Just a heads up for anyone who frequents Fitzhugh and Swiss Avenue. The stop sign at the intersection is down and could pose as a hazard for drivers since not every intersection along Swiss Avenue has a stop sign. Be on the look out for drivers who don't know that they have to stop either because they don't see it or are not familiar with our neighborhood.
Dallas has finally fixed a problem area that has been a hazard for years. If drivers are familiar with Lemmon and Haskell, they would know that the two streets merge while heading toward Ross Avenue, and right afterward, the four-lane street abruptly becomes a three-lane with no forewarning. The far left lane suddenly disappears into a sidewalk (which intersects with Munger) with only a yellow and black sign to indicate its end.
Now there is a big "turn only" sign, and bright, white lines indicating that it is a turn-only lane. This problem street used to cause accidents and near misses when unfamiliar drivers would brake suddenly or swerve. Having driven on this road numerous times to get home, I know to watch for drivers who are not aware. Now East Dallasites can feel more comfortable while traveling this often busy street.
Global Electric Motorcars (GEM) makes one of the few truly all-electric vehicles available today. I thought I would mention it in light of the discussion raging in Rick's post from yesterday. I have friends who own these and have actually driven one on multiple occasions. The question is how useful is it, really?
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."
I was driving along Gaston Avenue the other day, and saw a homeless man begging for money and food. If you're like me, you tend to look the other way and avoid eye contact, believing that a homeless person will just take your money and use it to buy drugs, cigarettes or alcohol. This time, however, I couldn't help but look. I didn't have any cash on me, but in the heat of the day, I gave him my unopened bottle of water, hoping it would help. He told me, "God bless you. Thank you."
This past Wednesday, I got into a wreck on the service road of 75 and Southwestern. I had just picked up a friend from NTB who had blown out his tire. Before I even made it through the intersection, a car ran a red light and I swerved out of the way just in time to save our skins from a T-bone crash. My car was totaled, but all of us were able to walk away from it with our lives. In the midst of the chaos, a woman appeared out of nowhere, and told me she had recently been in a car accident and understands how scary they can be. She said to me, "This might be kind of strange, but here," and offered me a bottle of water.
The significance of this story and the "bottle of water", did not occur to me until the next day, and it hit me that this coincidence was a little strange, and for some reason my little miracle. It is nice to know that despite all the crazy people out there, there are genuinely nice and thoughtful people that we can call our neighbors.
It looks like $4 gas has finally arrived. The Seven-11s at Abrams and Richmond and lower Greenville by the Whole Foods were at $4.009 and $4.019 for regular over the weekend -- though most of the stations I drove past in my decidedly unscientific survey were stuck at $3.999.
Which raises this question: Is it financially practical for individuals to hedge against higher prices, in the same way big companies do? Southwest Airlines, for one, credits much of its success, despite rising fuel prices, to hedging. This means Southwest buys fuel now and takes delivery of it at a later date in an attempt to get a better price. (Here is a much better and complete discussion of the futures market and how it works.)
That's the theory behind MyGallons.com, which sells debit-like cards that drivers redeem for gas. In other words, I give MyGallons $100 now (plus the fee it charges to sign up and to reload the card), and it sends me a card that I swipe at the pump when I fill up. I've locked in $100 worth of gas at $4 a gallon, no matter what happens to the price of gas.
So does MyGallons make sense for those of us who don't run airlines that buy millions of gallons of fuel a year?
Continue reading "Gas prices: Does it make sense to hedge against increases?" »
Or, on a scale of 10, 45 percent of us give toll roads a grade of 4 or less and nearly a quarter of us give it a zero. That's the result of a survey taken by the Texas Lyceum think tank, which looked at Texans' attitudes toward building and paying for new highways. And what do we like even less? Tolling existing roads, where opposition increased to 69 percent, including 53 percent who "strongly" oppose tolls on existing highways. Think tolls on LBJ to pay for its upkeep and maintenance, and you'll get the idea.
Last night a new organization, Friends of Santa Fe Trail, held a well-attended public meeting at Professional Bank to introduce the organization, provide some update on the trail and to recruit participants for the group's activities. The Friends stated purpose is to supplement and support the trail by developing a detailed vision for future improvements (a master plan) and raising funds to pay for and implement this vision. Currently, only the basic components of the trail are funded; the 12' wide strip of concrete and a bridge over Garland Road. Friends of the the Santa Fe Trail hope to augment these features significantly. Currently, Phase II from Fair Park to Glasgow is well under construction. Phase I from Glasgow to White Rock Lake is scheduled to begin at the end of this year. This could be a good effort because there appears to be a real need for a vision. And in developing this vision, we should first clearly understand what we're getting.
Continue reading "The Santa Fe Trail: It's time again for that vision thing." »
Note to Mayor Park Cities and various members of the council who believe in paving over the city to build roads to benefit suburbanites. The following quote, which appeared in Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper, came from one of you -- a real estate developer, in fact. So I expect you to pay more attention than if I said it, being a cranky, pro-neighborhood type:
When you develop this way you have to consider foot traffic, bicycles. The city tends to take the approach that it's all about traffic control and the fastest way to get from here to there. Widening the freeway is like an obese person getting a bigger belt. It doesn't address the problems. We need to come up with a better method than just bigger roads.
That's from a fellow named Will Pinkerton of Options Real Estate Development, which focuses on southern Dallas County. Will, if you're ever up this way, I'll buy you a cold one.
It's technically Old Town Drive, but for years and years it was the best shortcut in the world to get into the Old Town shopping center. The street, which runs a couple of blocks east and west, connects Amesbury, which parallels Greenville, with the shopping center. Turn onto Old Town from Amesbury and you can get into the shopping center behind Michael's, the craft store. No muss, no fuss, and no need to brave the Greenville and Lovers intersection (or any combination thereof).
Or at least you could until this spring. That's when the city reports that Lincoln Property, which owns the Village apartment megalopolis behind it, closed and locked the gate that separates the street from the shopping center.
Turns out it's an anti-crime measure.
City zoning inspector John Duncan reported: "This closure is a permanent automatic gate. The gate has all of the proper identification including a fire department keyed box. I just talked to a security guard of the apartment complex. The gate used to be open during the day and closed at night. They had a rash of burglaries and decided to close the gate 24/7. Only management, security and maintenance have openers."
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