Hospitals are having their power shut down.
But thankfully Jerry World and all things Super Bowl are safe.
How is this not reckless endangerment? Or at least grade A douchebaggery?
How Do You Know If Your Councilman Is A Moron?
August 23, 2010 4 Comments
He says things like this:
But if we hope to continue to attract world class businesses and corporations to Dallas and avoid bigger cuts in future budgets, the answer is clear: We must increase taxes in order to preserve and enhance the quality of life for all our residents.
Seriously.
This is the kind of ignorance of basic business 101 that rivals former Dallas City Councilman Leo Chaney, who once told me that investors would build another Mockingbird Station in his district if only he got the area zoned for it. Never mind things like demographics, traffic, demand, or any of the other fundamentals retail developers weigh.
Every time there’s a budget crunch, they cut the kind of services that anger people enough to where they accept a tax increase — cutting library hours, community pools, park maintenance.
What they don’t do is cut, or don’t cut enough, is where it counts — city payroll and civil service pensions.
Oh, and how’s that $500 million city-owned hotel working out? Glad they’re spending half a billion smackers on that?
Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You, Dallas
March 17, 2010 4 Comments
Last year I told you that the People’s Hotel — the planned half a billion dollar city-owned convention center hotel — was a financial quagmire in the making, supported by people who don’t know the first thing about business and don’t care how much money they waste since it’s not their money.
The convention center hotel is a project for which there is no demand, and it’s the taxpayers of Dallas who will be on the hook when it tanks. Meanwhile, Convention & Visitors Bureau Philip Jones will be cashing his checks and skipping on out of town like Robert Preston.
Guess what? The house of cards is beginning to tumble.
In January the U.S. Treasurer, Rosie Rios, traveled to Dallas to join local officials at the construction site of a new convention hotel being built with money raised through Build America Bonds. The purpose was to celebrate the success of the so-called BABs, which are federally-subsidized bonds created by the 2009 stimulus package.
Of course, what no one at the Dallas “celebration” pointed out is that the $388 million in BABs that the city floated with federal aid were necessary because no private developer would cough up the money for the risky project. In fact, local officials wanted to build the controversial hotel because years of frenetic, publicly financed convention center construction by cities had saddled the country with much more meeting space than it needs, and now meeting planners are telling cities they must to ante up money for additional amenities, like new subsidized hotels, or risk losing business.
This is what passes for success in Washington these days, where apparently any level and manner of publicly subsidized debt for any kind of dubious project is considered a home run.
Dallas Gets All Roofie Dropper on Private Land Owner
January 6, 2010 4 Comments
The City of Dallas is eying private property and, like a guy with a pocketful of roofies, isn’t going to let a simple “no” stand in its way.
It’s a small rectangle of asphalt 25 feet wide and hardly big enough to squeeze a tractor-trailer on. It sits on Young Street, just west of Lamar Street, and is surrounded on three sides by walls protecting the construction site of the city’s convention center hotel.
The land isn’t needed to build the hotel. But it will be necessary for City Hall’s larger vision of a development complete with shops and restaurants and rail lines.
And even though they’re trying to lawyer their way around state law which prohibits theft of real estate eminent domain for economic development, they’ve already admitted the truth.
But city officials acknowledge the land would help support the hotel project, and there’s little question the hotel project is about economic development.
I thought we’d had enough of this nonsense after Kelo which, as a project, ended about the same way the government-run hotel will, if every case study in history is correct.
Hunt: Why More Debt Is a Dumb Idea When You’re Broke
September 9, 2009 6 Comments
Via Angela Hunt:
Why More Debt Is A Dumb Idea When You’re Broke
You know, the devil’s in the details when it comes to just about everything. Especially government, and most especially, government budgets. Take next year’s proposed city budget.
I’ve been through this thing line by line, with a fine tooth comb, ever since we got the “final draft†in early August. It’s a lot to digest. Lots of numbers and all. But some numbers are more important than others, and right now I want to focus on debt and its effect on our bottom line.
The city borrows money to make major infrastructure improvements, like constructing new libraries and police stations, building new roads, putting in new playgrounds in our parks. These are bond projects approved by voters. When we borrow money for these projects, we’re essentially putting them on the city’s credit card…
Monday Roundup: Violence in South Dallas But Not Really South Dallas…
June 8, 2009 8 Comments
- Two dead, three seriously wounded Saturday night and none of them — or all of them — or maybe some of them? — were in South Dallas. Except when they were in neighborhoods in South Dallas, in which case that’s not South Dallas. Or something like that. Ask Rawlins. Bring aspirin.
- You know what will make downtown Dallas great? Besides that the 12 weekends a year when we’ll have drunken conventions at the People’s Hotel? Pep rallies. Yes, pep rallies. (Seriously? I’m beginning to think that even his editors don’t read what he turns in.)
- Who knew Dallas owned a TV channel in the first place?
- DISD has its own police, and it’s a good match up.
- And speaking of, Robert Guest asks all the right questions (that a newspaper reporter failed to) about Flower Mound polizie police apparently busting down the door of a residence not based on probable cause, but rather the refusal of residence to let them in.
- You can look at someone’s hand an know if they’re gay. Seriously.
Cheesus Tapdancing Christ. They Did It Again.
May 18, 2009 6 Comments
I’m shocked, shocked to learn that supporters of the People’s Hotel at City Hall lied to Dallas voters about the updated feasibility study.
Tuesday Roundup: And Now, Here’s Ollie Williams…
May 12, 2009 3 Comments
- If you ever had doubts that local schools should be run strictly by locals, look no further than the federal Title 1 rules. It appears the one bright spot in DISD — its magnet schools — because are safe from cuts but how smart is it that the district can’t, by federal fiat, pump extra funds into schools that need it beyond a 10 percent median?
- Here’s a great post-election rundown from the great Sam. And some open letters from the great Bethany.
- This news will be heartening to more than a few in my network.
- The Dallas City Council will be voting on its latest revenue enhancer — a daytime curfew for juveniles — which has the added benefit of making kids feel like they only have liberties at the sufferance of their civil masters. Want reasons why it’s a bad idea? Look no further than your friendly neighborhood blog.
Monday Roundup: Do They Have Jokes in Your Country?
May 11, 2009 5 Comments
- “If they ban smoking what’s next? Fatty foods?”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. That’s a stupid slippery slope argument.”
Guess what.
- A grandma in pajamas. With a gun. In a convenience store. Demanding cigarettes. Then, weirdness ensues.
- I’m not seeing a problem. Not. At. All.
- “And they are shrewd enough to hide behind issues of personal liberty, or whatever works,” [State Sen. Rodney Ellis] said. So let’s knock that flat to go after the devil, right Rodney?
- Good God. Almost three months for skipping jury duty? Which banana republic is this? Oh, it’s Collin County. That’s some fine police work, Lou.
- Gromer, sometimes you slip one past them. Nicely played.
And of course, a congratulations to the Mayor Tom Leppert, James Taggart, Phillip Jones, and Wesley Mouch on a sweeping win Saturday.
Friday Roundup: If This Lasts More than Four Hours…
May 8, 2009 9 Comments
- Today’s DMN Opinion home has a roundup of all the recent op-eds for and against glorious People’s Hotel. Notice the pro-hotel folks don’t make a business case for the hotel, and in fact Mayor Leppert spends most of his op-ed attacking Harlan Crow. Pretty telling.
- Southlake resident Phillip Jones, president of the Dallas CVB, released a list of four organizations that have “committed” to having their conventions if the People’s Hotel is built. But none have signed any contracts, and none have put down a deposit, which is the bar other CVB’s require to consider a convention booked.
- Draft Roger Staubach?
- Rawlins talks diversity at KERA. (I can’t help but think there’s a gentle poke at me with the “Mexicans from Costa Rico” line.)
- Seriously, Mr. Mayor? You’re going to pitch the People’s Hotel at another church function?
- I, for one, find it difficult to believe there could be corruption in a Mexican government operation.