The City Council's agenda yesterday was chock full of actually interesting stuff. You can relive it any time you want through the city's database of archived council videos. But just in case you have something better to do, we'll summarize the high points.
It's Not Raining On Tennell Atkins' Parade, Which Is Actually a Golf Course You've no doubt heard that the city and AT&T plan to build a world-class (down a shot!), PGA-caliber golf complex on a 400-acre landfill in southern Dallas. You just haven't heard many details beyond that.
That's because there aren't any. It's City Manager Mary Suhm's job to get out there and twist some arms and come up with an actual proposal. The City Council voted unanimously to let her do so. Not to build the golf course, but to allow Suhm to negotiate terms of a potential deal, which seems to have already been happening, unofficially.
By doing so, the council also opted not to rain on Tennell Atkins' parade.
"Please do not rain on my parade," he warned his colleagues, according to the Morning News. "It's a great parade for the city of Dallas, and people are out there looking at us. And you are raining on our birthday. This is a birthday and a celebration for the city of Dallas."
City Hall Officially Recognizes Existence of Cyclists It took longer and involved way more kvetching by council member Sandy Greyson than it should have, but the City Council finally passed a don't-be-a-dick-to-cyclists ordinance this afternoon.
That means that cutting off cyclists or veering in front of them to make a turn is officially illegal. So is pelting them with objects from car windows, no matter how much their spandex unitard cries out for it.
The ordinance, watered down only slightly from its original incarnation, levies a maximum penalty of $300 on violators, or at least the ones who are caught and ticketed.
Police Chief David Brown has not placed this at the top of the department's priority list. It'll be interesting to check back in six months to see how many citations have been written under the new statute.
Where the Horses At? There were some technical difficulties with the online video feed of the meeting today, so I caught only a snippet of council member Vonciel Jones Hill saying "People who come here for the conventions say 'Where are the horses?'" before the connection failed.
I didn't get to hear Hill's explanation of why that means Dallas needs a $15 million horse park, but a dozen of her colleagues on the council agreed with her, voting to seal deals with two nonprofits, Equest and River Ranch Educational Charities, that will run the operation.
This of course comes after the Park Board took a mostly symbolic stand against the Texas Horse Park last week.
Maybe soon people can stop asking Hill where the horses are.
