This morning, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood stopped by the site of the future Woodall Rodgers Deck Park and very much liked what he saw.
The park is the recipient of $16.7 million in federal stimulus funds - the largest funding for any single transportation enhancement project [...]
Today, Jack Floyd writes about the demise of Reunion Arena and how it certainly won't be missed from an architectural standpoint.
She also nails a few other buildings,including Dallas City Hall, for being less than lovely.
She describes 1500 Marilla as "top-heavy, unfriendly, brooding."' [...]
Jason Trahan reports: Former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and four others convicted last month of bribery and extortion are heading back to court today.
U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn will hold [...]
Today, Michael Lindenberger and Roy Appleton report today on the ongoing effort to build a a starter streetcar system in Dallas (sorry McKinney Avenue trolley, we're not counting you in this).
They write: The initial focus has been on a downtown loop that' [...]
The Dallas region's long term growth and sustainability hinges on many things, but none more important than water.
Through many years of planning and work, Dallas should have enough water through 2035 thanks to conservation, reuse and new sources to the east like Lake Palestine and Lake [...]
Finding Dallas County property records is about to get a lot easier.
Currently, you have to go here to look up records using a person's name or company name.
But County Clerk John Warren wants people to be able to search more than [...]
Dallas County commissioners voted this morning to form an ethics task force.
Commissioner John Wiley Price said the county already has an ethics policy that is about 100 pages long that needs updating. The policy was passed in 1994, he said.
Commissioners noted that the city of Dallas recently updated [...]
Bob Clines, Dallas County's IT director, will step down on Dec. 31.
The county has been plagued with computer technology woes during and prior to Clines' tenure.
Clines said he's going to take a job in the private sector.
"I'm looking for an opportunity where I" [...]
Give Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway credit. He's not about to let go of the anti-saggy pants crusade.
Today, he's set to unveil part 2 of the pull 'em up campaign he launched more than a year ago.
The new message is for the' [...]
Recent events have led to discussions about government ethics.
Dallas city council members recently updated the city's ethics policies due to corruption within City Hall.
Dallas County, however, doesn't have a countywide ethics policy.
But on Tuesday, Dec. 1, county commissioners are scheduled to vote on creating' [...]
During a weeklong trip to China and Korea, Mayor Tom Leppert and an assortment of other delegates from Dallas touted the city as a great place for foreign investment.
According to a release from Leppert's chief of staff Chris Heinbaugh the mayor pushed for the [...]
The holiday will be starting a little early next week at Dallas City Hall.
All scheduled City Council committee meetings are canceled for Monday.
City Hall, meanwhile, will be closed Wednesday for a city furlough day and Thursday and Friday in celebration of Thanksgiving.
[...]On Thursday evening, the city plan commission denied a request to demolish two historic buildings on downtown's east side - the 508 Park Avenue building and an adjacent building at 1900 Young Street.
But the plan commission did not entirely slam the door on Colby Properties when [...]
On Monday, council member Angela Hunt screened a movie for the council's Transportation Committee.
The film, Contested Streets, presents a history of New York's congested avenues where people often have to jockey with cars and buses just to get to the other side.
As the film points out, it's a history [...]
I don't know what the ruling from the federal court in New Orleans will mean, but there are plenty of opinions.
Michael A. Lindenberger quotes CNN's report over on the transportation blog.
And Jim Schutze, who has followed the river for many a turn, weighs' [...]
This afternoon, the city plan commission will consider a permit for downtown's third video billboard.
Under a new ordinance, there are five available permits for the glowing and glittering billboards in downtown.
Some see them as a chic sign of urban growth. Others see [...]
Dallas City Hall very much hopes to build a huge water reservoir in Cherokee and Anderson counties around about the same place the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to create a massive nature preserve.
As you can imagine, you can't have both, and the fight over' [...]
Council member Ron Natinsky has been elected to the National League of Cities board of directors.
Natinsky was elected at last week's meeting in San Antonio and becomes one of 23 board members with the league, an organization dedicated to advocating on behalf of [...]
Dallas wants the World Cup to come back to town, and this morning the City Council will talk about ways to get it here.
Don't hold your breath, though. The earliest Dallas can win the cup is 2018, and it could be' [...]
No, it's not what you think. The budget passed way back in September.
The council will actually be talking about the city's drainage - getting water from your street into the sewers and sumps and on down the Trinity River.
Erosion is a big problem [...]
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price lashed out at a county vendor this morning that he said may have altered the outcome of a recent school board election.
Apparently, a local printing company was supposed to send out notifications from the elections office to [...]
The Dallas Morning News' photo staff has been patching together a time lapse video of the demolition of Reunion Arena.
Watch it stripped to nothing but the roof in just under a minute.
--Rudolph Bush/Reporter' [...]
As noted yesterday, Mayor Tom Leppert and a delegation from City Hall are traveling in South Korea and China this week on a trade delegation aimed at bringing investors and flights to Dallas.
Leppert's' [...]
Beginning at 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, the final demolition of Reunion Arena will begin. In a few day's time, all will be dust and rubble.
Alas, it won't explode as many of us had hoped.
According to a city press release: A&R Demolition will bring in Advanced' [...]
It's going to be a long goodbye for Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle.
As I write this, the Dallas council's public safety committee is saying thanks for the memories to a man who isn't retiring from his post until April.
"I've got some golf clubs," said council member [...]
Mayor Tom Leppert and a delegation from City Hall have jetted off to China and South Korea to talk trade.
There are few things on the checklist, including attempting to secure a daily direct flight from mainland China to DFW. There is also hope [...]
Just as suddenly as it began only 48 hours ago, Dallas lawyer David Finn has quit his campaign for district attorney.
In a letter just faxed to me, Finn said he's throwing his support in the GOP primary behind Republican Danny Clancy.
"There is no doubt in my mind that Danny is" [...]
Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert said Friday that he would consider running in a special election for Senate.
"If the opportunity comes up, and as was mentioned in your intro, we don't know that that would be the case, then I'll go ahead and look" [...]
Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, who heads the city's public safety committee, offered his thoughts this morning on the retirement of police chief David Kunkle and the process to replace him.
Caraway said City Hall should not concern itself with candidates' ethnicity or sex' [...]
Late last night the phone rang and a very angry council member in District 8's Tennell Atkins was on the other end.
Atkins was furious elected officials like himself learned through the grapevine that Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle planned to announce his retirement' [...]
Republicans have their candidate for Dallas County District Attorney.
Former Criminal Court Judge David Finn is running for the GOP nomination for that post in March. When he becomes the Republican nominee, he'll challenge incumbent Democrat Craig Watkins in the general election.
Finn's candidacy emerges after former Assistant District Attorney Toby Shook' [...]
For some time now, it has been clear that UNT was shifting core operations from Denton to Dallas.
Lots of work has been put into the southern Dallas campus and a masterplan around that. Also, the downtown offices on Main Street and the future law school on [...]
A walk through City Hall today is like a tour of the nation's services, with crisp uniforms in navy, olive green, white and tan around every corner.
The ranks are all here too, from the junior R.O.T.C. member to the stars on their shoulders generals.
I had the [...]
Dallas County residents can now subscribe to a free service to protect their homes from criminals who try to take them by filing bogus deeds with the county's clerk's office.
County Clerk John Warren announced the county's fraud alert service this morning during the county commissioners' weekly meeting.
You' [...]
Gary Fitzsimmons, the usually mild-mannered district clerk, went ballistic today after county commissioners voted 3-2 to dissolve an information technology steering committee.
He and County Clerk John Warren have millions of dollars of IT projects in the works and told the commissioners they need the committee to help [...]
The plaza in front of Dallas City Hall is being prepared today for the annual Veterans Day Parade tomorrow.
The flowers and flags frame a stage lined with the names of the men and women killed at [...]
The Dallas Voice's John Wright has a follow-up to his item last week charging Mayor Tom Leppert had slapped the gay community in the face by joining First Baptist of Dallas.
This has been John's story from the start, so I'll just point you to his' [...]
Dallas wants the World Cup to come back to town a few years from now, say 2018 or 2022, and Mayor Tom Leppert says he needs some help.
The clock is already ticking on the selection process and public support is an important [...]
Way back in summer '08, the Dallas City Council passed a tough new ordinance restricting "junk" signs they said clutter store windows and bring down the appearance and safety of whole neighborhoods.
Of course, the writing was on the wall even then that this wouldn't stand [...]
Last week, we reported that copper thieves caused light outages along the southern end of the Katy Trail.
Now comes word the lights are back on.
Work Thursday and Friday got the lights shining again after the thieves damaged electric wiring plates on light poles.
City spokesman Frank Librio says [...]
With a handful of opposing votes, the Dallas City Council has passed its most sweeping package of ethics reforms since 2000.
In four separate votes, the council passed ordinances requiring lobbyists to register, limiting campaign contributions from developers, diluting individual council members' power over zoning and requiring annual disclosure of gifts' [...]
The Dallas City Council is set to vote this morning on a series of new ordinances intended to increase transparency at City Hall and diminish individual council members' power over zoning.
The reforms come in the wake' [...]
Plans to shut down all lanes of I-35E, scheduled for Sunday and Monday nights, have been postponed. Details over at the Dallas Transportation Blog.
--Michael Lindenberger/Reporter [...]
Nine lights along the southern end of the Katy Trail should be back on by Friday night, city officials said Thursday.
The lights were knocked out when one or more thieves attempted to break open a wiring plate to steal copper.
Copper theft had [...]
Neil Emmons has served 8 years on the powerful Dallas plan commission, twice as long as any sitting member.
In that time, he made lots of friends and more than a few enemies as he pushed for restricting development - particularly in residential areas - with historic [...]
Come next weekend, Mayor Tom Leppert will be the keynote speaker at a pricey motivational seminar- or "leadership summit" if you prefer - at Fair Park called Elevate Dallas '09.
The event from Keith Craft Leadership Shapers promises to elevate "the way people think so they'" [...]
In today's paper, I wrote about Wednesday's council discussion on creating a single-family rental property registration program.
Dallas City Hall spends millions of dollars a year trying to clean up properties owned by absentee landlords who let the weeds grow wild and the paint peel away.
Now, the Dallas City Council [...]
Perhaps you recall a little tussle some months back over what to rename Industrial Boulevard.
After all was said and done, Cesar Chavez got the stiff arm and the City Council's preference of Riverfront Boulevard was ushered in.
According to City Hall, today's the day the change [...]
Mayor Tom Leppert has reached out to the city's gay community in a number of ways, including hiring an openly gay chief of staff, marching in the annual pride parade and meeting often with the local Log Cabin Republicans.
But his decision to join First Baptist Church [...]
Lots of people use the Texas DPS driver's license office at Dallas City Hall for renewals, new licenses and a host of other identification needs.
Now, DPS plans to scale back the office's services.
According to a press release, the office on the first floor of 1500 Marilla [...]
Parts of the Katy Trail have gone dark due to the return of copper thieves.
Dallas parks officials confirm that copper thieves stripped wire from lights along the southern end of the trail recently.
Nine lights along the trail near Reverchon Park are currently out, said [...]
Late last night, the Dallas City Attorney's office posted its latest, and maybe last, draft of City Hall's ethics reforms.
The draft follows the framework laid out by Mayor Tom Leppert for creating new restrictions on lobbyists, campaign [...]
If you've been following progress in Mayor Tom Leppert's Southern Dallas Task Force, you know there has been some griping about City Hall failing to put its money where its mouth is.
Ever since a sharply worded letter to that' [...]
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Former Council member Mitchell Rasansky is pondering whether to run for the Republican nomination for county judge.
"If I don't think I could offer some sort of financial advice to the commissioners, I won't go down there," Rasansky told me earlier [...]
As you may recall from last week, Mayor Tom Leppert pushed the council to vote quickly on a massive and detailed package of ethics reforms.
Many on the council asked the mayor to slow down, saying the complex issues at question deserved more thought.
CM [...]
Newer renderings of the proposed Continental Avenue pedestrian Bridge have eliminated the streetcar that you see peeking out from behind the trees here.
That doesn't mean the streetcar plan for this bridge is totally dead, but it is looking less and' [...]
Mayor Tom Leppert and his counterparts in Fort Worth and Arlington are declaring Saturday 2009's lung cancer awareness day. To raise awareness for the fight against lung cancer, there will be a walk at River Legacy Park in Arlington .
Here are the details from the LUNGevity [...]
This morning, the city's Trinity River committee is taking up a few items like design of the Continental Avenue pedestrian bridge and an update on the levee situation.
Not on today's list is discussion of construction of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, [...]
An important zoning plan intended to set the framework for developing a huge swath of far southern Dallas is back before a council committee today after being tabled by the full council a couple of weeks ago.
The plan is important because it [...]
