About 75 people gathered outside Dallas City Hall today — accompanied by a 20-foot banner that said, “To Redeem the Soul of America” — and accused city leaders of waging ideological war on the poor. The Poor People’s March on City Hall Plaza didn’t march anywhere but did aim a…
With my trusty laptop in hand, I prepared to liveblog the heck outta today’s city council meeting — the last one before the council leaves for its July recess and then returns to tackle a $131 million budget shortfall. But I soon realized that the council chambers lack an electrical…
As Andrea noted in her liveblog Monday, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway stopped down the council’s Public Safety Committee meeting to rant against a different kind of crime: the end of fireworks at Fair Park on July 4. Said Caraway, “We’re inviting people to go out to Plano and see…
The Dallas City Council’s seven minority council members launched a counterattack this afternoon against Mayor Tom Leppert’s campaign opposing the Love Field concession contract extensions, with Vonciel Hill and others reminding Leppert that City Manager Mary Suhm is in charge. “Twice the citizens of this great city have defeated a…
I see here that Andy Siegel, an attorney at Shackelford, Melton & McKinley, is claiming that Progress Dallas has come up 5,555 signatures short of getting the dry parts of Dallas soaking wet in beer and wine. To which Progress Dallas, headed by Kroger’s Gary Huddleston says, “What the what?”…
A “poor people’s march” at Dallas City Halll at noon tomorrow will kick off a campaign of protests aimed primarily at Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert. Veteran community activists blame Leppert’s political ambitions for what they insist is a one-sided assault on city programs for the poor. “When you make a…
Ken Carter, a consultant working for Dallas Love Field Airport food and beverage concessionaire Gilbert Aranza, sent us word yesterday afternoon that the city council’s seven minority members are expected to appear at noon today inside City Hall’s lobby along with other community leaders for a press conference supporting contract…
Angela Hunt, revealed in last week’s Observer as the swing vote on the controversial concession contract extensions at Dallas Love Field Airport, has continued to research the issue following her maternity leave, but she hasn’t made up her mind yet and now supports a deferral of the items until August,…
This, in case you have not heard, is the “Summer of Justice.” Which, as far as summers-of goes, ranks somewhere in between the Summer of Love, the “Summer of ’69,” The Summer of George and The Summer of My German Soldier, a sadly forgotten Kristy McNichol vehicle from 1978. The…
Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway opened today’s Public Safety Committee meeting with a gift to his fellow committee members — what appear to be candy-scented, hold the phone, rolling papers. As the city council members bumbled with tearing open what looked like metallic Airhead wrappers, Caraway name-dropped K2, the herbal…
When Jason Roberts first introduced the Better Block Block project in late March, he did so with the caveat that it was “a ‘living block’ art installation” intended to prove it’s possible to turn a screwed-up Oak Cliff intersection zoned “light industrial” into something livable and walkable. But three months…
For weeks we’ve wondered: When will Dallas get around to building an honest-to-God movie-television production facility? Because the city’s filling up with shows, but production companies have scant options: Fair Park, which The Good Guys will have to adios upon its August return (fingers crossed) to make way for State…
It’s unusual for Dallas City Hall to send word of a briefing involving the Dallas Police Department, but last night, a little after 10, Frank Librio notified the media of a briefing scheduled for 11:15 p.m. concerning “the incident in Lancaster.” By now, you no doubt know what he was…
The boy and I were downtown yesterday. We’d just been to Dallas Farmers Market and taken a long drive through the Cedars so he could take pictures. He asked, from the backseat, if we could go to Main Street Garden. I asked, “Why?” Told him he couldn’t play on the…
Before you take a long look at the 62-page sneak peek at the park the city plans to build upon the Continental Avenue Bridge with $10 million donated dollars, I’d recommend going back to our January Q&A with Jim Parrish of CH2M Hill, the Dallas-based project manager for the project…
The day before Mayor Tom Leppert and the city council deferred voting on contract extensions for the food and retail concessions at Dallas Love Field Airport, the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce faxed Leppert a letter urging him to direct staff to “return to the drawing board,” according to a…
If you thought the Park and Rec board’s decision yesterday to defer a vote on a proposed sale of Samuell Farm and Samuell New Hope Park meant that was that till August 5, so sorry. But, hell, might as well go five-for-five this work week with one final item on…
First thing this morning I saw Sarah Blaskovich’s story about Friends of Fair Park’s decision to cancel Fair Park Fourth — no money, natch. Well, that’s disappointing. I’ve been once; my folks, a few times. The Gruccis did a nice job. And, as evidenced by our trip down there last…
Angela Hunt has mixed feelings about the June 9 gathering of the city council to sign their names inside the center arch of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. “I think it’s nice to have great iconic structures in our city, but, at the same time, if we’re going to have…
All kinds of folks are crammed up in City Hall’s sixth-floor Parks and Rec meeting room — ladies who lunch, guys in suits, city officials and, of course, some dude who stinks pretty bad. It’s so full some people are actually standing in a storage closet.Plenty of stuff to cover…
We’ve written plenty about one item in particular on today’s Park and Rec Board meeting agenda, but it’s not the only item of interest. As in: Were you aware that the city’s about to put out the call for bids for a Stevens Park Golf Course redo? Colligan Golf Design…
One of the arguments presented by Mayor Tom Leppert in his quest to bid out the contracts for the food and retail concessions at Dallas Love Field Airport is that no one’s really interested in the 46 percent of the square footage at the brand-spanking new terminal that’s scheduled for…
