Last month, you’ll no doubt recall, City Manager Mary Suhm told the city council that 2012 bond program, which we’ll vote on in the fall, will be a fraction of a shadow of a hint of its mammoth ’06 predecessor, which appears to be the gift that keeps on giving…
A couple of years back Scott Goldstein wrote quite the flattering profile of Dallas Police Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson — as in, “In a profession that demands toughness, Simpson embodies compassion.” Simpson was former Chief David Kunkle’s right-hand man — the man Kunkle put in charge of the Patrol Division,…
At this very moment Anna’s at the press conference over at Communities Foundation of Texas’s Caruth Haven HQ, where Mayor Mike Rawlings, among others, are poring over the details of the CFT’s latest study, conducted by Corporation for Enterprise Development, which looks at “the scope and scale of financial insecurity…
Back in November the Texas Rangers invited media folk out to the Ballpark in Arlington for a sneak peek at $11.5 million worth of renovations being made out in Vandergriff Plaza, where, among other things, the team’s adding a private-party zone, retooling the kids’ area and building a new bar…
In recent weeks the back-and-forth over Texas’s redistricting and the will-it-won’t-it primary date has turned into a blur of legal briefs and oral arguments; seems that May 29 is the primary date now, so long, Super Tuesday. All of which you’d know if you follow Michael Li: The former Baker…
A little after 2:30 the council got ’round to that Uplift briefing, which was supposed to be about the city’s creating a nonprofit corporation to help the charter school sell tax-free bonds for its expansion into Deep Ellum and Fort Worth. Which, as the council’s been reminded over and over,…
In the wake of the Zoning Board of Adjustment’s vote yesterday not to grant Uplift Education the parking waiver it requested on Elm Street, in the old Baylor offices in Deep Ellum, I spoke with some staffers in Sustainable Development about why they changed their minds. Because initially, city staff…
In one way, shape or form we’ve noted most of what the city council will discuss this afternoon during its briefing. But there’s one briefing we’ve overlooked: Water Conservation and the Land Development Process. This one addresses a familiar subject ’round these parts: the city’s attempt to conserve water during…
In November The News broke the news that Roslyn Carter, the principal at Tom Field Elementary, took teaching to the test a little too far — at least, according to Dallas Independent School District investigators. Acting on anonymous tips, the district says it discovered that Carter told her third-grade science,…
This is absolutely within the purview of Unfair Park’s more musically inclined sibling; my apologies in advance, Audra. But for months I’ve had this song stuck in my head; the same goes (and then some) this morning, following Lady of the Lake Erykah Badu’s appearance on The Late Show with…
It feels like forever ago that we began discussing Uplift Education’s plans to open Laureate Preparatory in Deep Ellum, in the old Baylor offices on Elm Street; but, no, it was only a few weeks ago. And we found out about it, in part, because Uplift had filed with the…
Mark Elfenbein’s known for a good month that Josh Lewin would be taking a spot in the New York Mets’ radio booth this season. His cousin told him. Says the longtime sports-radio fixture known as Elf, he was sitting at a pre-show production meeting ’round the beginning of the year…
Speaking of midways, as we were yesterday, and Valley View Center, as we are, um, frequently? …We were out running a few errands late Sunday when I espied the Ferris wheel presently sitting in the mall parking lot. In recent years it feels like it’s there more often than not,…
I’ve long been a fan of the great Jun Kang, who’s responsible for some of YouPlusDallas’s best offerings. This one is no exception. Justin Ransom, who helped shoot the short you see above, kindly dropped in my inbox this Valentine’s Day offering posted this morning: Just In Time For Love…
Just dialed into Josh & Elf on The Fan (or, as they’re billing it this a.m., “Two Jews and the Flu”) to see if there’d be any mention of this morning’s news out of New York, where Josh Lewin’s been named to the New York Mets’ radio broadcast team. But,…
Edwin Flores said it a couple of weeks back: The Dallas Independent School District has a communications problem. Which is one way of putting it — the nice way of putting it. And so, following months’ worth of dust-ups and screw-ups involving school closures and longer teacher workdays and suspended…
Spent the better part of the morning virtually touring Historic Auto Attractions in Roscoe, Illinois, where, per Roadside America’s rave, “the fireplace mantle on which President Truman signed the order to bomb Hiroshima is only a few feet from a pickup truck used on Sanford and Son” and “Colonel Klink’s…
A Friend of Unfair Park dispatches this look at Addison’s new water tower, which is presently making the rounds on Reddit. And, yes, those are wind turbines on top — 10 total, each eight feet tall, the point of which is to operate the water tower and power the street…
If you’ve got time this afternoon you may want to dial up the meeting of the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee, which will hear from Dallas CityDesign Studio second-in-command David Whitley about “community and economic development” around the river. Not sure how much Whitley’s going to get to talk about…
The latest issue of The New Yorker features the extraordinary telling of a tale with which you’re perhaps quite familiar by now: how doctors gave a man from Fort Worth, Dallas Wiens, a new face. Alas, all that is available for now is the abstract accompanying Raffi Khatchadourian’s story, which…
Below is an audit just dispatched by City Hall, which says that for various reasons Dallas Fire-Rescue isn’t giving some buildings the proper once-over. Among the reasons why not: The forms they use either aren’t complete or consistent, and the department’s practices and procedures aren’t very up-to-date. Which, says auditor…
We’ve had this conversation before. And before that. And before that. Why oh why oh why is Fair Park — “our jewel,” in the words of Dwaine Caraway — so underutilized, so unloved?Daniel Huerta, Fair Park’s exec general manager, and Park and Rec head Paul Dyer, actually came to the…
