Seems like only seven months ago, give or take, that we were told of developer Shawn Todd’s plans to restore the built-in-’30 U.S. Post Office and Courthouse at 400 N. Ervay, easily one of downtown’s brightest jewels. Said the announcement, which was hailed by politicians and preservationists, Todd would convert…
Among the 38 let go from the Dallas Morning News yesterday was Lee Hancock, who said her goodbyes on the DMNCuts website: “I am grateful for the fun it’s mostly been. I hope for better, happier days for all who remain.” It wasn’t so long ago that the newspaper ran…
As many Friends of Unfair Park have reminded me in recent days, it’s been well past six weeks since I posted this. Which is why every day I get at least one reminder that reads something like the one that arrived this morning: “Call Rasansky!” All right, settle down.I left…
All day long the emails have come in, each wondering when we’ll note the layoffs currently taking place at The Dallas Morning News. Says here that 38 employees have been given their pink slips and this severance agreement intended to fend off age discrimination lawsuits like the one filed following…
Those words come from Clark Hunt, who, on the soccer club’s website, pays homage to the 35-year-old Dallas Burn first-round draft pick who would become as synonymous as soccer in Dallas as Kyle Rote Jr. and Kenny Cooper, junior and senior. Bobby Rhine played for the Burn, then FC Dallas,…
We always suspected that former Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher and Jim Schutze were the same person. For proof, we look no further than the Crunchy Con’s freshly minted post on The American Conservative’s website, in which he explains his pending move to the country (he’s still at the…
At this late date there should be no need to explain why Texas Rangers broadcaster Eric Nadel is a local treasure; he’s as much a part of summer ’round these parts as 85-degree lows. I just went back and listened to his final-out call from October 12 — it still…
Got home from the airport last night just in time to see Channel 8’s piece on how Dallas PD and the FBI are prepping for the 10th anniversary of September 11. Would have been home a little sooner, but, ya know, I stopped by a Northwest Highway construction site. Oh…
The Zoo Tapes: An interactive serial by John Rody | Episode 1 from John Rody on Vimeo.I just discovered, via the wonders of Vimeo, the “trailer” you see above for something called The Zoo Tapes posted by none other than The Great John Rody — one half of LaBella and…
Early this morning, a Friend of Unfair Park tipped us to this Dangerous Minds interview with Freya Bardell, one of the principals in Los Angeles-based eco-art collective Greenmeme. For the past six years, Bardell and Brian Howe have been dropping into the Los Angeles River art installations known as River…
Looks like this is the last we’ll write of Chad Lacerte and his Dallas Watersports Complex, once slated to become a West Dallas destination on Fish Trap Lake till the Dallas Housing Authority stepped in and drowned the deal last summer. Lacerte’s already said he’s taking his wakeboarding operation to…
True to his word, Jason Roberts just posted to Better Block more info about his plans for a trail connecting the Katy Trail to the Bishop Arts District, which we first mentioned in late June. But, of course, Roberts isn’t doing this alone: It’s a massive operation involving, among others,…
About a month back we espied the winning entries in the CityDesign Studio’s competition intended to find someone to artistically hide that Oncor power station at the western foot of the Margaret Hunt Hill lest those headed to Ray’s come spring find it unpalatable. (Keeping in mind, of course, that…
Seven months ago was when we got our last comment on this item about Rebecca Miller’s post-Channel 5 cake-makin’ plans following her unceremonious dismissal from the NBC owned-and-operated — and it ran in March of ’08. Of course, can still be seen delivering the weather on local TV — as…
Observer’er Daniel Rodrigue espied this offering on Craigslist: “kennedy assassination morning news printing plate.” Then, he asked, “Shouldn’t this be in a museum or something?” Sure, along with most everything Heritage auctions. That’s the way historic artifacts go. Still, curious, I called the owner to ask about their provenance. The…
A couple of months back we mentioned Jason Roberts’s plan to connect North Oak Cliff with the southernmost tip of the Katy Trail via a nine-mile trail along and across the Trinity River — one he’d hoped to have wrapped within 90 days. And, lookie here, says the Better Blocker:…
Found this on Vimeo: a nice Nike ad starring a chatty Dirk Nowitzki shot in Würzberg, Germany, his hometown. Hence, perhaps, the stroll down Memory Lane … to the tennis courts, scene of his earliest victories. Ah — this is the same spot Jeff Caplan mentioned this morning on ESPNDallas,…
Drove by Davy Crockett two weeks ago and espied the still-up sign noting that the Dallas ISD was taking bids on the city-designated historic landmark, which turns 108 this year and was the oldest school in use when the district shuttered it in January 1989. We’ve written about the property…
I like that camo draping those wooden picnic tables on the site of the former Alamo Plaza Hotel Courts at Sylvan and Fort Worth Avenue — very M*A*S*H. In recent months, of course, that’s been the site of the Cox Farms outdoor market, a sorta sneak peek at what’s to…
More than 450 current and former property owners at a Lake Whitney residential golf community, including dozens of locals, are suing Dallas-based developer Double Diamond, Inc., claiming they were charged exorbitant fees by a puppet property owners’ association that funneled the proceeds directly to the company. In some cases, the…
Driving through downtown earlier this week I couldn’t help but notice: First Baptist Dallas is erecting its new downtown campus with remarkable speed. Seems like only yesterday Tom Leppert, Mark Lovvorn and Robert Jeffress were pressin’ The Big Red Button. But according to this nicely done look-see just posted to…
A few days ago I was offered at a rather reasonable price a small but estimable stash of local relics, dating as far back as a thick, musty scrapbook of 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition newspaper clippings that belonged to Otto Herald, its general manager. (We’ll get to that, oh, next…
