Paul Quinn College President Michael Sorrell and Dallas attorney Liz Cedillo-Pereira exchange points, with a little help from moderator Sharon Grigsby, at February's Come Together event. (DMN Staff Photo)
Join us Oct. 30 for a “gap-bridging” event, this one held in southern Dallas.
This item is of special significance to you readers who keep up with the efforts of our “Bridging Dallas’ North-South Gap” project as well as those of you who just want to learn more about ways to create robust economic development.
If you fall into one of those categories (and doesn’t most everyone?), mark your calendar – better yet, get signed up here — to attend the next in our “Come Together” community meetings.
You may recall our first Come Together event back in February, moderated by yours truly, in which we began to drill into some of the themes that Dallas residents want more attention paid to — creating more quality pre-K education, bringing more young leaders to the table, securing more equitable economic development opportunities and finding avenues for people who want to volunteer in ways to create a better Dallas.
Since February, our paper has done a lot of reporting and editorializing on the pre-K issue, including our attempts to help get more students signed up for DISD pre-K. And we have some early plans to address both young leaders and volunteers – although probably not until 2015 because of competing priorities.
We’ll take the next step on the economic development issue from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 30, under the banner “Connecting Capital with Underserved Communities.” We’ve asked Mayor Mike Rawlings to moderate the discussion, which will include a special appearance by Dallas Fed chief Richard Fisher and a panel discussion that includes:
– Mike Casey, chairman, Grand Bank of Texas
– Dr. Susan McElroy, who teaches economics and education policy at UT-Dallas.
– John Martinez, president of the Regional Hispanic Contractors Association.
– Michelle Singletary, national syndicated business columnist.
Some of what we’ll explore: What are the cultural myths that surround money? Why does capital flow into some parts of Dallas and not others?
The event will be at Adamson High School, 201 E. Ninth Street. The event is free — and made possible by the DMN’s own great subscribers (thank you, each and every one). Again, you can RSVP at prekindle.com/cometogether
I hope to see many of our blog readers there!