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.

Commerical property in Dallas: Let's end the 'secret' valuation process

If commercial property owners paid more taxes, residential property owners would pay less — as much as $90 million less annually: That's pretty much the bottom line in the ongoing debate over whether commercial property sales prices in Dallas County need to be publicly disclosed. The DMN offers a lengthy and informative story about the issue, which is expected to be acted upon during the state legislature's session next year. And the whole issue gained momentum as a result of Dallas' taxpayer-owned downtown convention center hotel land purchase — the city offered to pay about $40 million for eight acres of property that was being assessed at about $8 million (five times less than what the city is paying to buy the property).

Just imagine if your home tax appraisal increased by five times next year because the appraisal district figured out it had undervalued the house for awhile: I suspect we'd all have something to say if that happened to us. And it won't happen, either, and not only because the appraisal district can't raise taxes on a homestead that much in one year. It won't happen because sales prices for residential property are virtually always publicly available, allowing the appraisal district to come pretty close year after year to proper home valuations.

Republicans who want to be Texas’ U.S. senator

Yes, it’s early to worry about this, since the election isn’t until 2012. But everyone assumes incumbent Kay Bailey Hutchison will resign her seat to run for governor in 2010, and the potential candidates are already lining up -- counting on a special election if Hutchison does quit. So let’s take a look:

John Cornyn has been spotted

And in Casa Linda, to boot, at Wamre's favorite gas station. And who says politicians aren't worried about gas prices with an election in November?

Cornyn, the Republican incumbent U.S. senator, is running for re-election against Rick Noriega. He appeared at the Green Spot on Buckner to lobby for increased oil drilling to lower the price of gas. Apparently, Cornyn's aides didn't brief him fully about Green Spot, which is an environmentally-friendly gas station. It's probably not the kind of place where someone should say "Why not use more of what God gave us right here in America, rather than buying it from abroad and enriching people who are not friendly to the United States?"

We detailed U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions' visit to Arlington to protest gas prices, where he also called for more oil drilling. His opponent for the 32nd district seat, Eric Roberson, also made a gas station appearance yesterday. He pumped unleaded with five other Democrats running for Dallas-area House seats at the Fuel City just south of downtown. ""No more bull," he said. "It's time to tell the truth about oil. ... American needs solutions, not sound bites." Gromer Jeffries, the political writer for Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper, noted that the comment was made in front of the station's small herd of cattle.

And who says this won't be a fun election?

Technorati Tags: gas prices,John Cornyn,Pete Sessions,Eric Roberson,Rick Noriega,Green Spot

One less reservoir for Dallas

A federal judge ruled Monday that the city and the Texas Water Board can't stop the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from designating parts of Anderson and Cherokee counties, southeast of Dallas, as the Neches River wildlife refuge. That's where the city wanted to build the 25,000-acre Fastrill Reservoir, which it says is essential to providing enough water for Dallas' growth through 2060.

This was a hot topic last spring when the Legislature was in session. The city almost lost the reservoir that was included in the 2007 water bill that was eventually passed because so many residents of East Texas are fed up with the way we waste water. As noted during the debate, we use 30 percent more water per person than any other big city in the state.

We're not the only city in the country with this problem. California is now including water availability in zoning requirements. If there isn't any water, you can't build. The New York Times reported that least three developers in Kern County north of Los Angeles bowed out when they couldn't get water for their project, while housing developments in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties have met a similar fate, officials in those counties said.

Technorati Tags: Fastrill reservoir,Dallas water,Neches River wildlife refuge

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.

DART chairman says no more jewelry and clothing funding advances

Good news on the DART front: The agency's new chairman has made it pretty clear that he's not interested in being in "the jewelry and clothing business." (Recall our recent post about the issue — employees started a separate bank account to facilitate employees' purchase of jewelry and clothing from a couple of vendors, then earned a commission from the transaction that was used to fund employee parties. But then the employees overspent the account, the vendors were mad about being stiffed, and the paperwork hit the media fan.)  Randall Chrisman told the DMN the obvious: There was no "nefarious" reason that the program, started 10 years or so ago, came around in the first place, but it's not the type of thing that a public entity needs to be doing. So after DART auditors rectify the mess (wasting resources that DART is supposed to be directing toward its core programs), the program will be over. Good call, Mr. Chrisman. Let's hope that's one lesson that stays fresh in everyone's minds at DART.

DISD audit released: Time and steady leadership needed now

The long-awaited DISD audit is finally out, and — surprise, surprise — the auditors found out that DISD's finance/accounting department is a mess, according to the DMN story. It's too bad it cost a couple of million dollars to find that out, again (same song, second verse, from the 1999 audit), but there you have it: A school district (or any business, for that matter) that changes leaders every couple of years is bound to have problems keeping track of its money, along with just about everything else.

Which is why the audit conclusions are no big surprise. And which is why it's time for DISD to solve this problem, once and for all (or at least until the next couple of superintendents take over...). Anyway, Supt. Michael Hinojosa looks to be staying around for awhile, and he's pledging to do what it takes to clean things up. All that needs to happen now is that the board needs to give him the money and rope necessary to hire quality people to run the department, reorganize the ways things operate and get started on the right path — a path the auditors and other finance people seem to think will take 3-5 years. And that's only going to be possible if Hinojosa stays around even longer than that — long enough to see the job through, minimizing the inevitable turnover that happens when the guy in charge keeps being turned over. Let's hope the board sees things that way, too.

Texas Senator John Cornyn and John Stewart: two funny guys

Senator John Cornyn recently gave us this gem of a campaign ad. The so-called Big John ad caught the attention of Daily Show producers (see "political ads" video). Now, along with this local Kia commercial a couple weeks ago, it's the second Texas-based ad to warrant John Stewart's sidesplitting sarcasm this month. (The Cornyn ad is hilarious by itself, even sans Stewart's commentary.)

In Cornyn's defense, he told the Austin American Statesman the ad was tongue in cheek and meant to be funny. He said, quote, "“My staff convinced me it was a good idea. Maybe I need a new staff."

Noooooo! Don't fire your staff. If it is meant to be funny ... they succeeded marvelously.