The Flea Circus: Liveblogging Today’s Animal Shelter Commission Meeting

Merry afternoon, Friends. I’m here at City Hall for today’s Animal Shelter Commission meeting. They’ll be discussing the recently released, mildly damning Humane Society report on the troubled Dallas Animal Services, which, under the new leadership of interim manager Lieutenant Scott Walton, has been trying to do an about-face in…

Hunt on “New” Panhandling Ordinance

On Monday we sneak-peeked the ordinance creating those so-called Solicitation-Free Zones in downtown, Deep Ellum, Uptown and Victory; yesterday, with little to say other than “yay,” the council approved the revision to the City Code, adding to the existing law a $500 fine for panhandlers and extending its enforcement hours…

Dave Neumann, You Have a Challenger!

Council elections are in May, and this morning we learn that District 3 rep Dave Neumann will square off against a political newcomer (of sorts): Scott Griggs, with whom you’re probably familiar by now. The attorney is, after all, among the more outspoken and visible of the North Oak Cliff…

Downtown Dallas 360, Meet The Community

Last night a hundred or so folks interested in downtown development gathered at the Dallas Convention Center — where they were filming an episode of Chase! — to be presented with the findings from the Downtown Dallas 360 plan and, ostensibly, to provide some input and feedback. Bobsky and I…

Dallas’s “New” Solicitation-Free Zones

Chapter 31, Section 31-35 of the Dallas City Code already provides definitions for coercion (“… to approach or speak to a person in such a manner as would cause a reasonable person to believe that the person is being threatened …”) and solicitation (“… to ask, beg, solicit, or plead,…

Fair Park Holiday, a Festival of Lights

We tried to get into Fair Park yesterday for The Big Doings and realized rather quickly we should have ditched the car elsewhere and taken the Green Line. During almost all of Saturday there was traffic for miles (30 was backed up like it was the last day of the…

The Public May No Longer Park at City Hall

The memo, just in from Dallas City Hall, speaks for itself. Meters or private lots only. Well, hell, read it for yourself. Weekend listening tomorrow morning. Me, I’d start with this.Parking at City Hall Memo…

Tell Me More, Mayor Tom

A Friend of Unfair Park alerts us: Mayor Tom Leppert is on today’s episode of National Public Radio’s Tell Me More, along with Utah Governor Gary Herbert. The subject: How Utah and Dallas are leading the economic recovery, per that Brookings Institution report to which we directed your attention yesterday.Listen…