Back Talk Lakewood/East Dallas

More stink about White Rock Lake

Looks like someone at NBC5 might be reading your comments here at Back Talk. This morning as I was groggily preparing for the day, I heard anchorman Brenden Higgins say something about "stench" and "double-crested cormorants" and I said to myself, "hey — he's talking about the infamous "putrid pathway" that we discussed here a couple days ago.

 

Doctor's Hospital signs on with White Rock Marathon

Doctor's Hospital at White Rock Lake is getting in on the White Rock Marathon weekend (Dec. 12-14) — they've just signed on as title sponsor for the marathon's two-day health and fitness expo. Organizers are still seeking the top-dog title sponsor for the marathon. Hmmm, I can see it now ... The Advocate Publishing White Rock Marathon ...  what do you think, Mr. Wamre?

While I wait to hear back on that ... the aforementioned fitness expo sounds like a pretty cool deal, with more than 100 vendors demonstrating, peddling and promoting all sorts of stuff — clothing, jewelry, shoes, athletic gear, food and supplements, upcoming events and good-to-know-about services, to name a few. Plus, if you are running the race, you have to go to the expo to pick up your packet so you might as well take it all in while you're there.

I don't know exactly how the Doctors Hospital sponsorship will affect race participants — I don't think very much. But sponsorships, from what event chair Chuck Dannis told me a while back, help absorb costs of putting on such an enormous event and allow organizers to donate a larger sum to the benefiting charity, Scottish Rite.

Also, if you are training to run the marathon and you're getting antsy, you are eager to read anything and everything there is to read about the event. It's just five weeks away and I can't get enough of stuff like this, from the Dallas Morning News Fitness Blog.

More lights no good for White Rock Lake

The latest National Geographic features a piece about light pollution and its toll on wildlife, pertinent to the situation we have here with the proposed White Rock Lake lighting project (more here, and here). The aforementioned article backs up the idea that by making do without all the artificial lighting, we will not only preserve energy, but also protect animals whose biological rhythms can get screwed up when you pollute the night with that “luminous orange glow”.

"Wildlife species have evolved on this planet with biological rhythms—changing that has profound effects," said Travis Longcore, a biogeographer with the Urban Wildlands Group in Los Angeles, who with colleague Catherine Rich, co-organized a conference last year on "Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting."

Since the nights have started falling earlier, I’ve gone out running around the lake in the pitch dark. I can understand the idea behind installing lights — you have to smartly navigate the roadways and paths at night to avoid collision with fellow pedestrians, cyclists and cars. But that’s doable if we just use common sense (I know, it’s a lot to ask for some of us).

The atmosphere at the lake in the dark with just the moon’s glow spilling onto the glassy water — well, it’s just irreplaceable especially here in the city. It was the other night out there in the dark —even as I was forced into a muddy roadside pit by a non-observant motorist —that I decided how I felt at lights around the lake. And that was before reading the National Geographic story. I know the lights advocates have good intentions, but we are already doing so much out there to make it more user friendly. Let's let nighttime be nighttime.

Runner in ICU following accident at DRC Half

We have a little more news about one of the runners hit by a car following the Dallas Running Club Half Marathon. The Advocate received an e-mail via the Lakewood Service League from Colleen Nelson, wife of Eric Nelson who suffered severe injuries in the accident. According to Colleen, he is in ICU in critical but stable condition. The injuries are bad — head injuries, two broken legs, broken bones in his face, ligament damage around his c-spine — but she says there has been improvement from day one to day two and that doctors seem optimistic. Colleen was walking alongside her husband when he was hit. "I still can't quite wrap my head around the accident," she wrote.

It's tough to imagine what this family is going through — one minute you are finishing up a challenging half-marathon race, and moments later, your body is in shambles. Considering the severity of the accident, though, it is a wonder that all of the victims are alive. We will let you know if we get more news.

Artists studio tours Saturday, Oct. 18

Hopefully, you read in your October Advocate about the White Rock Lake Artist Studio Tour to take place this Saturday, Oct. 18, at studios all around the White Rock area. Now in it's 16th year, the tour is chock-full of funky and fabulous participants — 45 of them. Here is the official list along with a bit about the studio tour tradition, details on this weekend's event and a lot about local art, in general.

Speaking of neighborhood artists, many of the same artists involved in the studio tour are also part of an awesome art garden at the State Fair this year — the organizer of the State Fair show, Lottie Minick, maintains an informative and spirited blog that follows the art/gardening/etc. scene around the 'hood.

By the way, don't forget that the State Fair ends Sunday, Oct. 19. If you haven't seen Big Tex yet, you'd better get there in a hurry!

Barkitecture Dallas 2008

Listen up dog owners! I’m speaking to those of you who shamelessly pamper your furry friends. You know who you are — you shop at Haute Dog; you’re a regular at The Petropolitan; you watch “Groomer Has It” (yes, it is actually a show). This is for you. And if you just like putting super cool-looking stuff in your yard, well … OK, this is for you too.

BARKITECTURE, the quintessential parade of doggie homes, makes its Dallas premiere this Saturday, Oct. 18, at Boy Scout Hill near the White Rock Dog Park. Although Saturday is the official showcasing of canine home design, it’s essential that you get a look at the entries here, now. Purchase a raffle ticket (or several) for a chance to take home your favorite designed-to-the-(K)nines doggie domicile.

Even if you don’t nab your pet’s dream den, your bucks serve a worthwhile purpose — According to the official site, “This year's project focus will be to raise funds primarily to address the flooding that closes the park each spring for periods of up to two months.”

Recall the so-called DOG BOG of last spring? Yeah, let's fix that. 

It's just a broken sprinkler

Tonight, from a parking lot at Casa Linda Plaza (where I was standing around with some running buds following a workout) I noticed a geyser of sorts shooting out of the grass in front of Doctors Hospital at White Rock Lake. Initially I thought, oooh pretty …  like a Dallas version of the water show outside the Bellagio in Vegas. But then my left brain kicked in and I thought of those City of Dallas water restrictions we run in the magazine every month.

“What’s up with that?” I asked no one in particular, and a fellow member of the group says, “yeah, we have a water show every night for weeks now”. Apparently when the automatic sprinkler system turns on appropriately at sunset, this one spigot goes haywire blasting untold loads of precious H2O into the air and most of it appears to hit the parking lot rather than the grass. Another person confirmed that it's been going on a while and added “seems like a hospital ought to be able to fix something like that pretty easily”. I agreed and made a mental note to write about it here (and what do you know I actually did). So if anyone over at Doctor’s Hospital (the birthplace of my two children and a place I’m pretty fond of overall) is reading, can we get that sprinkler fixed? 

$16.7 million White Rock Spillway repairs begin

It has been 2 1/2 years since the White Rock Lake spillway was damaged during flooding; it will be 2010 before the spillway's rebuilding project is completed. The DMN reports that construction begins this week on the $16.7 million redo, which will add balconies, a walkway with separate pedestrian and bicycle trails, and lots of new landscaping. In the meantime, the Winsted Drive parking lot will be closed and there will be periodic traffic disruptions on Garland Road. Several trails in the area also will be closed from time to time.

Marijuana plants found near jogging trail

A city worker found a crop of obviously well-cared-for marijuana plants near the jogging trail that runs from 635 to White Rock Lake, in a spot where dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pedestrians and cyclists pass daily. Talk about overlooking the obvious.

If the cyclists and joggers would stop bickering and the runners (myself included) would lose the headphones and pay attention to their surroundings ... maybe we wouldn't miss the little things — LIKE 27 SEVEN-FOOT-TALL POT PLANTS right in front of us!

White Rock Spillway project update

Following an informational meeting last Monday, For The Love of the Lake volunteer BJ Ellis reports some of the ways that wildlife as well as us humans in the neighborhood will be affected by the White Rock Lake Spillway project. Looks like we’re in for some growing pains before we see a final product:

Stinky, trashy shoreline mud will be the biggest environmental effect humans are likely to notice when lake levels are lowered during certain construction phases.