Murphy’s Law

Dallas Morning News reporter Kent Fischer has a story on the Metro front today revealing that the Dallas Independent School District (has been lying about fired credit card manager Sherri Brokaw. I wrote about her case in the paper version of Unfair Park in September, and I said she was…

Ask A Mexican

Dear Mexican: I was born in beautiful El Paso, and my parents are from Juaritos. I always wondered why Mexican restaurants en los Estados Unidos use queso amarillo—which I associate with los Estados Unidos—on their food instead of queso asadero or queso Oaxaca, which taste so much better. And who…

The City Should Do Real Well at Running a Convention Center Hotel

Today, after lunch, the Dallas city council will snooze through a lengthy briefing by the city’s economic development staff on how to fix downtown. It’s called “Revitalizing Downtown: Creating Anchors to blah, blah, blah.” One of the high concept ideas here will be spending zillions of tax dollars to create…

This Little Piggy Goes to Town

Apologies to the civilians in the room. I need to speak directly to the bloodhounds at The Dallas Morning News. Please excuse us while we engage in a bit of canine shop talk, just among us ink-stained wretches. Your managing editor, George Rodrigue, posted a rebuttal this afternoon to an…

Crow, Smoked Over Cedars

Oh, good, my favorite dish. Time for a bite of crow. In my column in the paper version of Unfair Park this week, I wax rhapsodic — apparently catatonic — on urban redevelopment taking place in the concentric rings around downtown — “without any help from and often in spite…

Inner City Grows Despite Dallas City Hall

I have always been a member of the Church of We-Have-to-Save-Downtown. Whatever that means. I sing in the choir. It’s a lifelong expression of my profound wannabe urban cosmopolitology. A religion. Why? Obvious. Because downtown is…uh, well it’s down. And it’s…you know…town. Now all of a sudden I have doubts…

Ask a Mexican

Dear Mexican: With a scant four weeks before I cram my mochila with a few clothes for me and a horde of presents (read: bribes) for my future cuñadas, sobrinas y mi mera suegra, I found myself terror-stricken tonight as mi novio and I watched a home video of his…

What’s the Rush, Mayor Tom? Hidin’ Something?

Wow. Now this takes a little bit of work to follow, but I think it’s worth it. And here is where we are headed: First, The Dallas Morning News hides the ball. Then, to cover themselves, they show the ball — very briefly, sort of a sneak peek. But now…

Down on Downtown

Very interesting piece on The Wall Street Journal op-ed page today about “cool cities” versus “family-friendly cities,” suggesting cities like Dallas do better because they attract well-employed young breeders rather than sidewalk hipsters. The essay, by The New Geography author Joel Kotkin, cites research that runs against the grain of…

In East Dallas, HOAs Care If You’re an Asshole

So if East Dallas is Cool Dallas, then everybody in East Dallas must be cool with each other, right? But in fact it’s a strange law of human nature that nobody gets more un-cool with each other than cool people. Yeah, and that is exactly what I am telling myself…

Ask A Mexican

Dear Mexican: What’s the deal with Spanish-language car dealership commercials that feature bikini-clad porn star wannabes copulating with used cars? I just saw one where three girls were rubbing melted chocolate on each other. Surely, no one in mainstream Caucasian America could get away with such overtly sexual, misogynistic advertising…

This Dog Will Hunt

Well, a very disappointing outcome today in the situation I am wrote about in my column this week: The Dallas Homeowners League has opted to bar the Belmont Neighborhood Association from membership in the DGHL. Why? Because Avi Adelman is a member of the BNA. The DHL’s six-page letter of…

Michael Morris, King of the Roads

Michael Morris, Director of Transportation for the NCTCOG, lives in Arlington. Which doesn’t stop him from poking his nose into other cities’ bidness. Michael Morris sighting this morning. I want to read it into the record. Morris, of course, is my least favorite local politician. Nothing personal. Morris is “transportation…

Jim Schutze Doesn’t Forgive or Forget

I know I promised I was going to go Dallas Morning News-free for a while, but I’m sitting here in the homely home office with the shakes and the jitters, and I just gotta have one more pull on that sweaty bottle of Old DMN. Michael Lindenberger is the guy…

Trinity Toll Road May Cost More Than Promised

Sorry. One more column about The Dallas Morning News and the recent Trinity River toll road referendum, then I promise to do a twelve-steps thing. I think there is a larger theme–the difference between the Dallas that believes in telling the truth and the Dallas that doesn’t get it or…

Ask a Mexican

Dear Mexican: Is Lou Dobbs right when he says that close to 80 hospitals in California have been closed down because of the illegals, or is he lying? —Cabrónes No Necesitamos Dear CNN: Dobbs is right to a certain point, and only in spite of his idiocy. The father of…

Jim Needs The News‘ Help With a Little Fact-Checking

Public Appeal to Michael A. Lindenberger, transportationologist, Dallas Morning News: I called you yesterday seeking comment on a story you had in The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday saying that the North Texas Tollway Authority may have to ask Dallas taxpayers for more money for the Trinity River toll road…

Smile When You Say That

Dear Mexican: I like to think that I’m an open-minded sorta guy for a teenager. I fervently oppose racial stereotypes, though I do think that they’re good for a laugh or two sometimes. I have several Mexican friends, and none of them live up to the “Mexican standard” of lawn…

Sweet/Sour Grapes on Trinity Referendum Results

This is one of the worst deadline pickles I think I have ever encountered in my 200 years as a newspaper writer. I am writing this at the end of the week before the Trinity toll road election. The results from the election will come in about an hour after…