This morning I got that list of the city’s surplus properties I asked for yesterday — and it’s not a long one, consisting of just four “improved properties” (meaning, they have buildings on them) and 19 vacant lots, several next to each other on, respectively, W. Laureland and N. Lancaster…
When first formed back in June, the city council-appointed Gas Drilling Task Force had hoped to turn into council by November its list of recommendations for an ordinance regulating drilling in the city limits. Time, after all, is of the essence as companies who paid the city millions for leases…
The city of Dallas and municipal Judge Phyllis Lister Brown have been at odds since November, but as of today she can legally continue serving in her current position as the various lawsuits involving the judge and Dallas City Hall drag out indefinitely. The city intended to kick her off…
Can’t say for sure how long the former fire station on Walnut Hill Lane near Marsh has looked like this, only because I haven’t taken Walnut Hill to work since Monday, when it did not look like this. (I’ve been taking Marsh to Lemmon to Inwood to Maple, if you…
In Dallas and across the country, the astronomical number of deportation orders issued by immigration courts is at last beginning to fall. President Obama’s new strategy focuses on intelligent enforcement and prosecutorial discretion. Translated: We’ll show bad guys the door, but the undocumented student brought here as a child can…
At the end of yesterday’s lengthy, heated debate over hopping into a bed made of tax-free bonds with Uplift Education, Mayor Mike Rawlings delivered the passionate testimonial Jim and I referenced. Several Friends of Unfair Park have asked to hear the entire thing, the “Our Poor Kids” speech, so I’ve…
You may recall that back in October we told you Fair Park had been named a Great Public Space by the American Planning Association. Well, during the council’s lunch break today, just after he got emotional about the children, Mayor Mike Rawlings gathered with the city council, Parks Board chair…
Jim will be along shortly with his take on the passionate discussion surrounding Uplift Education’s efforts to get the city to assist with the selling of bonds to help with the charter school’s expansion. I’ll just note this: During his closing remarks on the subject, just before council voted to…
At this very moment the city council members are discussing whether they’d like to get into the bond business to help Uplift Education with its plan to sell tax-exempt bonds to help open a new charter school in the former Baylor offices Deep Ellum. (Sounds, so far, like the item…
The leadership of the Thomas Jefferson High School student council (sniff), guests of Ann Margolin at this morning’s meeting of the Dallas City Council, got quite the treat this morning: a parade of public speakers once again thoughtfully, kindly but also forcefully berating Mayor Mike Rawlings for not signing that…
One month ago Dallas Area Rapid Transit released its 2011 Customer Satisfaction Survey, with nine out of 10 riders insisting they would recommend DART to others. But Pages 19 and 20 of the 23-page report are filled with concerns over security aboard DART buses and trains: Only 78 percent of…
The city’s main website is OK, though every time I visit it — which is way too often — I do wonder when City Hall’s going to begin planting those Seeds of Change it’s been promising since December. But the Dallas Parks home page is truly awful; it was outdated…
For days now Nancy Brinker has said, over and over, that Karen Handel — the one-time gubernatorial candidate from Georgia and Palin pal — had nothing to do with Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s decision to cut its funding to Planned Parenthood. Handel, who’s Komen’s senior vice-president for public…
You know the cell phones must have been burning all weekend when the first city council committee briefing of the week at City Hall on Monday morning starts off with a rebuttal. Wait, rebuttal already? While those of us out here in the peanut gallery are still wiping the weekend…
In September, as the council was putting the finishing touches on the current budget, Scott Griggs and Angela Hunt suggested the city revisit its resident water rate structure — specifically, they said, the city up the amount charged to those who use the most water. Insisted the council member from…
Allow us to re-introduce you to the octogenarian congressman who’s currently perched atop the catbird seat in the oversight hearings every fracker in America is watching with bated breath. His name is Ralph Hall. He’s the chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. One of its subcommittees,…
Received a note earlier in the day that on Tuesday, Mayor Mike, Comerica CEO Ralph Babb, Serita Ann Jakes (Mrs. T.D. to you) and a host of city council members are meeting at the North Oak Cliff Library Branch for “a major announcement” that will involve the “unveiling of [an]…
Speaking of Uplift Education and its planned expansion into Deep Ellum …There’s an intriguing item that just appeared on the Dallas City Council’s consent addendum for next week’s meeting, posted here. According to the doc, the city wants to create a nonprofit called the City of Dallas Education Finance Corporation…
Amidst all the ruckus, resignations and double-talking over Susan G. Komen for the Cure’s politically charged move to pull its breast-cancer screening funding from Planned Parenthood, you should also be aware: Dallas-based Komen’s actually the subject of a documentary that opens in Canada today that takes a very dim view…
I’ve driven past this house countless times; it’s not far from the office, after all, more or less just behind Maple and Motor on Maple Springs Boulevard. But till I saw the agenda for Monday’s meeting of the Landmark Commission, I had no idea that it was designed by one…
A few moments ago, Jason Roberts tweeted: “Exploring a run for Congress. With redistricting up in the air, it’s going to be an incredibly short campaign for the primary.” As long as we’ve been covering his doings, I’ve never known the Better Block-er to be … silly, let’s say. Nevertheless,…
As you know by now, locally based Susan G. Komen for the Cure has cut off its funding to Planned Parenthood, meaning it’ll no longer help pay for mammograms for women who can’t afford them; why, there’s Nancy Brinker herself above, attempting to explain Komen’s “new granting strategies” concerning its…
