Both Dwaine Caraway and I hope you had a fantastic summer vacation, but it is now time to get down to business at today’s Public Safety Committee meeting. First up, Dallas Police Chief David Brown’s crime report, wherein he is happy to report that overall crime is down 6.1%, due…
For those unfamiliar with the story of Saad Nabeel, there’s quite the extensive Wikipedia page — but long story short, he’s the Bangladeshi-born 19-year-old who, till recently, had been in the States since he was 3, when his folks came here seeking political asylum — a request repeatedly denied. And…
In recent weeks we’ve taken sneak peeks at how pending budget cuts will more than likely gut the library system. But till Monday rolls ’round and Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm debuts her proposed FY2010-11 budget, we won’t know for sure how deep those wounds will run. Nevertheless, Friends of…
‘Bout an hour ago I heard from City Hall about the black hole no wait 2001 monolith whoops Phantom Zone gateway pardon I mean Spinal Tap album cover dang itbillboard hovering but a few feet from the Woodall Rodgers ramp spilling into northbound Stemmons. Per Frank Librio, who says this…
It’s going to be a long, effin’ hot weekend — good for staying inside and reading council docs, now that the brain trust is back from its summer vacation. Tomorrow morning I’ll post my chat with the mayor, but for now a few highlights to consider, chief among them Park…
Last night, more than 100 folks packed into the dining room at Vickery Towers “senior living community” for a standing-room-only public meeting on the proposed plans to rezone Lowest Lower Greenville Avenue as a Planned Development District — a plan opposed by the Lowest Lower Greenville Avenue Business Association, the…
Yesterday Friend of Unfair Park John M wondered if we had any spare interns who’d be able to snap a photo of the newly installed billboard next to the Woodall Rodgers ramp that dumps into northbound Stemmons Freeway. And when I say “next to,” I mean “right on top of,”…
Forthcoming, my very early-morning chat with Mayor Tom Leppert, during which we touched on, among other things, his call for a citywide fake-weed ban, the now-sidelined Dallas Watersports Complex and the fallout from Monday night’s surprise announcement concerning Cliff Manor. But during the interview, I asked the mayor about concerns…
From the September 3, 2004, issue of the Dallas Business Journal, in a story headlined “Projects afoot for South Lamar area” about developer Jack Matthews’s plans for the area around his South Side on Lamar:A 70-room boutique hotel, long Part of Matthews’ vision for the area, is also moving forward…
Late this evening I was poking around the City Secretary’s site to sneak-peek the council’s doings upon its return to work Monday. At which point I noticed that when the Public Safety Committee reconvenes at noon, City Attorney Tom Perkins and Dallas Police Deputy Chief Patricia Paulhill will brief the…
Richie asked Schutze yesterday what he should ask Mayor Tom Leppert, who appeared Wednesday on the sports programme he hosts with one Greg Williams afternoons on 105.3 The Fan. Schutze’s suggestion — something to do with airport contracts at DFW International. Needless to say, that did not happen.Instead, Richie and…
Update: Chris Heinbaugh, Mayor Tom Leppert’s chief of staff, responds, briefly, to some questions I had for him this morning. They follow after the jump.This morning a Friend of Unfair Park directed our attention to None Zip Zero, a Web site created by opponents of Dallas Housing Authority’s efforts to…
On Tuesday, I asked several city officials one very simple question: Just how effective are these “warrant roundups”? Because, as we noted, bright and early Sunday morning the Dallas City Marshal’s Office will hit the streets yet again to go after scofflaws with unpaid citations, threatening everything from putting a…
Didn’t think he’d do it. In fact, I dared him to do it. I’ll be damned if he didn’t do it. Soon as Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert settled in for his in-studio interview Wednesday on 105.3 The Fan, Greg Williams popped the question: “Hey Mayor,” said Greggo, “do you like…
In September 2009 James Bradberry, the owner of the San Francisco Rose, announced the creation of the Greenville Avenue Restaurant Association, which puts on the now-annual Taste of Greenville Avenue event scheduled for October. Which is not the point of this piece: Yesterday Unfair Park received a missive from Bradberry…
You probably forgot all about the Institute for Justice’s federal lawsuit filed in November, which claims the city of Dallas’s 2-year-old law that prohibits business owners from covering their storefront windows with signs is unconstitutional. So, then, this heads-up: The case is coming, more than likely, to a courtroom near…
Back in March there was one of the city’s semi-annual warrant roundups — otherwise known as pay-up-or-get-locked-up weekend — during which we peeked at the city’s lengthy list of scofflaws only to find, way down toward zee end, a woman named Sherriee (or Sherice or Sherie or …) Zeek with…
City Hall’s all parked up, and when I told the garage guard where I was headed, he assured me “everyone’s going to the red light camera meeting.” It’s hard to tell who “everyone,” might have been, because I’m joined in the public seating area by one KTVT reporter in the…
When last we left the furor over Cliff Manor, where the Dallas Housing Authority and Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance plan to turn 100 units into permanent supportive housing for the “chronically” homeless, Mayor Tom Leppert had council member Dave Neumann create a task force. Its mission: see if perhaps there…
We’re less than two weeks away from finding out How the City Manager Spent Her Summer Vacation: On August 9, Mary Suhm will give present to council her proposed budget for the coming fiscal year. We’ve sneak-peeked a few of the pending cuts needed to whittle away a $131-mil deficit,…
Late Friday afternoon, while we were still sifting through those comments for and against pit bulls (and their owners), Unfair Park HQ received a call from Jill Urban, who said she called 911 on those two “un-collared” pit bulls in the M Streets area some 20 minutes or more before…
At around noon today, Kelly Qualls, a crime analyst in the Dallas Police Department’s Central Patrol Division, sent to Unfair Park three documents, all of which compare and contrast crime statistics for The Bridge-Dallas Farmers Market area beginning in 2007. All three follow, as does a DPD map of the…
