Vonciel Jones Hill If it weren’t for two members of the city council yesterday, I don’t think the public would ever have known what just happened on that convention hotel deal. It wasn’t the price of the land. It wasn’t the location of the hotel. Those were red herrings. The…
Wow. This is starting to feel like a real city. Now we’ve got real estate mogul Harlan Crow hurling brickbats at media mogul Robert Decherd’s plan for a city-owned downtown convention hotel. We’ve got the rich people behind the Dallas Summer Musicals throwing rocks at the rich people behind the…
Dear readers: My recent column regarding the dissimilarities between Scots and Mexicans provoked a surprising amount of angry responses—by real Scotsmen furious that letter writer Great Scot could be so pendejo. Here’s the best reader carta: Having just read Great Scot’s question and your response, I can’t help but think…
A better, smoother day of transportation. And lower gas prices. Let’s pretend for a moment that I like NASCAR. I did, since I know you forgot, once write about it. So there. There’s the flimsy sports connection to this rant. It involves the ridiculous 14-mile stretch of HOV lane on…
Erle Nye, former chairman of the board at TXU The dynamic this morning at city council, as they debate that city-owned convention center hotel, kind of tells the whole story about how things work in Dallas. Speaking in favor of the hotel was an all-star line-up of business and political…
Dorit Rabinovitch Living in Detroit, and having black friends who cared enough to speak candidly to me, I learned a long time ago that all white people of a certain age are racist. That includes me. It includes Steve Blow. Growing up white in a racist society distorts your perception…
Look at this way: I’m not trying to get you to vote against the school bond in the May 10 election. And even if I were, so what? I’m against everything, right? I’d hate to be on a jury deciding my own fate. But I do have issues. Like that…
Dear Readers: The paperback version of my book is out in stores now, cheap enough so that even a Guatemalan can afford it. Buy, por favor! Now, on to the preguntas… Dear Mexican: Whenever I see the television show COPS, the white folks pull over and hope no one searches…
Edward Okpa Mayor Tom Leppert and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway — whom I have always wanted to describe as the Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid of Dallas City Hall, but I can’t figure out which one’s Butch — have nominated Nigerian-born businessman and former mayoral contender Edward Okpa…
Why was Big Brown so happy after winning the Kentucky Derby?…
Today’s agenda at City Hall is a great example of the low regard they have down there for the wretched taxpayers of the world. Drum roll, please: Big and bright, up front and public at 9:30 this a.m. for your entertainment and enlightenment, ladies, gentlemen and hard-working farmhands — a…
This picture isn’t me, my office or my pointy lamp. Nonethless, I’ll try to blog on weekends. Try. Stay tuned. — Richie Whitt…
I’m getting a big stall this morning from Dallas Independent School District HQ on a question I put to them regarding the Deloitte Touche external audit, which is months late and in no hurry to poke out a hole and see its shadow. That usually means DISD bigwigs are preparing…
Pissed for years at my ramblings in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram? Constantly annoyed by my weekly columns in the Dallas Observer? Despise my bloggy rants over at Unfair Park? Well then, congratulations and welcome to your worst nightmare – my own sports blog. As long as you’re here, grab a…
Mayor Tom Leppert is still the pilot, but the plane is in stall. No rudder. No engine. Leppert and the whole city council gaze out at the silence of the clouds. He could pull it up. He probably will pull it up. But this is a ragged moment, and I…
Dear Mexican: Consider the similarities between my people, the Celtic Scots, and yours, the Hispanic Mexicans. Both our people trace roots back to Spain. We sailed north to the British Isles and mixed with the aboriginals to become the Scots; you sailed west to mix with the aboriginal Americans. The…
From the Collections of the Texas/Dallas History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library Pacific Avenue, circa 1920 In last week’s paper version of Unfair Park, I wrote about the mess we’re going to have next year when Dallas Area Rapid Transit spills a whole new rail line of traffic down…
Texas Association of School Boards I wish Wilonsky would take the amazingly long list of comments on my recent Woodrow Wilson High School item, bind them in pigskin and publish them as an anthology. Taken together, the whole package is a fascinating specimen of blogography. The original item was one…
Look, if you’re like me you don’t wake up in the morning thinking, “I can’t wait to find out what happened overnight in regional rail policy.” I could wait a lifetime. But I also don’t want to wake up two years from now in a nightmare where downtown Dallas is…
Dear Readers: The paperback version of my book is out in stores now, cheap enough so that even a Guatemalan can afford it. Buy, por favor! Now, on to the preguntas… Dear Mexican: Lately, I’ve been hearing how punks and metalheads in Mexico are trying to beat up emos because…
WXIA-TV When Terrell Bolton got forced out as Chief of Police in Dallas, there was a certain amount of heart-bleeding among persons who saw his fate as somehow tragic. Maybe he was elevated too rapidly, they said. You know, like maybe he didn’t have enough oxygen in his head. And…
Former (and future?) DART board member Joyce Foreman Pretty good fireworks this morning at the city council meeting over a last-minute decision by the mayor to delay consideration of appointments to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board. Several members clearly thought the mayor and his partner, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine…
