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…
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…
As the Dallas City Council wraps up its last meeting of the year, they’ll consider adjusting the city’s Permanent Supportive Housing Program — to keep the council notified when new proposals come in and to “encourage developers and applicants to brief key neighborhood and community groups.” In other words, to…
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…
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…
In case you’d forgotten all about City of Dallas v. Museum of the American Railroad, rest assured: It’s alive and well in Dallas County District Court, where, in recent days, there have been myriad filings and hearings in advance of a January 25 court date that comes almost one year…
Grimes and I went to the convention center last night for the unveiling of the Downtown Dallas 360 plan — which is to say, the 164-page PowerPoint thumbed through in advance of the final plan that’ll be presented to the city council next month. (Council’s scheduled to approve the plan…
It’s open season on drug houses in Dallas today, with the Texas National Guard kicking off its two-week Operation Crackdown campaign — demolishing around 50 otherwise vacant crack dens and stash houses — and the city tearing down the first of South Dallas’s Summer Breeze Apartments after a years-long court…
Even though the city council ultimately added half a mil back to the Dallas Public Library’s new-materials budget back in September, seems the grand total of more than a million wasn’t enough to keep up with the demand for new titles. Hence the e-mail that just arrived from City Hall…
Many thanks to the Friend of Unfair Park kind enough to send our way this afternoon Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s bipartisan list of 2010 Most Embarrassing Re-elects (and a Governor to Watch). The headline kinda says it all: Rep. Joe Barton, a hard R with a thing…
You remember Chad Lacerte, right? He’s the man behind the Dallas Watersports Complex, which had the full support of the Dallas City Council was supposed to open on Fish Trap Lake till the Dallas Housing Authority sunk it, claiming it wasn’t in the best interests of the residents of West…
On Friday we sneak-peeked that proposed $2-million economic development grant proposal intended to “support emerging development opportunities in North Oak Cliff.” Before Wednesday’s vote, the council’s Economic Development Committee is slated to take up the subject in mere moments; here’s the PowerPoint prepared in advance of their chitchat, which you…
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,…
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 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…
So much for North Oak Cliff not needing City Hall …On Monday, the council’s Economic Development Committee will discuss an “economic development grant proposal to support emerging development opportunities in North Oak Cliff.” Which is kinda vague till you look at the corresponding item (No. 57, to be exact) on…
I’ll say it again: Having lived in the Love Field flight path for most of my 42 years, what noise? But some of you probably don’t feel the same way — like, for instance, those who’ve called or written Angela Hunt to complain about the uptick in rumble in recent…
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…
As Robert mentioned earlier, the U.S. lost to Qatar in its bid for the 2022 World Cup, leaving the couple hundred folks gathered in the lobby at City Hall speechless. Still smiling as the news was announced on a big screen TV, Mayor Tom Leppert said afterward that he couldn’t…
… you might wanna swing by Dallas City Hall, where Mayor Tom and the Dallas World Cup Bid Committee and Hunt Sports Group chairman Clark Hunt and a few FC Dallas players (including goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, defender Ugo Ihemelu and forward Ruben Luna) and former Colombian National Team midfielder Oscar…
You have some four hours left to submit your proposal to run the Dallas Farmers Market. Might as well — there’s not a lot of competition. I spoke with Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm last night, and despite the fact the deadline’s been extended several times, there may be but…
The day after the local GOP lost its fourth-straight election cycle to Democrats, Dallas County Republican Party chair Jonathan Neerman told us “it’s very unlikely” that he’d run for a third term in 2012, citing the need for “fresh leadership.” But soon after the Hunton & Williams lawyer appeared to…
