Maybe you heard: A couple of weeks ago, Dallas police began cracking down on vendors at Dealey Plaza selling maps, magazines, books and other conspiracy-theory whatnots. Deputy Police Chief Vince Golbeck said some folks down there were cussing at and spitting on visitors to the Kennedy assassination site, and “that’s…
Two quick items whilst I try to clean up some breaking news:ESPNDallas asked Mayor Tom Leppert to provide 10 reasons why LeBron James ought to sign with the Dallas Mavericks. The mayor, being a good sport, complied. Examples: “Great airports at both DFW International and Love Field. Central location makes…
A couple of days ago I happened to find myself, during the waking hours of business, standing in front of Dallas City Hall, where the only person in sight was the one half-submerged in the reflecting pool. In black hip-waders and a Parks & Recreation baseball hat, Jose Peña was…
On Monday, we told you about an e-mail we received from Mayor Tom Leppert’s campaign thanking his city council mates for agreeing to defer the vote on two concession contracts at Dallas Love Field Airport so city staff could cook up some new options to consider at the council’s August…
Several Friends of Unfair Park have asked in recent days: When’s Andy Siegel filing that lawsuit in which he, and a coalition of businesses and clergy (and suburbs?) opposed to the pending wet-dry referendum in November, will insist Progress Dallas didn’t collect enough valid signatures to get it on the…
In advance of its public meeting tomorrow concerning plans for the former Mrs. Baird’s site at Mockingbird and Central, SMU has posted yet another notice — this one complete with a FAQ. As in: “I thought you planned to put residence halls on the Mrs. Baird’s site?” and “What about…
After Mayor Tom Leppert quashed public comments and instructed city staff to bring more options to the city council in August regarding the Dallas Love Field Airport concession contracts, Schutze declared victory for Angela Hunt, who had told us that she had enough support to defer the item until the…
I remember Dad taking me a high-school football game to old P.C. Cobb Stadium, and I saw the Dallas/Fort Worth Spurs play minor-league baseball at Turnpike Stadium. What I don’t remember is something called the Dallas Submarines. Apparently they evolved into the Dallas Steers? P.C. Cobb is now the Infomart…
City Hall just posted the latest fiscal forecast for what remains of FY2009-’10, and, unexpectedly, it’s cloudy with a chance of shitstorms. Right now, it looks like the sales tax falloff through April, at least, is $6.3 million less than originally budgeted — if, that is, revenue rates stay the…
City Manager Mary Suhm and I spoke a few days about about how she’s trying to find $131.1 million to excise out of the FY2010-’11 budget, which she’ll present to council upon its return from summer vacay in August. And so, while the council takes its summer break and Suhm…
A couple of weeks ago, we broke the news that Park and Rec would like to ask voters for the permission to some day maybe pretty please sell Samuell Farm and Samuell New Hope Park, two properties given to the city by physician and philanthropist William Worthington Samuell with the…
Hard to say when Andy Siegel’s going to file his lawsuit against the city of Dallas in which he will claim that the city council called an illegal local option election concerning the sale of beer and wine citywide. He told me last night it should be today; I’ve also…
[Update at 9:14 p.m.: So, for those still with us at this late hour (and, really, why?), the council’s back — and City Secretary Deborah Watkins has just announced that Progress Dallas did indeed gather “a sufficient number of signatures” to trigger a November 2 election regarding the sale of…
Mayor Tom Leppert just stopped down the city council’s meeting to announce that, yes indeed, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway and Ron Natinsky and Friends of Fair Park’s Craig Holcomb have managed to resurrect the Fair Park Fourth … on July 5. And they’ve done so with the donations of…
About 75 people gathered outside Dallas City Hall today — accompanied by a 20-foot banner that said, “To Redeem the Soul of America” — and accused city leaders of waging ideological war on the poor. The Poor People’s March on City Hall Plaza didn’t march anywhere but did aim a…
With my trusty laptop in hand, I prepared to liveblog the heck outta today’s city council meeting — the last one before the council leaves for its July recess and then returns to tackle a $131 million budget shortfall. But I soon realized that the council chambers lack an electrical…
As Andrea noted in her liveblog Monday, Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway stopped down the council’s Public Safety Committee meeting to rant against a different kind of crime: the end of fireworks at Fair Park on July 4. Said Caraway, “We’re inviting people to go out to Plano and see…
The Dallas City Council’s seven minority council members launched a counterattack this afternoon against Mayor Tom Leppert’s campaign opposing the Love Field concession contract extensions, with Vonciel Hill and others reminding Leppert that City Manager Mary Suhm is in charge. “Twice the citizens of this great city have defeated a…
I see here that Andy Siegel, an attorney at Shackelford, Melton & McKinley, is claiming that Progress Dallas has come up 5,555 signatures short of getting the dry parts of Dallas soaking wet in beer and wine. To which Progress Dallas, headed by Kroger’s Gary Huddleston says, “What the what?”…
A “poor people’s march” at Dallas City Halll at noon tomorrow will kick off a campaign of protests aimed primarily at Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert. Veteran community activists blame Leppert’s political ambitions for what they insist is a one-sided assault on city programs for the poor. “When you make a…
Ken Carter, a consultant working for Dallas Love Field Airport food and beverage concessionaire Gilbert Aranza, sent us word yesterday afternoon that the city council’s seven minority members are expected to appear at noon today inside City Hall’s lobby along with other community leaders for a press conference supporting contract…
Angela Hunt, revealed in last week’s Observer as the swing vote on the controversial concession contract extensions at Dallas Love Field Airport, has continued to research the issue following her maternity leave, but she hasn’t made up her mind yet and now supports a deferral of the items until August,…
