After last week’s trading of contemptuous memos, Unfair Park was pretty excited about a potential confrontation between Vonciel Jones Hill and Scott Griggs at Monday’s meeting of the city’s Transportation and Trinity River Committee. As far as city hall showdowns go, this one was likely to be pretty good, pitting…
One of Downtown Dallas’ oldest buildings, a 129-year-old Romanesque Revival structure at 1611 Main St., was razed on Sunday to make way for an expansion of The Joule hotel, the latest in a line of historic Dallas structures sacrificed on the altar of progress. A few blocks to the southeast,…
If the city won’t give money to Dallas libraries, maybe the community will. Thursday was North Texas Giving Day, which means Friends of the Dallas Public Libraries, along with other north Texas do-gooder groups, were busy rattling their tin cans for spare change to raise money that, in the library’s…
Rather than, you know, enunciating her concerns at the city council briefing both she and Scott Griggs attended on Wednesday, Vonciel Jones Hill fired off a memo Wednesday morning chastising her fellow council member for his “inaccurate, incomplete and insulting” writing. The rest of Hill’s memo is less alliterative, but…
A.C. Gonzalez took the time at the end of Wednesday’s City Council briefing to at least wink in the direction transparency. He didn’t jump into the open government pool by any means, but he took about 15 minutes at the end of the meeting to spew jargon in the general…
In a memo prepared in advance of Dallas City manager A.C. Gonzalez’ first of what he promises to be periodic progress report to the City Council, council member Scott Griggs outlined multiple issues with the city’s Trinity office and transportation department. Among them is the stagnation of the Oak Cliff…
Last night in Houston two masked men, armed with a revolver and a shotgun, stormed a Denny’s and raided the cash register. The same scene has played out on security footage at dozens of Houston-area IHOPs and Denny’s, albeit occasionally with bloodshed. Houston police officer James Taylor, testifying before a…
To understand just how badly City Hall has bungled its stewardship of the section of the Great Trinity Forest sandwiched between the Trinity Forest Golf Course and the Texas Horse Park, you can visit the delicate wetland pond the city illegally let a contractor drain last month for “dust control.”…
You could see the dark clouds gathering Monday morning. Word had come down from somewhere near Michael Morris’ Arlington compound that someone from the North Central Texas Council of Governments was going to make a contribution to the city’s interminable discussion about regulating Uber, Lyft, Yellow Cab and any other…
Hunched over a table at a Jack in the Box, Kevin Woods doesn’t look much like a cowboy. No hat, no belt buckle, no boots, not a horse in sight. Here, tucked between a cluster of warehouses and a bustling urban highway, is about as far from the open range…
Amid the storm of fast-food worker protests for better pay, Democratic candidate for governor Wendy Davis announced late last week her plan to boost Texas’ minimum wage to $10 per hour, which is generally how much national cost-of-living studies say is necessary for struggling workers to have improved quality of…
City Hall has done its part to make Patriot’s Crossing a reality. Over the past five years, it’s handed developer Yigal Lelah $4.4 million and promised another $1.3 million in HUD funds. It has endorsed him in three unsuccessful attempts to win lucrative, highly competitive low-income housing tax credits from…
City Council member Dwaine Caraway might be having a bit of trouble abiding by his own “Pull Your Pants Up” initiative after losing 15 pounds since the start of his Councilman Caraway Wellness Challenge three weeks ago. Caraway checked in at 300 pounds at the press conference announcing the challenge,…
I’m sitting next to a well-dressed home-schooled high schooler from just outside of Lafayette, Louisiana, watching failed Senate candidate and former HP CEO Carly Fiorina talking about the dignity of jobs that don’t pay a living wage. Why Fiorina is speaking at Defending the American Dream isn’t really clear. She…
The irony that Americans For Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream summit is being held in a hotel paid for with taxpayer funds can be a little overwhelming. Everyone you talk to opposes regulation and taxes with a religious fervor while at the same time praising the setting and the glory…
Friday and Saturday, the Omni Dallas hosts Americans for Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream” conference. Featured speakers include Governor Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Jeb Hensarling and Indiana governor Mike Pence. We sent two of our reporters to get the full experience. Political rhetoric on both sides has the…
Friday and Saturday, the Omni Dallas hosts Americans for Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream” conference. Featured speakers include Governor Rick Perry, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Jeb Hensarling and Indiana governor Mike Pence. We sent two of our reporters to get the full experience. This is one of their dispatches: Unlike…
The city-owned Dallas Executive Airport has a new website. It’s slick, a vast leap forward from the static, text-heavy site that seemed a relic from the dial-up era. Just in time, too, since the airport is on the cusp of a major expansion. There, amidst bold-faced promises of Dallas’ “world-class…
Since the 2013 controversial passage of House Bill 2, which placed restrictions on abortion clinics and prompted the closing of more than half the clinics in the state, Texas has gained a reputation outside the state as one of the worst providers of women’s health care the country. See also:…
There’s a fundamental tension baked into Dallas’ plans for the Trinity River corridor. On the one hand, it wants to open the vast, unconcreted lands of the Great Trinity Forest for people to enjoy — average folks, too, not just the naturalists and horsemen and gonzo hikers hearty enough to…
You might have seen the above map making the rounds recently among those opposed to the controversial voter ID law, which first passed in 2011 and was upheld in 2013. It requires voters to present an up-to-date photo ID to election officials. The map, and maps below, were first put…
On Wednesday, book lovers from across the city showed up in force at the Dallas City Council meeting. It was the first time council members were able to throw amendments at the proposed city budget for the next fiscal year. And supporters of Dallas Public Libraries wanted them to carefully…
