What Does the Dallas Outcome Tell Us About HUD? What Does It Say About Feds in General?
I'm headed out of town for a week's vacation. Spent a good deal of yesterday thinking about the outcome in the HUD case against Dallas. As you know by now, HUD folded a couple days ago and withdrew its racial segregation allegation against the city. If you were here yesterday, I already bored you with how surprised I was by this denouement in a story I have covered for five years.
But enough about me. I spent a good deal of yesterday trying to see this story as others might, especially the individuals at City Hall who were singled out by name as complicit in acts of racism. Having tasted that lash once or twice myself, I know how keenly it stings. It occurs to me that they deserve to be singled out one more time by name but this time for having the charge dropped. After all, these charges weren't just leveled against a building. They were leveled against people.
See also: Dallas Won. HUD Lost. Oops.
One is Karl Zavitkovsky, the city's director of Economic Development. Another is Jerry Killingsworth, former head of housing for the city. A third is former City Council member Angela Hunt, although she was never accused directly of anything, only slimed somewhat by being mentioned in the wrong paragraph.
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