Pegasus News Mayoral Interviews

Pegasus News is in the process of doing video interviews with Dallas' Mayoral Candidates. The interviews are excellent, and I suggest you give them a view.

Alan asks real questions that make candidates uncomfortable. This is our city, and to run it you must answer the tough questions.

Keep a lookout for the people who are next up for an interview. Pegasus solicits questions from the public and then asks the candidates those exact questions. Great stuff!

Kudos to the candidates that take time to be interviewed by the younger set. A lot of candidates act like we don't exist. To me, if you don't seek us out or reach out to our demographic you're automatically disqualified from any endorsement by Dallas Progress.

Check out the first two interviews:

Tom Leppert
Zac Crain

Dallas Libraries Need Work

Yesterday, I was out and about and needed to use my laptop to blog, make future plans, promote hot political websites... you know, the usual.

I found myself going to the Casa View branch near the intersection of Gus Thomasson and Ferguson.

Now the Library system has been promoting the fact that they have wi-fi in all of the branches. It's a great thing, except there's a little problem at Casa View. For all of the internet access, they have ONE working outlet available for laptops. If someone's using it, you're out of luck. (OK, they have two outlets in the whole place and one's broken.) And the copier is on that one outlet. Nice.

Conversely, I ended up going to the Skillman/Southwestern branch. That library has tons of outlets and even a "quiet room" with multiple outlets, chairs, and tables.

I know that Casa View is going to be replaced by the Lochwood branch going in at Jupiter & Garland next year, but that doesn't mean that someone shouldn't have thought things through and called a friendly electrician to upgrade a bit for us PC users.

House of JinHe - Shoes and Apparel in Deep Ellum

You might be wondering what’s up with the ad on the right side of my webpage. It is for my newest advertiser, House of JinHe.

The House of JinHe is a shoe and clothing store that’s owned and operated by Susie Upshaw. It is a minority and female owned business that is located in Deep Ellum.

The House of JinHe appeals to style conscious men and women looking for that certain something out of the ordinary. This shoe boutique houses a variety of collections with a fusion of both traditional and classical with a funky contemporary twist.

Carrying brands such as Naughty Monkey, Ted Baker, Irregular Choice, Cindy Says, Max Studio, Matt Lamar, Jo Ghost, Impulse, and more, the House of JinHe captures a fun and spontaneous attitude as well as create a unique shopping experience.

For Deep Ellum to succeed, stores like the House of JinHe must prosper. This store represents the entrepreneurial spirit that is here in Dallas. As I’ve always said, to be a cool city you have to have cool independent retail shops. This is one of those stores. Support your own! Check out House of JinHe, and tell your friends about it too!

The House of JinHe is located at 2542 Elm Street in Deep Ellum (map).
Hours are: Monday-Friday 11AM-6PM and Saturday 12PM-5PM
Phone Number: 214-747-shoe (7463)

For more information, please check out their website at www.houseofjinhe.com or click the box in the Dallas Progress ads section.

Eminent Domain and the City of Dallas

A lot of what goes down at City Hall is determined in Dallas City Council committees. This is where items are discussed before they are moved forward to meetings of the entire Dallas City Council.

The Economic Development and Housing committee was scheduled to have a briefing on Eminent Domain today. The issues at hand were notification and the eminent domain process when the City wants land for specific uses.

Here is a copy of the PDF presentation (link). If your family owns land in Dallas, make sure that the owner's address is current to make sure you are notified if your property is scheduled to be taken by the City.

Hypocrisy and Porn Stores

I have read some great articles on the New Fine Arts fiasco. Shawn Williams at Dallas South Blog has been doing a great job of covering the issue, and Scott Goldstein at the DMN has written some great pieces as well.

In Scott's article, Ed Oakley says, "they should not open it," and, "they should figure out a way to minimize their loss."

It’s funny though. Oakley wasn’t so strong about opposing it at the community meeting (which I did attend since it was at my Church). He simply said they have the legal right to open it due to the 5% rule (the absurd rule that sexually oriented businesses must have access to 5% of the City's land for development) and shrugged his shoulders.

Now because he has seen that it can be politically favorable to come out against it, he feels they should have consulted with the community.

Give me a break!

Ed Oakley’s the one that gave the infamous Classic (Townview) Motel their SUP when he was on the City Planning Commission. He has done NOTHING to change the laws...other than voting to reduce the City of Dallas' sexually oriented business fee to $750 in 2002. When Oakley supported the reduction in fees, he hid behind a City law as justification instead of doing something about it.

This time, I won't let allow him to see which way the wind blows and capitalize on an issue. Some of us can see right through that act.

2006 Bond Package-Coming Up Lame?

There are some things about the way the 2006 City of Dallas Bond Package is being handled that I absolutely do not like. I'll have more to say in the next few days.

Peanut Butter Poisoning

The wife & I just watched the story around the recalled peanut butter. Then we looked in the cabinet. Turns out we have a 95% empty Great Value PB jar that, yes, begins in the dreaded 2111 serial number. No, my wife didn't get sick.

She...lucked...out.

Where's the Money???

A reporter at the DMN and Robert Wilonsky at the Observer both report that the construction of the South Dallas Cultural Center will move forward with a new contractor.

I'm glad to see them moving forward on the SDDC, but two questions remain:

Where's the $600K the first contractor received?! Surety bonds are great, but shouldn't the message be sent that you can't rip off the City and get away with it? Someone please prove me wrong.

(crickets)

Robert also mentions the still-closed Fair Park Motorsports Museum. I bet if you ask about the Auto Museum, you'll get an answer like "it'll be ready by Christmas this year." The same answer we got each of the last two years.

I can't wait until May 2007.

The "Other Side of the Tracks" - Where I Live

aka "Elitists gone Wild"

Jim Schutze at the Observer has an interesting response to an article written by some guy named Rod Dreher at the DMN. I won't address the fact that Jim wrote a half-serious article and Dreher acted like it was a research treatise from The Brookings Instituion.

JS has the link to the DMN article if you care to read it, but I'll just offer a couple of quotes.

Middle-class family people – white, black brown, whatever – happen to like order, cleanliness, safety and stability. They like things to be “nice.”

Is Dreher implying that people of lower income don’t want clean neighborhoods? No, we do. It would just be nice if we got the city services needed to clean up the place.

“If your idea of a pleasant place to live includes drug crime, burglaries, broken windows and the lot, you could always move to the wrong side of the tracks … er, interstate. But Old East Dallas is coming back strong, and damned if I can see what’s wrong with that.”

What exactly is this guy's problem?

Some of us are trying to clean up things on “the wrong side of the tracks.” I can see why Schutze doesn’t want that type of person to move into the neighborhood. There’s a difference between someone that wants to clean the neighborhood and an elitist type that gets to elicit his opinions from on high.

My Grandmother lived on "the other side of the tracks." Until her hospitalization and passing, she washed her stoop daily. But she was lower-income, just the type that good 'old Rod Dreher claims couldn't revitalize the neighborhood without him.

One question: what are the odds he carries that same obnoxious attitude into his opinion when they come out with their "endorsements" of City Council Candidates from Districts 3, 4, 5, 7, and 8 (aka the so-called "other side of the tracks").

Unlike most writers that hate on him, Jim is required reading. Keep writing Schutze!

Obama to Announce for President (Sneak Preview)

On Saturday morning, Senator Barack Obama will formally announce his candidacy to be the next President of the United States.

This is not an endorsement, but when an event this significant takes place you have to cover it. Here is the pre-announcement:

Is Texas the Worst Place to Live in the U.S.?

One of my downstate blogger peers seems to think so. John at Bay Area Houston reports that according to State Senator Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso), we might be. John's article is a must read.

Senator Shapleigh's report, entitled Texas on the Brink, is an amazing dichotomy of statistics. John mentioned a few stats, but I will give you a few others:

• Texas spends almost 3x the dollars per prisoner ($20,000/yr) as they do per school student ($7,100).
• #1 in pollution, 50th in open space protection.
• #2 in income inequality between the rich and poor.
• #48 in the amount of bank deposits that re-channel back into the community as business loans. (In other words, the banks rake it in but don't loan in the 'hood)
• 50th in residential electric bill affordability.
  

I'll stop there.

After going round and round with TXU about a $500+ electric bill, based on a mathematically impossible 3700+ kilowatt hours (50% more kilowatts than the month before with a reduction in use), he might be right.

The thing about this information is that it doesn't have to be this way. We had a great chance to get rid of Rick Perry, and couldn't (thanks Kinky!). We could've gotten rid of Craddick as House Speaker, but didn't thanks to the Craddick D's. (Question - was a chair slot at the lege worth your constituents getting screwed over?) More people attended the Carter-Kimball football game than voted in the DISD school board race that includes both schools.

On a weekly basis we are paying for our apathy at the polls. People in Dallas and overall in Texas don't vote. That's something that we can control. Time and again, we will pay the penalty for not exercising our right to vote.

Check Out the New Dwaine Caraway website

As you know Dwaine Caraway is running for Dallas City Council District 4. We welcome you to check out his new website. The address is www.dwainecaraway.com.

In addition to neighborhood newsletters and videos, the site includes Dwaine’s comprehensive 20-point plan for improving District 4. It is not based on vague topics; there are detailed points on which Dwaine will focus. The site also includes downloadable photos for the media as well as recent news and press releases. Most of the plan is an extension of issues that Dwaine has been working on for years; it is not a function of election season.

I know, everybody likes photos of the candidate with well-known officials, etc. The photos aren’t up yet. Why? Because improving the district for its residents is more important to us than a bunch of glamour shots. Not to worry, the photos will be posted soon.

Since Dwaine is my client, I won’t lay it on too thick. I simply ask that you compare the plan which we have developed to the plan or lack of plan by the other candidates in the race, and then make your decision about which candidate you support.

Does Wal-Mart Skip Out on Taxes?

Thanks to Vince at Capitol Annex, that's the question that we all should be asking. Or at least the Lege should be asking Wal-Mart. Vince brought to our attention this article in the Wall Street Journal that says that Wal-Mart uses loopholes to avoid paying taxes by registering its stores as REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) and then paying rent to itself. The WSJ article has a great diagram and detailed explanation.

To answer half of Vince's question, the stores in Dallas County are owned by Wal-Mart Real Estate Business Trusts. I don't know enough about corporate tax to know if Wal-Mart is cheating our state. Maybe some state tax experts can help us both.

South Dallas Cultural Center in Shambles

Scott Goldstein at the DMN has a great follow up on the South Dallas Cultural Center and its construction problems. Harrison Construction, the company that received the contract, simply walked off the job. Robert at the Observer wrote about it also.

A telling quote from one of the main users of the SDCC:

"The bottom line is that the city of Dallas had problems with that contractor from Day 1 and that contractor should have never been put on that project," said Etta Jamison, whose dance school was housed at the center.

Even if construction restarts this month with a new company (as promised in the article), the City hasn't made any indication that the company will be pursued. Just like the Bama Pie/Auto Museum building, I wonder if this company will walk away with taxpayer money scot-free. We'll see.