Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

Val England steps down as White Rock YMCA director

Just received an email indicating that Val England, director of the White Rock YMCA and before that the East Dallas YMCA, has stepped down after something like 25 years associated with the neighborhood YMCA branches. Val grew up around here and was one of the kids who spent time at the YMCA while growing up; she was a program director when the Y was located in the old farmhouse near J.L Long Middle School, and eventually was promoted to be director around the time J.E.R. Chilton made a significant donation to the Y, allowing it to move to new quarters south of the spillway at Gaston & Garland. Y board chairman Richard Vitale told board members that a "national search" for Val's replacement is underway. No word on Val's plans at this point.

Cell phone ban in HP school zone; could Dallas be next?

If it was against the law to use a cellphone while driving through a school zone, would you hang up or would you flaunt the law and get ready to go postal if pulled over by the police? Cities throughout the country are talking about laws like this, but most haven't done anything about it. Our neighbor to the west, Highland Park, is getting ready to step out and vote on just such a bill, banning drivers from using cellphones while passing through any Highland Park school zone. The Morning News story on the issue talks to the usual suspects, kids and parents, and elicits the usual responses, approval and concern, so it appears as if this prospective law has a good chance of being approved by the city council. (Presumably, the more dangerous "texting-while-driving" would also fall victim to this new law; hope the lawyers word it correctly.) This might be a more valid city policy to pursue in Dallas than, say, worrying about whose pants are dragging the pavement.

Thinking outside the Trinity levees: City study group plans high-rises and hotels

There's an interesting story in today's DMN about what might happen development-wise — with or without a tollroad — outside the Trinity levees in a few years. Part of the article, naturally, says that without a tollroad inside the levee, all of the planning is going to hell, of course; but then saner heads are quoted saying that the momentum for development in the Trinity corridor is strong enough that no matter what happens with Tuesday's referendum, we'll eventually see mid- to high-rise condos and offices, retail and perhaps even some pedestrian possibilities in the Industrial corridor. Regardless of where the eventual tollroad goes, assuming there even is one, there appears to be enough demand for affordable land that one way or another, the Trinity river area is going to be a hot piece of real estate for quite a few years.

Changes on the blog

Yes, more are on the way. Astute readers will notice we added blogs for our Preston Hollow and Far North Dallas magazines (check the sidebar), and those should be up and running by the end of the week.

In addition, Wamre and I are off to Blog World Expo next week, where we will no doubt learn how to make the blog even more fabulously successful. Perhaps we will even blog from the trade show about what we are learning about blogging.

Original Chili's to close

Sometimes, it stuns even someone as cynical as I am how befuddled large corporations can be. Case in point: Chili's decision to close its Greenville Ave restaurant, the first of what are today 1,300 locations around the world and the flagship of the 1,800-restaurant Brinker chain.

Here's an opportunity for Chili's to get some good press, to celebrate the company's success, to get nostalgic and generally look like good guys. It sure needs the boost -- its profit has decreased by three-quarters in the past two years, while its stock price is near its 52-week low. So what does Chili's do? It announces on Monday that it's closing the store "based on a number of evaluative criteria" and says everything will be gone by noon today. So much for sentimentality. There isn't even a press release on the company's web site.

Because closing this location is a big deal, a real part of Dallas and neighborhood history. Anyone who was here when it opened in 1975 will tell you that the lines went around the building. It was a hip and trendy to eat at Chili's, and founder Larry Lavine had devised a restaurant concept that had not really existed before.

Carbo load for little $$; support your local Boy Scout troop

It's lunchtime, but let's talk dinner:

Blog reader Quentin Mendoza asked that I post a little something about the Troop 64 Spaghetti Dinner happening tonight.

It's in the fellowship hall at Northridge Presbyterian Church, 6920 Bob-O-Link Dr. Drive-thru service begins at 5:30 p.m. and the sit-down dinner is from 6-8 p.m. Tickets are $6 per person or $20 for a family of four. Proceeds benefit Boy Scout Troop 64.

This is the troop's 40th annual spaghetti dinner.

Paciugo, Central Market clarification

We posted a few weeks ago about Paciugo moving into Lakewood, and suggested Central Market had terminated the gelato company's lease. Paciugo co-founder Cristiana Ginatta wasn't too happy with us, and sent in clarification:

"...In September 2006, we made the decision that we had to focus on supporting our franchisees because we are still a small company with limited resources and we didn't have enough people to give high quality support to both Central Market and our franchisees. We then approached Central Market to plan the termination of our partnership. Since we had an excellent relationship for 4.5 years, we wanted to give them all the time needed to find alternative suppliers and to train the employees. ... I don't know if when we approached Central Market they were already evaluating alternative suppliers; what I know is that, when we asked them to terminate the partnership, they were open to our proposal and willing to work to find a solution that will be the best one for both companies."

She also added: "The reason we came to Lakewood is because we found the perfect franchisee that is totally involved and committed to her neighborhood and to making delicious gelato every day."

Look for November's A List e-newsletter for more details on what franchisees Shaun and April Charlemagne-Walding have planned for the Lakewood Paciugo location. If you're not subscribed to the A List, you can sign up here.

Where does Aldi fit into the grocery store mix?

Aldi, the well-respected German grocery store chain, is opening a store at I-20 and Wheatland, and it is reportedly looking at the Dallas area for major expansion, with some 50 to 100 stores. Currently, it has 850 stores in 27 states, mostly from Kansas to the East Coast.

Aldi seems, in some ways, like a perfect fit for this area. Its stores are small, about one-quarter the size of a Tom Thumb or Kroger's, so they'll fit into our strip centers. Plus, it doesn't mind competing with Wal-Mart and SuperTarget. On the other hand, it's not fancy -- it carries about one-third the number of items that traditional stores carry, and these are usually store labels and not national brands. I'll contact the Aldi rep in this area and see if he wants to discuss the company's plans.

And, for what it's worth, I keep running across rumors in the cyber ether that Trader Joe's is looking at Dallas. As far as I know, it isn't. The company is focused on its East Coast expansion, and doesn't have any plans to come here.

A Trinity conundrum: How many times can the DMN say 'Vote NO?'

I raise my hand in guilt now, possessed that I am of the dreaded "Trinity Fatigue" fever. I'm still interested in the cause, of course, and I'm eager to read new information. But by and large, there's no new information left to read or hear or see because the News has quit writing new information and seems content to continue dredging up the old stuff. Which in a roundabout way leads me to ask this question: Have you ever, in your time in Dallas, seen the Morning News write so many editorials about a single topic?

While reading Sunday's latest scare-bomb about moving the tollroad from the riverbed to Industrial, it struck me that this is unprecedented in modern newspaper history. I don't recall so many editorials about a single topic in any newspaper anywhere. Without doing an actual count (feel free to supply the number if you know how many Trinity editorials the News has published), I have to think that the relentless discussions of the 9/11 aftermath probably didn't merit this much ink. So I have to wonder: How many times does the News need to tell us to "vote NO"; don't they think we received that message when we read it the first time, and the second time and the 22nd time, and...

David Cunniff — unbelievably, he has broken his neck again

This has to be in the category of stranger than fiction, or worse, but David Cunniff — the neighborhood man who was critically injured in a bar fight in Deep Ellum in 2004 — is back in the hospital, this time with a broken neck suffered during a dirt bike accident last week. Cunniff was seriously injured enough the first time around that friends were concerned about whether he would live, and it was almost taken for granted that he would never walk again. But with some excellent medical help and an extremely supportive neighborhood network, Cunniff not only survived — he thrived. The last time I saw him, this summer at a Texas Rangers game, he was walking down a flight of stairs about as quickly as I could get down them. He had some after-affects of the injuries, without question, including a limited ability to swivel his head back and forth, which I imagine contributed to the motorcycle accident. And given all of his problems, and his good fortune in coming back from them, I have to wonder about the wisdom of getting on a motorcycle and taking off. Anyway, friends say Cunniff is expected to be in Baylor recuperating with a "halo" on his head for another day or two, and then he'll be off for four to six weeks of rehab in a Baylor facility across the street.