For the past several months, Angela Hunt and Pauline Medrano have been touting the proposed ordinance that would turn a huge swath of Lower Greenville Avenue into a so-called Planned Development District. Among the requirements contained within the ordinance: Any venue hoping to stay open past midnight, including restaurants and…
It was but one week ago we revisited, after some time off, the legal brouhaha between the Museum of the American Railroad and the City of Dallas, which sued to remove the museum from Fair Park almost a year ago. For those not keeping score: The museum said in early…
Last week, Robert passed along the news that omnipresent North Oak Cliff lawyer and activist Scott Griggs would be stepping up to challenge Dave Neumann for his city council seat in District 3 — but Griggs waited till today, on the afternoon of his 36th birthday, to make it official…
Afternoon, Friends. Thanks for tuning into today’s liveblog of the Transportation and Environment Committee meeting up here in City Hall, during which we’ll hear about plans to market the Dallas Executive Airport and Dallas’s Complete Streets Initiative.Things kicked off late because the Quality of Life Committee meeting ran overtime –…
Meant to get to this a few days ago, when a Friend of Unfair Park directed our attention to Walmart’s Fighting Hunger Together website. Long story short: Walmart, in conjunction with the Food Research and Action Center, is doling out $1.5 million to food banks nationwide. But it’s handing out…
Before it takes off on its holiday break, the city council will, on Wednesday, take a look at the three themes consultant Gensler is proposing for the new-n-improved Love Field Airport’s terminals. Gensler, which has experience from Jackson Hole to JFK International, lays out its case for each in this…
After the death of Lauren Huddleston in October, when a cyclist crashed into the jogger along the Katy Trail, and a car-and-cyclist collision two weeks later, council member Angela Hunt wrote that she’d met with city staff and Friends of the Katy Trial to “address trail safety for all users.”…
Both of you who followed along with yesterday’s liveblog of the Animal Shelter Commission will remember that former ASC member and animal rights bigwig Jonnie England wondered during the public comment: Why is Tyrone McGill, the former Dallas Animal Services manager who has been indicted on charges of animal cruelty…
Yesterday, in the comments to the item about the city’s new-and-improved panhandlingsolicitation ordinance, longtime Friend of Unfair Park Syd Nancy wondered: “Will this affect the JFK Conspiracy Guy who sells stuff down by the Depository?” Syd’s referring to Robert Groden, who’s currently involved in a legal tussle with the city…
Yesterday in Dallas County District Court, attorney Andy Siegel — who, from the very beginning, has contested the citywide off-premise sale of beer and wine — filed an amended version of his November complaint. It reads much the same (he says city called election without enough valid signatures to do…
Back in March 2009, the Office of the City Auditor released that damning report about the state of the Dallas Municipal Court. To which Angela Hunt, chair of the council’s Judiciary Committee (for now), responds with this update, which says, long story short: “Over the last year and a half,…
If you’re not familiar with the Dallas Development Fund, well, neither were we until we discovered it would be spending this afternoon in the basement of City Hall discussing developer Jack Matthews’ boutique hotel project adjacent to South Side on Lamar, a proposed mixed-use development near the Dallas Veterans Affairs…
Operation Crackdown is rumbling along through Dallas today, as the Texas National Guard continues knocking down abandoned buildings all over the city — dilapidated havens for drug use and prostitution, few, if any, with Christmas decorations to mark the season. Dwaine Caraway told us on Monday afternoon that they’d already…
Merry afternoon, Friends. I’m here at City Hall for today’s Animal Shelter Commission meeting. They’ll be discussing the recently released, mildly damning Humane Society report on the troubled Dallas Animal Services, which, under the new leadership of interim manager Lieutenant Scott Walton, has been trying to do an about-face in…
On Monday we sneak-peeked the ordinance creating those so-called Solicitation-Free Zones in downtown, Deep Ellum, Uptown and Victory; yesterday, with little to say other than “yay,” the council approved the revision to the City Code, adding to the existing law a $500 fine for panhandlers and extending its enforcement hours…
As the Dallas City Council wraps up its last meeting of the year, they’ll consider adjusting the city’s Permanent Supportive Housing Program — to keep the council notified when new proposals come in and to “encourage developers and applicants to brief key neighborhood and community groups.” In other words, to…
Council elections are in May, and this morning we learn that District 3 rep Dave Neumann will square off against a political newcomer (of sorts): Scott Griggs, with whom you’re probably familiar by now. The attorney is, after all, among the more outspoken and visible of the North Oak Cliff…
Last night a hundred or so folks interested in downtown development gathered at the Dallas Convention Center — where they were filming an episode of Chase! — to be presented with the findings from the Downtown Dallas 360 plan and, ostensibly, to provide some input and feedback. Bobsky and I…
In case you’d forgotten all about City of Dallas v. Museum of the American Railroad, rest assured: It’s alive and well in Dallas County District Court, where, in recent days, there have been myriad filings and hearings in advance of a January 25 court date that comes almost one year…
Grimes and I went to the convention center last night for the unveiling of the Downtown Dallas 360 plan — which is to say, the 164-page PowerPoint thumbed through in advance of the final plan that’ll be presented to the city council next month. (Council’s scheduled to approve the plan…
It’s open season on drug houses in Dallas today, with the Texas National Guard kicking off its two-week Operation Crackdown campaign — demolishing around 50 otherwise vacant crack dens and stash houses — and the city tearing down the first of South Dallas’s Summer Breeze Apartments after a years-long court…
Even though the city council ultimately added half a mil back to the Dallas Public Library’s new-materials budget back in September, seems the grand total of more than a million wasn’t enough to keep up with the demand for new titles. Hence the e-mail that just arrived from City Hall…
