Dallas Progress

Good Move - Business Leaders get Involved

2008-10-06T10:19:00.003-05:00

The DMN has a story today about business leaders that will meet with DISD Superintendent Michael Hinojosa on a regular basis.

I believe this is a good move. The DISD needs experienced financial executives to help deal with this mess.

Last Day to Register to Vote

2008-10-06T08:54:00.003-05:00

Today is the last day to register to vote in next month's election.

Here's all the info you need to vote in Dallas:

*You can always find a ballot at the library or the Post Office.

*Check on your registration - You can view your ballot ahead of time (link)

* General Election Info (link)

*When and where to early vote (link)

*Demonstration of Touch Screen Voting Machine (Flash player required) (link)

*Services Available to Voters with Special Needs in Texas (link)

*League of Women Voters' Online Voters Guide - available October 10th (link)

DISD May Question Some Unemployment Benefits?

2008-10-04T10:05:00.003-05:00

That's the headline from a recent post on Allen Gwinn's Dallas.org. It suggests that DISD may challenge a RIF'd educator's benefits if they don't sign all of their agreements. It's worth a read.

Joe Biden Talks About Being A Single Father

2008-10-03T13:23:00.002-05:00

This is one of my favorite moments of last night.

DISD Layoff Program: I Don't Like It

2008-10-03T04:41:00.004-05:00

As someone that has several friends that are directly affected by the DISD fiasco aka the $84 million dollar rabbit hole, I can tell you that I don't like this program at all. Thanks to Allen Gwinn at dallas.org for the live blog; others have been copying his style but he's still the best.

I don't know how someone abstains from such a vote, or any vote for that matter. At City Plan Commission or City Council, there is no "abstain" vote, unless you have a conflict of interest and you wouldn't be in the room at the time of voting. One of the trustees did abstain yesterday.

We need elected officials that are willing to take a stand, and to abstain is not acceptable regardless of your concerns. To Dr. Blackburn and Carla Ranger, thank you for your courage.

A voluntary 5% reduction in the superintendent's income is a joke. It's time to start talking about 50% or more.

I wonder if this will be the event that finally drives citizens en masse to vote in DISD elections, something that I have been writing about since I started this blog. Right now, that's the talk. We'll see next Spring.

We Have Motels to Knock Down

2008-10-02T10:01:00.003-05:00

The infamous Sunset Motel and Southern Comfort Motels are being demolished today! These are the ones that Dwaine Caraway and I worked to close along with community leaders. Then Chris Bowers and other city attorneys made sure they stayed closed.

These are the motels across from the VA hospital.

Location: 4300 block of Lancaster Road ; Dallas 75216

Date: Thursday, October 2nd

Time: 2PM

Come out and join us for this glorious event!

Vice Presidential Debate

2008-10-02T08:01:00.002-05:00

Remember, the Vice Presidential debate is tonight.

Time: 8PM
Site: Washington University in St. Louis

Finally, Joe Biden and Sarah Palin square off.

Do They Really Get It?

2008-09-30T05:46:00.023-05:00

As you've read, the House of Representatives failed to pass the $700 Billion Bailout bill yesterday.

Because the bill failed, the market lost $1.2 Trillion in value yesterday. That's not the money of "Wall Street Fat Cats." That's the money in your 401k, your pension fund, and your personal investments (if you're blessed enough to have any).

Sure, House Speaker Pelosi's speech was a little over the top. But to not vote for a bill because of a speech is absurd.

The current financial situation is not the end result of "low income people who bought houses they couldn't afford." Pelosi, like it or not, is right. Our country in this financial place because of the awful financial policies that have occurred over the last eight years.

We continued to ship away jobs to other countries, and provided tax-amnesty holidays that allowed companies to bring back the profits with little or no tax consequence. These were good-paying jobs (and even lower-paying jobs). Those jobs paid people a meaningful wage which allowed workers to afford these homes. When an "anything goes" oil policy caused workers to pay double the amount to be able to get to work, something had to give.

Sure, maybe some homeowners were reckless in buying homes that required them to stretch to afford them. When people used adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) they knew the low-interest payments were for a defined time period, but when the economy went south they had no way to refinance. Contrary to what you may have heard, banks were not willing to work with people that were trying to work out their troubled mortgages until a few months ago. Most banks were willing to leave people on the hook at high rates to make their quarterly profit projections. At some point, something has to give and people simply couldn't afford their new house payments which may have doubled or tripled at that point (remember that house payments in the first few years are almost all interest and not principal). This is the story that is not being told by the media and self-serving congresspeople that voted against this bill.

As it stands now, some small business owners cannot get short-term financing to make payroll and buy supplies and inventory. These businesses now have to lay off workers. The student loan market is freezing up. That's not a Wall Street problem, that's an "Our Street" problem. When small banks don't have funds to make basic loans, you're going to feel it. The average American will began to feel the pinch as the 529 college funds that people scraped together for their kids evaporate. Check the balance of your pension fund this morning and get back to me.

Unless Congress gets its act together and passes some form of this bill, you will see the affects of such actions in an even more profound way than you already have. This bill now costs us $520 Billion more than it would have yesterday ($1.2 Trillion Market drop - $700 Billion Bill= $520 Billion). It's simple math.

Stop the posturing and get this done. The country can't afford many more days like yesterday.

Debate Tonight!

2008-09-26T08:11:00.004-05:00

The first Presidential Debate is tonight at 8PM. Barack will be there. Whether it will be a townhall meeting with Obama, or an actual debate is up to John McCain.

UPDATE: McCain will attend the debate.

Build the Hotel Campaign Kicks Off

2008-09-24T16:21:00.005-05:00

The campaign to Build The Convention Center Hotel kicked off today at City Hall. The misinformation, including the whole false premise that this is taking money away from things like public safety and street repair.

Check out their new website: www.buildthehotel.com

Don't settle for quotes when you can watch the speech for yourself. My apologies for the videos not being clearer. Youtube is using a larger window size and it makes things look blurry.

Remarks from Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway

Remarks from Mayor Tom Leppert

Mayor Calls for Investigation into DFW Travel

2008-09-24T14:51:00.006-05:00

After the following story aired Tuesday night on CBS11 , the station breaks the news that Mayor Tom Leppert has called for an investigation into extravagant travel by DFW airport executives.

The station quotes the Mayor as saying that Dallas citizens have an interest in the management of the airport and it could not survive without taxpayer support.

When two executives spend more than $240,000 in about 18 months, I think that calling for an investigation is more than appropriate.

Things I've Learned at Boot Camp

2008-09-22T20:51:00.009-05:00

Jay's Boot Camp has been a great learning experience so far. There are a few things that I've learned along the way.

Remember to bring your mat - doing the Army's PT test on concrete is not fun.

Don't wear a Lucky (Jeans) T-Shirt. The trainer heckled me for most of that day by calling me "Lucky" everywhere I went.

My weekend eating habits are not helping, and I'm shocked. Peep this health-conscious menu:

*Before the start of week two: A 3-course Sunday brunch at Fearing's.

*Last weekend: La Duni for dinner on Friday (with Cuatro Leches cake for dessert, of course), Chip's on Saturday (my last meal there - soon to be RIP), and Sunday dinner consisting of my wife's killer CFS. At least I skipped the homemade gravy!

Seriously though, this has been a great experience so far. You can learn a lot about yourself when you have to do dozens of sprints and mile-plus runs combined with other intense exercise. Pushing yourself brings you clarity in other phases of your life, and you can't put a price tag on that.

Selective Prosecution

2008-09-22T07:01:00.000-05:00

I saw an post on a local blog, that questioned why the city would consider spending $30-70,000 on a study to determine whether or not the city should renovate the Convention Center Arena (CCA).

Spending the money is a good idea. With the future convention center hotel, the development in the Cedars and the coming JPI development the arena would be a great complement to the area and to the city. It would be a different animal than the Superpages.com Center at Fair Park since it's enclosed. Plus, it wouldn't be a "junior Nokia" as stated in the blog post since the CCA has 9,800 seats and Nokia holds 6,350. In addition, the CCA has 96 meeting rooms.

But questioning such an expenditure suggests an even bigger question; with their fiscal responsibility movement why are these same anti's not calling for Hinojosa's head at DISD? They have found themselves in the role of apologists and said that the District being $64 million in the hole happened under the best of intentions. That's funny to me; surely if the city was found to be $64 million in the hole they would want blood in the streets and would be calling for Leppert's head.

Maybe I'm off base, but to me it seems like $64,000,000 has a lot more zeros that $30-70,000.

Who knows, maybe they can help the operators of Nokia start a referendum to stop the city from spending a few million on the arena (I kid). Nokia will be a a major disadvantage if this renovation gets done. There is no development anywhere in Grand Prairie that can compete with downtown Dallas. The Nokia theater benefited from the right of first refusal deal that AAC had in place which killed Reunion Arena. As pointed out in the DMN piece, the Convention Center Arena has no such handcuffs.

Do certain blogs have an agenda? Maybe, maybe not. But you can best believe that if Mayor Leppert, Dwaine Caraway, or Ron Natinsky suggest anything in this city the same blog crew will be there to try to shoot it down. It's been happening ever since TrinityVote. I think that dissenting points of view can be healthy for a city, but surely everything that the aforementioned officials do isn't a bad idea.

Put some naming rights on the arena and the the renovation pays for itself or close to it. Done, next. Surely in a city like Dallas you could find a corporate sponsor (Comerica, JPI, Southwest) to pay a few million to help foot the bill. Then we can put our focus back onto other issues.

Old School Throwback

2008-09-20T11:31:00.002-05:00

I had to bring it back with a cartoon from my childhood. Surely you remember this one from School House Rock about how a law gets made.

Jim Schutze is a Liar

2008-09-18T18:52:00.011-05:00

When I got home today from a long day at City Plan Commission, I read this allegation by Jim Schutze at the Dallas Observer:

"At today’s meeting, African-American plan commission member Michael Davis made an angry, crazy, rambling attack on the Latino citizens who had spoken in favor of the Cesar Chavez name change. How times have changed. In its offensiveness and petulance, Davis’s speech was at least the equal to any of the old white-guy bigot speeches I used to hear at City Hall decades ago."

Seriously? Who the heck is he kidding?

Anybody that thinks that what I said today was racist in any way was not listening. After the vote, people catcalled our committee this morning and called us racists this morning and I let it go. But when similar attacks surfaced at our main commission I felt the need to address it.

I said that people of any race shouldn’t be allowed to attack and judge each other without cause.

What I did say was that you can't judge a person and call them racist based on an outcome of a vote, and I was offended by those allegations. I also said that I am one of the first people at our commission that addresses any citizen that makes offensive or racial statements at our meetings. Maybe I rambled a bit, but in no way was anything that I said racist or anything close to it.

The people that were on the Cesar Chavez side, that called me personally, know what I am about. They knew how I would vote in advance. I probably have more friends in that group than I had on the other side. But it’s not about a “how many friends do I have” contest.

The bigger issue, as I have written before, is that some irresponsible writers in this town want to fan the flames and absolutely hate the fact that different groups that were once at odds are working together.

Maybe Schutze is still mad because I exposed him some time ago. He wants payback in his pathetic mind. For some people, they will try to ruin or play games with people's lives for a little ink and attention.

Keep in mind, the Dallas Observer is the same newspaper that gave me their Best Political Blogger Award in 2006.

Anybody that knows me knows that I am not racist in any way.

My family help built this city, as did others of many races. Again, I'm not trying to prove anything, but just making a point.

Jim Schutze is a flat-out liar and a hatemonger. If he was even at our meeting, he was hiding somewhere. Controversy still sells huh?

As some of the comments show on Schutze's hateful post indicate, he’s wrong. Here are a few:

**

“Jim, you obviously were not at the Subdivision Plan Review meeting earlier this morning where they recommended denial of changing the name of Ross Avenue to Cesar Chavez Boulevard.”

The lack of orderliness and professional conduct on the side for the name change was interesting to say the least. … I believe that was what Commissioner Davis was so upset about. “

and...

(they are quoting me here) "I have been coming down here for a long time. I have been thrown out of here more than once, but never did I stand up with my one vote here and try to judge the character or how they feel based on one vote."

Pretty easy to understand from here.. It's rather obvious he is referring to yourself and others characterizing anyone who disagrees with you on this issue as racists.

And I would say if anyone comes off as racist it's Schutze and the other people trying to turn this into a racial issue.

One more...

“Wait a minute... is this the same Michael Davis who has his own blog and has generally spoken with tolerance and reason in the past about other race-related issues in Dallas?”

**

I’m still the same. I haven’t changed one bit.

He can't demonize me. But I wanted to respond to his charge once and only once.

This is why things like Blogger.com, twitter, wordpress and other publishing tools are so great. We are not held hostage by newspapers and writers with an obvious grudge; we can respond. Thanks for the love that I have received on that post, and in general from my readers who read from time to time. You know my true spirit, and one liar can’t change that.

Obama Directly Addresses America in Two-Minute Ad: Plan for Change

2008-09-17T09:45:00.002-05:00

This may be the first time that a major candidate has released a two-minute ad that addresses major issues.

But as Barack says in the ad, "this is no ordinary time and it shouldn’t be an ordinary election. "

Check it out:

More HOA's Gone Wild

2008-09-17T08:26:00.005-05:00

Last time, it was Frisco. Now, it's Coppell. In that fine city, an HOA was trying to fine a guy for having an Obama sign in his front yard. Only they didn't know about a law that says that "residents in homeowners associations are allowed to display in their yards one political sign per candidate or ballot measure within 90 days of a related election." So the neighbor is off the hook.

Nice work by the homeowner and by the folks that pointed out that law.

Most HOAs in Dallas focus on crime reduction and neighborly work centered around community improvement. It must be nice to be in a city with too much time on your hands.

A Referendum on the Hotel?

2008-09-16T00:01:00.006-05:00

I just saw this article from Rudy Bush that Harlan Crow is starting a petition drive to have a referendum against funding the Convention Center Hotel. As most of you know, Crow's company is the owner of the Hilton Anatole which may lose some business when this hotel gets built.

I predict that it will be unlikely that this group gets the signatures, and if so there's no way it passes. A few observations:

1) There is no real large-scale emotional attachment against funding the hotel. The TrinityVote was much more emotional and dealt with varying opinions of environmental issues, tollways, and other hot-button issues.

2) A lot of the blog comments I've read have mentioned the self-interest side of having the owner of a major hotel rally against a new hotel. However, the owners of almost every major hotel save the Anatole are for the Convention Center Hotel.

3) Right now, the city is not a major player in the convention business. Many residents want that to change, since most people realize that there is a ton of revenue that the city is not capturing.

4) Who's going to campaign for this issue in the south? For that matter, who's going to lead the effort to get signatures?

5) The focus right now is on the Presidential elections.

The anti-hotel people will have 60 days to get the signatures, and that's why it's being announced now so it can take advantage of record turnout in November.

This should be interesting.

UPDATE: There are a few other hotels involved. None appear to have roots in downtown Dallasa. The Warwick Melrose (Oak Lawn), Prism Hotels (Far North Dallas, owns the Holiday Inn on Harry Hines), and Aimbridge (owners of the Hilton Garden Inn). Aimbridge is run by an ex-Wyndham guy who appears to own or manage the future aloft Hotels in Las Colinas, Plano and Frisco. I can't confirm if he's behind the aloft on Young Street in Downtown Dallas. Aimbridge also owns the Hilton Garden Inn on Stemmons and a few others.

Their web presence is run by a guy that worked with Mike Huckabee's PAC, if that means anything to you.

Wall Street Affects All of Us

2008-09-15T17:06:00.008-05:00

Many people are reading about the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the pending purchase/rescue of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America, and think it doesn't affect them. They think it's a bunch of rich Wall Street-types that had it coming.

People also should realize that will companies like Lehman and especially Merrill & Lehman play an important part in our economy. If you have a 401k or pension, Merrill may be the custodian of your funds. AIG (who's also in deep trouble) reinsures other companies, which means they back other smaller insurance firms. They had to post subsidiaries as collateral to get $20 billion in emergency funds. If this doesn't work, they're done. A lot of lower and middle-income people work at these firms also. Assistants, customer services reps, accountants and more work at these firms. This is big, y'all.

Did you know that today's 500-point drop was the worst since 9/11?

Projected layoff numbers:

Lehman - 20,000
Merrill - thousands of jobs, since Bank of America and Merrill Lynch are everywhere and have a ton of personnel overlap.

These companies have offices all over the United States. In small towns and major cities, these companies matter. A lot of net worth evaporated from the US economy today. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better.

In Honor of Heroes

2008-09-11T07:11:00.005-05:00

There will be no posts today in honor of the people that lost their lives due to the September 11th, 2001 attacks in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania. Thousand of citizens and public servants died on that day. To all of our armed forces servicemen and servicewomen, thank you for putting your lives on the line to protect our country.

Boot Camp Blog: Day 2

2008-09-10T12:28:00.004-05:00

Today I learned that there are new levels of pain. P-A-I-N. Being upright is a luxury. Shouts to Mom for the home remedies.

I also learned that a lot of this stuff is mental, although your body has a way of exacting revenge for all the Pepsi's that you drink (I'm writing this while drinking a Pepsi right now- some people never learn). I ran a 6:38 mile today...I guess that's good. The bad news: a lot of people in this class are faster than me. I have to remember the trainer's words: crawl, walk, run. How will this class coincide with me going to brunch at Fearing's? Time will tell.

Tim O'Hare doesn't Want Farmers Branch to "be like Oak Cliff"

2008-09-09T10:00:00.012-05:00

Thanks to our buddy Tim Rogers at D Magazine's Frontburner blog, we have learned that Farmers Branch Mayor Tim O'Hare doesn't want his town to become another Oak Cliff.

As you know, various groups in Farmers Branch have been fighting each other at the ballot box and in the courthouse over wanting to enforce immigration rules.

I'm not getting into that discussion here, but I will get into what O'Hare wrote in an e-mail that was unearthed when a TRO was filed in this case. Tim Rogers unearthed the following nugget of moronic opining in said e-mail by the Mayor of Farmers Branch:

My family has been here since 1956 and almost everyone that I consider family lives here. I don’t want us to have to move. I don’t want to have to live somewhere else. But, I’m not going to live in Oak Cliff, which is what we are becoming and going to become if we don’t make some serious changes and spend some money.

Aaaaah, the Peter Principle rears its head once again. Tim O'Hare is one of its most recent examples.

Tim is too much of a moron to turn Farmers Branch into Oak Cliff. I'm curious, doesn't O'Hare want FB to turn into an area, like Oak Cliff, that has the following qualities:

Diversity
Cool places to go
Is on the upswing
All types of housing stock from affordable to high-end
The best views in the city
Quick commutes
Has a brand new and growing college campus (UNT-Dallas)

First off, I wonder when was the last time that O'Hare has actually been to Oak Cliff. Maybe he can check it out after he leaves his Carrollton law office.

Carrollton? Yes, Carrollton. O'Hare, as a former city councilperson and now mayor of Farmers Branch, operates his law office in Carrollton. It's not a money thing, as he found time to buy a building and relocate this past spring in between e-mails. Before Carrollton, his office (according to the same e-mail mentioned above) was in North Dallas. That shows you he doesn't know what he's doing. How can you possibly attract businesses to your city when you won't even operate your own business within the city limits. That would be like our Mayor having his main office in Grand Prairie.

O'Hare is an embarrassment to the good people that live in Farmers Branch and are working hard to improve it.

Sure, Oak Cliff has its faults but I'm curious what type of town O'Hare does want Farmers Branch to become. Maybe he can explain that, since he has already said what he doesn't want the city to represent.

Chips on Cole - One of My Favorite Spots in Dallas is Closing

2008-09-08T22:55:00.002-05:00

As you can see, this is a cup from Chips on Cole Avenue. As you may have heard, Chip's on Cole is closing. Nancy at D Magazine has confirmed the closing date as September 30th. According to whom you ask the rent was doubled or tripled and after 10 years on Cole they are closing up shop.

While I do like some fancier places, this is my favorite place to eat in Dallas. From what I've learned, it's one of the most famous burger spots in Dallas, and has been around since 1981.

I guess since I've moved out of the neighborhood I'm not the frequent customer I used to be. When I lived there, the main guy behind the counter knew my name and remembered what I ordered. When I traveled on the road and got back to town, I'd leave the airport and grab my Chip's before I took my bags home.

I know that there's another location on Lovers, but to me this one is better. So is the parking and the walk-around aspect of being in that neighborhood. One of the coolest things to do in Dallas on a Sunday afternoon or early evening is to sit outside Chips as the cars and people roll by on Cole Avenue. I can't imagine doing that as people hop the curb in their attempts to make it to the tollway off of Lovers Lane. Don't get it twisted... I will be buying my burgers from there, but the location will make me work for it.

In the end, all we have is great memories. I always thought that I would take my future kids to Chip's and it would be our spot, just like my Dad and I have certain spots in Philly. Everything that I loved about living in Knox-Henderson is closing little by little. I wonder now if Wild about Harry's on Knox is next.

Boot Camp Blog: Day 1

2008-09-08T08:12:00.007-05:00

Why is it so dark in these pics? You'll find out soon enough.

As some of my friends know, I signed up for Jay's Fitness Boot Camp. Jay's came highly recommended in various news clips and from my friends at D Magazine, so I decided to sign up for the four-week class. As I quickly learned, Jay's Camp is not for the faint of heart.

My wife questioned my sanity for a minute but encouraged me even more. She said I had that "first day of school" look.

Today was the first day. It started before dawn with a 1-mile run around the AAC and the parking lot (see pics). I hadn't run a straight mile since college, so forget about asking my time in this event.

After the mile run, there were several exercise stations. Each station consisted of 3-4 sets of multiple exercises that caused various levels of pain. At this point, I questioned my own sanity.

For us newbies, we got to do some push-ups and more running (maybe a half-mile total) at the end. For the vets, they were treated to another mile run.

Jay and the other trainers warned us about the world of hurt we would experience come Wednesday. And with that statement, the parking lot lights shut off and we stumbled back to our cars. Shockingly, I'm not in a lot of pain but I know I have a lot of hard work ahead of me.

Tell Sarah Palin that I Am a Community Organizer

2008-09-08T08:01:00.004-05:00

It was shocking to see a political candidate of a major party mock the role and importance of community organizers. What planet has she been living on?

In response, our nationwide network of bloggers (the AfroSpear) as well as others are participating in a nationwide Day of Blogging for Justice. We have a few words for Sarah Palin:

If you belong to a PTA - you are a community organizer.

If you belong to an HOA or crime watch - you are a community organizer.

If you have put together a group to improve your neighborhood, city, or school district - you are a community organizer.

Maybe someone will tell Sarah Palin that community organizers matter. Let's tell her in the voting booth!

From Barack: