Hey, City of Dallas, Wanna Help DISD? Then Get Off Your Butt and Do It.
I don’t think the city has done right by DISD. I say so, and say why, over on Learning Curve.
Full StoryKlyde Warren Park Wins National Open Space Award
We like to beat up on Dallas from time to time in this space, complaining about how it doesn’t do this right, or doesn’t do that right. Well one thing it definitely got right is Klyde Warren Park (even though we can still quibble about over programming). The Urban Land Institute has taken notice. Yesterday it awarded Klyde Warren its 2014 Urban Open Space Award, the “Oscar” of park awards. The Klyde beat out parks in other not-as-world-class cities like Columbus, Tulsa, Santa Fe, and Cincinnati.
“Klyde Warren is not only successful in fixing an urban fracture that isolated development and challenged the existing potential for the area; it also demonstrates that a long-term vision and commitment are critical to foster a sense of place and community, with lasting positive rippling effects,” said M. Leanne Lachman, Chair of the ULI Global Awards for Excellence Jury and President of Lachman Associates.
That’s right. And the park is celebrating two years of rippling this week. Here’s the full release.
Full StoryThings To Do In Dallas Tonight: Oct. 22
The musical enjoyed a fleeting run on Broadway but is currently playing in Addison, with Kayla Carlyle and John Campione in the lead roles. Wilson says they “sizzle” and gave the production a noticeably high mark. That plays at 7:30 pm this evening.
Full StoryTony Romo Walks Into a Bar in Brussels
[Editor's note: Having been honored with a Marshall Memorial Fellowship, our Brad Pearson is off wandering around Europe, ostensibly to develop his leadership skills. Periodically he will check in, as he is doing today with the following post.]
The Cowboys wouldn’t play for another three hours, but there was Joey, fully decked in his Tony Romo jersey. We were at Fat Boy’s Bar and Grill, a most American-sounding bar, except we were in Brussels, so it was likely rather a statement about Americans, via tavern title.
“Where you from?” I asked.
“New Jersey!”
So Joey and I stood there, watching a grainy stream of a Dolphins game pulled from an old laptop, pretending that he wasn’t just a front-running jerk who grew up when the Giants sucked.
Full StoryNina Pham’s Dog Doesn’t Have Ebola
My favorite part about this morning’s press release from the city of Dallas is that they didn’t feel any need to explain who Bentley is on first reference. He’s become a one-name celebrity, like Madonna or Beyonce:
Full StoryOn Monday, October 21, samples from Bentley were sent to a lab to be tested for Ebola. The test results show that Bentley has tested negative for the virus. Specimen collection will be conducted again before the end of the 21-day quarantine period. Bentley will be monitored for a full 21-day period, similar to people exposed to the Ebola virus.
The City of Dallas Animal Services is overseeing Bentley’s care in partnership with the Texas Animal Health Commission, Texas A&M University and the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Nina Pham, Bentley’s owner, continues to be cared for at the National Institutes of Health, NIH, in Maryland. The City of Dallas and DAS are communicating daily updates to Nina on the testing throughout the process.
Leading Off(ish) (10/22/14)
Was the ball dropped? Yes. Were mistakes made? Certainly. We can assess blame blame later. Now is not the time. Now is the time, while seated in the waiting room of my son’s dentist, to hurriedly put up today’s Leading Off.
Nina Pham Is Kicking Ebola’s Butt. The nurse’s condition has improved. She has been upgraded from “fair” to “good.”
Shooting by a Police Officer. Few details at this point, but a cop shot someone this morning in Northeast Dallas.
Highland Park ISD Looks To Expand. The district is in talks with Northway Christian Church to buy 4.6 acres off Northwest Highway, where the district would build its fifth elementary school.
Nelson Bunker Hunt, R.I.P. The man lived one hell of a life.
Full StoryD Magazine’s 40 Greatest Stories: Carl’s Corner
As I’m sure many of you know, the drive along Interstate 35 between Dallas and Austin isn’t particularly scenic. It suffers from a serious dearth of character, which is why many a motorist in now long-past days looked forward to passing the small town of Carl’s Corner, with its truck stop unmistakably adorned by 10-foot-tall frogs.
The man behind the truck stop and the town was Carl Cornelius, who was memorably profiled by Mike Shropshire in the November 2006 issue of D Magazine. It’s one of the 40 greatest stories we’ve ever published.
Full StoryC.J. Wilson Picks Up a Fancy Car in Dallas
Over on the site Jalopnik, former Texas Rangers (and current Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim) pitcher C.J. Wilson has authored a post in which he discusses his recent trip to Dallas to pick up some sort of high-performance automobile from Park Place McLaren. He described the vehicle as a “Hyperblurprle McLaren P1.” I assume that will mean something to some of you. He ordered it a few years ago, which seems like an awful long time to wait for a car. He opted to drive it from Dallas to California rather than have it shipped:
I drove over to DFW to pick up my wife, who just started laughing and walking circles around the car with her iPhone. We squeezed into the carbon fiber and alcantara seats and headed towards Albuquerque. Each fuel stop was full of questions, photos and smiles.
Sure, you can take photos. Yep, it’s a McLaren. No, the F1 has the seat in the middle. 903. Yep.Yes it is fast. No I haven’t gone 200 yet. She is a car nut like me and loves the noise and was blown away by the accelerating despite going for rides in fast cars and her prior Porsche Driving School seat time.
Here’s a picture of the car. Here’s a picture of his wife.
Reminder: Wilson bombed badly in this year’s American League playoffs against the Kansas City Royals.
Full StoryI Also Have a Wish List of Unfunded Amenities
Gail Thomas, director of the Trinity Trust, presented the City Council with an unfunded list of possible amenities in a briefing yesterday: spray parks, fire rings, a climbing wall, kayaks, a zip line, a disc golf course. Jugglers! It all adds up to $76 million, none of which has actually been raised. And it will have to be raised, because the city doesn’t have the cash to pay for any of it. But whatever!
“So many things in the corridor are possible once we allow our imagination to go there,” Thomas said.
EXACTLY. With that in mind, here is a list of some possible improvements to our city. They are also unfunded. Why worry about that? Just dream with me, people.
Full StoryThings To Do In Dallas Tonight: Oct. 21
Author and interior designer Betty Lou Phillips will be making an appearance at Waterworks in the Design District later today, to sign copies of her book, The French Way with Design.
Full StoryL.M. Kit Carson Has Died
Comes word today that the North Texas filmmaker, whose career included co-writing the Wim Wenders movie Paris, Texas and co-founding Dallas’ own USA Film Festival, has died.
In 2011, D Magazine ran an article penned by Carson that was ostensibly about his work making a series of short documentaries about Africa on his cellphone, but it really reads more like a fever dream than a magazine story. Tim called it “uneditable,” yet “quite charming.” You should too.
Full StoryTwo Dallas Dudes Paired Up at Texas Book Festival
Though Rod Davis doesn’t currently live in Dallas, we can still call him a Dallas dude. He did two stints with D Magazine. He’s got a lifetime membership. Harry Hunsicker is definitely a Dallas dude. Harry has written for the magazine, and his most recent novel is The Contractors. Rod’s newest is South, America. Both books are set in the South, and this Saturday at 1:45, the gents will together discuss how geography plays role in their gritty fiction. If you are headed down to the festival, I definitely recommend that you catch these two guys let Rod know in the Q&A portion of their talk that you think Harry has better hair than he does. The full schedule is here.
Full StoryPoll: What Will the Trinity Lakes Look Like?
We all had a good laugh along with Wylie H. Dallas yesterday as he pointed out the absurdity of some of the depictions featured in the Trinity Lakes Amenities plan presented at a city committee meeting yesterday. But Dallas is going to do something with the river, eventually, right? So what’s most likely to become reality?
Full StoryLeading Off (10/21/14)
51 People Released From Monitoring for Ebola. This is excellent news. Now we’ve got the two sick nurses being treated elsewhere and 116 people here in town who are still being monitored. The magic date is now November 7. If no one else develops symptoms by then, we can declare Dallas free of Ebola. Note to the mayor: don’t start planning the parade yet. Let’s all remember that lesson we learned in 2006.
Stricter Lawn Watering Rules in the Offing. The board of the North Texas Municipal Water District will today consider a return to once-every-two-week sprinkler use. Area lakes are still low, and we’re still in a serious drought. Heed the board. Heed it. (A Scott from Scott’s joke? A little love? No?)
Thousands of Diapers Stolen From North Texas Charity. Captain Hope’s Kids helps out homeless children. Its mission was made more difficult when thieves recently stole 160,000 diapers from the group. Stealing from homeless children? I guess if you wanted to ruin your karma faster, you could torture kittens, but that’s pretty low.
Full StoryThings To Do In Dallas Tonight: Oct. 20
Speaking of war, the renowned curator of the Musuem of Fine Arts Houston’s pioneering curator, Anne Wilkes Tucker will be at Collin College this evening. Tucker has been recognized for her four decades of important contributions to the museum’s previously underserved photography wing, and the work of female photographers in particular.
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