John Crawford and I just had a long talk about downtown — since, ya know, it is his thing. And later today I’ll get to some of newsier items he revealed during the course of our chitchat. But I’d originally phoned the president and CEO of Downtown Dallas Inc. to…
Even before the AT&T Performing Arts Center was finished, we were told: “Dallas might have to accept the arts district as a successful destination, not a way of life.” That was more than two years ago. After that, the hits kept on coming, with the most recent being this deep…
A few weeks ago, Leobardo Trevino — the man who bought the Statler Hilton and the adjacent library — led Sam and me on a tour of the Statler. I’d also wanted to see the library, which opened in ’55 and shuttered in ’83, never to be used again; at…
Sure Sign No. 4,928 that a celebrity’s “breakdown” is a bit: He interrupts a celebrity guest’s late-night chat-show appearance to shine the spotlight on himself for a while by acting “crazy” while simultaneously hawking an entire catalog’s worth of product and upcoming appearances on the concert-tour circuit. Which is what…
Dallas Area Rapid Transit sends word today: The old Monroe Shops building, near the Blue Line’s Illinois Station on Corinth Road, was officially rebirthed today as the DART police department’s HQ after close to 20 years on the drawing board. For preservationists, this qualifies as Big News: It was originally…
Since last week’s piece in The News about David Kunkle, Ron Natinsky and Mike Rawlings’s thoughts on the Trinity River toll road is behind the pay levee, allow me to summarize: Natinsky’s still very much for it; Kunkle’s ain’t at all interested, and Rawlings is taking the ol’ wait-n-see. But,…
It’s been a year, more or less, since we last heard Tim Headington talk about his plans to expand The Joule in downtown, which began with his purchase of five properties along Main and Commerce in September 2009. And since we haven’t heard much more since May, when the hotel…
At the end of last month, Patrick Michels was at City Hall for that Complete Streets-Bike Plan-Better Block jam session, where Jason Roberts and Andrew Howard were greeted with “great acclaim” by council members no doubt eager to implement and then claim the pair’s restorative ideas as their own. But…
A couple of months ago, Tim Rogers provided a generous peek at the miniature version of the Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden scheduled to take root at the Dallas Arboretum some time next year. Says the Arboretum of the $50-million, seven-acre site, it’ll be an “outdoor laboratory that will delight…
The New York Times this morning revealed its long-expected plans to erect a pay wall (again) around some of its content: Starting March 28, visitors to the paper’s website will be able to access 20 articles every month without paying. After that, it’ll cost $15 a month to keep reading…
Twice this week Friends of Unfair Park have written in to complain about the Crow family’s decision to move their collection of sculptures formerly on display at the Trammell Crow Center behind the gates of Old Parkland, now Crow Holdings’ HQ. A few weeks back, you’ll recall, the Crows announced…
With two years of construction and exhibit-building left before it opens its doors in Victory Park, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science got topped off this afternoon, with a ceremonial beam signed by Margot and H. Ross Perot and their sons and daughters who donated $50 million to the…
For the moment, at least, it isn’t easy to access The Former Trinity Standing Wave, known, for now, as The Dallas Wave — though that’s but an unofficial working title being floated out there (see what I did?). Willis Winters, assistant director of Parks and Rec, offered to show it…
Gosh, it’s been … what … four whole days since the last mention of The Zoo? But I can’t help myself: While scouting the YouTube for something wildly unrelated, I came across this just-posted flashback courtesy one “Walter from Waco” (oh, the memories): an old KZEW-FM TV ad starring Johns…
The Trammell Crow Center on Ross Avenue already contains the Crow Collection of Asian Art. But that’s an inside attraction. And that, far as the Crows are concerned, just isn’t good enough. Hence, the announcement that just popped up in the in-box for the Crow Asian Sculpture Garden, described in…
When Sam and I got to Main Street Garden around 2:15 this afternoon for the Statler-sale press conference, there weren’t a lot of people around — just a few folks lingering on benches, and maybe a half dozen diners seated beneath the Lily Pad’s shade. A lectern stamped with the…
Last year, This Old House magazine singled out Junius Heights as one of the Best Old House Neighborhoods in the country, insisting, “Proximity to downtown Dallas, great schools, and recent recognition as a National Register Historic District are driving up Junius Heights’ property values and helping the neighborhood maintain its…
Yesterday we watched ABC News’s David Muir do Diane Sawyer’s bidding and empty the Snow White Drive home of Jon and Anna Usry of everything not made in the U.S. and A. Though, as several Friends of Unfair Park noted, the couple and their kids did get to keep their…
A Friend of Unfair Park tipped us off earlier today: Dallas County property records reveal that the old Statler Hilton has indeed been sold; so too its next-door neighbor, the former Dallas Public Library. And according to the deed sale documents, both were purchased by none other than the Ricchi…
As promised, Patrick “Car-Free” Kennedy has posted his thoughts on the YouPlusDallas video in which Jack Gosnell regales viewers with tales of how Dallas came to bury its businesses beneath downtown. And, like Gosnell and the denizens of the Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum (where the video likewise prompted a…
Spoiler alert: Last night, Disney Street-ers Jon and Anna Usry and their two kids opened the doors of their house to World News with Diane Sawyer’s David Muir, who promptly backed up the moving truck and emptied their house of everything not made in America.That, after all, is the title…
From time to time we’ve revisited the damage done to downtown Dallas by Montreal urban planner Vincent Ponte, who proposed in the June 1968 issue of Esquire that downtown Dallas bury its businesses underground — a decision then-Dallas Mayor Laura Miller referred to in The New York Times in ’05…
