Robert Wilonsky's column Thursday in The Dallas Morning News will be his last as the paper's full-time city columnist.

After more than 30 years working for the Observer, LA Weekly and the Morning News, Wilonsky is moving on. He's taking a new day job as the communications director for Dallas' Heritage Auctions. Wilonsky will continue to contribute to the paper, according to a press release.

Wilonsky, an almost lifelong Dallas resident, left the Observer for the Morning News in 2012, leaving behind the Unfair Park news blog that he helped turn from an experiment into an institution.

At the Morning News, Wilonsky had his hand in everything, starting as the paper's digital managing editor but serving as its jack-of-all-things Dallas, covering City Hall, preservation and municipal odds-and-ends with a consistent eye on Dallas' future and its past. His new, occasional column for the DMN's op-ed page will be called "This City, I Swear."

"I am not running away, merely stepping aside to take on a different challenge at a new place — a rare opportunity after more than 30 years of doing one thing every single day," Wilonsky said in the press release announcing his departure. "It also affords me the chance to do something I could not while a full-time newspaper man — I can now serve on a board or commission at City Hall, and actually do a thing I could only write about from the sidelines."

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