I’d been all ready to settle in for a lengthy City Plan Commission meeting this afternoon, conditioned by months of long waits before commissioners got to talking about the things I’d come for — old favorites like gas drilling or food trucks — but today they took each of those…
It’s been close to two years since we last looked at Ash Grove’s federal lawsuit, filed in the fall of ’08, in which the cement-maker whined that Dallas’s refusal to buy its dirty, wet-kiln-made concrete was a violation of the state’s competitive bidding laws. Dallas, claiming its thanks-but-no-thanks was due…
Mike Rawlings formally announced his candidacy for mayor this morning to a group of approximately 150 supporters in front of Dallas City Hall, claiming he’ll utilize public-private partnerships to protect both the city’s infrastructure and its citizens during what he said would be a budget deficit as difficult to overcome…
As Sam pointed out in February 2007, when he covered Tom Leppert’s mayoral campaign kick-off at St. Philip’s School in South Dallas, Roger Staubach served as his campaign co-chair alongside Elaine Agather. But Staubach couldn’t make it four years back; he was “not in attendance.” He is expected at Dallas…
When we stopped by the Elections Department Friday afternoon to speak with newly appointed Elections Administrator Toni Pippens-Poole, something odd happened. As we’ve done numerous times before, we pulled the campaign finance reports for all five members of the commissioners court and the district attorney. And, as we’ve done plenty…
Every so often, Friends of Unfair Park send in e-mails full of questions to which we only wish we knew the answers. And I’ll send those queries to the experts. So, this morning, we tackle two topics pulled at random from the grab bag. First up …Friend of Unfair Park…
A certain chief arborist for the city reminds: We’ve yet to mention today’s Official Release of the Texas Legislative Study Group’s annual Texas on the Brink report, which offers a harsh look at the state of the state. Emily Ramshaw sums up (and mentions the House of Representatives’ caucus, of…
While Republican Tom Leppert hasn’t exactly been coy about his plans to mount a campaign for the U.S. Senate seat soon to be vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison, U.S. Representative David Dreier confirmed Leppert’s intentions late last night. He told the Forum, Claremont McKenna College’s newspaper, that a fellow CMC…
Aside from those education cuts, there’s also the very real possibility that the state will do away with the Project Reintegration of Offenders and all Homeless Housing and Services Program funding. The former — which, per the Texas Workforce Commission, “provides a link between education, training and employment during incarceration…
Seems like just yesterday the City Plan Commission took up XTO Energy’s second application for a specific use permit for gas drilling on city land — this time along Camp Wisdom Road near Joe Pool Lake — and quickly put off its decision for three months.But that was November, and…
Councilman Ron Natinsky got his Valentine’s Day started right, taking a short stroll with his wife, Nancy, down to the City Secretary’s office to submit his petition to run for mayor. Ah, romance. A handful of cameramen and reporters crammed into the office alongside Natinsky, where he gabbed about future…
Greetings to you, Unfair Friends, from City Hall, where the Quality of Life Committee kicked off their meeting about trash and trails today just after noon o’clock — and after David Neumann gave a clowny and enthused interview to a TV camera. Willis Winters, Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation…
Late last week, we took a look at three of the five potential candidates for Angela Hunt’s District 14 city council seat — Jim Rogers, Vernon Franko and Brian Oley — one of which (Rogers) said Hunt’s decision to run for a fourth and final term caused him to put…
Six long years ago I wrote about the dysfunctional South Dallas/Fair Park Trust Fund, the now-23-year-old program intended to put money into businesses and nonprofits and you-name-its intended to bring new life to the Fair Park area. By ’05 it had doled out more than $6 million — with little…
At year’s end, Veletta Lill, former city council member and executive director of the Dallas Arts District, told Unfair Park: “We will have food trucks in the Arts District by the spring,” count on it. After months of working with the city, and experimenting with some Better Block-ing on Flora…
At long last, the city council gets its hands on the Downtown Dallas 360 plan at Wednesday’s briefing — after which Downtown Dallas Inc. will host its own meet-n-greet with MIG’s Daniel Iacofano and Chris Beynon, just one part of the 2011 Annual Meeting & Luncheon & State o’ Downtown…
Exactly two months ago, Angela Hunt spoke to Unfair Park about the work the Friends of the Katy Trail had done to put on paper “a really thoughtful, long-term plan for how to deal with safety needs” along the city’s hike-n-bike trails system following the death of Lauren Huddleston in…
As you likely know by now, longtime Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet retired last month after, as he claims, Commissioner John Wiley Price told him that he had been in the position far too long. Sherbet also says Price even handed him a letter of resignation for him to sign. At…
In yesterday’s item about the District 14 candidates, we mentioned how strange it is that three-term incumbent Angela Hunt has drawn four opponents for her city council seat, while no one has filed a campaign treasurer for Ron Natinsky’s gig representing Far North Dallas. For several weeks, we’ve heard rumors…
It’s the least surprising political announcement of the week, no doubt: Dallas Park Board President Mike Rawlings is running for Dallas mayor. The formal announcement, sent from Mari Woodlief, follows in full. In the release — which names Joe Haggar Jr., former CEO of Haggar Apparel, as his campaign treasurer…
With Angela Hunt passing on a mayoral run and instead seeking a fourth and final consecutive term on the city council as District 14’s representative (term limits), we called the five candidates who have filed campaign treasurers for her seat to find out which ones are willing to stay in…
Late yesterday, as the boy grew fidgety from yet another day stuck at home, we flipped on the teevee hoping to find something interesting, educational. Which meant: No Disney Channel, no nonsense. A few flips later, and there we were on C-SPAN2, listening to former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk address…
