Moments ago, Assistant City Manager A.C. Gonzalez announced a GMP (Guaranteed Maximum Price) for the convention center hotel of $356 million to the council’s Economic Development Committee, which will be voted on by the full council in January, along with a final development agreement with Matthews Southwest. This number represents…
Every so often for about the past month or two, someone will whisper to me in hushed conspiratorial tones, “So, did you hear? That Deep Ellum deal is dead.” Then, they will slink back into the shadows, no doubt to giggle their told-ya-so’s into someone else’s ear. Because, frankly, for…
This morning at City Hall, some three dozen urban planners, architects and city officials gathered on the fourth floor to begin discussing precisely how to turn a dollar-a-spot parking lot behind City Hall into a self-sustaining community. (That’s the site above.) Meaning: How, precisely, can you turn an barren spot…
Vern Lundquist: ” … caught! … Touchdown!! … DROPPED!!!” With Cowboys-Steelers always comes Jackie Smith.We’ll never forget. Are we ready to forgive? – Richie Whitt…
This just in: The wimpy, senstive, ridiculous, irrelevant National Hockey League has suspended Dallas Stars’ winger Sean Avery six games for telling the truth. Do you think the punishment fits the crime? Do you give a damn? – Richie Whitt…
In case you missed it, Wednesday’s long city council meeting packed plenty of punch, highlighted by the morning open-microphone session and the late afternoon briefing about the smoking ban. After neglecting her blog for almost two months, Angela Hunt has pulled off a blogging trifeca (and I hear others are…
Bill Holston, good Friend of Unfair Park, asks us this morning to make mention of tomorrow’s memorial service for the Rev. Kathleen Baskin-Ball, whose battle with cancer was documented in The Dallas Morning News only a few days before her death on Tuesday. In both pieces, the 50-year-old Baskin-Ball was…
Editor’s note: As noted earlier, Avi Adelman reports from today’s hearing concerning Lone Star Auto Services’ towing license.Lone Star Auto Services’ Permit License and Appeals Board hearing started at 10:30 this morning, at City Hall, and you knew it was going to be a long day when an assistant city…
Mark Graham Haseeb Chishty On Tuesday night, Farhat Chishty got the news: The U.S. Department of Justice, after months of investigating, had completed a scathing report on the Texas State Schools for the disabled and was threatening to sue the state for violating residents’ constitutional rights. Chishty, whose crusade to…
Texas State Board of Education member Mavis Knight, a Democrat whose District 13 includes part of Dallas and Tarrant Counties, had no idea till reached by Unfair Park this afternoon that her fellow board member Cynthia Dunbar has published a book. But, sure enough, there it is on Amazon: One…
The Dallas Center for the Performing Arts has a new CEO, Mark Nerenhausen, formerly president and CEO of the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, where he worked for 10 years. As announced earlier today, Nerenhausen will start the job here in March, six months before the…
The U.S. Attorney’s Office just sent word: Arturo Tinoco is going to federal prison for a long, long time — 19 years and then some. Why? Because twice in the span of seven months, the 29-year-old was stopped by Dallas police, who, both times, found a whole bunch of methamphetamine…
Not saying Sean Avery isn’t an asshole. Or a horrible teammate. Or, for that matter, a room-wrecker the Dallas Stars should consider dumping.I’m just saying he shouldn’t have been suspended – or worse, pending this afternoon’s meeting with NHL poobah Gary Bettman in New York – merely for his “sloppy…
So, yesterday this old photo of Odell McDuffy and Sam Stillman selling newspapers on a Dallas street corner (circa 1913) showed up on Shorpy, which highlights daily several beautimous old photos stored in the Library of Congress’s archives. One mouse click later, and yesterday had turned into today as I…
I hear we’ve matriculated from MySpace to Facebook, right?Well, screw me. I never got around to creating a MySpace page. Was reminded why today.Don’t tell the teens and the ‘tweens – or my wife – but something about the whole deal strikes as, um, ridiculously fraudulent.Like, for example, the fact…
So, that Lone Star Auto Services hearing in front of the Permit and License Appeal Board down at City Hall got a late start — 10:30, more or less. And it’s expected to last a good hunk of the day. But, fret not, we’ve got a special Unfair Park correspondent…
What you see at top are three sculptures installed over the weekend in front of the new Fire Station No. 35 near the Marsh-Walnut Hill intersection, which officially opened this week and replaces its 55-year-old counterpart across the street. As I drive by this miniature Stonehenge twice a day, I…
A brief follow to yesterday’s item concerning the Fort Worth playwright suing Tyler Perry over Diary of a Mad Black Woman out in Marshall — chiefly, because Perry testified yesterday and reiterated his claim that he didn’t lift a single word from Donna West. Recounts the Associated Press: “‘I never…
After nearly three hours of discussion, the city council wrapped up yesterday’s briefing on the proposed strengthened smoking ordinance seemingly prepared to vote on the item at next week’s agenda meeting. Council members appear poised to approve a ban on smoking in bars, pool halls and within 15 feet of…
‘Scuse the mess, but this morning I’m rummaging through my closet looking for some stuff for an upcoming Observer cover story I’m working on.But, instead, I found junk. Lots and lots of junk. It’s official, I’m a pack rat. All contained within one spare-bedroom closet. But it’s there. All packy…
MediaBistro’s TVNewser is reporting this morning that NBC Universal is set to lay off some 500 employees — including folks who work in NBC News’ Dallas bureau. The network’s been shuttering bureaus since the summer; Paris was the first to go, back in August. And in September, word was NBC…
The things you learn by peeking at the Permit and License Appeal Board meeting agenda set for this morning’s hoedown. For instance, Jose Rodriguez will be down at City Hall this morning appealing the city’s decision to deny him a late-hours dance-hall permit for the San Luis Night Club, which…
