Halloween Earthquake Hits Dallas Area

Thousands dead! Millions homeless! "It's the wrath of God" local clergy proclaim. Jerry Jones says the Cowboys game will be played as scheduled. Full story here.

My City Councilman

The first time I met Ron Natinsky I thought he came off as arrogant. But I've met him enough now that, though he may not remember my name, he claims he recognizes my mug. At least he answers my email.

Natinsky has a jones for recycling, as do I. The first neighborhood meeting I attended after he was elected I walked away with a cute little replica of a recycling bin just like the ones you put in the alley. I use it for a pencil cup. The last meeting I went home with a pizza cutter and a dish scrubber, both with his name on them and neither one recycable.

But, hey, they were free! Except that I had to help pay for them.

Craig's List

Best Of.

For some reason, I believe it.

Dallas Convention Center Hotel Plans

Renderings.

Page 5 reflects the boomerang look from the top.

Karen Bella and Girls Girls Girls

I can remember enjoying this group perform at a now defunct nightclub on Greenville Ave. That was major moons ago. I'm not sure who the Girls were but at that time Karen Bella was a well-known name in the Dallas music scene. This post is made hoping someone will find it on Google and can tell me what happened to her. I can find a little something about a Poor David's show a little over a year ago, and something about Steve's Garage.

Here's a song similar to ones Karen and Girls did in their show. The original was recorded by the Ronettes and written primarily by a guy in California soon to be retried for murder.

Karen, are you out there?

Thank you, WAMU!

Best response I've heard so far about WAMU.

The Dallas Morning News asked some WAMU customers/morons on the street their thoughts about the epic collapse of Washington Mutual.

"Daniel Pham, a cosmetology student who says he doesn't have a lot of money, seemed to take news of the bank failure in stride.... He said he thought the $700 billion bailout package would give the economy a 'good boosting.'
And he also thought the economic crisis was simply part of this election year's drama and predicted that once votes are cast, 'everything is going to get back to normal,' he said.

Yeah, the almost a trillion dollars that this is going to cost is just part of the "Election year drama" like attack ads and debates. I hope that guy doesn't vote.

Dallas Observer's Best Of

Best advice: don't waste your time reading it.

Juan's Siesta

Juan's Tex-Mex Restaurant on Frankford & Preston has pulled a Frida Kahlo and died. Too bad. Because it wasn't.

Woman Pushed From Car — Dallas Video

Watch this video! Not too graphic.

Oswald's Landlady's Daughter Dies

Fay Puckett, 1924-2008. Obituary. At one time Ms. Puckett lived in the house at 1026 N Beckely where Lee Harvey Oswald rented a room for six weeks prior to Nov. 22, 1963. Her daughter, Puckett Hall, lives there now.

Smoke-Free Dallas Nazis

Once again free enterprise faces government oppression. Remember when some Johnny-come-do-gooders wanted to tax patrons of topless bars $5 each with receipts going to a fund to aid sexual assualt victims? Rational people failed to see the correlation and that idea was deep sixed.

The Bronx Cheer Army has been attacking smoking (and smokers) since at least the 1960s. Most early battles were easily won and many victories were noble. (Smoking was once allowed on airplanes? Get real.)

But now the Crusade of the Pompousness is surrounding the castle of the last bastion of adult-only public Nemea where the world's problems are truly solved — the neighborhood bar.

Their argument is simple. Secondhand smoke kills. Frightening isn't it? Yet no one is forced to go into a bar. They're not grocery stores. Generally children are not allowed. No one is forced to work in a bar. The job requirements fit many other venues of employment. And most important of all, if there was a vast market for smoke-free bars, don't you think it would have been tapped?

Between the Nazis of Smoke-Free Dallas and the righteous indignation vigorously expressed by MADD, is the neighborhood bar on life support?

Little Caesar's Blvd.

Follow closely:
First the brain trust at Dallas City Hall, in a non-binding citizens' survey, asked what to rename Industrial Blvd. now that it will serve as a gateway to the new Trinity River Park. Out of six names offered, César Chávez was the favorite with 51%. "Oh no," the brain trust says. "Let's call it Riverfront Blvd." Well why did you do the survey in the first place? The Hispanic community became outraged and a compromise suggestion was made to rename Ross Ave. after Mr. Chávez. "Oh no," the businesses east of downtown said. So the decision was turned over to the City Plan Commission. A subcommittee voted against renaming Ross to Chávez while the full commission voted against changing Industrial to Riverfront. Now the full commission will have to vote to change Industrial to Chávez while 12 of 15 City Council members' votes will be needed to override the commission's decision and change Industrial to Riverfront. Got that?

And the wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round.

All I can say is Pizza! Pizza!

Largest U.S. Cities

Not in population. You already know that. In area per square miles:

1. Sitka, AK* 2874 sm

2. Juneau, AK* 2717 sm

3. Anchorage, AK* 737 sm

4. Jacksonville, FL 758 sm

5. Anaconda, MT* 737 sm

6. Butte, MT* 716 sm

7. Oklahoma City, OK 607 sm

8. Honolulu, HI* 600 sm

9. Houston 579 sm

10. Phoenix 515 sm

12. Los Angeles 465

14. San Antonio 408 sm

17. Dallas 343 sm

21. New York City 305 sm

23. Fort Worth 293 sm

26. Austin 252 sm

27. El Paso 249 sm

41. Albuquerque 181 sm

*county area included

Golf Handicap. Baseball Bat Handicapped.

This guy goes into this Dallas 7-11 about 2 a.m. Wednesday with a baseball bat. And a knife. He uses the bat to hit the cash register until it opens. Does he steal any money? Nope. Instead he maneuvers around the customers to take 10 boxes of condoms and an energy drink. What? No one would chase him? No one would tip him over? In this day of cellphones, no customer could at least tail him until police arrived? He remains on the run. Er, on the roll.

Faith In Drivers Restored

At least until later today.
9:40 last night; driving on a 6-lane street approaching a red light where I need to turn right; no cars in my lane so I can make a right turn on red; little sports car speeds by and gets in my lane ahead of me so he can be first off the block when the light turns green; I turn on my right turn signal; he notices and immediately changes back into the middle lane so I won't have to wait; I pass him and wave a "thank you"; he changes lanes again and gets behind me; I make my right turn on red; the light turns green for him and he is indeed the first one off the block.

Though probably young and obviously in a hurry to get nowhere fast, he was also considerate.

And this happened in Dallas??

Why Do People Talk To Themselves?

He wasn't talking to me and there was no one else around. Damnit, he followed me outside and saw my bumper stickers: "waterloo records" and "78704...more than a zip code, a way of life." Then he says to me, "I'd like to get back to Austin, but I have a good job here. Dallas has more plastic surgeons than real people. I mean, you could marry a good looking woman and end up with a mongoloid child."

Maybe that's what his dad did.

Do I Have A Right To Be Mad?

It was 6:00 pm, the height of rush hour. I was driving on a major street that had gone from 3 lanes (each way) to two. The speed limit was 40 mph and even with the heavy traffic cars were doing that. Except in my lane. Because in my lane there was a bicycle rider. The light had just turned green and it was taking some time for him to get up to speed. I know, bikes have the same rights as cars to be on the roads and if he was commuting to/from work I would give him a high five but there was absolutely no place to store even a wallet. I can only assume he was doing it for the exercise. Is it too much to say that all things considered, he was rude in choosing that time and place to fulfill his desired exercise regiment at the expense of so many others?

Residential Up, Retail Down

The desire of urban planners is for close-in development to consist of multi-level residential units placed on top of retail stores, thus making neighborhoods "walkable" and reducing vehicular traffic. Nice pipe dream. While the apartments fill up, the vacancy rates on the ground floor remain high. The problem cannot be placed solely on the shoulders of the idealists that often require this type of design. Property owners still ask for exorbitant rents from businesses, often twice per square foot than the residences. And with no anchor stores as a drawing power, these stores must rely on fewer customers to help pay the rent. But the owners have forgotten Business 101. Rent is the highest fixed expense of most retail operations. Reduce the commercial rent and entice the retail establishments. Offset this with slightly higher residential rates. Apartment dwellers are more likely to pay the higher rent given the convenience of a nearby cleaners, ice cream parlor, coffee shop, sandwich shop, pizza parlor and perhaps a bar. But property owners, geniuses all, would prefer to ask for higher commercial rates and collect zero rent from vacant stores than reduce rates and actually produce income.

Denton County Transportation Authority vs DART

DART began 25 years ago, collecting ¼¢ sales tax from 13 cities to supplement its costs. Carrollton, Farmers Branch and Northwest Dallas residents have been paying this tax since DART's inception and have had bus service, but light rail will not become available until 2010.

Johnny-come-lately Denton County towns Denton, Lewisville and Highland Village finally decided to start DCTA with local service and express bus service to downtown Dallas during rush hours. Now they want their own light rail service that will take their riders to Carrollton's end-of-the-line light rail station. So the DCTA riders will be able to jump off their train, walk a few feet and get prime seating on DART while never paying the sales tax that keeps user fees low. Is that fair?

The solution is a gate. Build a big South Texas/Mexico border fence with razor wire atop and install a turnstile where those yankees from Denton County have to pay an admission charge. And, damnit, make sure they speak English upon entering our county!

Recycling Dallas

In the northern part of town whence I type this, it was once the practice of twice-weekly trash pickup and biweekly recycling. That amounted to 10 big trucks rolling down the alley every four weeks. Then this area became a test section of once-a-week trash pickup and once-a-week recycling, while the rest of Dallas remained the same. This amounted to 8 big trucks rolling down the alley every four weeks.

Homes in this pilot area now recycle 51 pounds of material each month vs 21 pounds in other parts of the city. These homes sent an average of 143 pounds of garbage to the landfill each month vs 173 pounds in other areas. There is some revenue from recycling and significant savings in manpower and vehicle costs. A win-win situation.

This sanitation service is expected to be implemented in the entire North Dallas area effective February and eventually the entire city. But Council member Carolyn Davis, whose district includes South Dallas, says, "Why would we want once-a-week trash pickup? ...if you have a huge barbeque, it fills up these containers" and trash overflows into the streets. She and several other southern-sector (majority-minority) Council members claim their districts need more time and education to be ready for this change. If I was one of their constituents, did they just say I was stupid?