Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

New Quiznos opening up in Hillside in old Quiznos space

It looks like Quiznos in Hillside is set to re-open soon. They are cleaning the store and getting it ready to re-open. The store has been closed since November with no activity inside.

White Rock dog park makes evening news

Looks as if a reporter over at CBS picked up on the dog park problem we've discussed at length here at Back Talk. The bad news? From this report it doesn't look as if the problem will be fixed. City officials say they have a plan to replace the soil with a more absorbent soil — sounds a little shaky to me.

Why Industrial Boulevard needs to be renamed The Dallas Morning News Highway

And the toll road itself, of course, should be called Belo Parkway (thanks, Norm Alston) after the company and the family that runs the paper.

Wamre sets out the city's plan below; you can find the finalists here. But each suggested name, no matter how spiffy, misses the point.

Meletio's Preston Forest Square store closes after 46 years

After a 46-year run, Meletio Lighting's Preston Forest store will close May 2, with the store combining with the company's Harry Hines and Frisco locations, says Meletio owner Ken Reiser, a neighborhood resident. The store has been located in the Preston Forest Square Shopping Center since October 1962; before the doors close for the last time, Reiser says a moving sale is scheduled May 15-17.

Just 10 nominees left in the City's "Name Industrial Boulevard" challenge

Clearly, one of the big issues on Dallasites' minds these days has to be the renaming of Industrial Boulevard. According to the DMN, the city's Trinity River committee has been busily working to solicit names from Dallas residents, sorting through more than 500 suggestions to whittle the list down to 10 names. The committee intends to select three "finalists" on Tuesday and then solicit online, mail or phone votes from citizens to select the winner.

Ice cream on (about) three dimes at Baskin Robbins

One of our office ice cream aficionados excitedly approached the editorial office with a hot (or should I say, cold) tip a couple days ago: Tomorrow night, April 30, Baskin Robbins is offering 31-cent scoops. Yes, you heard it here (probably not exactly a scoop ... but good info nonetheless). The offer is good between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. Baskin Robbins’ promo calls it “a thank you to our customers and the firefighters who protect them … Baskin Robbins is donating $100,000 to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation."

Here are a few nearby locations (below) see you there!

Want a peek at what the Timbercreek Penney's might be like?

There are new-style, non-mall Penney's on I-20 in Weatherford and at The Plaza at Rockwall off of I-30. The former opened last fall; the latter opened early in March.

The Rockwall store sports the Sephora Inside JCPenney boutique, a 1,500-square-foot beauty concept, while both include in-home custom decorating services and full-service salons.

Wamre had the details on the Timbercreek news at the beginning of the month, and we've had quite a few comments since. But what I still can't figure out is why Penney's wants to do this.

Lot considered for rezoning — what about the trees?

After posting about the proposed rezoning on Lake Highlands Drive, a commenter brought up a good point about the trees on the lot (something I'd overlooked in my rush that morning). I drove by again, and there are at least six big, lovely trees on that site. I am hoping to have luck today getting a comment from the zoning consultant on this item. I'll keep you posted.

Josh Howard and the Mavs get smoked

Happy birthday, Josh Howard. Congratulations. You’re 28 today. You have the world at your fingertips, living a life most people can only dream of. You beat the odds as a kid and emerged as one of the NBA’s most promising players.

So why let all that go up in smoke? (Sorry I'll stop.) For those of you who were out of the country or maybe doing a little too much partying yourself, Josh Howard, Dallas Mavericks’ small forward admitted on Michael Irvin’s radio show Friday that he’s a pot smoker, “no big deal”. In fact he indicted the whole NBA saying, "everybody in the media world and in the sports world knows that NBA players do smoke marijuana". No, this isn’t the first time he’s publicly admitted to this but it reeks a little bit more this time, especially when we are forced to watch his painful decline as a player. He said he smoked in the off-season but he sure looked high last night — or maybe he’s just real anxious to get the Mavs into the off-season.

More on density: A multi-story mixed use development to replace the Arcadia on lowest Greenville

My column in this month's magazine dealt with the city's plans to increase density in development -- that is, to cram more stuff into the same space. It was mostly a hypothetical discussion, with some thoughts about the difference between good density and bad density.

Apparently, though, I waited too long to write the piece, and all you need to do is to check this out to see why. How does a 20,000 square foot, multi-story retail, bar and and restaurant building on lowest Greenville sound? The site, which is being developed by UCR (big signs are already up), is where the Arcadia move theater was before it burned.