During our 90-mintute interview with Mike Rawlings at CIC Partners inside Crescent Court for last week’s piece about the mayor’s race, Rawlings repeated a statement about the campaign that he’s made at countless debates: “It’s not about personalities.” We argued the opposite in our story. Since all four candidates agree…
Last week, we revisited the Trinity River toll road and convention center hotel referendums with mayoral candidate Ron Natinsky because, well, there just wasn’t enough space to explain it all in last week’s cover story. Much like we quickly glossed over those issues, there was also a brief mention in…
Repealing verified response quickly rose to the top of Tom Leppert’s to-do list shortly after he become mayor in June 2007. The controversial program required business owners to have someone at the scene of a burglar alarm to verify that a break-in had actually occurred before police would respond. Not…
In our cover story about the mayoral race, perhaps you read the section about council member Ron Natinsky and noticed a glossing over of sorts when it came to his public comments during the contentious 2007 Trinity River toll road referendum. As is often the case, space constraints kept us…
Back in December 2008, we introduced you to foul-mouthed Jonathan Neerman, who had the misfortune of taking over as Dallas County Republican Party chair during a Barack Obama-led Democratic ass-kicking at the polls. One day after the GOP swept local state House races and lost again to the Democrats countywide…
Shortly after city council candidate James Nowlin filed his campaign finance report Friday afternoon, he was beaming about raising $51,000 compared to incumbent Angela Hunt’s $28,700 haul during the reporting period that ended April 4. “Dallas has spoken, and the voters of District 14 have spoken,” he told Unfair Park…
Now that you’ve had time to chew on our analysis of the mayoral candidates’ fund-raising prowess, we thought it was time to take a quick look-see at how the city council races are shaping up. Unfortunately, eight candidates still haven’t filed their campaign finance reports online as of 2 p.m.,…
Former TracyLocke CEO Mike Rawlings easily outpaced the field of mayoral candidates by raising a whopping $1.03 million — nearly three times the combined haul of Ron Natinksy and David Kunkle — during the reporting period that ended April 4. Council member Natinsky reported $239,000 in donations, and ex-Dallas Police…
The group of mayoral hopefuls—the police chief, the politician, the CEO and the long shot—agree on just about everything. Raising taxes is naughty. Natural gas drilling should be allowed only if science proves it’s safe. Neighborhoods are kick-ass, though it’s unclear whether anyone can be found who’s anti-neighborhood. Former Pizza…
The city council by a 13-1 vote this morning approved a $10.7 million contract with architect Santiago Calatrava to design pedestrian and bicycle components for the proposed Margaret McDermott Bridge, but not without strong opposition from council member Angela Hunt. Through a series of questions aimed at Assistant City Manager…
At tomorrow’s meeting, the city council is expected to approve a tax abatement estimated at approximately $1.7 million and an economic grant of $250,000 for Dean Foods. Pete Schenkel, a consultant for Dean who previously served as vice chair of its board, says the nation’s largest dairy producer will proceed…
At the behest of City Manager Mary Suhm, the city council’s Trinity River Corridor Project Committee this morning unanimously approved a revised $8 million contract with architect Santiago Calatrava to redesign the Margaret McDermott Bridge. “We believe it’s a viable, favorable way to go,” Suhm said. Making a rare appearance…
Following Thursday afternoon’s presser celebrating the anticipated approval of a plan to restore the Trinity River levee system’s 100-year flood protection, we asked City Manager Mary Suhm about the progress of the Margaret McDermott Bridge — the second Santiago Calatrava-designed bridge that will replace the current IH-30 bridge. After all,…
It was all smiles and back-slapping this afternoon as the city, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Trinity River Corridor Project partners celebrated the “fantastic news,” according to Mayor Dwaine Caraway: The levees are expected to be repaired by the end of the year, and the cost range of the…
Turns out the Dallas Chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly isn’t the only organization minimizing the mayoral candidacy of Edward Okpa. As we reported Friday, local RNHA chair Jason Villalba originally excluded Okpa from tonight’s debate at Thomas Jefferson High School. He later reconsidered after receiving phone calls from…
In a letter posted this morning to his website, District 2 city council candidate Billy MacLeod urged city and county officials to move the polling location for one of the district’s highest-voting precincts and questioned the appointment of its election judge by the office of his opponent — incumbent Pauline…
In case you haven’t seen the updates to Friday’s item about tomorrow’s mayoral debate at Thomas Jefferson High School, Dallas Chapter of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly chair Jason Villalba late Friday sent out an apology for excluding Edward Okpa from the forum and said Okpa had been extended an…
[Update at 7:34 a.m. Saturday: Okpa has been invited, per a letter Villalba sent to “friends and members” at 10:52 p.m. yesterday. You can read the whole letter after the jump.] [Update at 5:50 p.m.: We just heard from Kunkle, who says our item was the first he’d heard of…
She spoke at former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle’s retirement press conference. She appointed Mike Rawlings to be the city’s homeless czar. She was mayor when Ron Natinsky replaced Sandy Greyson on the city council and served with him for two years. Edward Okpa finished third on the ballot the…
Former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle came out swinging at Tuesday evening’s mayoral debate at the Fairmont Hotel, with most of his barbs aimed at ex-Pizza Hut CEO Mike Rawlings. The two candidates have collectively engaged in what has become a clear battle of public- versus private-sector experience. “This may…
Thanks to the Facebook page Where’s Neumann, we learned this morning that council member Dave Neumann has been a no-show at several candidate forums held this month. The page’s unknown author named recent forums sponsored by LULAC, the NAACP and both the West Kessler and Cedar Vista neighborhood associations, claiming…
If you read our story about the ballot drawing Friday morning for mayoral and city council candidates, you might have noticed the omission of a certain someone from the District 14 race. Chad Lasseter — the guy who slammed Angela Hunt for bailing on Tom Leppert’s adios and aimed to…
