For those willing to fight through the poor video quality, I condensed my footage from yesterday’s city council meeting, where Angela Hunt and Mayor Tom Leppert had different ideas about how the report from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers affects the city’s plans to jam a toll road in…
The ad above began airing on local television stations this morning and represents the third installment from the anti-hotel group in what has become an extremely pricey effort funded largely by Harlan Crow to thwart the city’s plans to build a publicly owned convention center hotel. It features the recent…
Since the Dallas City Council approved the developer and operator agreements for the convention center hotel, the Vote No’ers have been eagerly awaiting an upswing in the bond market. A favorable shift would allow the city to land the 5.5 percent interest rate it deems reasonable before asking the council…
Brint Ryan in a press release urged fellow city council candidate Ann Margolin to stop misleading voters by campaigning on a senior tax issue that has already been proposed by City Manager Mary Suhm and the Dallas City Council. Ryan cited campaign materials sent out by Margolin, which tout her…
Mayor Tom Leppert and wife Laura spent yesterday worshiping at churches in South Dallas, where services were interrupted so the mayor could give his convention center hotel sales pitch and instruct audience members how to vote May 9. “We need you to go to the polls and vote no on…
Citing Wednesday’s editorial in The Dallas Morning News, Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel in a press release blasted Mayor Tom Leppert for misleading Dallas voters during the Trinity River toll road campaign by withholding information regarding the cost of the project and risk to the levees. The anti-hotel group also…
At 8:50 this morning, The Real Estate Council sent to local media its Government Affairs Committee’s endorsements for the upcoming Dallas City Council race. Not a whole lot of WTF there: All the incumbents got the nod save for Carolyn Davis, as the GAC went instead with Dallas school board…
To my delight, I returned from vacation and discovered that the Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Trinity Turnpike has finally been released. It would have been a nice read on the plane ride home, but rest assured I’ll be scouring the 1,942 pages and reporting back shortly. In…
In light of the news that American International Group — better known as AIG — is doling out those “distasteful” but nonetheless delicious bonuses to its execs, the House Financial Services Subcommittee is meeting at this very moment to discuss AIG and “how it got into its current situation, why…
Several Friends of Unfair Park have gotten the jump on their Sunday New York Times and found within two stories with local ties. Chief among them: the magazine story about George W. Bush’s Freedom Institute on the SMU campus. Much of it rehashes the last two-plus years’ worth of controversy,…
When the pro-hotel group kicked off its campaign at City Hall, they touted the 195,000 room nights and more than $200 million in economic impact booked by the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau resulting from the city council moving forward with plans to build a convention center hotel. Led by…
Just arrived in Austin, only to find in my in-box, oh, ’bout a dozen Friends’ links to either Governor Rick Perry’s speech down in Houston or the Burnt Orange Report’s compendium of reactions to said speech. As you may know by now, the governor is saying no to more than…
Mayor Tom Leppert and Anne Raymond of Crow Holdings and Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel made another campaign stop at the Bachman Recreation Center in front of approximately 40 people eager to hear the pros and cons of building a convention center hotel. Although Leppert is always an active speaker…
Elizabeth Villafranca entered the limelight in 2006, as Farmers Branch began its illegal-immigrant battle that rages to this day. As we mentioned earlier this week, the Cuquitas co-owner has decided to run for city council in the FB. Unfair Park caught up with her yesterday for a Q&A — during…
You’ll no doubt recognize the headline as one of Chuck Norris’s favorite Chuck Norris Facts. Which I don’t mention solely because today happens to be Walker, Texas Ranger’s 69th birthday, but because of a freshly minted Chuck-penned essay on the conservative Web site World Net Daily. It was forwarded our…
City Secretary Deborah Watkins and her staff this morning in the Flag Room at City Hall announced the ballot positions for the May 9 city council elections, as Billy MacLeod, Victoria Walton, Tiffinni Young, John Jay Myers and Anita Dade gained an early leg up on the incumbents in their…
‘Bout 20 minutes from now, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk will go before the Senate Committee on Finance for his confirmation hearing as U.S. trade ambassador — finally, right? We’re having a watch party at Unfair Park HQ: Schutze brought the churros; Merten, the Moosehead. And I brought the Maker’s…
Back in November 2006, Megan Feldman wrote for the paper version of Unfair Park a lengthy piece about Farmers Branch and then-city council member Tim O’Hare’s fight to rid the city of illegal immigrants, especially those living in rental properties. Much of the piece dealt with the politicization of Elizabeth…
Despite Mayor Tom Leppert and the city council’s plans to begin construction on the convention center hotel April 1 and rush to sell bonds on the project to quash the May 9 referendum, it’s still a vote Leppert and his fellow Build the Hotel’ers (soon to be Vote No! Keep…
When the Dallas City Council last week replaced former council member John Loza on the DFW Airport board with Brenda Reyes, we were reminded of the memorable 1997 battle between the two for the District 2 council seat. Reyes struggled with controversy early in her campaign, and she later spent…
Anne Raymond of Crow Holdings and Citizens Against the Taxpayer-Owned Hotel in a missive sent to Mayor Tom Leppert yesterday accuses him of running a “campaign of negative personal attacks.” She also asks why Leppert is rushing forward with construction of the convention center hotel in an attempt to nullify…
Here you’ll find the Petition In Support Of A House Censure For Representative Leo Berman and be able to “join the movement” — which, truthfully, could be stronger. Despite a week’s worth of news coverage concerning one man’s efforts to reprimand the Tyler state representative for remarks made during a…
