Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

Angela Hunt and Jenny the Elephant: Talk about your odd couple stirring things up!

All right, let me start this off by saying that it has been years since I've been to the Dallas Zoo, it has been awhile since I've talked with Angela Hunt, I don't have any personal interest in Jenny the elephant or her future home, and I haven't had time to read every single post, story and comment that has been devoted to this issue. But after directing you to these links to what the DMN reported today concerning relocating the 32-year-old Jenny from the Dallas Zoo, what DMN columnist Steve Blow had to say about Hunt's meddling with Zoo decisions, and what the Dallas Observer's blog and readers had to say, I would like to say this: Wow. Leave it to a lonely, aging, soon-to-be-shipped-off elephant to spark more passionate concern among Dallas citizens than the typical city fiasco.

I encourage you to read the stories and formulate your own opinions, and I encourage you to do the reading even if you don't give a flip about elephants. Because the commentary says a lot about Hunt, about Blow, about a few of the other city council reps, and about what at least a segment of the population thinks about how the city is being run.

Saggy pants II: Illinois town pulls up on Dallas to fine offenders $25

Remember a few months ago when Dallas mayor pro tem Dwaine Caraway came up with the bright idea of passing a city ordinance banning saggy pants? The idea wasn't exactly laughed away here, but suffice it to say that saner heads prevailed and today, Dallas has one less dopey, toothless ordinance than we could have had. In Lynwood, Ill., however, city leaders weren't quite as thoughtful as our own here in Dallas — that city passed an ordinance fining saggy pants offenders $25 for anyone showing three inches of more of their underwear in public. Predictably, the ACLU has jumped into the fray, claiming that the ordinance targets "young men of color", even though I've seen a veritable rainbow of skin tones and underwear colors in my observation of the Texas trend. Anyway, young adults in Lynwood don't like the ordinance, saying it infringes on their personal style. One prospective offender said the city, instead, should be focusing on making the area look better, assuming I suppose that looking at other peoples' underwear somehow contributes to that goal.

King Tut roadshow: Not enough class for Dallas and the DMA?

There's an interesting story in Sunday's DMN about the upcoming King Tut artifact exhibit, which is being held downtown October through May at the Dallas Museum of Art. Not being a big-time art aficionado, it was interesting to read the point-counterpoint of the article, which can be summed up pretty clearly. One side believes that having a high-profile exhibit such as King Tut will bring up to one million visitors downtown to the DMA, many of whom have never visited the museum, hopefully expanding the museum's reach into the community and paving the way for future growth. The other side believes that the carnival-barker atmosphere surrounding the Tut exhibit (remember, these are serious art people debating this issue, so carnival-barker is a relative term here) isn't worthy of a serious museum like the DMN, and the people who agreed to put the show on there should have their heads (and presumably their art credentials) examined.

I saw the last Tut show when it visited Dallas, and the pieces were amazing to see in person. Since that time, we had the good fortune to see thousands of additional Tut pieces at the national museum in Cairo, Egypt; there's something about the boy king that just makes people flock to see his retinue. I have no doubt the same will happen here in Dallas again this year. More importantly than whether the DMA is "too good" for this exhibit is the traffic the Tut show will bring downtown — just about the time that the new arts district really is taking shape. A chunk of the money for the district came from city taxpayers, who now will get a chance to see what we've paid for up-close-and-personal. That's the real benefit here for Dallas residents.

Dallas' biggest garbage dump could start turning trash into natural gas

I realize this is a blog post probably fraught with opportunities for the more witty among our blog readers, but here goes anyway: It turns out that Dallas' huge McCommas landfill could very well be on the cutting edge of U.S. energy production. Yes, the DMN reported over the weekend that a process to speed conversion of garbage into methane gas through biotechnology, and then turn the methane into natural gas to fuel up to 16,000 homes, begins in October. If the first fuel-cell process works, six additional cells are expected to be built. So all of the non-recyclables we're sending to the landfill could actually generate up to $50,000 per month for city coffers. Here's something else to think about: It's possible that the landfill, rather than fill up and eventually require more land for dumping waste, could continue as the city's permanent trash bin for another 100 years. Almost makes you feel proud to take the garbage out back, doesn't it?

Bulk trash pickup: A visitor reminder

A regular visitor to Back Talk passes along this note:

I go up and down Williamson and Sperry regularly. There are a number of homes with piles of brush, trash bags and more. This is several weeks before the bulk pickup week. I do not want to call the city, because they will get a citation. Maybe a blog entry about early stacking of trash long before bulk pickup would be in order.

Bulk trash pickup is one of our most popular topics. The city schedule for bulk pickup is here (and yes, the chart is not all that easy to decipher). There is also a link tied to the city’s interactive map, which is awkward to use but mostly worth the trouble if you can figure out how to navigate it. Or, when in doubt, call 311.

Technorati Tags: East Dallas,bulk trash pickup

High gas prices keeping cars off roads

So maybe we won't need all those new highways? Like the Trinity toll road?

That's the gist of this piece from the New York Times, which reported that in May, with gasoline at more than $4 a gallon in the northeast, traffic at key bridges and tunnels dropped 4.7 percent compared with the same month a year ago. Meanwhile, mass transit use was up 4.3 to 9 percent on the systems that bring commuters into Manhattan. This includes a 5.5 increase for the Long Island Rail Road, which New Yorkers love to hate. Said one expert quoted by the Times: "We’re at the point where people really are changing habits."

Dallas Public Library: A new website, finally

This is somewhat old news. From what I understand, the new website launched in May, but I have to confess that I haven't used the Dallas Public Library website for months because I simply got tired of messing with the out-of-date online catalog. It was easier to make a trip to my local branch and ask a librarian a question, or make a book reservation through her.

But I needed an audio book for a road trip, specifically Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You!)". (The audio version is, of course, hilarious, but it does leave out some of the footnotes, margin notes and special features — like stickers — that come with the book. I recommend buying the book and checking out the audio book from the library.)

I ended up requesting the book with a librarian, but I went home and double checked my request online. Lo and behold, everything had changed.

This is somewhat old news. From what I understand, the new website launched in May, but I have to confess that I haven't used the Dallas Public Library website for months because I simply got tired of messing with the out-of-date online catalog. It was easier to make a trip to my local branch and ask a librarian a question, or make a book reservation through her.

But I needed an audio book for a road trip, specifically Stephen Colbert's "I Am America (And So Can You!)". (The audio version is, of course, hilarious, but it does leave out some of the footnotes, margin notes and special features — like stickers — that come with the book. I recommend buying the book and checking out the audio book from the library.)

I ended up requesting the book with a librarian, but I went home and double checked my request online. Lo and behold, everything had changed.

Mockingbird tolls: One final thought

My column in the July magazine looked at the Mockingbird issue through a decidedly local perspective: How our local officials, faced with an easy way to score points with voters, didn't. Hardly anyone spoke out on the issue, which had tremendous ramifications for Dallas. And why didn't they? Because that would have meant paying attention to the voters, something that they're not all that excited about these days.

Two other notes to the story, the first from the cabbie who drove me home from Love Field on Friday (complete with $1.50 fuel surcharge). I'm sure glad they decided not to toll Mockingbird, he said without me even asking. How hard would that have been on me?

And, if you had read the Park Cities newspaper owned by our friends at plastic surgery's favorite local magazine, you would have learned that tolling Mockingbird was never a serious proposal, but rather was sensationalized by the media: "Highland Park town officials are fighting back against 'twisted' reports that they are looking to charge non-resident drivers to use Mockingbird Lane."

Twisted, indeed.

Technorati Tags: Mockingbird Lane tolls,Advocate magazines

ATT moves to Dallas and other blogginess

Catching up after spending a week on the road (and yes, the airports were a zoo):

• AT&T. Yes, it's big news that AT&T is bringing its corporate headquarters to downtown Dallas. But let's not lose perspective. The company is only moving 700 of its 6,000 San Antonio-based employees, and it already has offices downtown and almost 13,000 employees in the area. This is not quite the same thing as American moving to the area, lock and stock and runway, in 1979.

• Restaurant coupons. Got another one over the weekend, this time for the Chic-fil-a on Central Expressway. There are three offers, all for free food with almost no restrictions.

• Lake Highlands tussle. Our friends in Lake Highlands had a spirited, almost East Dallas-like debate, over the city council's approval of senior citizen housing at Skillman and Church. Lake Highlands is going to be the poster child for what city planners want to do with density in traditional neighborhoods, a role I do not relish for them.

• Sales tax revenue update. And who says Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper can't learn from others? Last week, it posted Dallas' sales tax revenue for the first six months of 2008. Just like we did here six weeks ago, when we discovered that the city projected a 5.9 percent increase. The actual increase is 2.4 percent. And its parent company's stock hit a yet another record low last week, closing at $5.70 after going as low as $5.51.

Technorati Tags: AT&T,Dallas City Council,Dallas Morning News,Chick-fil-a,restaurant coupons,Lake Highlands

No smoking in Dallas bars: It could happen, and soon

A press conference at city hall Monday is the first salvo in a huge campaign to outlaw smoking just about everywhere in Dallas where it isn't already outlawed, including bars and taverns — almost the only places left where a smoker can smoke within the city limits, according to the DMN. Monday's press conference is being hosted by a group of heavy-hitters against smoking, including the American Cancer Society, UT Southwestern and the American Heart Association. Mayor Tom Leppert and councilman Ron Natinsky already are on-record as supporting the full-fledged ban, which will probably be acted on in August when the council returns from its summer break.