Welcome to City Hall, where nothing seems to have changed too drastically since Mayor Dwaine Caraway took the reins over the weekend. Any doubts you might have had should be assuaged by item number one on this afternoon’s agenda at the Transportation and Environment Committee briefing, where, as Robert told…
Patrick’s liveblogging this afternoon’s meeting of the council’s Transportation and Environment Committee, whose agenda reads like an Unfair Park greatest-hits: City of Dallas Complete Streets Initiative Update, 2011 Dallas Bike Plan and The Better Block Project. You might wanna peruse the docs before the festivities begin — especially the Complete…
Over the weekend, local gas-drilling opponents forwarded to media members Ian Urbina’s piece in Sunday’s New York Times about the heretofore unknown dangers posed by hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting water, sand and a laundry list of toxins known and unknown into the ground that busts up rock and releases…
A little more than a week ago, the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that the city of Dallas barely grew between 2000 and 2010 — by 0.8 percent, to be precise, though Matt Stiles and Emily Ramshaw, the Texas Trib’ers contributing to this morning’s New York Times, are generous enough to…
At midnight, Dwaine Caraway will erase the “pro tem” from his title and become, simply, Dallas Mayor. And though he will replace U.S. Senate candidate Tom Leppert for just a few months, Caraway tells Unfair Park this evening: “It’s very humbling to be able to be in this position.” He…
Following the mayoral forum held last night at Methodist Hospital’s Hitt Auditorium, District 3 city council candidate Scott Griggs and incumbent Dave Neumann took their turn to disagree on several issues — including gas drilling, that Walmart, affordable housing at Cliff Manor and the Trinity River toll road. Griggs quoted…
Here’s the announcement posted moments ago on ’bout-to-be-former-Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert’s website, which is titled, like the brand-new campaign adshort film (mmmm … doughnuts) you see above, “Why I’m Running.” For U.S. Senate, that is.I bring a unique conservative approach to government. I’ve created jobs, grown a business, and cut…
Although he typically exhibits a dry temperament, former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle nabbed some much-needed laughs from the audience last night at the first mayoral forum of the campaign season. “This is our Iowa,” he told nearly 200 folks at Methodist Hospital’s Hitt Auditorium in North Oak Cliff. Kunkle…
If you click to embiggen the image at right you’ll note it’s an invite to a beer-and-wine “launch party” at the Preston Forest Whole Foods scheduled for tomorrow; it arrived this morning with the header “It’s the end of Prohibition at Preston Forest’s Whole Foods Market.” Soon as it landed…
We began the week by sneak-peaking one of the latest Woodall Rodgers Deck Park renderings unveiled at yesterday’s $9-million press conference. As promised, here are two others provided by the Foundation, which now needs but $17 million to cover amenities and park operation for the first three years of the…
Tom Leppert has hired Shawn McCoy, the deputy communications director for the 2010 U.S. Senate campaign of Linda McMahon, whose website was designed by the same folks who are behind Leppert’s. While it’s apparent Leppert is preparing for a Senate bid of his own, until he leaves the city council…
Patrick Michels, our gas-drillin’ expert, is presently at the Hunt Oil Building for that Woodall Rodgers Deck Park press conference — which, turns out, is worth $9 million (no wonder Mayor Tom’s Mayor Tom till tomorrow). So, then, I’ll share with you a memo council member Angela Hunt sent to…
On Tuesday, you no doubt recall, the city sent word that Walmart’s opening 14 new locations citywide — among them, three in the southern sector, including on the vacant lot at Fort Worth Avenue and W. Colorado Boulevard. Yesterday, on Go Oak Cliff, Jason Roberts wrote about the reaction to…
Tom Leppert writes in his official letter of resignation sent to the city council that he will officially step down as mayor at 11:59 p.m. tomorrow. At which point Dwaine Caraway will become the interim mayor of Dallas, and no one’s more excited about that than Schutze, as you’ll see…
In the comments below, a Friend of Unfair Park notes that shortly before Mayor Tom Leppert said his farewells to the Dallas City Council, he hopped on his Twitter account to take issue with President Obama’s announcement that he believes Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act is unconstitutional…
Mayor Tom Leppert to Step Down: The Final Council Speech from Dallas Observer on Vimeo.As promised, here’s the entirety of Mayor Tom Leppert’s adios speech given to the city council at the close of today’s meeting. For some reason, the audio and video fell out of sync. Which somehow makes…
Two days ago we received an e-mail from a “william@bubblelifemedia.com” that insisted, “The gang activity at NorthPark sounds like an escalating problem thats not under control yet and could get worse.” The missive also contained a link to this page at something called Park Cities iPhone Reporter (I dunno –…
Moments ago, after the last of the afternoon speakers came to the council chambers microphone to denounce Mayor Tom Leppert and the media one last time, the mayor said what we’ve known was coming since last night, if not well before: He’s outta here.”This will be my last city council…
At its meeting two weeks ago, the Dallas City Council passed a resolution urging the state Legislature to crackdown on payday lenders and “to pass any necessary legislation to protect the citizens of the State of Texas who may find themselves with no alternative but to seek the type of…
About an hour ago, Rudy posted a piece saying Mayor Tom Leppert’s announcing his resignation tomorrow, during the city council meeting. But that doesn’t mean he’s ending his term tomorrow.A little while ago I asked the mayor’s chief of staff, Chris Heinbaugh, for further details. All he would say is:…
The Dallas County Commissioners Court unanimously approved a new code of conduct for commissioners this morning in response to Commissioner John Wiley Price last week telling several audience members to “go to hell” after pointing out that they were all white. None of the commissioners voiced their opinions in open…
There is no shortage of Walmarts in and around Dallas. But City Hall sends word this afternoon: More are a-coming — “more than a dozen new projects in the city of Dallas,” per the release that follows, including three in the southern sector and one across the street from Bachman…
