There was a time, in 2007 and ’08, when you couldn’t escape the name Sam Zell, the billionaire who, in December 2007, bought media giant Tribune Company … and then swiftly brought it to its knees by taking it into Chapter 11. The reason for the bankruptcy: The parent company…
I mentioned this in passing on Tuesday, but just got the Official Release, so here’s the reminder: You can now redraw the city’s council districts, and, hey, who knows — yours might be just the puzzle the city winds up going with. The redistricting website has all the info you…
Last Friday, Robert offered a first look at some of the big names that had applied to sit on the city’s gas drilling task force: Margaret Keliher, Royce West II, Betty Culbreath, the train-bedeviled Chico Grimes and more. This morning, Linda Koop and the handful of other members on the…
Moments after I posted that piece on the Living Plaza in front of Dallas City Hall a few weeks ago, one Friend of Unfair Park took a look at the commissary and crowd and proclaimed it little more than “a bit” — a one-time-only event after which “the plaza will…
I hope Mayor-For-Now Dwaine Caraway brought back pictures from his trip to Nigeria, where he’s been for the past eight days to attend the swearing-in of President Goodluck Jonathan and tend to some business. He’s back this evening, and in advance of his return sends word that, why, matter of…
10. Ate dinner last night at Prime Italian on South Beach. In the midst of ridiculous opulence in the form of $20 valet parking and $100,000 cars, it was relatively affordable. $125 for a steak and a couple drinks. Thumbs up. 9. They also offered prime Kobe steak for $30 an…
Even casual campaign watchers will not be surprised to hear that Mike Rawlings has the support of all but a few current city council members, and plenty of former ones as well. Maybe to underscore the point, maybe to show off just a little, Rawlings invited them all to join…
We’re getting closer and closer to City Manager Mary Suhm’s proposed FY2011-’12 budget, which she plans to give to council members in a couple of weeks before they go on summer vacation. And, sure, she still needs to find $60 mil in cuts, give or take, before the thing’s balanced…
Yesterday morning, the state House Committee on Redistricting and the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting released what’s known as PlanC125 — or the Solomons-Seliger Congressional Proposal — which you can see here. Today, Houston Chronicle Washington bureau chief Rick Dunham, a 30-year veteran of the puzzling process, breaks it down…
Good timing: Later today, Leslie’s cover story for the paper version of Unfair Park dealing with the city’s involvement in efforts to thoughtfully (fingers crossed) redevelop West Dallas at the foot of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge will hit newsstands virtual and otherwise. So happens, according to the announcement that…
No doubt most of you aren’t all that concerned where your garbage gets dumped, so long as it’s picked up and hauled off on time. That said, the subject’s slowly but surely becoming a hot topic at City Hall, as City Manager Mary Suhm and Sanitation Services Director Mary Nix…
At this late date we’ve heard mayoral wannabes David Kunkle and Mike Rawlings address myriad issues — everything from DISD to LGBT. But, at last, a new wrinkle: Bike Friendly Oak Cliff has rounded up the runoff-ers for a question-and-answer session aimed at the hike-n-bike crowd wondering where they stand…
This just in from Governor Rick Perry’s office: He’s added congressional redistricting to the special session’s to-do list. Wait. Sorry. Wrong press release. Let’s start this over.This just in from Governor Rick Perry’s office: He’s bet Florida Governor Rick Scott “a case of Texas barbeque sauce” that the Mavs will…
Only a handful of city council members have so far stayed away from offering their endorsements in the mayor’s race, among them Angela Hunt and Ann Margolin. But that changes today: Mike Rawlings’s camp sends word that the District 13 (meaning, Rawlings’s) rep has thrown her support behind the former…
After last week’s accidental tour of the Lake Highlands Town Center, or what there is of it, we discovered: Prescott Realty and the city’s Office of Economic Development are hustling to get that long-dormant development off the ground years after that big-deal groundbreaking was buried in the economic collapse. Matter…
Recently our brotherly blog down here in Miami concocted a list of reasons why Miami is a better city than Dallas. Same ol’, lame-o stuff. Calling us fat and redneck and boasting that “nobody’s ever killed a sitting president in Miami.” Yawn. Wait, it also says we’re adjacent to a…
Tomorrow the city council will discuss why Mary Suhm wants to keep all of Dallas’ trash and allowing the public a shot at redrawing the council districts’ boundaries. But not before it votes on two hot-button issues: food trucks and campaign signs on public property.The food truck issue’s already been…
For those who do not recall the story: In the wee small hours of August 12 of last year, 59-year-old Terry Glover’s Jeep Cherokee stalled out in the middle lane of South Polk near Camp Wisdom. Glover, who was on his way home after dropping off his godson, hit the…
Among the hodgepodge of videos to which we linked only yesterday are a handful of particular note today, as Texans mourn the death of Bill Clements — the 94-year-old Dallas native, two-time Texas governor, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense under Nixon and Ford and chair of SMU’s board of governors…
Just got a note from Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst after Perry signed into law the voter I.D. bill, which requires voters to present photo identification at a polling place. Said the gov, “The right to vote is simply too important for us to take the act…
Just a few days ago City Manager Mary Suhm explained why the city’s seriously considering an ordinance that would demand all solid-waste collectors dump their trash at city-owned facilities, rather than one of the dozen other landfills in the region. Said Suhm, who’d proposed the idea last year without it…
Anderson Cooper, for one, will be disappointed, but Debbie Georgatos is no longer part of the Republican Party’s local leadership team. The avant-garde filmmaker and would-be Beat poet has resigned her post “as a courtesy,” newly installed Dallas County GOP chair Wade Emmert tells Unfair Park this morning.”She resigned,” Emmert…
