3,058 results

page 1 of 139

Eric Nicholson

Visit my author page »

Can Game-Changing "Community Schools" Model Survive Dallas ISD Politics?

By Eric Nicholson
Aug 2, 2016

On a sunny morning in early May, a wayward DART bus pulled to a stop in front of Paul Laurence Dunbar Learning Center in South Dallas. From the porches of tumbledown homes, neighbors glanced with mild curiosity as the school’s principal, Dionel Waters, stepped aboard. Waiting for him on the...
Advice for the Suburban Media Darling Daring to Ride DART

By Eric Nicholson
Jul 27, 2016

On Tuesday morning, the editorial board of The Dallas Morning News offered the newspaper of record's official take on Christie Myers, a 30-year-old white woman from the suburbs: She's awesome. What makes Myers so awesome? After hearing harrowing tales of hours-long public transit commutes from residents of the neighborhood in southeast Oak Cliff she's...
Section 8 City: Can Dallas Help Voucher Holders Escape the Ghetto?

By Eric Nicholson
Jul 25, 2016

No one who lives in the Estell Village Apartments very much wants to live in Estell Village Apartments. It’s a housing project, after all, 291 units spread across a warren of white-and-beige barracks near Paul Quinn College in southeast Oak Cliff. The apartments themselves are nice enough, no frills but...
Parking Saga on Lower Greenville Heads to Court

By Eric Nicholson
Jul 13, 2016

Over the past six years, Lower Greenville has undergone a transformation. Thanks to a few million in city bond funds, the street itself has gone from a potholed obstacle course (like the typical Dallas street) to a pedestrian-friendly avenue with space to sit and stroll. Dive bars have given way...
Dallas Had a Deadly July 4 Weekend

By Eric Nicholson
Jul 5, 2016

Independence Day, a time when Americans of all stripes come together to celebrate their nation's birth. Invariably, many do this by making all manner of terrible decisions involving booze, fireworks, large bodies of water, or some combination of the three. And invariably, some of those decisions prove fatal. Below is...
Dallas' Apartment Boom Might Go Bust Downtown

By Eric Nicholson
Jul 1, 2016

Dallas, as anyone with eyeballs has no doubt noticed, is in the middle of an apartment boom. Currently, the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area has 50,000 apartment units under construction, which, to put things in historical perspective, is a crapload. "It's been a long time since we've had 50,000 apartments under...
Ever Notice That Ken Paxton Issues Political AG Opinions Faster Than Banal Ones?

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 30, 2016

On Tuesday afternoon, four weeks to the day after Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick asked his office to weigh in, Attorney General Ken Paxton opined that a Fort Worth ISD policy allowing students to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity was illegal. The AG opinion is a curious thing...
In Dallas, Unlike Houston, Bullet Train's Path Is Unobstructed

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 28, 2016

In Dallas as in Houston, the twin termini of what they hope will be the nation’s first bullet train, government officials and civic boosters have expressed enthusiastic and unreserved support for Texas Central Railway’s effort to bring high-speed rail to Texas. At a joint 2014 press conference, Dallas Mayor Mike...
With Mata Montessori, Did DISD Sell Its Soul for the Middle Class?

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 27, 2016

Ester Zapata’s sister and brother attended Mount Auburn Elementary. Zapata’s two eldest children, now 24 and 18, went there as well. So when it came time for her youngest, Emily, to enter kindergarten, there was no question that she’d follow in the footsteps of her aunt and uncle and brother...
Dallas Announces It Will Close Tent City 2.0 by July 19

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 24, 2016

The closure of Dallas' Tent City is turning into a game of whack-a-mole. On Wednesday, city officials announced that it was beginning the process of closing two large homeless encampments, one under Interstate 30 and Haskell Avenue, the other beneath Interstate 45 at Coombs Street. Both sites have served as...
Dallas Firm at Center of Scheme that Allegedly Fleeced Pro Athletes

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 22, 2016

In court documents, the Securities and Exchange Commission refers to him only as "Client One," and all we know about him is that he is a prominent former Major League Baseball player who lost millions in a "Ponzi-like" scheme involving Ash Narayan, an investment adviser working for a Dallas-based wealth management...
5 Times Mayor Rawlings' Task Forces Denied Democracy

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 20, 2016

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings loves task forces. During five years in office he has created specialized committees both large (Rawlings’ domestic violence task force boasts more than 40 members) and small (the obscure senior citizen’s task force, chaired by Councilwoman Monica Alonzo, which we have to assume has some members, though...
Dallas' Biggest Boom Neighborhoods

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 20, 2016

North Texas is booming. Through April, the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area had more housing starts this year than any other place in the country, according to U.S. Census data, a solid 12 percent above second-place Houston. Most of the new units under construction (76 percent) are being built outside of...
Texas Anti-Towing Activist Also Serial I-35 Rock Thrower, Police Say

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 17, 2016

Among Texans who feel they've been screwed over by tow companies, Pat Johnson has established himself as something of a hero. Through his website, Texas Towing Compliance, his personal blog, and the advice he's freely dispensed pro bono over the phone on the finer points of towing law, such as...
In Trinity Golf Club Lawsuit, Dallas City Hall Admits That Its Promises Mean Nothing

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 15, 2016

When it's finished later this year, the Trinity Forest Golf Club will be, per Avid Golfer magazine, "pretty freaking awesome." It will be expansive and undulating, with carpet-like greens and fairways accented by native grasses, all just a short hop from Downtown Dallas. In the meantime, the private Company of...
DART Has Spent $5 Billion on Light Rail. Is It Worth It?

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 10, 2016

Twenty years ago on Tuesday, Dallas Area Rapid Transit officially got into the light-rail business, opening an 11-mile “starter system” that carried passengers between downtown’s Pearl Station on the north and Oak Cliff in the south (Westmoreland Station on the Red Line, Illinois Station on the Blue Line). Since then,...
Has Dallas ISD Finally Stopped Hemorrhaging the Middle Class?

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 8, 2016

Of Dallas ISD's 227 schools, eight are reasonably affluent, meaning half or less of their student populations are poor. Even then, to get to eight, one must count William B. Travis Academy (fourth and fifth grades) separately from William B. Travis Vanguard (sixth through eighth) even though they share a...
A Father Goes to Extremes When His Son Loses His Place on Pearce High's Basketball Team

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 7, 2016

On a chill night four days after Christmas, Steve Baxter settled into the molded plastic bleachers in The Colony High School gymnasium and beamed as his younger son, Andrew, took the court for his fifth straight game as the Richardson Pearce Mustangs’ starting point guard. Baxter had ample reason to...
Dallas' Black Population Faces Much Higher Odds of Arrest for Marijuana than Whites

By Eric Nicholson
Jun 6, 2016

Marijuana wasn't always illegal in the United States. In colonial times, hemp was used as legal tender in colonial Pennsylvania, Virginia and Maryland. In the 1800s, cannabis was ubiquitous as an ingredient in tinctures and pharmaceuticals. Its highly concentrated extract, hashish, enjoyed a burst of popularity in mid-century, captured in...
5 Real True Facts About Dallas Millennials

By Eric Nicholson
May 27, 2016

Last week, The Dallas Morning News' real estate oracle Steve Brown, who is still old, reported that goddamned lazy millennials won't get off their parents' couch. This is a real bummer for the real estate industry, which is booming but could boom even harder if millennials could cut their umbilical cords and act...
Crime, Race and Suspicion Converge on NextDoor in Merriman Park

By Eric Nicholson
May 25, 2016

The Merriman Park/University Manor neighborhood, which sits at the northern tip of White Rock Lake in the liminal space between Lakewood and Lake Highlands, is on alert. In recent days, a handful of residents, most of them with homes that back up to DART's White Rock Station, have had their...
Fight Over Texas Bullet Train — and Eminent Domain — Heads to Washington

By Eric Nicholson
May 23, 2016

In the four years Texas Central Railway unveiled plans to link Dallas and Houston with the country's first bullet train, officials with the private company have talked a lot about how quickly the line will whisk travelers between two of the country's largest fastest-growing urban areas, about how darn Texan...