At what Dwaine Caraway said would be his last City Council meeting, the term-limited council member put on a vintage performance, fighting against what’s become the bane of his existence: single-use plastic bags. He lost. Single-use plastic bags will be free again on Monday, but he lost fighting the good…
Dallas City Council will vote Wednesday whether to replace the nickel charge for disposable grocery bags, which became effective January 1, with an outright ban. “It’s an environmental issue. These bags, because of the physical nature of the bags, they are going to be a permanent litter problem. It doesn’t…
Hey, wouldn’t it be great to be able to walk from your apartment to Klyde Warren Park, the hugely successful new deck over a downtown freeway named for a rich kid? You can. Really. Just be rich. But what about this? What if you could get a really nice pretty…
(This story replaces a version published this morning.) This just in: What the city has said for 20 years about flood safety and a proposed toll road along the Trinity River very possibly is not true. In a major flood that road may be underwater and threatened. Yesterday after I filed…
Two weeks ago, Eric Williams and Subrina Brenham, two losing candidates who got less than 200 votes each in running for the Dallas City Council District 8 seat soon to be vacated by Tennell Atkins, filed a lawsuit. Williams and Brenham alleged that Dianne Gibson and Erik Williams, the two…
This was bound to happen, Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston says. Kingston has described the runoff for the council’s District 10 seat as a twist on the prisoner’s dilemma — a well worn example of game theory about how people decide whether to cooperate or screw one another over. In fact,…
Throughout the regular legislative session, which will finally end this weekend, Texas lawmakers have dreamed up all sorts of creative ways to stop women from getting abortions. Following the abortion bills in Texas is like playing a game of choose-your-own-adventure. What kind of pregnancy would you least want to go…
Slowly but surely, the Dallas Police Department is developing a comprehensive policy for the 1,000 body cameras it intends to introduce into the field in the next five years. Tuesday morning, the Dallas City Council Public Safety committee will get its latest peek at new department standards before the full…
Maybe you shouldn’t read this. I could be off. You know how they say a watched pot never boils? I have been staring at the pot of Dallas politics for so damn long, it may have affected my thinking. I have even had moments of doubting the existence of the…
Something is going to happen to Dallas’ plastic bag fee, one way or another. The minimum 5 cent charge for a carryout plastic bag has already led to the city getting sued, it might be illegal and, at least to certain people in Dallas, is not even close to being an…
Much to the delight of rabidly conservative faux-hipsters, Anita Perry, erstwhile Texas Governor Rick Perry’s wife, took to Twitter Friday morning to announce that her husband will be announcing that he’s running for president during a June 4 event in Dallas…
Already, in the four days or so since Saturday’s Dallas municipal election, a narrative has sprung up. Mike Rawlings, the thinking goes, was given a decisive mandate by Dallas voters, reflected in his 46-point win over attorney Marcos Ronquillo. The mayoral election was a blowout, but trying to draw any…
In December 2012, the Dallas City Council approved the condemnation of the Trinity Park & Club, a 23-acre complex of soccer fields and cross-country trails near the Trinity River in Pleasant Grove. The owner, a wiry, Dominican-born ex-high school coach named Rhadames Solano, had spent the past 15 years turning…
Assuming the City Council approves, the Dallas Police Department intends to have a body camera at almost every crime scene within five years, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said Monday. About half of the city’s 2,200 patrol officers would be equipped with the cameras, 200 at a time, each year…
All that stands between Dallas and a new City Council is 11 or 12 people heading to the polls in Saturday’s potential downpour, so let’s take a look at what to watch for as results come in Saturday night. The Dead Rubber Scott Griggs (District 1), Adam Medrano (District 2),…
Barring a miracle, turnout for the 2015 Dallas city election is going to be absolutely miserable. Six or 7 percent. Based on past evidence, that’s it. Despite the vitriol. Despite the six open seats on the council created by term limits. Despite Scott Griggs, one of the most popular people…
Dallas Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan, who’s been involved with the city’s Trinity River project since I was in middle school, isn’t anymore. City Manager A.C. Gonzalez announced today that another of his top assistants, Mark McDaniel, will be taking over the city staff role in getting the park, and…
Late at night on Santa Clara Drive, back in 2007, Carter Albrecht wasn’t acting like himself, his girlfriend would tell reporters afterward. Albrecht, a popular local musician who played in Sorta and Edie Brickell & New Bohemians, had been taking Chantix, the controversial smoking-cessation drug, and was drunk. He became…
The investigation into whether Scott Griggs criminally intimidated a member of the Dallas City Secretary’s Office is going to a disaster for someone. After Saturday’s developments, it seems, it’s not going to be Griggs. After an introduction that included ringing endorsements from City Council member Philip Kingston and former City…
Dallas City Councilman Scott Griggs is accused of using his position to influence the actions of a member of the Dallas City Secretary’s Office, the Dallas police announced late today. In a short press release, the Dallas Police Department said it had submitted the results of its investigation into Griggs…
What happens when the city of Dallas takes a small-time custom-home developer, one with little or no track record building publicly subsidized multifamily projects, and gives him millions of dollars to build a large affordable housing project for veterans? And then, as it becomes clear that said developer may not…
On October 28, 2013, Brian Hunter received an invoice in the mail from the city of Dallas. One week earlier, Hunter was in solitary confinement in the City Detention Center. At 2:15 in the morning, a jailer found him unresponsive. An ambulance came and took Hunter to Baylor Hospital. At…
