Earlier this month the city council’s Housing Committee was told during this briefing the Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs doesn’t have much coin to spare this year when it comes to doling out its Low Income Housing Tax Credits — just $7.6 million total for a region spanning…
Let’s begin with what City Manager Mary Suhm said to wrap up the February 1 council back-and-forth over the recently revived Texas Horse Park: “If y’all don’t want to do this, just tell me.” But, look — it’s not that everyone don’t want a nice equestrian facility along the Trinity…
Shortly before the holidays, Leslie sat in on an Ethics Advisory Commission get-together during which its members stewed in an existential funk, asking themselves such questions as: “”Are we accomplishing what we were created to accomplish?” And: “What does the culture of ethics look like?” And: “How do we define…
Behind the paywall this morning is The News’s exclusive concerning “stealth billionaire” (Band Name Alert™) Kelcy Warren’s purchase of the naming rights for the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park, which henceforth shall be known as Klyde Warren Park — so named for the Energy Transfer Equity CEO and chair’s 9-year-old son…
Contained in the stack of memos sent to the city council late last night was the rare note from Mayor Mike Rawlings. In it, he asks the Fab 14 to make every attempt to attend one of the three committee briefings in coming days during which council members will be…
“When do we get to go home?” Alice Gossett inquired, a little irritably. She wore brown pajamas and soft purple booties. Tiny in her wheelchair, her feet didn’t quite reach the ground. “As soon as we get our treat!” the nurse answered, beaming at her. Gossett was not impressed. “Never…
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…
If you need a new benchmark to measure just how broke you are, try “asset poverty.” Asset-poor households would be unable to survive for three months at the federal poverty level if some crisis caused them to lose their source of income. As Robert mentioned earlier, asset poverty is the…
Council member Delia Jasso is officially disturbed by ERCOT’s charts, particularly the bar graph showing a big gray empty space between the reserve margin we need to make sure the lights stay on during hot summer afternoons and the colored part that indicates how much generation capacity we’ll actually have…
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…
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…
In light of a few things — namely the one-year anniversary of the most widespread rolling blackout in Texas history; the razor-thin reserve margins that left the state teetering on the verge of more rolling blackouts during that hot-as-hell summer; and ERCOT’s assertion that there aren’t enough plants to power…
For months, Mayor Mike Rawlings has made it clear that he’s got his eye on Southern Dallas. This afternoon, as promised, was the first of three public presentations he’ll give on his Southern Dallas Economic Growth Plan, which played to a packed house of bigwigs at the South Side Studios…
The bureaucratic red tape for bike lanes is loosening in Dallas. Well, OK. There’s talk of it loosening. Which, for those who like to want to ride their bicycles, who want to ride them where they like, is better than nothing. At today’s meeting of the city council’s Transportation and…
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…
Below is the charter school briefing the city council was promised last week, but only after the heated discussion punctuated by Mayor Mike Rawlings’s fiery call to expand charters — because, as he said, “freedom is choice, choice creates excellence, and excellence graduates kids.” The purpose of the briefing, of…
Turns out there’s nothing at all random about the day the city chose to debut its Seeds of Change website devoted to Southern Dallas. It comes just three days before Mayor Mike Rawlings unveils his so-called Southern Dallas Economic Growth Plan at Jack Matthews’s movie studio on S. Lamar, which…
And just the other day I was grousing that Dallas City Hall’s yet to plant those long-promised Seeds of Change. But moments ago city spokesman Frank Librio sent word: that “coming soon” is “right now” as City Hall attempts to combat The Dallas Morning News’s 10 Drops in the Bucket…
