Taking money out of mass transit to save the city’s dying police and fire pension fund is not a fun idea. It’s nothing to look forward to. But we have to do something, and whatever we do probably won’t taste sweet. “The pension crisis is a public safety crisis now,”…
Early Sunday morning, just before 5:30 a.m., according to the Dallas Police Department, a car that a witness described as a black sports car sped past DPD’s South Central Substation on Camp Wisdom Road, spraying bullets from a handgun. The two suspects, Assistant Chief Randy Blankenbaker said Sunday afternoon, initially targeted…
After twice being left for dead, cite-and-release for low-level marijuana possession is back on the table in Dallas, with a vote by the city council expected as early as March 8. Members of the council who support cite-and-release have twice pushed for changing the way Dallas cops handle pot arrests…
President Trump tweeted two days ago: “The so-called angry crowds in home districts of some Republicans are actually, in numerous cases, planned out by liberal activists. Sad!” I got so excited when I read it. You mean liberal activists are actually going to do to Republicans what the Tea Party…
On Tuesday afternoon, city staff released the results of the first year of Dallas’ so-called living wage program. In late 2015, the Dallas City Council voted to require any business with a city contract to pay its employees $10.37, about $3 more per hour than the federal minimum wage of $7.25…
Very surreal experience for me yesterday sitting at a white tablecloth luncheon among the mucketies at the annual Trinity Commons Foundation affair. I think they assumed based on my appearance I was a waiter and let me in. I sat there listening to endless blah-blah-blah from three Dallas mayors, one…
All right, now we’ve got this police and fire pension issue where we can see it and where we can begin to make our own personal decisions, thanks to yesterday’s unanimous vote by the board of directors of the Dallas Police and Fire Pension board. This is now a moral…
Late Friday afternoon, the city of Dallas’ weekly memo packet featured a little gift from new City Manager T.C. Broadnax to the Dallas City Council: a map, long awaited, of each of the city of Dallas’ homeless encampments. [pdf-1]Members of the council, led by Oak Cliff’s Scott Griggs, have pushed…
Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton submitted an amicus brief to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travel to the United States by citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries. In doing so, Paxton ensured that Texas was the first state to…
Wednesday was big day in Austin for both Texas’ staunchest advocates against reproductive choice and the organizations that have fought tooth and nail at the Texas Capitol and in the courts against the advance of legislation that seeks to limit abortion to the absolute limit of what is allowed by Roe…
Tuesday morning, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins announced the formation of a joint agency spanning city and county jurisdictions that will be focused entirely on getting Dallas County’s homeless population of the streets. The Dallas Area Partnership to End and Prevent Homelessness is the first step…
In volatile times, things happen for the first time, things we’ve never seen before. New events explode into view suddenly without prelude or context. We need time afterward to digest. I spent all last week trying to figure out why on the first night of the Trump travel ban I…
At last week’s meeting of the Dallas County Commissioners Court, Dallas City Council member Lee Kleinman was a lonely voice against a nonbinding resolution, eventually passed by the court, affirming that Dallas County call on county law enforcement to “end nonessential collaborations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” Kleinman, fearing that…
Martha Teran died on Oct. 30, trying to sell an iPhone 7. According to Dallas police, she met Lonzell Hunter in the parking lot of Medieval Times just off Interstate 35, believing the public parking lot would be a safe place to exchange her phone for cash. It wasn’t. Teran’s…
This story, at least in part, is about a zoning change. But it’s interesting, we promise. On Wednesday afternoon, as new Dallas City Manager T.C. Broadnax sat in on his first city council meeting, the council heard an item about a seemingly innocuous zoning change. Michael Coker, a land developer,…
Dallas City Council Member Scott Griggs said ruefully to me yesterday, “There are two things in Dallas you’re not allowed to ask about — the Trinity toll road and the State Fair of Texas.” Here’s what happens if you do. As Peter Simek reported in D Magazine earlier this week,…
Four members of the Dallas City Council, all of whom represent the city on the Dallas Police and Fire Pension Board, intervened in Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings’ ongoing lawsuit against the pension Wednesday afternoon. In their filing, the council members ask that the fund be placed in receivership as it…
Nothing could be more plain. The blame for the city’s dearth of low-income housing — expressed politically, in policy, in voting and in what people say on the record — lies squarely with City Hall. Every major action with bearing on this issue taken by the current mayor, the City…
Yesterday, four of the county’s commissioners and Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins approved a resolution declaring Dallas County a “Welcoming Community.” The resolution, while nonbinding, affirms the county’s stance that undocumented residents are “integral members of our community” and calls on local law enforcement agencies to “end nonessential collaborations with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” As…
Dallas City Councilman Lee Kleinman represents District 11. Last week he sat down with the Dallas Observer to talk about the city police and fire pension crisis, the future of a car-free Dallas, housing in the city and his upcoming election challenge from real estate blogger Candy Evans. Get ready…
People should start paying me not to write anything positive about them. Just over a week ago I wrote something positive about Jesse Moreno, vice chair of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board, and now I see on this Wednesday’s upcoming City Council agenda there will be an effort to…
Let me go back to an earlier point. I still say the money situation that the city is in right now makes absolutely no sense unless there is a monumental leak or a series of leaks somewhere. And I think the new city manager ought to go looking. Things, after all,…
