Mark Graham Sam Coats In Friday’s recap of Angela Hunt’s fund-raiser, we mentioned how it felt a little bit like a reunion of the anti-Trinity River toll road gang. Sam Coats, a key part of the TrinityVote team, wasn’t able to make it, but he doesn’t want people thinking he’s…
Sam Merten Willa you sign these? Mike Modano and the missus in Frisco Saturday, during that celeb charity baseball thing. Temperatures hovering around 100 degrees and the slight chance of rain were likely causes for the lackluster attendance at Saturday night’s Reebok Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game. But it didn’t stop…
Alexander Flores Much like an Obama rally, this afternoon’s town hall meeting in Deep Ellum was all about change. And what we all were waiting for was a sneak peek at some of that change, perhaps in the form of, oh, maybe what Beck Ventures is planning to do in…
Esther Weisbrod, with the inspiration for her paper on “The War Over the Trinity.” Almost a year ago to the day, Angela Hunt dropped off 90,000 signatures at City Hall, triggering the Trinity River toll road referendum. And it felt like old times last night as former council members Sandy…
On a cloudy May morning, the 1,700 students of Bryan Adams High School enter the building in different states of haste, some racing to class to beat the 8:35 bell, some loitering with friends unaware of time or space, some openly defiant and bent on being tardy. A metal detector…
Last week, Dallas continued its speedy progress toward completing a deal to build a $500 million, publicly owned convention center hotel when a city council committee selected a developer for the project. But key questions remain unanswered, and the cancellation of a debate on the issue has opponents crying foul…
Conventional thinking: It’s not that we’re obsessed. Just because we ask everyone who comes through the door what they think of the city’s fast-track plan to spend half a billion dollars to get into the hotel business doesn’t mean we don’t have lives. It just means our lives are dull…
Another Tom Leppert photo, another caption-writing contest — winner gets a Walker, Texas Ranger Season 5 boxed set! Mayor Tom Leppert opened today’s council meeting, the last one before the council takes off the month of July, with his first “State of the City Address.” Ironically, the morning open-microphone session,…
After the jump, a detailed look at how and why Matthews Southwest was selected to become the developer for the convention center hotel — including interviews with Assistant City Manager A.C. Gonzalez and Jack Matthews…
The City Hall duo at The Dallas Morning News has been all over Mayor Tom’s proposed changes to the council’s rules of procedure, highlighted by today’s story about some council members’ concerns regarding one of the 18 suggestions, which would remove the morning open-microphone session. Of no surprise to us,…
In this self-portrait, even Angela Hunt’s hard hat is red. Or she’s joined Devo. As we pointed out earlier, a city council committee is looking at spending about $700,000 over 36 months to track sanitation workers with GPS devices. As far as we’re concerned, save the GPS for truants (see…
Ray Garfield As mentioned earlier this morning, the city council’s Economic Development Committee will name the convention center hotel developer today — behind closed doors in executive session, the Dallas way. And, yes, odds are it’ll be Woodbine Development emerging from those closed doors as Your Convention Center Hotel Developer,…
When the Texas Rangers signed Milton Bradley this offseason, I was elated; Richie Whitt, not so much. At the time, I said Bradley could be an interesting trade chip, much like Eric Gagne and Kenny Lofton were last year. And now that Bradley’s having an all-star caliber season — and…
During the Trinity River toll road debate, I signed up for e-mail notifications from the Vote No! campaign so I could find out what Mayor Tom was up to. This landed me on Leppert’s e-mail list, and now I get regular e-mails from “Friends of Tom Leppert” and “Dallas Mayor…
You could always go to this “blog for the Park Cities,” but we might have to charge you first. Park Cities peeps like to keep their distance from Dallasites. This much, we know. But who would have ever guessed that Highland Park would discuss tolling Mockingbird Lane in order to…
The Dallas City Council’s decision to buy land in front of the convention center for $42 million removed the first major obstacle in building a publicly owned hotel. The city now has plenty of room to build Mayor Leppert’s hotel, along with meeting space and other development. Council members Angela…
Among the group of baseball jerseys in my closet — behind Pudge’s and A-Rod’s Rangers ones — there’s an old, unworn Tampa Bay Devil Rays jersey with no name or number on it. When Tampa took Josh Hamilton with the No. 1 overall pick in 1999, I bought the jersey…
The city council had plenty on its plate Wednesday, including replacing Lynn Flint Shaw on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board and a vote on the zoning for the St. Regis Hotel. Also on the agenda: a controversial ordinance to tow uninsured vehicles, which led to more than two hours…
An aerial view of the Dallas Convention Center As expected, the city council voted 12-1 to rubber stamp two items on Wednesday’s briefing agenda, with Angela Hunt in opposition and Mitchell Rasansky and Dr. Elba Garcia recused because of a conflict. This authorized the issuance of $42 million in certificates…
As mentioned in yesterday’s wrap-up of the big convention center hotel vote, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway made a motion to amend the item right after council member Vonciel Hill’s motion to divide it narrowly failed. Caraway proposed changing the date for final approval of the land purchase from…
Opponents of a city plan to publicly fund and own a convention center hotel are talking about—but so far not acting on—a last-ditch option to derail the project: Let voters decide for themselves if they want to invest up to half a billion dollars to become hoteliers. Council members Angela…
By now, you know you’re the proud future owners of a convention center hotel; the only question left to ask is, would you like a happy ending with that in-room massage? Too soon? Then how about a recap of the day’s events, which concluded with 11 council members agreeing to…
