Both of you who followed along with yesterday’s liveblog of the Animal Shelter Commission will remember that former ASC member and animal rights bigwig Jonnie England wondered during the public comment: Why is Tyrone McGill, the former Dallas Animal Services manager who has been indicted on charges of animal cruelty…
Yesterday, in the comments to the item about the city’s new-and-improved panhandlingsolicitation ordinance, longtime Friend of Unfair Park Syd Nancy wondered: “Will this affect the JFK Conspiracy Guy who sells stuff down by the Depository?” Syd’s referring to Robert Groden, who’s currently involved in a legal tussle with the city…
Yesterday in Dallas County District Court, attorney Andy Siegel — who, from the very beginning, has contested the citywide off-premise sale of beer and wine — filed an amended version of his November complaint. It reads much the same (he says city called election without enough valid signatures to do…
Back in March 2009, the Office of the City Auditor released that damning report about the state of the Dallas Municipal Court. To which Angela Hunt, chair of the council’s Judiciary Committee (for now), responds with this update, which says, long story short: “Over the last year and a half,…
If you’re not familiar with the Dallas Development Fund, well, neither were we until we discovered it would be spending this afternoon in the basement of City Hall discussing developer Jack Matthews’ boutique hotel project adjacent to South Side on Lamar, a proposed mixed-use development near the Dallas Veterans Affairs…
Operation Crackdown is rumbling along through Dallas today, as the Texas National Guard continues knocking down abandoned buildings all over the city — dilapidated havens for drug use and prostitution, few, if any, with Christmas decorations to mark the season. Dwaine Caraway told us on Monday afternoon that they’d already…
Merry afternoon, Friends. I’m here at City Hall for today’s Animal Shelter Commission meeting. They’ll be discussing the recently released, mildly damning Humane Society report on the troubled Dallas Animal Services, which, under the new leadership of interim manager Lieutenant Scott Walton, has been trying to do an about-face in…
On Monday we sneak-peeked the ordinance creating those so-called Solicitation-Free Zones in downtown, Deep Ellum, Uptown and Victory; yesterday, with little to say other than “yay,” the council approved the revision to the City Code, adding to the existing law a $500 fine for panhandlers and extending its enforcement hours…
As the Dallas City Council wraps up its last meeting of the year, they’ll consider adjusting the city’s Permanent Supportive Housing Program — to keep the council notified when new proposals come in and to “encourage developers and applicants to brief key neighborhood and community groups.” In other words, to…
Council elections are in May, and this morning we learn that District 3 rep Dave Neumann will square off against a political newcomer (of sorts): Scott Griggs, with whom you’re probably familiar by now. The attorney is, after all, among the more outspoken and visible of the North Oak Cliff…
Last night a hundred or so folks interested in downtown development gathered at the Dallas Convention Center — where they were filming an episode of Chase! — to be presented with the findings from the Downtown Dallas 360 plan and, ostensibly, to provide some input and feedback. Bobsky and I…
In case you’d forgotten all about City of Dallas v. Museum of the American Railroad, rest assured: It’s alive and well in Dallas County District Court, where, in recent days, there have been myriad filings and hearings in advance of a January 25 court date that comes almost one year…
Grimes and I went to the convention center last night for the unveiling of the Downtown Dallas 360 plan — which is to say, the 164-page PowerPoint thumbed through in advance of the final plan that’ll be presented to the city council next month. (Council’s scheduled to approve the plan…
It’s open season on drug houses in Dallas today, with the Texas National Guard kicking off its two-week Operation Crackdown campaign — demolishing around 50 otherwise vacant crack dens and stash houses — and the city tearing down the first of South Dallas’s Summer Breeze Apartments after a years-long court…
Even though the city council ultimately added half a mil back to the Dallas Public Library’s new-materials budget back in September, seems the grand total of more than a million wasn’t enough to keep up with the demand for new titles. Hence the e-mail that just arrived from City Hall…
Many thanks to the Friend of Unfair Park kind enough to send our way this afternoon Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington’s bipartisan list of 2010 Most Embarrassing Re-elects (and a Governor to Watch). The headline kinda says it all: Rep. Joe Barton, a hard R with a thing…
You remember Chad Lacerte, right? He’s the man behind the Dallas Watersports Complex, which had the full support of the Dallas City Council was supposed to open on Fish Trap Lake till the Dallas Housing Authority sunk it, claiming it wasn’t in the best interests of the residents of West…
On Friday we sneak-peeked that proposed $2-million economic development grant proposal intended to “support emerging development opportunities in North Oak Cliff.” Before Wednesday’s vote, the council’s Economic Development Committee is slated to take up the subject in mere moments; here’s the PowerPoint prepared in advance of their chitchat, which you…
Chapter 31, Section 31-35 of the Dallas City Code already provides definitions for coercion (“… to approach or speak to a person in such a manner as would cause a reasonable person to believe that the person is being threatened …”) and solicitation (“… to ask, beg, solicit, or plead,…
We tried to get into Fair Park yesterday for The Big Doings and realized rather quickly we should have ditched the car elsewhere and taken the Green Line. During almost all of Saturday there was traffic for miles (30 was backed up like it was the last day of the…
The memo, just in from Dallas City Hall, speaks for itself. Meters or private lots only. Well, hell, read it for yourself. Weekend listening tomorrow morning. Me, I’d start with this.Parking at City Hall Memo…
So much for North Oak Cliff not needing City Hall …On Monday, the council’s Economic Development Committee will discuss an “economic development grant proposal to support emerging development opportunities in North Oak Cliff.” Which is kinda vague till you look at the corresponding item (No. 57, to be exact) on…
