Doesn't get more street level than today's meeting of the city council's Transportation and Environment Committee. The city's looking to rewrite the City of Dallas Traffic Barricade Manual, which seems like heresy; the original's considered a classic. Alas, it needs updating: "to maximize citation issuance," natch. That's but one item on the action-packed agenda this afternoon, where they'll also talk about inventorying the city's sidewalks ("One, two, three ... a million") -- which, if I read this correctly, need about $1.7 billion worth of work once you also toss in streets and alleys also in desperate need of fixing.
Which makes the Love Field People Mover look like a deal by comparison: It now appears to run somewhere in the $200 million to $330 million range, or, as Mayor Tom calls it, "chump change." Alas, probably burying the lead here: Within the next year, the city wants to kick-start a plastic-bag recycling program, on its way to banning them entirely within the next three to five years. Why the long wait? "Potential legal challenges," also a decent enough band name. --Robert Wilonsky
