Listen up, mayor, the natives are restless

This evening I attended a budget town hall meeting on the opposite side of town from last night's in Far West Dallas. This evening's confab was hosted by District 9's Sheffie Kadane at Winfrey Point on the eastern shores of White Rock Lake. Here's the headline from that meeting: The overwhelming majority of those in attendance favor a tax increase to keep libraries and rec centers open, to maintain city streets, to maintain cultural affairs programs and to restore the jobs of those individuals just axed from the city's payroll.


I counted 126 persons, (not including city staff members) at the meeting, including one of Dallas's icons, the great Jac Alder, the guiding genius of Theatre Three. At one point Kadane, who is philosophically adhering to Da Mayor's "no tax increase" litany, made the critical error of asking all those who favored a tax increase to either stand or raise their hands (it was SRO by the time I arrived). I didn't get to count all those who were standing, but Kadane compounded his error by asking all those who did not favor to either stand or raise their hands. I had plenty of time to count those. There were five of them. A measly five out of 126.

Now what does that prove? Admittedly, not a whole helluva lot except that those attending Kadane's budget townhall meeting overwhelmingly favored a tax increase to solve the city's budget woes. Not even I will try to extrapolate those numbers to his entire district. So, no, it is not proof of what the citizens want their council representatives to do. But it's an indication. It's a signal. Especially since those persons I quizzed at Kadane's meeting who had attended other budget town halls said those at the joint Kadane/Angela Hunt meeting were even more pro-tax increase as were those attending the joint Ron Natinsky/Linda Koop meeting in Far North Dallas. What was it Arlo Guthrie said in Alice's Restaurant Massacree about what constituted a movement? Whatever we have going on here more than meets Guthrie's criterion. Yesiree, Tom, what we have here is a movement -- an honest-to-goodness "We are more than willing to pay for the city services we want" movement.