Down below, a few Friends are arguing the pros and cons of tomorrow’s downtown shutdown courtesy Your Champion Dallas Mavericks. But this surely has to fall into the good-thing column, no? From our friends at Dallas City Hall: “Municipal Court canceled for tomorrow.” The details, such as they are:Due to…
Sure, it sounds like fun — pitching a midnight tent at the corner of Young and Houston, popping a top or 12 and sweating it out till Dirk, Cubes and the rest of the Mavs pass by sometime ’round parade-thirty tomorrow morning. The perfect summer staycation. But don’t even think…
A couple of times last week we noted that the city’s looking to make some extra coin by selling off naming rights and sponsorship opportunities to private corporations interested in investing in public property. And, sure, we had a suggestion or two. But as City Manager Mary Suhm noted, she…
Shortly after the city council gets its afternoon look at the 2011 Community Survey, where infrastructure concerns and streets needs top the citizenry’s to-do list, it’ll take up the subject of capital improvements — those funded by the ’06 bond election, the biggest in the city’s history, and what’s coming…
Welcome back to Dallas City Hall for the epic second episode of the gas drilling task force selection process, where the ad hoc committee of city council members will be meeting candidates for face to face interviews. Councilman-elect Scott Griggs is in the audience, taking notes as Carolyn Davis interrupts…
As he gears up for his inevitable run for president, Rick Perry is doing his very best to shield his inner kook and maintain some semblance of populism. But in the last couple days, two Perry allies have taken it upon themselves to paint the Republicans’ Great God-Fearing Hope as…
Patrick’s heading down to City Hall shortly — not just for the noon-thirty all-star press conference on the plaza, during which the mayor and police chief and council members will fill in every last blank concerning Thursday’s 10 a.m. Mavs parade, but for today’s meeting of the ad hoc gas…
As we’re well aware of the Friends of Unfair Park’s thoughts on parking in downtown Dallas, we attended yesterday’s meeting of the council’s Transportation and Environment Committee, drawn like moths to the Downtown Dallas Parking Strategic Plan presentation on the agenda. And Chris Beynon, the familiar face of MIG and…
A little more than two years ago, Angela Hunt gave to The Dallas Morning News what she called the Trinity River Corridor Project Plan B, which called for, among other things, ditching the toll road, hopping on Project Pegasus, straightening out Dead Man’s Curve, fixing the levees and planting between…
Got an email earlier today from Chad Sour, who’s taking over Woodall Rodgers Deck Park duties for our old pal Joanna Singleton, who’s about to take a maternity leave (and mazel tov, incidentally). Anyway. Sour’s note was a bit of an inside-baseball update about two new hirings related to programming-slash-special…
Oh, right — there’s a runoff Saturday, or did you already forget? Apparently you did: Toni Pippins-Poole, Interim Dallas County Elections Administrator, tells Unfair Park this afternoon that as of Sunday, 15,451 people have cast their ballots in early voting — well shy of the 16,644 who’s voted during the…
Texas Gov. Rick Perry has The Response. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has The Resolution. Here’s the press release declaring Your Dallas Mavericks and the rest of us “Honorary Ohioans” tomorrow. And here’s the signed doc, suitable for framing…
Jim and I’ve spilled a lot of virtual ink in recent months writing about Robert Groden’s legal battles with the city of Dallas over his selling JFK assassination-conspiracy wares in Dealey Plaza — specifically, beneath one of the pergolas beneath which the Oliver Stone adviser has long set up shop…
Sure, you’re satisfied this morning — you just woke up in a city planning for a championship parade, dang it. But how ’bout the rest of the year? Reason I ask: On Wednesday the city council will get a look at the 2011 Community Survey, where, long story short, the…
We’ve long wondered, including just last month, why the city can’t (won’t?) unload its old libraries and other so-called surplus properties, and time after time City Manager Mary Suhm has said: The market’s just not right. But in just a few minutes, the council’s Budget, Finance, and Audit Committee will…
Only took an hour to get from Oak Cliff to Northwest Dallas tonight. Never shoulda taken Commerce, which, when it reached downtown, was blocked off by Dallas Police, causing an endless stream of brake lights between Commerce and Continental. No matter: The traffic turned into a standstill parade soundtracked by…
As promised, last night the city council received a new FY2011-12 budget update in advance of Wednesday’s briefing, the last before summer break. And on the surface, it looks like better news: The $59.3-million shortfall City Manager Mary Suhm predicted in mid-May is now closer to $32.2 million, according to…
Only yesterday I watched as my son’s school’s librarian begged the Dallas ISD school board to reinstate 42 librarians likely to be let go next school year. Trustees who agreed were told: Fine, but we’ll have to fire 42 teachers to make room. Trustees who disagreed insisted: Why do we…
Wednesday afternoon photo intern Taryn Walker stopped by the Living Plaza, which made its return to Dallas City Hall … and not for the final time, as organizers within OCP headquarters now expect it to become a monthly event, at least. Yet again, bcWORKSHOP’s shipping-container-turned-food-commissary was parked on the plaza,…
This morning we find two items of local interest contained within the virtual pages of IndieWire. First: Long-ago Observer-er Dana Harris sends word that the extremely authorized Sarah Palin propaganda filmdocumentary The Undefeated has found a collaboratorexhibitor, the AMC chain of theaters. As a result its producers and distributors say…
With The Finals tied 2-2, Mayor-For-Now Dwaine Caraway finally made a sports bet with a Miami politician — not Mayor Tomás Regalado, but Miami-Dade County Commissioner Chairman Joe A. Martinez, who extended the wager. The note came from City Hall late yesterday:Caraway added a twist to the traditional bet: the…
For 14 years, a salvaged portion of a Southern Pacific Railroad bridge from 1909 gathered dust, waiting to be recycled as main support of the trolley turntable now under construction at Cityplace Station near the West Village. Earlier today, a giant crane lifted the piece of bridge and lowered it…
