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Jim Schutze

Jim Schutze has been the city columnist for the Dallas Observer since 1998. He has been a recipient of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies’ national award for best commentary and Lincoln University’s national Unity Award for writing on civil rights and racial issues. In 2011 he was admitted to the Texas Institute of Letters.

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Since When Did the Trinity River Project Come to Mean "Ferris Wheel"?

By Jim Schutze
Dec 31, 2008

I actually love the way news pops up in The Dallas Morning News. I pick up the paper every single morning and feel as though I'm visiting a foreign city for the first time. Every story, even the most mundane, is a forehead-slapper, because I have no idea what they're...
Port Whine: Delays on Inland Port Part of Familiar Pattern

On a clear day, you can see why development in southern Dallas has been screwed forever

By Jim Schutze
Dec 25, 2008

Go for a helicopter ride with me, will you? Let's look down on Dallas from some perspective. And, uh, sit a few inches farther away from me and keep that air sickness bag handy if you don't mind. Last week I reported on a powerful senior member of Congress, Eddie...
A Dash of SALT, or: Inside the Infamous Inland Port Proposal

By Jim Schutze
Dec 24, 2008

Santa came to my desk a day early. I have been papering City Hall with public-records requests for several weeks, and today, just in time, I finally got the one document I was hoping for: the written proposal to developer Richard Allen from three businessmen who wanted to be his...
Why Mayor Tom Wouldn't Admit to Running for Senate Even If He Were

By Jim Schutze
Dec 23, 2008

Wick Allison committed an act of journalism today by calling Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and asking him if he's going to run for Kay Bailey Hutchison's seat. Leppert gave him an answer that was not "No," which, in the language of politics, means "Yes." Only, he didn't say yes.The reason...
Fine. Be For the Hotel, Dallas News. Just Be Honest About Why.

By Jim Schutze
Dec 22, 2008

The Dallas Morning News says in an editorial today that voters should support a half-billion-dollar taxpayer-owned hotel downtown near the convention center and reject a ballot proposal next May that would stop the city from building it. The News says people shouldn't worry about whether we're headed into a economic...
Foster's Brook, or: The Dallas County Judge is Smarter Than He Lets On

By Jim Schutze
Dec 19, 2008

This should be said: One of the heroes in the otherwise ugly stupid saga of the inland port development in Southern Dallas has been Dallas County Judge Jim Foster.First of all: He figured it out. A very good source close to the county commissioners told me, "He's like a little...
Congresswoman Calls Out John Wiley Price for Shaking Down Development Deal

Local pols back off a master plan that would have put the squeeze on a major southern Dallas development

By Jim Schutze
Dec 18, 2008

It may not be Blago in Chicago, but it's definitely malice in Dallas. In fact the word that keeps popping up in relation to a master plan effort for the city's proposed inland port is shakedown. For a long time, Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price...
Dallas's Council Reps Send Very, Very Mixed Signals Over Int'l Inland Port

By Jim Schutze
Dec 16, 2008

I'm working on a new theory of life. I used to think the City of Dallas was obviously the big cheese in the region -- the wheel -- and that all of the little surrounding municipalities were sort of cheese wedges. Maybe I had it wrong. Maybe Dallas has cheese...
For Now, At Least, Mayor Leppert Won't Try to Sink the Inland Port

By Jim Schutze
Dec 11, 2008

It's over.Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert just cried "Uncle!" in the battle over the Southern Dallas "inland port," an expandable map of which is available at right. Chris Heinbaugh, the mayor's spokesman, confirmed for me by e-mail mere minutes ago reports I heard yesterday afternoon that Leppert was pulling his support...
In Which Jim's Not Jealous of Laura Miller at All. Not One Bit. Why?

By Jim Schutze
Dec 11, 2008

Under the headline "Refined Refuge," Traditional Home has come up what we news types here in Dallas might consider a pretty decent scoop. They have a story that answers the question: Where the hell has Laura Miller been the last year? Feathering her nest, looks like.The story is all about...
What's Commish John Wiley Price's Real Beef With the Inland Port?

By Jim Schutze
Dec 11, 2008

I will put my bleeding heart up next to anybody's bleeding heart. Community activist and blogger Sharon Boyd once told me, "Schutze, you're so liberal you won't even take your own side in an argument." I favor most forms of affirmative action, especially where minority contracting is concerned. Tell me...
Look, How Much Regional Government Do We Need, Anyway?

By Jim Schutze
Dec 9, 2008

The Dallas Morning News this afternoon posted an editorial urging people not to worry about so-called new extra levels of government and taxation being created to make their lives hell. The editorial also castigated Chicken Little types who spread rumors of new extra levels. My bumper sticker, incidentally, reads, "Chicken...
Cynthia Dunbar, Meet Michael Piazza. Michael Piazza, Meet Cynthia Dunbar.

By Jim Schutze
Dec 5, 2008

I have been worried about why George W. Bush wants to move back to Dallas. What does it say about us that he feels welcome here? Obviously he has chosen an address that may be outside the Park Cities proper but is still solidly within "The Bubble."He will be living...
Is the Trinity River Toll Road on a "Fast Track" to Completion? Um, No.

By Jim Schutze
Dec 4, 2008

Rudy Bush had a good story in The Dallas Morning News yesterday about the new Trinity River "overlook" unveiled by the city on Wednesday and how handy it is if you want to go down and marvel at the lack of progress. Basically, as Bush points out, it's a vantage...
Dallas' Inland Port of Gall

Old boys act like a bunch of hicks over the inland port that could mean progress in South Dallas

By Jim Schutze
Dec 4, 2008

I write a lot about how the city, Dallas proper, needs to defend itself against the suburbs. Sometimes I feel as if we are an urban Jerusalem surrounded by Nebuchadnezzar and all his Babylonian, golf-playing horde. But lately I'm wondering: Who's the horde? Them or us? I'm talking about this...
Meandering Back to the Trinity River Project -- Oh, What Memories!

By Jim Schutze
Dec 2, 2008

Oh, what a nice morning. I had an opportunity to check back in on an old companion of mine, the Trinity River Project, and I'm delighted to say the old boy hasn't changed not a jot nor a tiddle. Still dressed to the nines, lying through his teeth and playin'...
Studying the Dallas School Board and the "Theory of Action for Change"

By Jim Schutze
Nov 28, 2008

One of the more astounding discoveries I have made about the Dallas school board is that its recent behavior has been based on a so-called "theory of action for change" -- part of a program called The Reform Governance® Framework run by an outfit called the Center for Reform of...
DISD: Hitting Bottom, Then Reaching for a Shovel to Dig Deeper

Explanations be damned. There is only one justifiable response to the worst fiscal disaster in DISD history.

By Jim Schutze
Nov 27, 2008

Wait a minute. How many times are we going to discover that DISD is stupid? I do not think—and I suspect you do not think—it's even interesting anymore to learn that the financial accounting system at Dallas school headquarters looks like something the cat coughed up. Do you even read...
Why Doesn't DISD's HR Director Live in Dallas? 'Cause She Doesn't Have To.

By Jim Schutze
Nov 21, 2008

DISD HR director Kimberly Olson I've been trading e-mails since yesterday with Dallas Independent School District’s spokesman extraordinaire Jon Dahlander on the subject of retired Air Force colonel Kimberly Olson, head of personnel for the district. She’s the person who approved all the unfunded teacher hirings that supposedly put Dallas...
Party with DISD's Teachers from Abroad

By Jim Schutze
Nov 20, 2008

Snubbed again: A lot of times people have parties and they get so darned busy, they forget to invite Buzz. Buzz knows how embarrassed they must be when they finally realize their mistake. Totally unexpectedly, an anonymous e-mail arrived in Buzz's mailbox containing a scan of a paper invitation of...
DISD Trustees May Make Cutbacks in Democratic Process

DISD trustees may try to cancel next year's school board election to preserve the status quo and the superintendent

By Jim Schutze
Nov 20, 2008

Go ahead and say it. Sometimes you think I make things up. I know you do. I don't blame you. I can't even believe this stuff half the time myself. This is an example. If somebody else told me this, I would chalk it up to urban legend. Bad urban...
Is Destroying the DISD Really the Best Way to Fix It? Seriously.

By Jim Schutze
Nov 19, 2008

Interesting how these things go. Yesterday I posted an item about DART. The comments thread turned into a discussion of DISD. Did people just get confused about the acronyms? I don’t think so. I think the school system is very much on people’s minds now, mainly for bad reasons. The...