By now construction crews were supposed to have hung several Calatrava cables, or what Schutze calls “Margaret Hunt Hill’s Gee Strings.” But wind gusts in recent weeks have grounded construction workers; hence, but the two at present. And so it falls to Chris Heinbaugh to finish the task: During yesterday’s…
Mike Rawlings called this evening to discuss, sort of, those ads in which Mayor Dwaine Caraway blasts the mayoral candidate as the “Payday Loan King,” a reference to Rawlings’s six-year stint on the board of directors of Ace Cash Express — the very sort of high-interest, short-term lender that local…
I was cleaning out the office last weekend and came across my copy of the 166-page indictment that eventually led a parade of people to the Earle Cabell thanks to that low-income housing development corruption case at Dallas City Hall. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I…
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…
Moments ago, during Robert Ashley’s show on KHVN-AM, an ad ran attacking mayoral candidate Mike Rawlings and his ties to Ace Cash Express — though it never mentions Rawlings by name. The speaker: none other than Dallas Mayor Dwaine Caraway, who is supporting legislative efforts to exclude payday lenders as…
On Monday the city council’s Transportation and Environment Committee will devote its entire meeting to the subject of streetcars. In fact, there’s a field trip involved, as council members will bus out to Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s Northwest Rail Operating Facility to once again get a good look at that…
The four candidates for Dallas mayor took the stage at the Nasher Sculpture Center last night for what had to be the most relaxing forum of campaign season: a debate on the role of arts and culture in Dallas.Get this: They all love the arts. Mike Rawlings once wanted to…
My copy of William H. Whyte’s 1988 book City: Rediscovering the Center arrived today, and right there, on Page 123, The Organization Man writes of his attempt to redesign Dallas City Hall Plaza by sinking chairs in the sea of concrete:The building was striking, but the plaza was near empty…
Welcome back to City Hall, where the council’s settling back into their seats in the briefing room after a much-needed break for lunch. Word was that the council was going to treat us to its gas drilling update in the morning — but after taking an extra-long executive session to…
Speaking of Dallas mayors-turned-U.S. Senate candidates …Tom Leppert just sent word that a new website launched today: Pastors for Leppert, which includes not only endorsements from religious leaders but also “Tom’s Statement of Faith.” Writes Not Mayor Tom on his Facebook page:I am truly humbled by the support I’ve received…
USA Today’s Richard Wolf attended this morning’s Third Way breakfast, where former Dallas Mayor-turned-U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk insisted the demographic shift in Texas over the last decade — where 38 percent of the population is now Hispanic, 12 percent African-American — has paved the way for a Democratic victory…
It’s The Big Day today for gas drilling activists here at City Hall, and as Robert mentioned yesterday, the environmentalist set kicked off the party by joining up with the local NAACP chapter to take a tougher look at gas drilling and compressed natural gas. The “historic alliance” makes a…
At the end of February, city and council officials explained Dallas’s meager 0.8 percent population growth over the last decade thusly: “The third-largest city in Texas is simply built out.” Which lead police chief-turned-mayoral candidate David Kunkle to wonder whether it wasn’t time to re-brand Big D as the “‘donut…
Over here you’ll find the highlights from last night’s mayoral debate held in front of dozens on the SMU campus; KTVT-Channel 11 was kind enough to cut it up into little pieces, lest we choke on the whole thing. But let’s begin the morning at the end of affair –…
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…
While package stores keep on feeling the “significant impact” of the election that opened up beer and wine sales citywide, lawyers for the city are one step closer to beating back that legal challenge over the petitions that got the issue on the ballot back in November. Today at the…
As Patrick mentioned yesterday, the city council will at long last debate that gas-drilling task force Angela Hunt pitched only after Dave Neumann promised but failed to deliver his own proposal. In advance of The Big Day, several groups — Downwinders at Risk, Dallas Area Residents for Responsible Drilling, You…
Yesterday on the City Hall Blog, Rudy Bush noted that Love Field concessionaire Gilbert Aranza has sued the city in an effort to halt its efforts to find new food-and-beverage and retail concessionaires. As we noted last month, the city recently opened up the bidding process, and Aranza, who’d wanted…
Mayoral Mike Rawlings just posted to his campaign website his Southern Sector Development Plan, which kicks off by ID’ing what the former Pizza Hut CEO and Park Board president refers to as “key beachheads”: Bishop Arts & Jefferson Avenue, Pinnacle Park/Mountain Creek, Lancaster Kiest Transportation Corridor, Paul Quinn/UNT Dallas Education…
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…
At long last, the Dallas City Council’s set to tackle the subject: What to do about allowing natural-gas drilling on city property. According to a presentation prepared by city staff for Wednesday’s briefing, the council can choose from one of the following options: form a task force, hire a consultant…
More than three years ago, some residents living in the Disney Streets in Northwest Dallas proposed turning the neighborhood into a Conservation District in an effort to protect some of its mid-century marvels. But as former City Plan Commissioner and Northwest Dallas lifer Robert Ekblad told Unfair Park back in…
