Yesterday’s announcement in The Dallas Morning News of a new Dallas-based $75 million private bullet-train fund was not actually about a new Dallas-based $75 million private bullet-train fund. It was about screwing southern Dallas. Not since southern Dallas got screwed out of the Richard Allen Inland Port opportunity — a…
Hey, Julian Castro. Thanks a ton. That was sarcastic. You’re the Obama administration’s new secretary of Housing and Urban Development. First thing you did when you took office nine months ago was yank the rug from under a major housing segregation investigation of Dallas. Before you took over, HUD had…
First, I want to say that that Digital is God. Second, I know digital when I see digital. An item that appeared on The Dallas Morning News crime blog yesterday was the new digital version of how to cover a murder trial. It was really breezy and first-persony and it focused not…
If the city of McKinney is to be believed, the $79,229.09 bill it sent Gawker was a mistake. The bill came in response to a request from Gawker for records and emails related to Eric Casebolt, the former McKinney police officer who resigned after he was caught on video earlier this…
Every Supreme Court decision is a “landmark decision” until it gets rewritten by a new Supreme Court,. But the recent decision in favor of a Dallas-based fair-housing advocacy organization has the scent of staying power. After all, it was based on a principle that hasn’t changed much since Brown v…
David Brooks has an essay in The New York Times this week called “The Next Culture War” in which he quotes former Dallas Morning News editorial writer Rod Dreher as saying that, in the wake of the Supreme Court gay marriage decision, now is time for Christians to take what Dreher…
Somewhere in the midst of his presidential campaign, Texas’ junior senator and Simpsons fan Ted Cruz took the time to audition for the Simpson’s roles vacated by the recently retired Harry Shearer for Buzzfeed. The results are equal turns amusing and horrifying. Amusing, because Cruz as Mr. Burns is just…
A government agency has two basic ways to slow down or avoid a legitimate public information request. It can either refer the request to the Texas Attorney General’s Office, forcing Ken Paxton’s employees to issue an opinion as to the request’s validity and potentially pushing the date the request is…
The town of Mansfield has at least 200 gas wells, some of which are dangerously far away from any serene neighborhoods with nice houses and cute children playing in the backyard. Luckily, some home developers are ready to change that. Locals have spotted a few signs lately advertising planned housing developments…
The Preston Center skybridge that would connect the shopping center’s aging city-owned garage to a potential Tom Thumb remains but a twinkle in developer Harlan Crow’s eye. The Dallas City Council agreed Wednesday to delay a final vote on the bridge until at least November, heeding the request of council member…
Plano knocked over its old water tower today “to make room for Legacy West, an exciting new development, which will include shops, restaurants, residential living, a high-rise hotel and the Liberty Mutual Insurance campus,” according to a city news release. Crews from a Michigan company, Iseler Demolition, cut the base…
Dallas renters rate the city as one of the worst in Texas in which to live, according to a new survey from Apartment List. Among Texas cities, only Houston ranks lower among the 100 cities surveyed. Apartment List talked to a bunch of renters — more than 18,000 nationwide —…
This is a thing: The Observer has ended its relationship with LiveFyre, the commenting platform our readers have been dutifully using and bitching about for a while now. We’re searching for a new platform to spark and support the debate that occurs beneath many of our stories, which is great news…
Hey, let’s take this new web site’s block-quote function for a spin. Here’s a memo I sent to the staff a short while ago. If you have any ideas about what we should look for in the next Dallas Observer editor, leave them in the comments. If you suggest fictional…
A little news: On Monday, we will unveil a new and much-improved website that we feel strongly will improve your experience as readers and viewers and admirers and begrudging admirers and straight-up haters. The best way to preview it is to take a spin around the site for our awesome…
Richardson’s City Council election is over. Come Monday when the council meets to canvass the results, Mayor Laura Maczka will no longer be mayor if, as she previously announced, she declines the second term voters had no choice but to elect her to. Surely it’s past time to shut up…
DFW home prices are almost 9 percent higher than this time last year, Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. That’s more than double the average 4.2 percent growth across the country. Dallas is one of just two metro areas where home buyers face prices higher than they were in 2006…
One of The Dallas Morning News’ resident scolds, editorial board member Tod Robberson, is fixated on a hookup-website billboard that was erected over Interstate 345 in Deep Ellum a couple of weeks ago. It’s not so much the implication of hot, dude-on-dude action that bothers Robberson, he tells us, but…
The following is a non-exhaustive list of the pros and cons of building the skybridge Crow Holdings wants to put in Preston Center: Pro: Preston Center is essentially frozen in the 1980s. See also: Preston Center Is Getting a Skybridge, and Maybe a Tom Thumb Con: So are skybridges!…
There was a palpable lethargy around the Observer offices yesterday. Not exactly atypical for Monday, but the fluorescent lights seemed especially harsh because not all quite regained the hour of sleep we lost over the weekend. If state Representative Dan Flynn gets his way, it might be the last time…
The Continental pedestrian bridge was one of Dallas’ best additions in 2014. It has great views, water features and play equipment for kids and the occasional food truck. Strolling the bridge, assuming the weather isn’t too hot, is genuinely pleasant. Building the Trinity toll road would seriously screw it up…
With the closing of Urban Orchard last August, downtown Dallas was left without a grocery store. Downtown residents with empty pantries are faced with heading to Uptown of Cityplace still, but a requested change in the development agreement between the city and Olympic Property Partners — the firm rehabbing 1401…
