Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

Emerald Isle redux ... another zoning request, this time for a 4-5 story condo

March 6 is the tentative date for a zoning change proposal involving the now-infamous Emerald Isle land parcel just west of Barbec's off Garland Road and sort of overlooking White Rock Lake. This time around, the applicant and owner — Broomfield JV — is applying for a zoning change to allow construction of a 4-5 story condo building with a "minimum  average of 1,400 square feet per unit." Sounds like much of the parking will be underground, and the structure will have a maximum  height of 54 feet and maximum density of 102 units. An alternative development plan, also possible under the Planned Development District the owner is requesting, would allow construction of 41 "attached, single family homes, consisting of two and three story structures." And in case you're wondering, and I'm quoting from the zoning application's attached land use statement, "The owner, prospective buyers, and consultants, have had numerous meetings with neighbors and concerned neighborhood associations and the feedback leads to a desire for a residential use." For information, you can contact Jennifer Hiromoto with the city at 214-670-3917 or contact Broomfield JV at 972-231-4600.

Wine review: Sanford Sanford & Benedict Pinot Noir 2005

Regular readers of my wine stuff know that I hate overpriced wine -- and that way too many wines that cost more than $10 are overpriced. (I am, after all, the guy who does the $10 Wine Hall of Fame.) So when I find something that is expensive and fabulous, I swoon. Or at least as close to swooning as a cranky ex-sportswriter can get.

The Sanford is among the best pinots made in California, and Sanford makes some of the best pinot noirs in the world. Hence, $45 is not a stretch. The wine has a bit of a red Burgundy nose and flavor, which is more rustic than those from California and Oregon. But it also has terrific California-style fruit (think cherry and raspberry), without any of the candied flavors of too many other U.S. pinots.

Drink this by itself (I shared it on a Sunday with several people who came over to talk away the afternoon) or with any classic pinot food, be it duck or beef braised in red wine. (Availability may be spotty, though I'm told it has been seen at Centennial, Goody Goody, Central Market and Majestic.)

Bread for your Super Bowl

We announced last summer that neighborhood chef Philomena Aceto was launching a new line of breads using her Italian grandmother's recipes. Her business is growing, so much that she's in negotiations to sell the bread at a neighborhood grocery store.

She's also holding a one-time freezer sale this weekend in preparation for Sunday's big game. On Thursday and Saturday, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., stop by Aceto's kitchen at 10836 Grissom to purchase a set of four mini loaves (one of each flavor) for $9 and large loafs for $7 each.

Aceto isn't teaching classes in the kitchen that much these days because of the demands of her business, but she does have a couple of them coming up that look fun. For her Valentine's Day cooking class, she's partnering with Diageo and inviting an ambassador from Don Juilo Tequila to impart top shelf knowledge. Plus, when you consider what most restaurants are charging for Valentine's day dinners, $125 per couple is more than reasonable.

I also hear that St. Patty's Day will feature a whiskey tasting class ...   

The latest bad news about real estate prices

Or not, depending on your point of view. And note that all these stories were based on the same survey, the latest Case-Shiller index, released on Tuesday:

• "Dallas is arguably the weakest market of our big markets in Texas," said Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper, quoting a Texas A&M expert. Later in the story, proving that The News never met a story it couldn't surround, it reported that: "The Dallas-Fort Worth area's housing market is the least likely of any in the country to see price decreases over the next two years."

• A Reuters' columnist wrote: "Shiller, the originator of the Case-Shiller index of U.S. house prices, said house prices could fall by as much or more than they did in the 1930s, when an extended fall took them down by 25 percent in nominal terms."

That sound you hear could be the condo market crashing

Another developer has decided that it can't sell a condo project and is putting it up for sale. That can't be good news for the Dallas-area real estate market.

The Shelton, a pricey tower at Northwest Highway and the tollway, has sold only about one-third of its 105 units. That's about the same percentage as Oak Cliff's Lake Cliff Tower, which went on the block last week.

The Shelton news is a little more surprising, which makes it more ominous. It's in a more desirable location (Highland Park schools!!), and its owners pumped in $18 million for renovation. If they can't sell a $400,000 apartment there, where can they be sold in Dallas in this market?

Highway construction, why we don't have any money for it, and how we're screwed

At the end of November, the Texas Department of Transportation reported that it was going to cut 10 percent from its budget, blaming the federal government, increasing construction costs, and declining state revenue.

At the time, I was worn out from writing about highway projects -- aka the Trinity toll road -- and didn't note, as I should have, that we were about to get screwed. Yesterday, we did.

You can read this story in Dallas' Only Daily Newspaper and believe it or not. It almost doesn't matter, since what it says isn't the real story. The real story is that there is no money for highway construction in Texas. None, nada, zilch. This means that any promises made about highway funding around here, whether for the toll road or any other project, are not true.

I will not be impolite enough to say our elected officials knowingly lied to us during the Trinity campaign, though one can make a case for that. Lake Highlands' votes played a key role in defeating the toll road referendum. But what would those voters have done if they had known there was no money for the long-awaited and much-needed flood control repair project for Northwest Highway near White Rock Lake? Think more than a few of them wouldn't have asked: "Why are we building a toll road when we can't afford to fix Northwest Highway?" You're damn right they would have.

Better minds than mine have dissected the way Michael Morris and the North Texas Central Council of Governments does things. So I will just say this: If Morris told me today was Tuesday and that I lived in the United States of America, I'd reach for a calendar and my passport. So when he says that we can fix Northwest Highway by diverting toll revenue from Highway 121, I start laughing. Read this, and you'll see why. The tollway authority borrowed $3.75 billion to build 121, and the tolls must be used to repay that money, plus interest. They can siphon and juggle all they want, but they're just robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Also tucked into yesterday's News story is this line: "As part of the plan, TxDOT would have to agree to commit $150 million in coming years to backstop costs for the reconstruction of Interstate 635." I have no idea what it means -- backstop? -- but I'm willing to bet that we're so screwed there isn't even money to do basic work on LBJ. Which means we're going to start hearing about the need to toll LBJ. I can hardly wait for Morris, Mayor Park Cities and the rest of the gang to try and explain that.

Rats! Why won't they leave us alone, and what is the city going to do about it?

I'm not necessarily a fan of big government doing everything for us, but I am four-square behind the city's latest potential initiative: requiring that developers hire an exterminator to wipe out the rat colony in a building prior to its demolition.

According to a DMN story, construction in neighborhoods and downtown is displacing rat families, which then apparently head next door to take up residence in neighboring homes and buildings. And that's not exactly the type of houseguest you want stopping by unannounced, particularly since the story goes into some detail about rat's sexual maturity (they apparently blow through puberty in 8-12 weeks and then can produce up to 84 pups/baby rats a year).

According to the News story, Mayor Leppert isn't exactly jumping onboard the extermination bandwagon, but he's leaving things open for consideration. Hey, the Park Cities have already legislated their way to rat-free demolitions; we might as well follow their lead on this one, too.

Will Whole Foods be building or remodeling in Lakewood?

A couple of thoughts on Whole Foods' plans for the old Minyard's location, which I've seen but wasn't allowed to photograph or copy. I can't say that I completely agree with Whole Foods' strategy here, which I would guess is following the old "the fewer people who get a chance to weigh in on our design, the less headaches we'll have" philosophy. They have an excellent site layout that breaks up the massive parking lot in a way that Minyard's did not, and the proposed landscaping (while just generally sketched out) looks to significantly improve the frontages on Richmond and Gaston while also providing a much better facade facing Abrams.

As for the architecture, you can read fellow blogger Norm Alston's post here if you want an architect's analysis of the same building facade drawings that I saw. From a layman's standpoint, I don't buy Whole Foods' contention that the building reflects the neighborhood's architecture, but I can't say it doesn't fit in, either. I asked no less than three Whole Foods reps which other store the proposed Lakewood one most resembles; all declined to specify one. So I'll go out on a limb here: Check out the Preston/Forest Whole Foods (we'll get some pictures posted here later this week). Even though it's part of a strip center, the feel that I get from looking at the outside of that one is about the same feeling I have looking at the drawings for this one. Hey, it's a big building being constructed by a national company; it's going to have a certain amount of aluminum and glass, just because.

And one more important comment before you wade into the rest of this post: I am not a disinterested observer. I live close enough to the building site that my property value could be affected. The way Minyard's was configured didn't hurt our home value, but the proposed Whole Foods design could boost it a bit, since my neighbors and I benefit from the way the building looks from the Richmond and Gaston views. I'm trying to be impartial here, but just be aware of where I'm coming from.

So off we go...

It had to be you

From the headlines and the photos, some of you may have put two and two together and realized that we drew heavily from the classic romantic comedy “When Harry Met Sally” as inspiration for February’s cover stories.

There are many oft-quoted and reenacted scenes from Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal’s interactions in that movie, but my favorites have always been what I call “the couch scenes” interspersed throughout. Two people, often along in years, sit beside each other on a regal-looking couch with patterned wallpaper behind them (the same in each couch scene), and recount the story of how they met and fell in love. The movie ends with Harry and Sally on the same couch with the same wallpaper, telling their love story.

We tried to capture this in the way we wrote the stories, which basically didn’t require “writing” at all — just quoting the couple’s conversations in a way that captured their beautiful relationship. And in my opinion, photographer Can Türkyilmaz did himself proud with the couch portraits.

I hope your hearts were warmed as much as ours were. Happy Valentine’s Day.

Crime statistics and feeling safer about crime

My column in the February Advocate  (on your doorknob now) did not start out to be what is in the magazine. Instead, I was going to write about crime entrepreneurs -- a rapidly increasing group, both locally and nationally, who see a way to make money by selling crime-related information like real-time statistics.

What struck me was: Why was this happening now, given that crime in this area is the least bad it has been since I moved to Dallas in 1984? In some ways, given how bad the situation was in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it's almost bucolic around here. I can't remember the last time I heard a stray gun shot.

Yet these new companies see a demand for this service, which led me to the column. Are we safer? The statistics say we are. But many visitors to the blog don't think so. So why don't we think we're safer? And how will that attitude affect the decisions we make about fighting crime?