Politics & Government

Since T.C. Broadnax took office as Dallas city manager in February, I have had the feeling he was waiting to see just how sacred some of the city’s sacred cows were. Yesterday, he got a clear message that at least one of them, the weirdly named South Dallas Fair Park…

When the Dallas City Council finally passed its long-gestating ethics reform package in March, council member Philip Kingston was among those dissatisfied with the new rules because they weren’t strong enough. On Friday, Kingston became the first council member rung up on the new rules. The city’s ethics advisory commission found…

Dallas’ mayor is crowing about a settlement on rates that the city attorney reached recently with an East Texas water authority, and he’s right. Our new city attorney, Larry Casto, did way better than his predecessors, meaning he more or less pulled our bacon out of the trashcan, where somebody…

Amiti Perry, Dallas’ new favorite bartender, didn’t have much time to think Friday afternoon as her story about kicking Milo Yiannopoulos and a group of neo-Nazis out of a Dallas bar in April 2016 went viral. She had to teach morning and afternoon classes at the University of North Texas,…

During his weekly radio show Tuesday, Jerry Jones doubled down on his stance that Cowboys players will not play for the team if they choose to protest before games in a way that, in Jones’ words, disrespects the United States’ flag or national anthem. The Cowboys owner, the first in…

As terrible and heartrending as the impact of Hurricane Harvey was on the people of Houston, the sick backstory was almost worse. Everything awful that happened to Houston was known beforehand. The same things are known here, too. It just hasn’t happened here. Yet. Houston is learning, to its dismay,…

Amazon, if you’re still out there somewhere and you’re still looking at us for your new subheadquarters, I have a favor to ask. Please don’t judge our book by the cover. I know, I know. We have to talk about the cover. In fact, let’s do that first. As far…

Faced with the real threat that Dallas could go bankrupt if it loses a bundle of police and firefighter pay lawsuits, the mayor and a majority on the City Council are ready to roll the dice. They’ve rejected a potential $300 million settlement offer, choosing instead to take their chances…

A key drug reform policy passed by the city of Dallas this spring remains under threat by the continued efforts of Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who wants to submarine cite-and-release before it starts. On Tuesday, Price sparred with Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston, Dallas County District Attorney…

People can say anything, but if you want to see what people really mean when they talk about improving poor neighborhoods in Dallas, look at State-Thomas, look at Little Mexico, look at what’s going on today in West Dallas. Don’t even call it gentrification. Nobody who used to live there…

When Dallas City Council members grilled city staff during a committee hearing Monday about a lack of progress on affordable housing issues, staff forgot to mention the team of feds breathing down their necks. They could have told the council: “We’ll know more after we figure out who’s going to the pen.”…

Obviously we all get why Dallas and other cities are genuflecting before the great god Amazon, devourer of all retail. Every city hopes devoutly that Amazon will deign to make it the home of its second headquarters, which, if you don’t mind my pointing out, is an oxymoron. Companies are…

Call this a pet peeve if you must, but it’s way bigger than a peeve to me. You cannot walk your dog off the leash in Dallas. In Dallas, you cannot allow your dog out into your unfenced front yard off the leash. And in Dallas and all of the…

This weekend, I attended a memorial service, after which I fell into conversation with a well-known Dallas landscape architect and planner, commiserating ruefully about the effect Texans like U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert have on the rest of the state. We agreed that every time Gohmert shoots from the hip, a…

There ought to be a way to solve the problem of the Robert E. Lee statue. Since the big, bronze two-horse statue of the Confederate general and a soldier was yanked from a Dallas park a week and a half ago, the city has been fussing about what to do…

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the rest of the team each took a knee before the national anthem at Monday night’s game against the Arizona Cardinals. The demonstration, after which the team stood and linked arms during the anthem, was a show of solidarity in the face of comments made…

Post-Harvey, Houston already wants to carry out a truth and reconciliation process about flood safety. The lesson from Harvey was clear: No matter what the official public line may have been on flood safety before Harvey, Houston was not safe. Dallas is in the same boat, but our boat may…

After a Friday afternoon session lasted more than three hours, the city of Dallas’ Confederate Monuments Task Force is done. The task force, convened by Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and made up of nominees named by each member of the City Council, recommended the city remove the Confederate War memorial…

Now that the Robert E. Lee statue is gone, his formerly eponymous park in Oak Lawn is getting a new name. The city of Dallas Parks Board voted unanimously Friday morning to give Lee Park a new placeholder name, returning the park to its original name, Oak Lawn Park, until…

Hate to tell you — and I know this will make people mad on both sides, and I’m really only talking about Dallas — but this debate we’ve been having about the Confederate statues is absolutely the best thing we’ve done in Dallas in the 100 or so years I…