I saw on the City Hall blog that Meadows Foundation is calling a morning press conference to announce a grant that will allow the budget-strapped Park and Rec Department to “bring in a director of development this fall to pursue grants and donations for the City of Dallas Park and…
Wednesday night, the nine members of Dave Neumann’s hand-picked Cliff Manor Task Force abruptly ended a meeting with Dallas Housing Authority officials at DHA HQ: They walked in, listened to a few remarks from the council member, dropped off a four-pronged letter of demands, and scooted out the door. The…
The City’s slow move against community gardening continues, as evidenced by the latest set of do’s-and-don’ts — the sixth try at this — given the green-thumbs-up by the council’s Transportation and Environment Committee on Monday. The so-called Option 6 will now take root at the Zoning Ordinance Committee. To summarize…
In the end, it didn’t matter whether the meeting was open or closed to the public — because, in the end, there was no meeting at all. Yesterday we noted that council member Dave Neumann’s hand-picked Cliff Manor task force was scheduled to meet with Dallas Housing Authority higher-ups at…
This is how the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit summarizes the events that led to Dallas Police Officer Stormy Magiera filing a discrimination lawsuit against the city in early 2006, six years after she was hired:On May 21, 2005, Magiera responded to the sound of a gunshot…
The natural gas industry’s slow creep toward Dallas over the Barnett Shale has launched a small army of activists in Fort Worth’s exurbs, from small-town mayors to goat fromagers — a well-organized crew that’s gotten used to running into one another at wild parties like the EPA’s six-hour public comment…
As Andrea noted earlier, when it came time for the city council to discuss banning K2 and other synthetic cannabinoids, there was no mention of bongs, pipes and other paraphernalia — the other half of the ordinance drafted by City Attorney Tom Perkins. I finally spoke with Perkins today and…
A Friend of Unfair Park directs our attention to this Texas-sized showdown last night on CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 concerning “anchor babies” — or, as Houston’s Rep. Debbie Riddle calls ’em, “little terrorists.” Offered on the other side without comment except to say it takes a good four minutes into…
Last week, the Dallas Housing Authority presented 17 people, once homeless, with a new place to stay in Cliff Manor despite earlier assurances that it would hold off till a task force figured out how to ease their transition into the neighborhood. The mayor has said he hopes to use…
Welcome back to Wednesdays at City Hall, Friends. It’s the full council’s first voting session at the horseshoe after their summer vacation, and no doubt all of them labored for hours last night trying to figure out what they were going to wear this morning to show their friends how…
As Sam noted yesterday, the local Republican party shelled out three grand for a proper venue to accommodate the mammoth crowd they expected at their welcoming protest for President Obama. So, miles from the president’s fundraiser, in the thick of the triple-digit late afternoon heat, how was the crowd out…
By now you’ve no doubt read all 624 pages of City Manager Mary Suhm’s proposed FY2010-11 budget. Or at least heard: Library branches are losing staffers, which means those who stay will have to do more with less; the downtown outpost’s specialty floors will stay dark all but 26 hours…
Well, maybe you weren’t. But the city council’s Quality of Life Committee is right about now, because, as it turns out, the city’s graffiti ordinance is, in some spots, in conflict with recently enacted state law dealing with graffiti removal. As in: State law demands owners adios-mofo that tag within…
Why? Because, as evidenced by the photo just sent by the very Friend of Unfair Park who got this thing rolling ’bout two weeks back — one John M. — that sumbitch has been chopped down. And, see, I found out about this yesterday. And I initially just updated the…
Let’s go to the lengthy transcript, which the White House just posted from last night’s big-ticket fund-raiser at the Highland Park home of the attorney and his wife, a former president of Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity. Before the politics, a shout-out to his traveling mate (“I want to also…
At its August 25 meeting, the city council will be asked to sign off on taking close to $14 million from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, which, in June, agreed to dole out exactly $13,474,712 that’ll go toward nine Dallas infrastructure projects and a few hundred thou more…
Patrick took one Friend of Unfair Park’s morning advice and went to find him a nice place to snap some photos of Air Force One as it pulled into Love Field today. Only problem was, the president arrived a little ahead of schedule, and Patrick ran into the motorcade as…
While President Obama drops by the Highland Park home of lawyer Russell Budd this evening to raise dough and break bread with local Dems, Republicans are rallying at Franklin Stadium next to Hillcrest High School to … well, to do what? “It’s not just complaining about the Democrats,” says Dallas…
While it’s well-known that Dallas County leads the country with a whopping 22 exonerations since 2001 — 20 of which resulted from the preservation of DNA evidence — there’s been some squabbling among Republicans and Democrats about who deserves the bulk of the credit: former District Attorney Bill Hill or…
That didn’t take long: Less than two hours after posting that item about Ralph Isenberg and his intention to speak with President Obama this evening about the case of Saad Nabeel, Isenberg called Unfair Park to say it’s off. According to Isenberg, one day after his Saturday chat with the…
City Hall’s attempts to regulate community gardening in Dallas is the story that won’t go away: As I mentioned at the bottom of the budget item on Friday, the council’s Transportation and Environment Committee will yet again take up the issue tomorrow — this’ll be the sixth proposal to go…
Speaking of the president’s visit …One week ago today we mentioned that Former Dallas City Plan Commissioner-turned-immigration activist Ralph Isenberg has taken up the cause of Saad Nabeel, who came to the U.S. with his parents when he was 3, graduated from Frisco’s Liberty High School, got a scholarship to…
