Dallas Area Rapid Transit was conceived in sin. Dallas wanted to father a light rail system, but in order to get the money to pay for it, Dallas married its first cousin, Suburbia. Now DART, the progeny of this cynical union, is sadly, uh…not quite right. DART announced in early…
Dear readers: Mucho feedback from ustedes regarding recent questions about archetypical Mexican dogs and the propensity of wabs to D.U.I. Let’s empezar with the doggies: You’re right about Chihuahuas. Crazy, tough dogs. I’m a dog rescuer (www.geocities.com/st-roch), and we once found a Chihuahua in a box by the side of…
Former Dallas City Manager John Ware — now, apparently, the mayor’s pick to replace DART board chair Lynn Flint Shaw Dallas Area Rapid Transit board chairman Lynn Flint Shaw’s resignation today is the first public eruption of a whole hell of a lot of fire and brimstone going on beneath…
DART board of directors chairman Lynn Flint Shaw I saw Dallas Morning News reporter Rudy Bush at yesterday’s meeting of the city council’s Transportation and Environment Committee, and, you know, just trying to make small-talk, I said, “Hey, when are you guys going to do your Lynn Flint Shaw story?”…
Gary Fitzsimmons looks like somebody famous, we just can’t figure who. Vince McMahon? Gary Cole? Dang it. Lil’ help? Every reporter knows you never know when you’re going to know something. I was perusing the new newsletter from Dallas County District Clerk Gary Fitzsimmons. Why? Well, I don’t know, except…
You know all those people you see riding the DART train? It costs you $3.66 every time one of them gets on a train. Maybe you’re like me and believe it’s worth it, within limits. Theoretically we’ll all be better off if DART can get more people out of cars…
Dear Mexican: At a weekly Doors tribute band gig, I’ve noticed the majority of the crowd is Mexican. I swear, sometimes it seems like the crowd missed the exit to the Lupillo Rivera show or a Maná concert. Never realized Jim Morrison was the equal of Morrissey and Charles Bronson…
Pins and needles this morning about Dallas Area Rapid Transit board chairperson Lynn Flint Shaw and the grand jury. Very strong rumors for the last few days were that Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins would offer Shaw a Class A misdemeanor plea on the accusation that she forged his…
The biggest issue facing Dallas Area Rapid Transit right now is the growing drumbeat for an independent audit, based on DART’s billion-dollar budget goof. That means some accounting firm may get the job of doing an overall performance audit. And the first one in line for that job might be…
Normally I can’t think of a meeting that would be fun to attend at 8 in the morning, but I must say this morning’s meeting of the executive committee of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board was intriguing. The DART board’s been in a pickle this last month, ever since…
In my e-mail in-box this morning was this message that makes a very good point about The Dallas Morning News and its coverage of the Calatrava bridges — you remember them, right? Writes our new pal Kyle: I grow increasingly frustrated with Bruce Tomaso’s continuing inaccuracies in The Dallas Morning…
DART board of directors chairperson Lynn Flint Shaw, who’s yet to respond to Unfair Park I did try hard to get a response from Dallas Area Rapid Transit board of director chair Lynn Flint Shaw for my item yesterday about the $17,000 discrepancy in her city council campaign finance report…
DART board of directors chairperson Lynn Flint Shaw, who also ran for city council — very briefly Dallas lawyer Michael Sorrell told Unfair Park yesterday he had received less than $2,000 as a consultant to one-time city council candidate Lynn Flint Shaw — even though Shaw’s campaign finance reports show…
Dear Mexican: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that Mexican-Americans have the highest proportion of D.U.I.’s and alcohol-related traffic fatalities of any ethnic group (60 percent as opposed to 40 percent for Caucasians—they’re even substantially higher than any other Latino group). I apologize that this question isn’t wisecracky, but…
This is what Roger and Marc Andres have in mind for Henderson Avenue — in place of an abandoned Carnival. I went to the Andres Brothers’ deal last night, where they unveiled their plans for the redevelopment of the Carnival site on Henderson Avenue near Ross Avenue. A real East…
Dallas City Attorney Tom Perkins Yesterday I asked Dallas City Attorney Tom Perkins why Mayor Tom Leppert and/or Lynn Flint Shaw, a City of Dallas appointee to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors, are not in violation of the city’s ethics code, which prohibits a city appointee from…
DART Board of Director chair Lynn Flynt Shaw, also a good Friend of Tom Leppert Back during the Trinity River toll road debate, Dallas City Attorney Tom Perkins just stopped responding to my calls when I asked certain kinds of questions, especially about possible violations of the city’s ethics code…
DART president and executive director Gary Thomas can back-fill your pain. Dallas Area Rapid Transit Board of Directors chair Lynn Flint Shaw, in the news lately over a forgery accusation, sat sequestered in a corner of the room where reporters couldn’t get to her yesterday, while DART director Gary Thomas…
We finally figured out what those orbs are in the mosquito pond in front of City Hall: the city council’s testicles. Glory be, the Dallas city council isn’t dead after all. And just when I was beginning to expect a story out of City Hall that started out, “Police were…
Dear Mexican: I feel that the more Mexicans who come to this country, the better. I am a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. In our Book of Mormon, on page 54, it says on the left side of the page in verse…
Dirt skirts. Understand dirt skirts, and you understand the Earth. Some weeks ago I received e-mails from an esteemed neighbor warning me of an important City Hall issue having to do with “dirt skirts.” I wrongly assumed we were talking about our perennial East Dallas problem with prostitutes. Dirt skirts,…
I attended some of today’s meeting of the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board during which they tried, once again, to explain why they are suddenly a billion dollars short on the cost of the proposed new rail lines to suburban Irving and Rowlett. It was supposed to cost $1 billion…
