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Showing posts with label Local news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Local news. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The spooky return of Howard Jarvis
Monday, June 9, 2008
Industrial Blvd. needs to be renamed after Cesar Chavez
I have three good reasons why Industrial Boulevard should be named after Cesar Chavez and all three in one way or another are connected to the recent poll seeking citizen input on what the new name should be.
First, I voted for Cesar Chavez in the poll. I voted for it for a number of reasons but mainly because it was the best option of the six that were listed. Riverfront Boulevard, which will probably be the choice of the lackeys on the Dallas City Council, is a joke. It suggests that the Trinity is actually a river. It isn't. It's a stream or a creek, but it is definitely not a river. To qualify as a river, the body of flowing water in question must be one that someone would have to be in reasonably good shape to be able to swim across. You should not be able to walk across it, or hop over it, like you can the Trinity. It also suggests that the newly named road runs alongside this stream. It doesn't. The proposed tollway will run alongside it, but this road won't; that is, unless they are going to change the location of the current Industrial Boulevard. Trinity Lakes, another option, is just as laughable because it suggests those artificial ponds that will be placed out there are actually lakes. In order for a man-made body of water to qualify as a lake, there has to be a dam somewhere in the equation. The same holds true with such misnomers as Trinityview and Waterfront boulevards. All these make as much sense as renaming the McCommas Bluff Landfill something like Rose Garden Landfill.
The second reason Industrial should be named after Cesar Chavez is because it was the clear choice of those who participated in the poll. Now, the City Council, stunned at the results of the voting, are already backtracking and coming up with excuses to thwart the will of the people. But in any election in which there are six options and one of them gets over 50 percent of the vote, that's pretty clearcut to me. I will make this prediction: The city of Dallas will never have a primary election with six candidates running for mayor (assuming all six are two-legged) and have one of them pull 52 percent of the vote.
But the third and final reason is because of the comments posted to this item about the poll on the Dallas Morning News' City Hall blog. I recently had a heated discussion with my son on the subject of racism in Dallas. I maintained it was rampant and when you got to the heart of most major policy decisions made in this city, race would be the ultimate deciding factor. I am still stunned by the fact that it wasn't that long ago that Cinemark was prohibited from locating what would have been then its first movie theater in Dallas because of racial animosity (but I was also somewhat gratified that Cinemark sued the City of Dallas over this and won a huge settlement.) All one has to do is read the comments that were posted to this blog entry to realize that blatant racism is alive and well here in Dallas, Texas. Admittedly, I did not read all the comments because the first 50 or so made me so sick to my stomach I couldn't continue.
I always thought the term "ignorant racist" was inherently redundant until I read these comments. Most of them have absolutely no idea who Cesar Chavez was. Far too many of these commenters (none of whom have the courage to use their real names) didn't even know Chavez was an American, born and raised in Arizona. Too many of them wondered why we would honor someone with no connections to Texas without realizing his direct impact on the fruit workers of Starr County in the mid-'60s. I'd bet all of these idiots would be shocked to learn that the Labor Day Holiday in Dallas is officially designated as Labor Day/Cesar Chavez Day, that the state of Texas officially recognizes his birthday on March 31, that there is a statue of him on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin and that in 2003 the United States Postal Service honored him with a postage stamp.
Of course these same jerks compound their ignorant status by arguing the city should select a name that isn't even one of the options and, in the ultimate admittance of their ignorance, many of them proclaimed "I didn't even know there was a poll going on."
So a large part of me simply wants to stick it to these lamebrains and renaming Industrial Cesar Chavez Boulevard would do just that. But I have more honorable reasons as well. It seems to be the will of the people of Dallas and it's the least we can do to honor a true American hero.
Of course, do I expect our Dallas City Council to have the courage to do the right thing? It's more likely they will come across like Big Brown at Belmont.
UPDATE: The City Council committee was even more cowardly than I thought it would be, voting to delay making a decision until the first week in August when any actions will be obscured by the city manager's budget recommendations. That's when the council, in a hallucinatory state unseen since the heyday of Timothy Leary will recommend changing the name to Riverfront Boulevard. Give me a break!
First, I voted for Cesar Chavez in the poll. I voted for it for a number of reasons but mainly because it was the best option of the six that were listed. Riverfront Boulevard, which will probably be the choice of the lackeys on the Dallas City Council, is a joke. It suggests that the Trinity is actually a river. It isn't. It's a stream or a creek, but it is definitely not a river. To qualify as a river, the body of flowing water in question must be one that someone would have to be in reasonably good shape to be able to swim across. You should not be able to walk across it, or hop over it, like you can the Trinity. It also suggests that the newly named road runs alongside this stream. It doesn't. The proposed tollway will run alongside it, but this road won't; that is, unless they are going to change the location of the current Industrial Boulevard. Trinity Lakes, another option, is just as laughable because it suggests those artificial ponds that will be placed out there are actually lakes. In order for a man-made body of water to qualify as a lake, there has to be a dam somewhere in the equation. The same holds true with such misnomers as Trinityview and Waterfront boulevards. All these make as much sense as renaming the McCommas Bluff Landfill something like Rose Garden Landfill.
The second reason Industrial should be named after Cesar Chavez is because it was the clear choice of those who participated in the poll. Now, the City Council, stunned at the results of the voting, are already backtracking and coming up with excuses to thwart the will of the people. But in any election in which there are six options and one of them gets over 50 percent of the vote, that's pretty clearcut to me. I will make this prediction: The city of Dallas will never have a primary election with six candidates running for mayor (assuming all six are two-legged) and have one of them pull 52 percent of the vote.
But the third and final reason is because of the comments posted to this item about the poll on the Dallas Morning News' City Hall blog. I recently had a heated discussion with my son on the subject of racism in Dallas. I maintained it was rampant and when you got to the heart of most major policy decisions made in this city, race would be the ultimate deciding factor. I am still stunned by the fact that it wasn't that long ago that Cinemark was prohibited from locating what would have been then its first movie theater in Dallas because of racial animosity (but I was also somewhat gratified that Cinemark sued the City of Dallas over this and won a huge settlement.) All one has to do is read the comments that were posted to this blog entry to realize that blatant racism is alive and well here in Dallas, Texas. Admittedly, I did not read all the comments because the first 50 or so made me so sick to my stomach I couldn't continue.
I always thought the term "ignorant racist" was inherently redundant until I read these comments. Most of them have absolutely no idea who Cesar Chavez was. Far too many of these commenters (none of whom have the courage to use their real names) didn't even know Chavez was an American, born and raised in Arizona. Too many of them wondered why we would honor someone with no connections to Texas without realizing his direct impact on the fruit workers of Starr County in the mid-'60s. I'd bet all of these idiots would be shocked to learn that the Labor Day Holiday in Dallas is officially designated as Labor Day/Cesar Chavez Day, that the state of Texas officially recognizes his birthday on March 31, that there is a statue of him on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin and that in 2003 the United States Postal Service honored him with a postage stamp.
Of course these same jerks compound their ignorant status by arguing the city should select a name that isn't even one of the options and, in the ultimate admittance of their ignorance, many of them proclaimed "I didn't even know there was a poll going on."
So a large part of me simply wants to stick it to these lamebrains and renaming Industrial Cesar Chavez Boulevard would do just that. But I have more honorable reasons as well. It seems to be the will of the people of Dallas and it's the least we can do to honor a true American hero.
Of course, do I expect our Dallas City Council to have the courage to do the right thing? It's more likely they will come across like Big Brown at Belmont.
UPDATE: The City Council committee was even more cowardly than I thought it would be, voting to delay making a decision until the first week in August when any actions will be obscured by the city manager's budget recommendations. That's when the council, in a hallucinatory state unseen since the heyday of Timothy Leary will recommend changing the name to Riverfront Boulevard. Give me a break!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
I guess I shouldn't be shocked that the Morning News is shocked so easily
The Dallas Morning News ran a series of "tipping point" articles a couple of years ago that criticized in every way possible the manner in which the folks at Dallas City Hall managed the city. Perhaps some of what was in those series of articles was true -- much of it was exaggerated -- but the Morning News probably believes every word of it was gospel then and believes it's gospel now.
In today's Letters to the Editors section on the Morning News' editorial page, a letter appeared from one Shirley R. Sloat of Dallas who wrote in to say that Sunday she noticed her gray city-issued garbage roll cart had a huge split. She wrote that she called 3-1-1 to request a replacement and her request was treated courteously and promptly. Two days later, her replacement cart was delivered and two days after that someone from the city (probably from its crack Sanitation Services Department) came to her home to make sure the cart had been delivered. Ms. Sloat was writing to commend the city and to say how pleased she was by its responsive service.
This type of service should come as no surprise any longer. City Manager Mary Suhm, the best thing to ever happen to this city, has stressed customer service from every city department. This is not lip service. Customer service is something she demands, insists on from every city employee.
But it obviously surprises the headline writers on the editorial page of the Morning News. The headline one of them wrote for this letter was "Shocked at prompt city service." The word the author of the letter used to describe her reaction was "impressed," which, to my mind at least, means something other than "shocked." A more accurate headline would have been "Pleased by prompt city service."
As someone who spent 16 years as a reporter/writer/editor for a major news service and the Dallas Morning News, I used to try to defend the media against charges of bias. But stunts like this headline on this letter make such defenses far more difficult.
In today's Letters to the Editors section on the Morning News' editorial page, a letter appeared from one Shirley R. Sloat of Dallas who wrote in to say that Sunday she noticed her gray city-issued garbage roll cart had a huge split. She wrote that she called 3-1-1 to request a replacement and her request was treated courteously and promptly. Two days later, her replacement cart was delivered and two days after that someone from the city (probably from its crack Sanitation Services Department) came to her home to make sure the cart had been delivered. Ms. Sloat was writing to commend the city and to say how pleased she was by its responsive service.
This type of service should come as no surprise any longer. City Manager Mary Suhm, the best thing to ever happen to this city, has stressed customer service from every city department. This is not lip service. Customer service is something she demands, insists on from every city employee.
But it obviously surprises the headline writers on the editorial page of the Morning News. The headline one of them wrote for this letter was "Shocked at prompt city service." The word the author of the letter used to describe her reaction was "impressed," which, to my mind at least, means something other than "shocked." A more accurate headline would have been "Pleased by prompt city service."
As someone who spent 16 years as a reporter/writer/editor for a major news service and the Dallas Morning News, I used to try to defend the media against charges of bias. But stunts like this headline on this letter make such defenses far more difficult.
Friday, April 4, 2008
Random thoughts on a Friday morning
Read where 81 percent of the respondents to a New York Times/CBS News poll think the country is headed in the wrong direction, the highest number in the history of the poll. Right on the heels of that report came a bulletin that said America had lost 80,000 jobs in the last couple of months. Wonder what the percentage would be if that poll was taken now.
More bad news for Hillary. According to the Los Angeles Times her lead in superdelegates -- the folks she needs for support in order to secure the Democratic presidential nomination -- is dwindling. In December she had 106 more superdelegates supporting her than were supporting Obama. In February that number was down to 87 and, as of yesterday, it had been slashed to 30.
The autopsy report on Rufus Shaw, which found that he had no visible signs of cancer, raises more questions than it answers.
I was stunned to see that the price of gas at my neighborhood station had gone up another five cents since yesterday. I was also surprised to read where Apple Inc. has replaced Wal-Mart as America's No. 1 music store. By the same token, I was amazed to read in a story about wine that one out of every five glasses of wine drunk in America is a Gallo wine.
Today's nominee for the Darwin award is the jerk in Arlington who was critically injured when he tried to "roof surf" on his car as it was traveling down the highway.
Stories that make me weep include the one from Baytown, southeast of Houston, where a 14-year-old girl gave birth to a boy in the restroom of her middle school and then killed it by trying to flush it down the toilet. An autopsy revealed the baby was full-term, alive and probably cried once before the mother tried to flush it.
Stories that make me cringe include the one announcing that the New Kids on the Block has reunited, and plans a new album and tour. I guess I can always comfort myself with the knowledge that this guy is not only still around but will be coming to town for a concert a week from Sunday.
More bad news for Hillary. According to the Los Angeles Times her lead in superdelegates -- the folks she needs for support in order to secure the Democratic presidential nomination -- is dwindling. In December she had 106 more superdelegates supporting her than were supporting Obama. In February that number was down to 87 and, as of yesterday, it had been slashed to 30.
The autopsy report on Rufus Shaw, which found that he had no visible signs of cancer, raises more questions than it answers.
I was stunned to see that the price of gas at my neighborhood station had gone up another five cents since yesterday. I was also surprised to read where Apple Inc. has replaced Wal-Mart as America's No. 1 music store. By the same token, I was amazed to read in a story about wine that one out of every five glasses of wine drunk in America is a Gallo wine.
Today's nominee for the Darwin award is the jerk in Arlington who was critically injured when he tried to "roof surf" on his car as it was traveling down the highway.
Stories that make me weep include the one from Baytown, southeast of Houston, where a 14-year-old girl gave birth to a boy in the restroom of her middle school and then killed it by trying to flush it down the toilet. An autopsy revealed the baby was full-term, alive and probably cried once before the mother tried to flush it.
Stories that make me cringe include the one announcing that the New Kids on the Block has reunited, and plans a new album and tour. I guess I can always comfort myself with the knowledge that this guy is not only still around but will be coming to town for a concert a week from Sunday.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
This place is really going to the dogs (or maybe not)
We have the Arts District. That's a good thing. We have the civic district, where City Hall and all the county and federal government buildings are located. We have the fashionable playground district, sometimes referred to as Victory. We have the Fair Park district, the Deep Ellum District, the Animal District, the ...
Hold up there. The Animal District? Well, um, yes, that's what they're calling it. You see, the new Dallas Animal Shelter is located at Hampton and I-30 and soon the SPCA will re-locate to its new digs just a Milk Bone's throw away on Lone Star Drive (actually, the way the streets are configured around there, a Milk Bone thrown from one location to the other would travel about one-tenth the distance of an automobile making the same trip).
But, hey, I think that's reason enough to throw a party, don't you? The sponsors of this shindig are calling it "An Animal Attraction," and it will take place at the new home of the SPCA, 2400 Lone Star Drive, between 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 5. According to the official invite, dress for this occasion is "elegant casual," which means it's a little high brow. And although the official city notices of the event don't mention it, I'm thinking this is going to be a fund-raising affair because the Animal District Web site (yes, it already has its own Web site), mentions something about $30 donations that will be doggone appreciated.
Wine from Lakewood's Ten Times Cellars will be served as will "heavy" hors d'oeuvres from Exposition Park Cafe. Kiehl's Highland Park Village is supplying gift bags. There's going to be a silent auction and a old-fashioned auction that will include one painting of and another painting by (trust me, I'm not making this up) Minnie, a "rescued" dog. Ron Burns will autograph his appropriately named book "The Dogs of Ron Burns."
Da Mayor is going to be there, along with some City Council folks and some folks who serve on various animal commissions.
But here's the rub. I might attend this event if I could bring my dog. Now that could be fun. My dog (actually my son's dog) could mingle with Da Mayor's dog and others. But apparently this "Animal Attraction" in the newly minted Animal District is not going to be Animal Friendly. Nothing I have seen says I can bring a four-legged companion. So I'm undoubtedly going to skip the inauguration of the Animal District and the Animal Auction and, instead, just head for the neighborhood park to play with the son's dog.
Hold up there. The Animal District? Well, um, yes, that's what they're calling it. You see, the new Dallas Animal Shelter is located at Hampton and I-30 and soon the SPCA will re-locate to its new digs just a Milk Bone's throw away on Lone Star Drive (actually, the way the streets are configured around there, a Milk Bone thrown from one location to the other would travel about one-tenth the distance of an automobile making the same trip).
But, hey, I think that's reason enough to throw a party, don't you? The sponsors of this shindig are calling it "An Animal Attraction," and it will take place at the new home of the SPCA, 2400 Lone Star Drive, between 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 5. According to the official invite, dress for this occasion is "elegant casual," which means it's a little high brow. And although the official city notices of the event don't mention it, I'm thinking this is going to be a fund-raising affair because the Animal District Web site (yes, it already has its own Web site), mentions something about $30 donations that will be doggone appreciated.
Wine from Lakewood's Ten Times Cellars will be served as will "heavy" hors d'oeuvres from Exposition Park Cafe. Kiehl's Highland Park Village is supplying gift bags. There's going to be a silent auction and a old-fashioned auction that will include one painting of and another painting by (trust me, I'm not making this up) Minnie, a "rescued" dog. Ron Burns will autograph his appropriately named book "The Dogs of Ron Burns."
Da Mayor is going to be there, along with some City Council folks and some folks who serve on various animal commissions.
But here's the rub. I might attend this event if I could bring my dog. Now that could be fun. My dog (actually my son's dog) could mingle with Da Mayor's dog and others. But apparently this "Animal Attraction" in the newly minted Animal District is not going to be Animal Friendly. Nothing I have seen says I can bring a four-legged companion. So I'm undoubtedly going to skip the inauguration of the Animal District and the Animal Auction and, instead, just head for the neighborhood park to play with the son's dog.
Quote of the Day
"We haven't seen a significant number of high-end escort services in the city. They could exist, but they might be so exclusive we wouldn't know about it."
--Dallas Police Deputy Chief Julian Bernal, commander of the vice unit
--Dallas Police Deputy Chief Julian Bernal, commander of the vice unit
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
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