … I have no idea, really. Had…
Let’s begin with what City Manager Mary Suhm said to wrap up the February 1 council back-and-forth over the recently revived Texas Horse Park: “If y’all don’t want to do this, just tell me.” But, look — it’s not that everyone don’t want a nice equestrian facility along the Trinity…
Shortly before the holidays, Leslie sat in on an Ethics Advisory Commission get-together during which its members stewed in an existential funk, asking themselves such questions as: “”Are we accomplishing what we were created to accomplish?” And: “What does the culture of ethics look like?” And: “How do we define…
A Friend of Unfair Park wondered Saturday afternoon: Is the “unknown teen” named Robert Patterson heard singing “Tell Me How” and “Dear Debbie” on this purchased-this-morning Future Records single none other than the Bobby Patterson? Why, yes, yes it is; just listen to that voice. Said Bobby when I asked…
Behind the paywall this morning is The News’s exclusive concerning “stealth billionaire” (Band Name Alert™) Kelcy Warren’s purchase of the naming rights for the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park, which henceforth shall be known as Klyde Warren Park — so named for the Energy Transfer Equity CEO and chair’s 9-year-old son…
Contained in the stack of memos sent to the city council late last night was the rare note from Mayor Mike Rawlings. In it, he asks the Fab 14 to make every attempt to attend one of the three committee briefings in coming days during which council members will be…
At the risk of turning this into Uplift Park …At long last, peace has been made between Uplift Education and those business operators and property owners in Deep Ellum worried that a charter school in the neighborhood would spell the beginning of its end as an entertainment district. It’s the…
Speaking of the Dallas Independent School District’s doings … No doubt you recall the ugly allegations that came out of Ebby Halliday Elementary School in the fall, stories of abuse and intimidation that resulted in principal Kamalia Cotton going to another campus (Phillis Wheatley Elementary School) while furious parents demanded…
On the other side is a missive I just received from Dallas Independent School District board member Edwin Flores, in which the longtime District 1 trustee announces that he will not seek another term. I asked Flores why not — if, maybe, this had something to do with the furor…
Long before the downtown Omni opened we were treated to a sneak peek of its light show, which folks either think is the right shade of shiny or plain tacky, a debate that becomes especially heated when you add in the new-look Reunion Tower and all the other lite-brites decorating…
Digging through the federal filings this morning I came across this item of some intrigue: TriStar Investors, Inc., v American Tower Corporation, filed yesterday at the Earle Cabell and a surprisingly insightful and riveting read. Neither company’s actually based in Dallas, but their dispute is: TriStar’s claiming that American Tower,…
In May we hopped about this ad-adorned Dallas County Schools bus, one of many so decorated courtesy an ad agency specializing in school-bus advertising (hence the name of its website). As Dallas Independent School District spokesman Jon Dahlander explained at the time, the district contracts with Dallas County Schools to…
I had been contemplating a host of assorted humdrum news items with which to begin this gray Friday when Friend of Unfair Park PeterK dropped in the in-box the photo you see above, taken from an E.W. Kelley stereograph presently up for grabs on eBay for the buy-it-now price of…
