Dear Mexican: I work at a Seattle-based company, and our customer service department uses a phone tree system that asks all callers to press 1 for English, 2 for Spanish and a few other numbers for commonly spoken languages in our area. I handle customer complaints as part of my…
Former (and future?) DART board member Joyce Foreman Lots of buzz this week about a bizarre performance on Monday at City Hall by council member Dwaine Caraway. He tried to rattle Joyce Foreman, who was being interviewed by the council for reappointment to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit board. Foreman…
The Great Trinity Forest, while it’s still great Hey, just a shout-out here to any nature boys or girls out there who give a shit about the Great Trinity Forest. Because in July the city staff is supposed to pony up its master plan for the forest, and it’s rumored…
My last few dog-walking tours over the weekend have revealed to me that Rod Dreher, editorial writer at The Dallas Morning News, is the New Great Satan of Old East Dallas and Lakewood. I think I’m jealous. Lord. I had people coming off their porches at me to complain about…
FrontBurner has posted a long essay by Trey Garrison on why Dallas City Plan Commission member Neil Emmons is the Great Satan. Garrison cites several major development projects he says have been unfairly sabotaged by Emmons. Garrison clearly is a lot more familiar with the details on these projects than…
Somebody always says, “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” Sure. But I have a motto too. Make sure you can tell a gift horse from a damn wolf. I’m talking about the way the city council handles zoning issues and about those idiots over at The Dallas Morning…
Dear Mexican: Sitting on my desk is a levy from the Internal Revenue Service for more than $12,000 in unpaid taxes. Turns out some dude used my Social Security number for two years in Albuquerque to get paid and didn’t bother to pay taxes. It’s taken me plenty in time…
The New York Daily News is reporting that Dallas, among other cities, may be back in the running for fat “congestion mitigation” grants from the federalissimos, now that New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has been knifed in Albany on his plan for congestion pricing in Manhattan. If Dallas gets…
The expansion of the Deep Ellum Tax Increment Refinancing Zone to pay for a parking garage for the Latino Cultural Center, as mentioned below, flies in the face of the core argument the city makes for TIFs in the first place: the “but-for” argument. TIF money, after all, is tax…
Yesterday afternoon The Dallas Morning News published a story on its Web site about the Oinker Awards handed out by D.C.-based Citizens Against Government Waste. The headline was, “Nine Texas projects included in 2008 Congressional Pig Book.” The “Pig Book” is CAGW’s entire database of pork barrel projects — thousands…
Rufus Shaw The news that Rufus Shaw did not have cancer, according to autopsy results released yesterday, removes the one semi-plausible motive, however flimsy it may have been in the first place, for the March 10 shooting deaths of Shaw and his wife, Lynn Flint Shaw, former Dallas Area Rapid…
The thing about newspaper journalism is, we have to have labels for people. It’s just how it’s done. Laura Miller’s label used to be “Dallas Observer columnist.” Then it was “former journalist and city council member.” For a long time it was “Dallas mayor.” Up until recently she was “former…
Dear Readers: Belated April Fools’, amigos! So many of you fell for my hoax of a farewell column last week (don’t any of you know that the feast day of St. Melito falls on April 1?) that I’m compelled to actually call it quits just to bask in your love…
Dear Mexican: I’m a gay man in his mid-30s who has always loved Mexican men. And this question is not only from my experience, but also that of friends: Why is it that Mexican men are so flaky? They seem the top offending ethnicity in this. And by flaky, I…
I am an illegal alien that just turned 18. Is there anything I can do to become a legal alien besides deportation or marrying a U.S. citizen? —Wetback Who Wants to Dry His Back Dear Wab: Go back to Mexico—seriously. Section 212(a)(9)(B)(iii)(I) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act…
OK. Let’s do this. Colleen McCain Nelson of The Dallas Morning News editorial board has suggested it was tasteless of me to publish former DART chair Lynn Flint Shaw’s personal e-mails on our blog, Unfair Park, on March 11, the day after Shaw and her husband, Rufus, were found dead…
Dear Mexican: Mexicans are angry that the United States might protect its own borders, might make it harder to sneak into this country and, once here, to stay indefinitely. Let me see if I correctly understand the thinking behind these Mexicans. Let’s say I break into your house. Let’s say…
Lynn Flint Shaw Tomorrow’s edition of the Dallas Observer will include a story about a series of e-mails that have been in the Observer’s possession since last summer, depicting Lynn Flint Shaw as the enforcer in a tight-knit group called “The Inner Circle.” The e-mails have been on my desk…
Meet the latest installment in Get to Know a DART Executive Staff Member: Sharon Leary, who’s the vice president of finance. A bit more detail on the big reorganization at Dallas Area Rapid Transit: Save for planning director Doug Allen, the only other person to actually lose a job out…
All of the unmistakable and depressing signs are gathering over my neck of the woods in Old East Dallas. We seem to be in for another spike in crime, and I’m wondering again what I can do about it. The choices run the gamut. Do absolutely nothing—ignore it like a…
Dear Mexican: Why do Mexicans have padrinos for everything? I never understood why, can you help me out? —The Godfather Fan Dear Wab: Many gabachos have long wondered about the galaxy of godparents that surround Mexicans from birth to death, but it’s no misterio. Ostensibly, godparents (padrino is a godfather,…
DART President and Executive Director Gary Thomas Yesterday Dallas Area Rapid Transit CEO Gary Thomas informed his staff of the deal that’s essentially allowing him to keep his job after his billion-dollar budget bobble. Let’s see if Unfair Park can help expose some meaning or significance for you in the…
