Upcoming is a chat I had this morning with Corinne Hill, the interim director of the Dallas Public Library system. I called her to talk about the new Arts, Culture & Libraries Committee debuted on Tuesday when Mayor Mike Rawlings sent word of his new council committee appointments. She said…
Theresa O’Donnell, director of Sustainable Development and Construction for the city of Dallas, confirms: Sylvan Thirty’s zoning ordinance won’t go before the City Plan Commission till October 6, a month later than originally scheduled. The delay is due, in part, to a request made by the Belmont’s Monte Alexander on…
So, back to that Sylvan Thirty item from earlier in the week. Got an email this morning from Monte Anderson, the man who resurrected the Belmont. Said he wanted to talk about the development going in catty-corner from his — one he’s long supported. Matter of fact, says Anderson, he…
As The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal note today, President Obama will give a speech some time after Labor Day in which he will unveil “a plan to create jobs, stimulate the economy and reduce the federal deficit.” (Tom Leppert beat him to it!) But the president won’t…
Behold, Dallas, the shiny new city council districts the Redistricting Commission has drawn for you! Don’t uncork the champagne just yet, though. The commissioners themselves certainly didn’t seem to be in the mood for it.Near the end of last night’s six-hour meeting (yes, yes it was), the commission voted 11-4…
What you see is the video just posted by the Tom Leppert for Senate campaign in which the former Dallas mayor pitches his “ambitious” plan to “rebuild our nation’s economy,” which you’ll find here: “A New Direction for America.” To sum up: flat tax, reduce corporate taxes, eliminate earmarks, cut…
On the other side is a memo from Mayor Mike Rawlings that just arrived in the in-box in which he tells the council members who’ll serve on which committee. And, no, Angela Hunt did not get the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee chair — that went to Vonciel Jones Hill…
A couple of weeks back, City Hall asked residential and commercial customers to voluntarily cut back on watering landscapes — twice a week, at most, if that’s OK with you, thanks. A few days later, Assistant City Manager Forest Turner told the council that we’re actually quite a ways off…
After taking a few weeks off, the city’s Gas Drilling Task Force reconvenes at City Hall at 2 today; lucky Leslie will recap by day’s end. Should be an interesting one: After weeks of tours and overviews and regulation reviews and a public hearing, today the industry will make its…
When City Manager Mary Suhm proposed dumping all of the city’s trash at the McCommas Bluff Landfill as a revenue-generating brainstorm last summer, few imagined it would become such a hot-button issue this summer. Because in 2010, the idea came and went nowhere, along with that suggested transportation user fee…
Shortly before 1 p.m., the city council dove into that plan to dry up the city’s 17 pools and replace them with those family aquatic centers — a plan that’s “just the beginning of a plan,” as Park and Rec head Paul Dyer cautioned the council. It’s still going on,…
The end is near! The city’s Redistricting Commission has just one more meeting left before its forwards its final recommended map to the city council. And after Saturday’s public forum in a jam-packed council chambers, and the commission vote that followed, it looks pretty clear that map will be cPlan16b,…
Some time after lunch is when today’s budget briefing ought to get interesting: Not only will the city council take a dip in Paul Dyer’s Aquatics Facilities Master Plan, but it’ll ride shotgun as Assistant City Manager Forest Turner looks at how much it’ll cost to rescue Dallas’s roads from…
The poor Dallas Pedestrian Network, otherwise known as Vincent Ponte’s downtown tunnels and skyways. So unloved, so unwanted — and if you believe the Downtown Dallas 360 plan (not to mention Laura Miller and Mary Suhm and Jack Gosnell), the leading cause of the death of downtown. Hence the closed-door…
After Dwaine Caraway got done excoriating Paul Dyer over the city’s decision to close five pools in the coming fiscal year, two in Caraway’s district, the head of Park and Rec told the former mayor to get used to the idea. Because, look, said Dyer: The city owning and operating…
Back to the animal shelter for a second …One other thing interim assistant city manager Joey Zapata and I touched on briefly yesterday was an item on the council’s agenda for next week involving the lowering of adoption fees at Dallas Animal Services. Because right now, it’s kinda pricey for…
For now, at least, you can forget about the city spending an additional five figures to study the Dallas Wave, which Schutze calls in this week’s paper version of Unfair Park “the unbelievably screwed-up man-made kayaking rapids” in the Trinity River. No doubt you recall: A few weeks ago the…
Straight off, City Hall spokesman Frank Librio would like us to clarify something he told Anna yesterday: It’s not that new Dallas Animal Services director Jody Jones isn’t ready to handle media requests, as we noted, it’s just that she’s “focusing on operations at the moment and not handling media…
Several Friends of Unfair Park, including a grumpy one below, have asked if we’ll make mention of Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Fisher’s speech given in Midland yesterday. Sure, absolutely, happy to. Because, first, I’m a big fan of Fisher’s — anyone who mentions…
Of the myriad lawsuits involving the city, Doug Moore v. City of Dallas et al is among the most expensive — and getting a little more pricey all the time. This case, for those not keeping score at home, has already cost the city $2.5 million, paid to the state…
Got an email this morning from City Hall that Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson would be stopping by for a “a special ‘thank you’ event for her many years of service on behalf of the City and citizens of Dallas.” Alas, we couldn’t make it; too busy filling out scholarship applications…
Anna’s gotten to know the city awfully well in a very short amount of time — that’s what sitting through every single redistricting meeting will do to and for you. And she was there for four hours last night, even though she’s got a cover story due, like, now. And…
