It doesn’t take a particularly good memory to remember when Dallas had a problem with loose dogs. A crisis is probably a more accurate way to describe it. A 2016 study found that there were literally thousands of loose dogs roaming the streets of southern Dallas contributing to a spike…
When the Observer first reported on the burgeoning “sanctuary cities” for the unborn movement last summer, the whole thing seemed like a sideshow. Waskom, a town smack-dab in the middle of Gohmertland in East Texas, banned abortion clinics within its city limits. The town based its decision on the fact that,…
In early 2018, the city released a plan to build thousands of new units of affordable housing. When the plan was introduced, then-Mayor Mike Rawlings said, “This is a very important day to show that government works in America, and we can take complex issues and get 15 of us…
I’m struggling through a bunch of dense academic articles and data about crime and social equity for a column I’m working on that I’m sure no one including my loved ones will ever read — well, they don’t really read my stuff anyway — because I think writing stuff that no one can stand…
One of Dallas’ oddest but still really consequential fights limped through another round at City Hall on Tuesday, as city staff, council members and advocates for the homeless pushed, pulled and tugged at a proposed ordinance that will finally codify just who, and who isn’t, allowed to provide shelter for…
Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision last week to reject all new refugees to the state of Texas has left Dallas area refugee and immigrant organizations confused and frustrated but committed to reversing the decision. “We’re in the largest refugee crisis since the Holocaust, and in response to that our country is…
When Donna Pryor walked into her new three-bedroom home on a tree-lined street in Plano, she was mesmerized. There was a clean yard, a huge kitchen and a swimming pool out back. Finally, her children would be safe. Pryor left home when she was 13 to escape her drug-addicted mother. Pregnant…
The city of Dallas has started collecting hotel taxes on short-term rental properties — but only from those whose owners have bothered to sign up. Since November 2019, the city of Dallas has campaigned to get short-term rental residences — rooms and apartments listed on sites like Airbnb and VRBO…
Dallas Police Department Chief Renee Hall had to see it coming. If there was a chance that she’d get out of the Dallas City Council’s Public Safety Committee meeting Monday unscathed, it disappeared Thursday, when Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson made clear his issues with the business Hall had scheduled for…
As of January 1, all complexes in Dallas with eight or more units are required to offer recycling to their tenants, but not all of them are yet.
First Baptist Dallas Pastor Robert Jeffress has some instructions for all of you out there who might be looking for a little amusement as your week gets rolling: Pay no mind to a new video from a group calling itself the Lincoln Project. The Lincoln Project — made up of…
Texas, thanks to a letter sent to the U.S. secretary of state by Gov. Greg Abbott, is closed to refugees. The state needs to take care of its own before it seeks to help others, Abbott told Secretary Mike Pompeo. “At this time, the state and nonprofit organizations have a…
The Dallas Police Department is promising reform in the wake of a new city audit, which uncovered widespread faults in the department’s processes for investigating and addressing misconduct complaints. Last year, auditors found hundreds of inexplicably missing records in an internal database that tracks misconduct complaints. Internal Affairs Division officials…
However a government might seek to restrict abortion, people with pregnancies they don’t wish to carry to term are going to seek the procedure out. It’s a fact one will hear again and again from pro-choice researchers and activists, and a new study from TxPEP, the Texas Policy Evaluation Project,…
Thursday morning, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson trotted out his task force’s four recommendations for curbing violent crime in Dallas. The mayor, with the support of key members of the City Council, wants to clean up abandoned buildings and lots in areas with high levels of violent crime, provide better lighting…
A proposal to turn over 105-year-old Reverchon Park to a commercial sports operation — defeated at the Dallas City Council a month ago –- passed yesterday after East Dallas member David Blewett engineered a revote. He got his way. The deal to change the 46-acre park just north of downtown…
A new grocery store is coming to Oak Cliff. On Wednesday, city council members approved funds for an additional branch of the niche neighborhood food market, Royal Blue Grocery.
We got stuck on the wrong part of what the police chief said. At a press conference Jan. 5 about the shooting death that day in Dallas of a 1-year-old and the nonfatal shootings of an 8-year-old and a 20-year-old, Dallas Police Chief U. Renee Hall used a curse word…
OK, I hate to keep shooting this horse, but all of you people who wanted East Dallas City Council member Philip Kingston and council member/mayoral candidate Scott Griggs out of City Hall because they weren’t civil enough, here’s how civility works: David Blewett, who beat Kingston in District 14, is…
Two days after the Dallas City Council in a split vote shot down a deal to turn over Reverchon Park to a for-profit sports entity, East Dallas District 14 City Council Member David Blewett, who had voted against the giveaway, filed paperwork with the City Secretary for a re-vote —…
Voters in Dallas and Tarrant counties will continue to be able to vote at any polling place in their counties. The Texas Secretary of State’s office notified both counties last week that they had been granted permission to continue participating in the state’s countywide voting program. The program allows voters…
The Dallas Police Department promised to implement a “data-driven approach to reduce violent crime” and laid out crime-reduction goals for the upcoming year in a report released Thursday. Mayor Eric Johnson demanded the report be released by the end of 2019, a particularly violent year in Dallas. In a statement released…
