Emily has been honored as a Star Reporter of the Year by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors and the Headliners Foundation of Texas.
Thumbs up.
D Publisher Swings for the Fences
April 25, 2009 3 Comments
Wick Allison takes the pro-hoteliers to task in a spanking good FrontBurner post.
Column Begets Letters
April 25, 2009 Leave a Comment
My Viewpoints column from Wednesday’s DMN on the People’s Hotel has generated some letters to the editor in tomorrow’s edition of the Dallas Morning News.
The Power of Independent Blogs
April 25, 2009 6 Comments
Bethany Anderson demonstrates the growing influence of independent blogs.
Late yesterday afternoon (5 p.m. exactly), Bethany outed the Vote No! campaign for using Councilmember Angela Hunt’s picture and quotes on their web site in yet another dishonest and desperation tactic. A few emails from her and a few hours later, Angela Hunt was all over it, the print press (Dallas Observer and Dallas Morning News) picked up on it, and the Vote No! folks conceded their underhanded tactic and pulled the pics and quotes.
Score another one for the independent bloggers.
CATOH Asking for Volunteers for North Dallas Polls…
April 25, 2009 1 Comment
…because they already have enough volunteers for the South Dallas poll sites.
From CATOH spokesman Brooks Love:
I think Jordan probably already emailed you about this, but yes, it was taken out of context. We have the south covered. We have gaps in our coverage in the north. So we need more volunteers to cover the early vote locations up there. But we will have volunteers at early vote locations all over the city.
So much for the faux outrage that CATOH only cares about North Dallas.
This confirms my points about the fear and dishonesty the pro-People’s Hotel backers traffic in. (See Talking Points Memo.)
Talking Points Memo: Why I Oppose the People’s Hotel
April 24, 2009 66 Comments
Philosophically: I don’t think government should ever do what private business is supposed to. If the market won’t support a development or business, government shouldn’t provide it. Full stop. I oppose socialism and I despise government trying to compete against private enterprise no matter how noble some think the undertaking is. The city had an option to build a hotel with developers footing most of the bill, and it chose to go the route of a North Korean business model. No sale, comrade. Corporate welfare is socialism.
Practicality: The numbers provided by the pro-Hoteliers tell the story. To work, the People’s Hotel would require occupancy that the market doesn’t support (68 percent, while current occupancy is 55 percent) and at a rate far above the market rate. The latest RIP Dallas ad says explicitly they do not care about the bottom line. I’m sorry, when you’re putting taxpayers on the hook for half a billion (with a B) dollars and your own studies show that the hotel will lose money barring the most impossible perfect factors, the bottom line is the bottom line.
Transparency: The pro-Hoteliers have withheld information from voters — both the revised feasibility study that, according to leaks, prove the city would make more money from conventions if the hotel were not built, and whatever it is the city is suing the Texas Attorney General to prevent from releasing to the public.
Tactically:
1) I don’t care who wants to back the hotel, and I won’t engage in the “rich kids” name calling that appeals to the kind of class envy I despise. But I do care when people form a group claiming to have no financial interest in the hotel or connections to the mayor, and it turns out their leadership is employed by companies that will profit, and is comprised of people who sit on the mayor’s task force.
2) I interviewed Harlan Crow for a profile in D CEO back in February 2008 before I knew much about the issue or had a position. His very first words in the interview were to say that yes, he has a financial interest in preventing the city from building a government hotel. Crow has been honest about this from word one. Meanwhile, groups like Enough is Enough, Vote No! and RIP Dallas haven’t gone to great lengths to pretend they were disinterested and have no financial stake, when a cursory examination has proven that is a falsehood.
3) Any player in politics is fair game, but the demonization of Harlan Crow is laughable and stupid. He has never hidden his personal interest. Yes, he is a resident of Highland Park, but his company does tens of millions in business in Dallas, and he and his family have done more for the city of Dallas in business and philanthropy than most all the Vote No’ers combined. To suggest he or any other anti-Hotelier doesn’t love Dallas is as insulting as it is untrue. How much do you love Dallas if you believe the city won’t prosper if we don’t build a 1,100 room dormitory that will sit empty three-quarters of the year?
Fear: I look askance at any campaign driven by fear. When you play to people’s worst instinct, you lose any standing you have.
Dishonesty: Conflating Prop 1 (vote yes) with Prop 2 (vote no) is cheap. Claiming Prop 1 will prevent the city from providing incentives to hotel developers is a lie that got started with Ron Natinsky. Claiming a vote against the hotel is proof of racism is the worst sort of theatrical stunt, and the pro-Hoteliers have not disavowed this tactic. Sending out press releases quoting paid contractors and claiming they’re disinterested citizens is bush league.
Bottom Line: If the demand isn’t there that a business could meet, it won’t be there for a government project. If something will make money, a moneymaker will come along and make it happen. Let the city government focus on city government duties, let taxpayer dollars pay for taxpayer services, and leave business alone to handle business.
(Disclosure: I live in West Plano, and consequently have no vote. But I work in and write about Dallas, and I love the city. If that disqualifies in your mind, fine, but my arguments stand on their own merit.)
UPDATE AND CORRECTION: Regarding the email flap in the comments section about CATOH only having volunteers “north of I-30″ I just received word: “It was a mistake — we will be covering all early voting and election day locations.
New Anti-People’s Hotel Ad
April 24, 2009 9 Comments
It’s obvious where I stand. But I like this ad because it’s more honest than the too-slick-for-its-own-good ad RIP Dallas put out featuring people who don’t own property in Dallas and with Citizen Cope music that some have asked if they bothered securing the rights to at all. (PS — Is it unfair to point out the RIP Dallas ad has people who don’t own property in Dallas? After all, I don’t either. But the RIP Dallas have made it a centerpiece of their professional campaign to point out that Harlan Crow lives in the Park Cities even though does millions of dollars in business and owns a bunch of Dallas property. So, I’m thinking it’s fair. Thoughts?)
Candidate John Jay Myers Talks About Last Night’s Debate At Friendship Baptist Church
April 24, 2009 23 Comments
This little blog o’ mine gets good traffic, but what I’m proudest (most proud?) of is that the readership and comments include some pretty important folks — city council members, candidates, newspaper editors, and captains of industry. It gives me the tight pants. One such reader/commenter is John Jay Myers, who is running for the district 7 council seat. Here’s what he sends.
I am a little surprised that no one has heard about last nights debate at Friendship Baptist Church. I believe 9 candidates showed up.
They were very strict on the time limits. I talked about the hotel for my 1.5 minutes (the time allowed), and was cut off and so I sat down. As did every other candidate. I was a little disappointed because I hadn’t finished some important points. Dwaine Carraway was the last candidate to speak on this.
When they told him to stop, he wouldn’t stop, eventually going into a rant about racism, saying that the reason that you vote No for the hotel is because white people want to confuse black people.In my opinion he was completely wrong you vote yes or no on a proposition, no matter what the proposition is, you would still have to say: “Are you for it? Then vote yes”. It is not a conspiracy. So after he had rambled for about an extra minute with them telling him stop every 15 seconds. I decided I deserved a little more time to speak as well, so I grabbed a microphone and started talking over him about the St. Louis
hotel, and he yelled “sit down” of course I said “no” and started talking about wasteful spending.Needless to say Dwaine was a little mad that he was “interrupted” I am not sure what made him believe he should get an extra few minutes when everyone else did not. It took a few long minutes for him to compose himself.He was rude and discourteous to the rest of the candidates and the folks holding the forum by consistently going over his allotted time.
I guess you could say I was rude for interrupting but I am not going to let this guy go into some sort of racist rant when it’s obviously a sham, and I am there to defend against it.
Love to hear from others who were there, or who think Myers is off base, or who think Myers is dead on. Let’s talk. It’s about the converstion.
Daily FB Comment Thread
April 24, 2009 33 Comments
Participation in numbers dropped off yesterday, but the quality of the posts was outstanding. This is the kind of thing I love to see. I’m hoping we’ll get more of the same today, rather than the simple-minded FB and Wick bashing we saw on Day One. (I tolerate the latter, but I don’t endorse or enjoy it.)
Format suggestion — post the headline and/or link to the FB thread you want to discuss, and then throw in your two cents. As a pro-comment guy, I think the quality we saw yesterday puts to question Gordon’s assertion that comments denigrate rather than advance the conversation.
Final note: FB (Stephen Edmondson) is working hard on a modified comment system, so this feature is temporary. Your quality comments here will go a long way to convincing the Powers That Be that FB benefits from reader participation. So show me what you got.
Personal Note: I may start randomly deleting RayRay’s comments. Not because I disagree; I just like seeing him go all Yosemite Sam. Or maybe not. There’s a bastard that lives inside me that loves messing with people.
As for comments, I’ll start: Interior Designers
Wick is spot on with his characterization of licensing for interior decorators, hairdressers and other professions as “protectionist, anti-competition statutes” because the whole point is to limit competition. It most hurts the smaller operators with limited start-up capital, and it doesn’t protect anyone except those already in practice. Licensing makes some sense for some professions — lawyers, doctors, construction companies — but it doesn’t for pillow-tossers and hair stylists. The worst case I saw was the black lady who did weaves and braiding for mostly black clients out of her home who was told to cease and desist because she didn’t have a license. Getting a license was costly and required joining an expensive association, and the training was for a whole bunch of stuff she didn’t do. It’s ridiculous. The training they required didn’t even touch on the unique needs of braiding black women’s hair or doing weaves, and who exactly was at risk from this lady not having a license?
And on interior decorators — come on. What risk is there to clients over the placement of throw pillows or choosing the wrong color wall paint?
UPDATE: Regarding interior designers, my friend Radley Balko had this a while back.