Jill Jordan

Dallas' "Center for Performance Excellence" Is All About Synergy. Is it 2003 Again?

So, Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez is making his twice-monthly report to the City Council Wednesday afternoon. This time, he's going to be talking about something called the Dallas Center for Performance Excellence which, well, we've read the whole briefing and still have no idea what it is. Its ... More >>

The Unifying Theme in Dallas' Fantastically Bad Behavior Is That Stupid Toll Road

Please read Eric Nicholson's story this week about the city's incredibly callous treatment of Southern Dallas horse-owners whom City Hall has deemed unworthy of inclusion in that stupid fancy-schmancy run-by-an-alleged-animal-abuser horse park they're building near the river. And even though I hate ... More >>

Dallas City Councilwoman Vonciel Hill's Vision of a Car-Free Downtown

Dallas City Councilwoman Vonciel Hill: steadfast opponent of LGBT rights, veteran race baiter, lover of poorly designed inner-city freeways, and ... passionate advocate for walkable urban spaces? So it seems. During a lengthy City Council discussion this afternoon on a pilot program aimed at revolu ... More >>

Dallas Needs Bold Solutions For Its $10 Billion Infrastructure Problem, Like Getting Rid of Alleys

Dallas City Council members had no trouble finding words to describe their feelings when confronted yesterday with a $9.6 billion to-do list of infrastructure needs that runs the gamut from streets to cultural facilities to flood management. "Unbelievable" was one. "Daunting" was another. Throw in " ... More >>

The News Muddies the Waters over our Vanishing Trinity Lakes

Yesterday morning after I read the story in The Dallas Morning News about the so-called Trinity lakes the city is going to build, I went straight to the kitchen and put my face under the cold water tap, then gave myself a couple of sharp slaps and said loudly, "No, Jim, no more pissing matches with ... More >>

Dallas City Council Pushes Trinity Lakes Plan, Says Toll Road Opponents Wasted Millions

The Trinity River lakes were never going to be humongous. Seventy-five or 80 acres each, according to the Balanced Vision Plan developed for the Trinity River Corridor Project in 2003. But now the plans have been reduced to something so small -- a couple of 20-acre ponds reaching a depth of 10 feet ... More >>

TxDOT Won't Tear Out Deep Ellum's Freeway, But Dallas' Highway-Removal Push Has Just Begun

In news that should surprise no one, the Texas Department of Transportation will not tear down Interstate 345, the 1.7-mile stretch of highway separating Deep Ellum from downtown. The Dallas Morning News reported over the weekend that the agency will instead repair the aging span, citing the same c ... More >>

Even if Uber Were a Normal Cab Company, It Couldn't Operate in Dallas

Today, in the first of three public forums on taxi and limo regulations, City Council members learned what has been clear since Dallas began its crackdown on Uber: The system, particularly for taxis, is completely rigged. That's partly by design. Historically, because cabs fill an important gap in ... More >>

It'll Cost Dallas $3.3 Million to Pull Tires and Trash From the Trinity and Lake Ray Hubbard

It's not just cars Dallas dumps in the Trinity River. It's tires, too -- tons of them embedded in the muck and stranded along the banks. Particularly cluttered is the stretch of river between the Trinity River Audubon Center and Interstate 20. "They just dumped load after load of tires, and they du ... More >>

Why Dallas' Traffic Lights Are So Terrible

My personal traffic-signal nemesis is where Garland Road and Gaston Avenue meet at the southern tip of White Rock Lake. Woe to the southbound driver who, having hit the intersection at 6:30 p.m., and having just learned that the squirming 4-year-old in the back seat has to go potty RIGHT NOW, must t ... More >>

Meet the Texas Heelsplitter Mussel, the Costly New Hurdle to the Trinity River Project

When Ron Kirk began pitching the Trinity River Project in the late 1990s, no one was thinking about the Texas heelsplitter or the Texas pigtoe, or the Mexican fawnsfoot, the smooth pimpleback, or the Texas fatmucket. There was no real reason to. Back then, the species were sufficiently abundant that ... More >>

Dallas City Hall is Pledging to Preserve the Southern Dallas Spring that Once Quenched Sam Houston, John Neely Bryan

Neighbors were growing concerned about the fate of Pemberton Spring. In recent months, surveyors with the city had come within spitting distance of the site as they drilled soil samples and staked out buildings for $10 million Texas Horse Park. They feared the imminent disappearance of the spring, w ... More >>

City Will Add 70 Miles of Bike Lanes by the End of 2014. Beyond that, Things Get Complicated.

The city of Dallas has been criticized at times for the agonizingly slow implementation of its 2011 Dallas Bike Plan. Two years after its adoption, only about 10 percent of the planned 1,127 miles of bike lanes and trails have been been put in place. That would seem to indicate that the city is behi ... More >>

Dwaine Caraway Wants a Plastic Bag Ban Right Now, Thank You Very Much

City officials have made this much clear: a plastic bag ban, a la Austin and any number of California cities, will be coming to Dallas -- eventually. Just last month, assistant city manager Jill Jordan told the City Council that Dallas is "maybe a year or two" away from considering such a measure. B ... More >>

If Dallas Wants to Ban Plastic Bags, It Should Be Prepared to Get Sued by Retailers

The city of Dallas is "maybe a year or two" away from considering a plastic bag ban, assistant city manager Jill Jordan told City Council members on Monday. First there will be a study to figure out its potential impact and exactly how many bags plastic bags there are in the city. It might also be ... More >>

City's Plan for Boosting Southern Dallas? Horses, Golf and Completely Screwing Over a Latino Small Businessman

Scott K. Parks has a pretty good OK story in The Dallas Morning News today. It's the good-enough-for-Belo version of a story we brought you two weeks ago about the city's use of eminent domain to seize a privately owned parcel of land near the Trinity River, sandwiched between the equestrian park a ... More >>

How the Price Tag of the Margaret McDermott Bridge Increased by 25 Percent Overnight

Nearly two years ago, the City Council approved a scaled down version of the Margaret McDermott Bridge, the second of the signature Santiago Calatrava-designed spans across the Trinity River. That was accompanied by a promise by City Manager Mary Suhm that no city funds would be used for the project ... More >>

Soon We'll Know Exactly What Calatrava's Second Trinity River Bridge Will Look Like

With all the hullabaloo surrounding the completion of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, not to mention what must have been a righteous party, it was easy to forget that world-renowned architect Santiago Calatrava was supposed to design two more of his signature (e.g. big, white, and arch-y) bridges acr ... More >>

Mayor Mike Kicks Back Horse Park Proposal, Says to Slow Down On This "World-Class" Thing

​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 >>

Margolin: Horse Park Proposal Not What Voters Agreed To. Allen: But It'll Be "World Class."

​The council's Economic Development Committee kicked off its morning meeting by taking up the Texas Horse Park, which came up $14 million short in private funds but remains high on the city's to-do list. Hence, as we've noted in recent days, Park and Rec and the city manager's hope that the counci ... More >>

On Flood Control, Dallas Better Think Nationally or Be Ready to Drown Locally

Man, talk about whistling past the graveyard. At yesterday's Dallas City Council meeting, council members Tennell Atkins and Delia Jasso asked good questions about the city's flood control plans, and City Manager Mary Suhm and her assistant, Jill Jordan, gave good answers. But it was all deck chairs ... More >>

Up East Dallas Without a Paddle

Very mixed feelings about the city council briefing coming up this morning on proposed East Dallas storm-water projects. On the one hand, my paranoia is confirmed, which is always satisfying. On the other hand, there's not much I can do about it. Yes, just as I thought, my house in East Dallas -- t ... More >>

Here's a New Year's Resolution For City Hall: Stop Trying to Screw With the Trinity River

​Over the holiday weekend I spent a few very enjoyable hours on the Trinity River with Trinity Rivers Expeditions outfitter and canoe guide Charles Allen. We paddled from Trinity River Mountain Creek Preserve near the intersection of Walton Walker and IH-30 in Irving to the Sylvan Avenue Bridge i ... More >>

Are They Angels or Grinches at Dallas City Hall? Depends Which Project You're Discussing.

​Sometimes I think city staff may be demon-possessed. I'm sorry, I know it's a very weird thing to say. But I can't come up with another explanation. One day they're so bouncy and positive and totally can-do. The next day they've been taken over by the negativity goblin. I attended a city council ... More >>

What a Litttle Protection Between Friends? Corps, City Differ Over Levees Safety Standards.

​Wow. I think Dallas Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan broke a major national story at today's meeting of the Dallas City Council Trinity River Corridor Project committee. She told the committee that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers -- the quasi-military agency in charge of the nation's flood con ... More >>

Dallas City Hall Fights to Keep its Trinity Secrets

What's in the emails we can't see? Lots of bad stuff, no doubt.

City Sues Texas Attorney General to Keep From Releasing Trinity Project Docs We Requested

All your solar-powered water taxis are belong to us, says Dallas City Hall.​OK, now we're really curious. We're talking to you, Dallas City Hall, about those Trinity River project emails and memos you're fighting to keep us from seeing. What, has someone been unduly candid in his or her assessment ... More >>

Browse City's Options For Turning Riverfront Boulevard Into a Complete-Ish Street

Click to embiggen Riverfront Option No. 2, which would reduce it to six lanes for 1.5 miles and add two bike lanes​OK. So. About that Belleview Connector below.The reason it's on the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee's agenda tomorrow is because that bridge -- which, as more than a few Frie ... More >>

Dallas's E.D. Problem: Nothing Several Tons of Steel Won't Fix

Scratch That May 7 Dedication Off To-Do List, As Dallas Wave Is Closed Till Further Notice

Photo by Harry Wilonsky​Below, unhappy Friend of Unfair Park Ben notes in the comments that the Dallas Wave (formerly known as the Standing Wave) is off-limits -- meaning, you can wave adios to that May 7 dedication ceremony that's been on the books since last fall. Willis Winters, second-in-comma ... More >>

And Don't Forget the New Sylvan Ave. Bridge

Click to embiggen for a better look at a cross section of the new and improved Sylvan Avenue bridge.​Sam's bringing bagels and coffee to this morning's meeting of the Trinity River Corridor Project Committee; he's got questions, many questions, specifically about the second Calatrava bridge that w ... More >>

Wait a Sec. There's Something Wrong With the Levees? Somebody Tell Carolyn Davis ASAP!

Photo by Sam MertenThe six-headed Trinity monster (from left to right): Jill Jordan, Kelly High, Rebecca Rasor, Liz Fernandez, Col. R.J. Muraski and Kevin Craig​If little else, attending Trinity River Corridor Project Committee meetings is a constant reminder of the jaw-dropping ignorance of c ... More >>

Asst. City Manager Jordan Addresses Need For, Concerns About Street Widening Downtown

Click to embiggen this peek at the old Central expansion from the council's January 28, 2009, meeting agenda.​Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan called back late yesterday to discuss those still-in-place plans to widen César Chávez Boulevard from Live Oak to Commerce -- plans that call for the d ... More >>

Angela Hunt Insists Widening Chávez Will Create "A Cohesive Entry Into Downtown"

​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 >>

Beat the Retreat: Liveblogging the City Council's Tuesday Spent at the Wyly Theatre

Andrea GrimesThis is what it looks like when Mayor Tom, standing, and the council set up shop in a performance space.​Good morning, Friends o' The Unfair Park. I'm poised alongside a couple of very handsome Dallas Morning News writers at an inadequately small Ikea work table somewhere high up in t ... More >>

Why Dallas Can't Strengthen Anti-Idling Rules

​On March 23, 2007, the Dallas City Council signed off on the anti-idling ordinance, which went into effect October 1, 2007, and penalized vehicles weighing more than 14,000 pounds from idling for more than five minutes between April 1 and October 31 -- the so-called "ozone season." Drivers caught ... More >>

At City Hall, It's Back to the Drawing Board On Community Garden, Downtown DART Plans

​Well, soon as the Trash-Attack Code Compliance crew cleared out, this afternoon's party at City Hall sure died fast. Blame it on this bummer of a PowerPoint from DART, explaining the long-term impact of having flat sales tax revenues over the last 10 years, referred to simply as "The Lost Decade" ... More >>

So Why Does the City Use Those False Trinity Drawings? It's All About the "Prime Real Estate," Duh.

Sam MertenCarolyn Davis to Jill Jordan: "Just tell it like it is."​Although the city council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee didn't vote on a plan to transform Riverfront Boulevard into a not-really-a-"complete street," committee members voiced support of the $54.5 million project, ... More >>

A Big Green Thumbs Down: Council Sends Staff "Back to The Drawing Board" on Neighborhood Farmers Markets

Daniel RodrigueFarmers, bakers and lotion makers -- all wanting to voice their concerns to council member Delia Jasso and assistant city manager Jill Jordan. ​More than two dozen folks -- several of whom broke meeting protocol by talking to council members and city staff -- showed up yesterday a ... More >>

Wringing Out the Dead: City's Looking to Shake Some Pocket Change Out of Cemeteries

​That headline, though, isn't the real takeaway from this Transportation and Environment Committee briefing prepped for next week's meeting, during which assistant city manager Jill Jordan will suggest how to make $12,000 this year and $20,000 annually after that by going after delinquent cemetery ... More >>

Just When You Think You've Heard Every Last Bit of WTF Concerning the Trinity River ...

Patrick Michels Bonus: Since the city's Calatrava construction cam is still stuck in September, we decided to update it with some fresh pics available right here.​Oh, you caught me here at my desk doing a little quick calculation, totting some things up, always a dangerous exercise for a hi ... More >>

Angela Hunt Tells Council and City Manager of City's Permit Process: "I Hate to See the City Have a Hand in Shuttering Any Businesses."

In response to DMN'er Sherry Jacobson's story about the city's frustrating permit process and its effect on neighborhood farmers markets, council member Angela Hunt has requested the investigation of the permitting processes in other cities so the city council can consider changes as soon as possib ... More >>

Several Council Members Say That, You Know, a Teensy-Tiny Tax Hike Ain't a Bad Idea

​Speaking of the council and the budget and fees versus taxes ...As we mentioned yesterday, Tennell Atkins's budget amendment called for a 1-cent property tax increase -- which I didn't think would get terribly far, given council members, the mayor and the city manager's oft-repeated vows not to r ... More >>

Dream Weaver: City Bringing In "The Man Who Built Vancouver" to Talk West Dallas

Larry Beasley​Speaking of the Trinity River Corridor Project ... When last we saw Larry Beasley, "the man who built Vancouver," he was among a handful of urban planners imported to teach the Dallas City Council a thing or three during a daylong gab session at the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in ... More >>

The City's Done Some Clean-Up Work on the Levees. But the Big Repairs? None So Far.

One of the 72 levee issued repaired: the Little Coombs Creek Conduit on the West Levee, where crap behind the flap gate prevented it from sealing. Crap removed, problem solved.​For those who didn't take a look at the Trinity River Corridor Committee briefing doc to which I linked first thing this ... More >>

Nobody Puts Jill Jordan in a Corner. Well, Except Maybe Angela Hunt.

This is the first in a morning series of videos provided by members of Your Dallas City Council. First up, this lengthy offering from Angela Hunt (co-starring assistant city manager Jill Jordan), who writes on her Web site by way of introduction today, "If you've got 20 minutes on your hands and a h ... More >>

In the Absence of a Trinity River Project, Fun and Fascinating Meetings

As mentioned earlier, I spent this afternoon at City Hall digesting PowerPoint presentations during the council's Trinity River Corridor Project Committee meeting in hopes of getting to the bottom of some possible delays in the Dallas Floodway Extension outlined here. But having been to enough of th ... More >>

Oh, To Be a Fly on the Wall During Closed Session at City Hall Tomorrow

Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan At the end of May, Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan more or less told Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle how to do his job, which is odd, since she's in charge of "Staff Accountability" for the city and chose not to hold one of the chief's staff accountable for fak ... More >>

Get On the Bus As Some City Council Members Tour the Trinity River -- For, Um, Like, the Very First Time?

I think maybe what I should do at this point is go down by the Trinity River with a baseball bat, hit myself in the head and just fall in. How can we be 10 years into the debate on putting a toll road inside the river park downtown? How can we be a week away from a damned referendum on it? And the c ... More >>

Schutze and the Mayor Argue About the City's Future. And We Have the Audio to Prove It.

You know what former Observer columnists don't like? Being called glib and duplicitous by current Observer columnists. Mayor Laura Miller and I sat down yesterday for what became a quite rancorous hour-and-45 minute interview in the mayor's conference room at City Hall. I'd describe a lot of it as ... More >>