The Pulitzer Prizes just came out. Once again I scan the list, searching for yours truly. Not a mention. But next year it will be different. Next year my early work on the Trinity River toll road is going to win me the Pulitzer and possibly also the Nobel and if they have a prize that's like a boy g ... More >>
There is a distinct possibility the mayor or somebody else associated with the public school takeover effort now underway -- called "home rule" by its backers -- will announce this week that they are "tapping the brakes," pausing the campaign for now. That will make lots of people happy but not me, ... More >>
Way back in 2010, the Observer wrote about a hellish July Fourth night that saw Dallas PD launch a volley of pepper balls into a crowd in an attempt to disperse it. That night seemed to be the tipping point for Lowest Greenville, and then-city councilwoman Angela Hunt proposed an ordinance that wo ... More >>
In this week's Dallas Observer we profile 30 of the metro area's most interesting characters, with new portraits of each from local photographer Stanton Stephens. See the entire Dallas Observer People Issue here . It's an early spring day in Dallas' pretty, tree-lined M Streets, and Angela Hunt is ... More >>
When the City Council voted in January to supply the Dallas Police Department with license plate scanners that automatically check vehicles against a law enforcement database, the decision was nearly unanimous. Most council members viewed it as a useful crime-fighting tool and little more. Only Ange ... More >>
Even with two seats in limbo, the complexion of the new Dallas City Council looks decidedly unfavorable for Trinity East, the would-be fracker from Fort Worth that paid the city millions for the rights to its natural gas. Because the Plan Commission voted against the company's drilling permits, four ... More >>
When the Katy Trail Ice House opened two years ago, it was an immediate hit with the young professionals and SMU students who populate the Uptown area. Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, they come for the basketball-sized beers and stay for the decidedly frat-like atmosphere. The complaint ... More >>
In the very wee hours as my eye first opened to the light of this day, I thought I heard a rushing of wings aloft. I caught my breath. Was this ...? And then distinctly as if from the next room, I heard the oinking of pigs. Only later with coffee in hand and the daily newspaper on my knees did I co ... More >>
Last week a representative of Poo Prints, a company that performs DNA tests on dog shit in order to track down the irresponsible owner who didn't pick it up, tried to convince the City Council to adopt such a program citywide. It would be a way to reduce the ungodly amount of animal waste washed int ... More >>
Last week, as a City Council discussion of the don't-throw-stuff-at-cyclists ordinance degenerated into a litany of members' pet peeves about cyclists (we're looking at you, Sandy Greyson), Angela Hunt became visibly frustrated. Hunt, who rides a bike herself and has been the council's most vocal cr ... More >>
The city's proposed rules for drivers operating motor vehicles near cyclists -- that they must pass at a safe distance, can't turn right into their path, and, last but not least, aren't allowed to pelt them with things from car windows -- seem like no-brainers. Anyone who doesn't think they are a go ... More >>
Vonciel Hill and our feckless mayor combine to let two ousted judges stay on the payroll.
While I was away on vacation The Dallas Morning News published an editorial saying Angela Hunt, Scott Griggs and Sandy Greyson, our three brainiacs on the City Council, are stupid, don't know how to add and came up with all the wrong conclusions about the News' favorite project, the idea of building ... More >>
Last June, Angela Hunt and Scott Griggs went to the Trinity River Overlook and gazed down at the empty floodplain below. Wouldn't it be nice, they thought, if there was a network of trails down there that came up and over the levee and connected with all of Dallas' other trails. It was a thought, b ... More >>
However you slice the numbers, it's still baloney.
We began the new year by rehashing an ancient topic: the proposed Texas Horse Park that's been around since the mid-1990s and was part of the $246-million capital bond program for the Trinity River Corridor Project approved by voters in 1998. Reason it never happened: The folks charged with partn ... More >>
Photo by Gloria LevarioAngela Hunt explains the Lower Greenville Planned Development District proposal to property owners and residents at a packed July 2010 town hall.One month ago, after a lengthy discussion, the Dallas City Council voted not to give a late-night specific use permit to a bowlin ... More >>
Via.Council member Angela Hunt popped into the comments yesterday to express and explain her frustration with implementation of the city's new Bike Plan, unanimously okee-doked by the city council in June. Because, as we've been discussing since Saturday morning, the plan isn't really a plan -- m ... More >>
First there was a Better Block; then, a Better Boulevard; then, just yesterday, a Better Bridge. Of all the efforts to temporarily transform a piece of the city into something other than what it is, yesterday's brief installation atop the Cedar Crest Bridge, which connects Oak Cliff to South Dall ... More >>
Via Scott DornSay what? Jump to find out.For those Friends of Unfair Park who don't have Jewish mothers, I will tell you: They get stuff done. That would probably be their motto, if they ever organized themselves into some kind of union. (Possible sub-motto: "But, Really, Would It Kill You To Cal ... More >>
Buzz confronts our new nemesis, Angela Hunt
Angela Hunt says she's tired of conceptual renderings leading to nothing. But why, when there are still so many to go through?A little more than two years ago, Angela Hunt gave to The Dallas Morning News what she called the Trinity River Corridor Project Plan B, which called for, among other thin ... More >>
Oh, well, who the hell knows? Who will ever know why The Dallas Morning News turned into an Iron Curtain-style propagandist Pravda sheet in 2007 when it was so eager to see Angela Hunt's Trinity River referendum defeated? Now they say they were seduced: "This newspaper -- and likely plenty o ... More >>
After council member Angela Hunt pushed the city council to form the gas drilling task force Dave Neumann only talked about, it's time to assemble the dream team: Moments ago, Dallas City Hall sent word that it's taking applications from those interested in serving on the task force. For those wh ... More >>
Forgive me, or just slap me, if this is way too tea-leaves for you, but I can't help trying to read the dregs, you know, trying to see what's behind the burqa, since this city is such a Talibaptist mystery some of the time. And lately I think I definitely see signs that somebody at The Dallas ... More >>
Photo by Sam MertenWe're not sure what the Margaret McDermott Bridge will look like, but this version's already been scrapped.The city council by a 13-1 vote this morning approved a $10.7 million contract with architect Santiago Calatrava to design pedestrian and bicycle components for the pr ... More >>
As Sam notes below, Angela Hunt was the lone council member to vote against paying architect Santiago Calatrava $10.7 million to design a second version of the Margaret McDermott Bridge. The District 14 council rep believes spending all those many millions on a "signature" component added to a ... More >>
LakewooderThe scene on Lower Greenville last nightLast night, good Friend of Unfair Park Lakewooder sent the photo you see at right -- a couple of food trucks parked in the lot where once the Arcadia proudly stood till it was claimed by fire in June 2006. He asked of this mobile food court: "Is t ... More >>
A few weeks ago, as you'll no doubt recall, Angela Hunt called for the formation of a gas drilling task force that would consist of no fewer than 10 people, among them experts well versed in the subject of fracking, neighborhood residents impacted by XTO Energy's requests to drill near Hensley Fi ... More >>
District 14 candidate Chad LasseterAs he explained to us a couple weeks ago, Chad Lasseter has some grand ideas, including moving the Texas Rangers to either Fair Park or West Dallas and providing free Wi-Fi downtown. He also disagrees with District 14 council member Angela Hunt on a handful ... More >>
The shoe hanging over the Dallas mayoral election right now is Angela Hunt's endorsement. Depending on which way she goes, Hunt will either give David Kunkle a serious shot at winning or hand Michael Rawlings a cakewalk. Several weeks ago, before Hunt announced she was not going to run for m ... More >>
Patrick Michels, our gas-drillin' expert, is presently at the Hunt Oil Building for that Woodall Rodgers Deck Park press conference -- which, turns out, is worth $9 million (no wonder Mayor Tom's Mayor Tom till tomorrow). So, then, I'll share with you a memo council member Angela Hunt sent to her ... More >>
From last week's council briefing concerning the $6.4 million being spent by the city to clean up rights of way once tended to by TxDOTBack when those eight council members called for that tax hike intended to keep rec centers open and library shelves stocked and parks mowed and so on, we asked A ... More >>
Photo by Sam MertenSandy Greyson (far left) and Angela Hunt debate Tom Leppert and Veletta Forsythe Lill at Rosemont Primary School in September 2007.In yesterday's item about the District 14 candidates, we mentioned how strange it is that three-term incumbent Angela Hunt has drawn four oppo ... More >>
Jim Rogers won't run against Angela Hunt but aims to replace her in 2013.With Angela Hunt passing on a mayoral run and instead seeking a fourth and final consecutive term on the city council as District 14's representative (term limits), we called the five candidates who have filed campaign t ... More >>
Photo by Patrick MichelsAngela Hunt unveils plans for the new Planned Development District for Lower Greenville: one of her biggest accomplishments.Will she or won't she? The prospect of council member Angela Hunt tossing her name into the mayoral race has been on the minds of City Hall follo ... More >>
Only yesterday, former Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle filed his campaign treasurer papers with the City Secretary's Office and made it all official-like: He's running for Dallas mayor. His website launched this morning -- so too the requisite Facebook and Flickr pages and Twitter account. And I ... More >>
Speaking of Angela Hunt ...The maybe-mayoral candidate who presently reps that stretch of downtown due to be widened says that, yes, she's all for it. She was back in January 2009, you may recall, when she asked for a time-out so she could confer with DowntownDallas president and CEO John Crawfor ... More >>
From the sound of Andrea's December 16 liveblog from the City Plan Commission, not to mention the myriad other sit-downs Angela Hunt and Pauline Medrano have had with Lower Greenville Avenue stakeholders in recent months, the council members' Planned Development District ordinance has a lot of su ... More >>
After the death of Lauren Huddleston in October, when a cyclist crashed into the jogger along the Katy Trail, and a car-and-cyclist collision two weeks later, council member Angela Hunt wrote that she'd met with city staff and Friends of the Katy Trial to "address trail safety for all users." A p ... More >>
Back in March 2009, the Office of the City Auditor released that damning report about the state of the Dallas Municipal Court. To which Angela Hunt, chair of the council's Judiciary Committee (for now), responds with this update, which says, long story short: "Over the last year and a half, we've ... More >>
Sunandan Subramaniam/AirNet.comI'll say it again: Having lived in the Love Field flight path for most of my 42 years, what noise? But some of you probably don't feel the same way -- like, for instance, those who've called or written Angela Hunt to complain about the uptick in rumble in recent mon ... More >>
flickrBut the opposite of this.I have been keeping my mouth shut for months about this deal between Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and city council member Angela Hunt concerning committee assignments and Hunt's ability to care for her new baby. But today there's a good story about it by Rudy Bush on th ... More >>
Photos by Patrick MichelsMadison Partners' Jon Hetzel, right, and Larry Vineyard unveiled their plans for a one-acre food truck lot along the revamped stretch of Lower Greenville. Jump for a closer look at the drawing.As you may have read here earlier, Angela Hunt and Pauline Medrano debuted thei ... More >>
Sara KerensAngela Hunt on Lower Greenville, site of tomorrow's big announcementIf you can't stop by 2010 Greenville Avenue tomorrow morning, round 10:30, don't worry -- Patrick Michels already has it down on his to-do list. We wouldn't miss it for the world, not after the thousands of words we've ... More >>
Yesterday, downtown-working attorney Brad Nitschke sent this parking-meter picture to Angela Hunt, via the Twitter, with the note: "This is not what a commitment to downtown looks like." To which she responded: "You're absolutely right. Part of the update to Dallas' Downtown plan is a parking stu ... More >>
Hal SamplesOn the set of Lone Star. Sure hope we get to see this episode.Well I'll be damned. We're up and running again. For now. How ... surprising. Again, data was corrupted, but at least everyone got a scholarship (thanks, Congressional Black Caucus!). My apologies, of course -- you couldn't ... More >>
Patrick MichelsAngela Hunt at a budget town hall in late August at Frontiers of Flight MuseumYesterday, shortly after I posted that budget amendment memo in which eight council members called for a 4.91-cent tax hike, I heard from countless Friends of Unfair Park who said, more or less: "Yeah, bu ... More >>