“Very seldom could you pull off an accord in a project if every time you had to wait for some kind of public referendum. The timing justdoesn’t work.” A petition drive under way right now in Dallas calls for a citywide election on tax subsidies from City Hall to developers…
It’s the tale of two cities: In this Dallas Morning News story, today’s closed-door meeting between staffs of the City of Dallas and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is all about irritating bureaucratic delays in the Trinity River toll road project. In this WFAA-Channel 8 story, we learn that…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *The Cowboys fined Martellus Bennett one game check for an obscenity-laced and offensive rap video. Interesting to see what they’ll do to Anthony Spencer, who actually broke the law and got…
The Friends of Unfair Park know what’s happening. Just this morning, one of them hopped on a four-month old item about Detroit’s disgraced ex-mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, to warn Dallas about his impending arrival — just as soon as he gets out of the joint. Unfair Park had reported last September…
“We have a policythat says we willnot expand theaccess into our city by even one laneof additionalautomobile traffic.” Unfortunately for me, life is not always a conspiracy. Sometimes it’s just how people think. Which can change. Last week I attended a day-long seminar put on by City Manager Mary Suhm…
Dear Mexican: I am a naturalized (legal) hispano in the U.S., and I just realized what the “illegal” craze is about. What immigrant-bashing citizens are trying to protect here are people like…me. Consider what this concerned woman said to John McCain during a public meeting in New Hampshire last year…
The Dallas City Council’s Trinity River Corridor Project Committee gets a briefing at 9:30 this morning on hurdles facing the Trinity River toll road project. They’ll have people there from the North Texas Tollway Authority and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. I really wish they had thought to ask…
Something tells me the inventor of basketball planned neither on 100-0 winners nor 100-point-loser celebrities. I just threw up in my Raisin Bran. Now, where’d I … put … my … ah, there it is … soap box. America has gone softer than Bob Dole without his Viagra and it makes…
[jump] *No matter if he ultimately sucks or not, you’ll never forget where you were the day 1.4 million Americans converged on D.C. to watch Obama stroll up Pennsylvania Ave. I’m as jaded as they come, but that produced a chill down my spine and a tear in my eye…
Dear Mexican: Mi hermano y yo tenemos un dispute. We all know that Mexicans love their bistec sliced muy thin, but why? My brother is adamant that the diet of free-range vacas mexicanas results in tough meat, necessitating a thin slice for easy mastication. I think the reason is purely…
On January 9, Nelson wrote a signed column for the op-ed page in which she told how she personally had forced city officials to tear down a bad building in southern Dallas. She said it was part of a personal crusade. Nelson said she had heard from people in southern…
From the big seminar at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library today: City council is hearing experts from Canada and Virginia tell them how to do civilized development. The big question, of course: Why would we want to be civilized?One irony: The Canadian guy told them Vancouver has no freeways…
I admit, I’m jaded. Cynical, more often than not. Some refer to it as grumpy. Been to my share of Super Bowls and Olympics and U.S. Opens and it takes something pret-ty special to get me authentically lathered up. But while watching yesterday’s Presidental Inauguration, I got a chill down my…
Fifteen people, count ’em, at Code Pink’s “No War Criminals in my Neighborhood!” protest so far on the bridge at Mockingbird Lane and N. Central Expressway. All very orderly except for the occasional SMU fraternity numbnut driving by in the Escalade and giving them the finger. Trish Major, communications director…
Last week Unfair Park told our dear Friends about an Oak Cliff gallery, Decorazon, soliciting international contributions to a show to be called “Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush,” which is dedicated to our new neighbor (Hiya, W!) and some shoes. Unfair Park told readers that proprietors of the gallery had…
If you know me, you know the only the reason I’m happy to have George Dubya Bush back in Dallas is because it means he’s no longer in Washington, D.C. As I’ve said all along, he’s a good guy. Just a really bad President. But that’s ancient history, right? Today…
Whether you’re at the end of your rope or merely the end of your week, welcome to Whitt’s End: *My summation of Thursday’s dramatic plane crash/rescue in New York’s Hudson River: It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s Superman!! *Found it funny that, although the crash happened at 2:30, Larry King and…
This morning I read with sadness of the death of Trammell Crow, a man for whom I have always had great admiration. I would like to pass along this modest anecdote.In the early 1990s when I was between newspaper jobs, I worked for Trammell Crow on a personal project of…
Dear Mexican: What is it with César Chávez? Recently in Dallas, we’ve gone through three attempts to name streets after Mr. Chávez. In one instance, the plan was to remove the name of two brothers who were city founders from a street named after them and rename the street César…
Certain things you can do that might turn out very badly for you. Borrowing money from the Mafia, for example. Posing naked for a photographer who is a stranger. But who worries about driving down a toll road? I can tell you who should: You! Over the last several years…
Decorazon Gallery in Bishop Arts has issued an international invitation to artists to submit works for an exhibition in February to be called “Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush.” According to the invitation, it’s “a shoe art exhibition open to artists of all mediums and from around the globe, who will…
Status: Green Weight: 156.9 (-14.2) Mood: Hungry Hunched Over Happy! Tonight, we dine! Well, sorta. I’ll probably have some soup. Maybe an ease-out-of-it cracker or two. Nothing too crazy. After all, it’s been 10 days since my last food: A jalapeno cheeseburger on white bread and a handful of red grapes at…
