Under a tent along Bexar Street in South Dallas this morning, city officials treated a crowd of more than 100 to an enthusiastic display of back-slapping and upbeat progress reports for the neighborhood revitalization underway around them. Surrounded by blocks of mixed-use construction and new brick townhomes, Mayor Dwaine Caraway…
A couple of weeks back, Sam mentioned that Billy MacLeod, who’s running for the District 2 city council seat against incumbent Pauline Medrano, has a few problems with the coming elections. Chief among them: Votes will be cast at Esperanza “Hope” Medrano Elementary School — which so happens to be…
First thing this morning, the “final draft” of the Downtown Dallas 360 plan appeared in the Unfair Park inbox, replacing the version sent out a few days back in advance of Wednesday’s council meeting, at which point the city will officially adopt a resolution that “directs the City Manager to…
Below, in the comments, one Arthur Smythe — who, as everybody knows, hates the Cowboys — was quick to point out that Not Mayor Tom Leppert has raised $1.1 million in his bid for the United States Senate. Arthur’s comment, which I imagine was made in an English accent by…
Dallas has been trying to get a handle on group housing for years, dating back — at least — to the Boarding House Task Force formed in June ’07, which consisted of everything from code compliance to Dallas Fire-Rescue to the City Attorney’s Office. That was but one of myriad…
U.S. Senate candidate Tom Leppert posted to his website today a piece titled “Serious Leadership,” in which he says he’s just the man to take Kay Bailey’s place in D.C. because, look, “I’m not a career politician and I didn’t expect to be in this position. I’m a businessman.” Of…
At the behest of City Manager Mary Suhm, the city council’s Trinity River Corridor Project Committee this morning unanimously approved a revised $8 million contract with architect Santiago Calatrava to redesign the Margaret McDermott Bridge. “We believe it’s a viable, favorable way to go,” Suhm said. Making a rare appearance…
Ron Natinsky asked members of the media to join him Monday afternoon at The Cedars Social — not for a drink, sadly, but so he could announce an endorsement (from the MetroTex Association of Realtors) and unveil a handful of “priorities” intended to rejuvenate Dallas — which include, ta da,…
Below is City Manager Mary Suhm’s memo to the council noting that revenue from red-light cameras is way below last September’s FY2010-11 guesstimates. But at present, that’s the least of her concerns: On Wednesday, the council will hear from Assistant City Attorney Larry Casto, the city’s Director of Legislative Affairs,…
On Friday, Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm sent to the city council the memo you’ll find in full after the jump, in which she presents the latest forecast for this fiscal year. The doc’s of particular interest as we head toward the next round of budgeting, with a new mayor…
The myriad issues with the Dallas Animal Services have been well chronicled, especially in our January cover story on the shelter, which described the conflicting mindsets there thusly: “The old dog catcher mentality of ‘catch, cage, kill,’ which focuses on rounding up strays, keeping them a short time and euthanizing…
The Redistricting Commission, charged with redrawing city council district boundaries, meets tomorrow at 6 p.m. at City Hall, at which time commission members Domingo Garcia, Donna Halstead and Gary Griffith and chair Ruth Morgan will present to the public early-look maps and district updates. But as Steve Thompson writes this…
The Cotton Bowl Classic, of course, is no longer played at the Cotton Bowl — hasn’t been for two years, when the bowl game decamped for Arlington, thus making it a very unhappy New Year ’round Fair Park at kickoff time. Then came along the TicketCity Bowl — Texas Tech…
One week from Wednesday, the Dallas City Council will hold a public hearing and, more than likely, vote to approve the long-awaited, much-discussed (here, at least) Downtown Dallas 360 plan. And while you may be familiar with many of its conceptual renderings and proposed “quick wins,” you’ve yet to read…
Following Thursday afternoon’s presser celebrating the anticipated approval of a plan to restore the Trinity River levee system’s 100-year flood protection, we asked City Manager Mary Suhm about the progress of the Margaret McDermott Bridge — the second Santiago Calatrava-designed bridge that will replace the current IH-30 bridge. After all,…
If the city’s shutting down another hookers-n-drugs party shack around town, you can bet Mayor Dwaine Caraway’s going to be there for the photo op, and so it was this morning at the Luxury Inn Motel in Southeast Dallas. Backed by a posse including neighborhood leaders, council members, City Attorney…
The 7-year-old who lives in my house and I have spent the last two weekends at Fair Park while he wrapped a school project; so — sniff — proud. And somewhere between walking around the Cotton Bowl and sitting in on an Assassination City Roller Derby warm-up at the Coliseum…
It was all smiles and back-slapping this afternoon as the city, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Trinity River Corridor Project partners celebrated the “fantastic news,” according to Mayor Dwaine Caraway: The levees are expected to be repaired by the end of the year, and the cost range of the…
With all the planet’s dwindling forests, contaminated waters and changing climate, it might take a 2012-themed recycling rally to scare new people into recycling more. But with Earth Day coming up, the city went with a “1960’s style Rally for Recycling” today at the Whole Foods in Lakewood — an…
Late yesterday, Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm and I had a long talk about several subjects, one of them being her efforts to trim the budget, yet again, this go-round anywhere from $60 to $110 million — depending, she said, upon how much the state and feds take from the…
Last night, good Friend of Unfair Park Lakewooder sent the photo you see at right — a couple of food trucks parked in the lot where once the Arcadia proudly stood till it was claimed by fire in June 2006. He asked of this mobile food court: “Is this a…
City Hall just sent word: Tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. in the Flag Room, Mayor Dwaine Caraway, Trinity River Corridor Project Committee Chairman Dave Neumann and representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Trinity Trust Foundation and Trinity Commons Foundation will hold a press conference to announce “significant news regarding…
