Sorry, but I do think we are starting to have a Wylie H. problem. I know I am, and I believe others are, as well. We need to stop the speculation, the guessing, the false accusations. It is eroding our civic life and possibly even our psychological well-being. Yesterday during…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings got what he wanted. After an arduous Dallas park board meeting that lasted more than eight hours, the Rawlings-pushed plan to offload the management of Dallas Fair Park to a private foundation achieved an important step, moving on to what will surely be a city council…
Mechanically, voting at Texas polling places this November is going to be the same as it was during the Texas primary on March 1. The easiest way to exercise your right is going to be by bringing one of the seven forms of photo ID — a driver’s license, state ID,…
Psst. Hey. Downtown property-owners and major institutions. I’m talking to you. This is between us, OK? That subway idea might be more popular and more feasible than you think. But you need to not listen, block your ears, totally ignore the arguments you are getting from our regional mass transit agency,…
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings is doing everything in his limited power to make sure that Dallas Fair Park gets off of the city of Dallas’ ledger. In Dallas’ system, the mayor only enjoys two privileges outside of his single city council vote: the power to set the council’s agenda and…
Tuesday, July 12 was probably the biggest gathering of Dallas and Texas law enforcement in the cities’ history. Thousands of cops, city and county officials gathered at a memorial service in honor of the five cops killed by Micah Johnson on July 7 to hear words from President Barack Obama,…
Dallas Park and Recreation Board meetings have always been like high tea – tinkly tee-hee and not much done. But Thursday’s was a barroom punch-out. Angered that they were not allowed to fully discuss a proposal to give Fair Park to a private entity, five board members got up and…
You know what? That new housing policy the Dallas City Council is working on, Julian Castro’s bright shiny political future, Mayor Mike Rawlings’ next move, the rep that this city has earned in recent days for dealing with demons of the past — now might be too early to lay down any big…
You can say this about him; Ted Cruz stuck to his guns. Texas’ junior senator, after a presidential campaign that saw him call the GOP presidential nominee a “sniveling coward” and “utterly amoral” thumbed his nose at Donald Trump during his speech Wednesday night at the 2016 Republican National Convention…
Listen, the debate about Fair Park – turning our 277-acre albatross two miles east of downtown over to a private entity — probably started out with good enough intentions. But now, not so much. Now it’s about nothing so much as shielding the board of directors of the State Fair…
About this time of year, one of my summer rituals has been to pack up a bottle of water, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich and a can of bug spray and hike to the Trinity River bottoms to do my annual piece on “Stupid Dallas Fake Kayak Rapids Still There, Still Stupid.”…
Here’s a simple idea, a plain idea, not my own idea but a good one, I think. It might help allay some fears and misgivings associated with turning over city-owned Fair Park to a private and opaque organization. Make it not opaque. This 277-acre albatross, a park that isn’t even…
Apparently now everybody on the Dallas city council has seen a copy of the email a lawyer sent to a recruiter explaining why he doesn’t want the job of Dallas city attorney – too much trouble, too much controversy – so now some members are calling for soul-searching on the…
The real story is always better. Last week Michael Lindenberger of The Dallas Morning News wrote the official version of a political battle that took place almost a half century ago between the city of Dallas and a group of black homeowners around Fair Park in South Dallas. The true version…
Probably all I’ll ever have to tell you about myself is that recently, while reading a City Hall PowerPoint presentation on a proposed new housing policy, I laughed out loud. You already know never to invite me to dinner, right? Can’t help myself. Look. I have written about Curtis Lockey…
On Tuesday afternoon, four weeks to the day after Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick asked his office to weigh in, Attorney General Ken Paxton opined that a Fort Worth ISD policy allowing students to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity was illegal. The AG opinion is a curious thing…
In an opinion issued late Tuesday afternoon, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says Fort Worth ISD’s attempt to let all students use a restroom consistent with their gender identity is likely illegal. Paxton was asked for the opinion in May by Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, an outspoken opponent of…
In Dallas as in Houston, the twin termini of what they hope will be the nation’s first bullet train, government officials and civic boosters have expressed enthusiastic and unreserved support for Texas Central Railway’s effort to bring high-speed rail to Texas. At a joint 2014 press conference, Dallas Mayor Mike…
Every once in a while something sticks in my heart or my craw. This one was heart. Last week, writing about a city-funded program to build houses in central oak Cliff, I quoted Raymond Crawford, who lives in one of the target neighborhoods, as saying, “Everyone knows the city really…
Even before Monday, there were two main points of the rationale Texas Republicans claimed in support of House Bill 2, the anti-abortion law largely struck down by the Supreme Court Monday morning. The first revolved around protecting women, and they pitched the second at ending abortion. Texas Governor Greg Abbott…
Thanks to a 5-3 decision from the United States Supreme Court, Texas still has 21 operating abortion clinics. The portion of the state’s 2013 anti-abortion legislation that would have shut down 13 of the 21 clinics by requiring them to be certified as ambulatory surgical centers (essentially mini-hospitals) will not…
Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston has changed the name of his campaign Facebook page, the one he calls Dallas’ “3rd best media outlet,” from Philip T. Kingston for Dallas City Council District 14 to Philip T. Kingston for Dallas. Kingston, long rumored to be a future mayoral candidate, says…
