just left the Doublewide benefit for Lower Greenville employees who lost their job due to last week's fire. Great turnout. --Tweeted 2010-03-07
Found 3 baby squirrels-1 fell down chimney, 2 outside. Warmed & put on heating pad near nest. If mom doesn't show, going 2 wildlife rescuer. --Tweeted 2010-01-03
Giving a presentation on Downtown streetcars to Greater Dallas Planning Council Board of Directors. --Tweeted 2009-11-03
Meeting with US Congressman Earl Blumenauer from OR who is leading the federal effort to fund and support streetcars on a nat'l level. --Tweeted 2009-10-31
Bike to City Hall = great success! Tons of cyclists, 6 councilmembers, DART, DPD, firefighters, trail orgs, + bike groups from across city. --Tweeted 2009-10-07
Getting ready to ride bike to City Hall. Hope to meet Mockingbird Station group at Knox/KT Trail @ 7:45am, get to Union Station by 8:15am. --Tweeted 2009-10-07
Just attended "groundmaking" for Woodall Rodgers Park. Construction will begin soon and be finished in less than 2 years. --Tweeted 2009-09-14
Lower Greenville residents, business owners, and property owners are invited to attend a public meeting to learn about a proposal to require Lower Greenville businesses that want to stay open past midnight to get a special permit from the city. The meeting will take place on July 29 at 7pm at Vickery Towers (Belmont at Greenville). In the meantime, you can see a DRAFT version of the proposed zoning ordinance.
Here are some FAQs about the proposal:
What is being proposed for Lower Greenville? There is an imbalance of businesses on Lower Greenville: too few restaurants, neighborhood pubs, and retailers that are open during the day and evening and too many bars that are open only late at night. While this might not be a problem in a more commercial area, the strip of businesses on Lower Greenville is surrounded by neighborhoods. Nearby residents bear the brunt of the crime, noise, traffic, littering, and other problems that this over-saturation of bars brings to their neighborhood. Moreover, significant taxpayer dollars and city resources are expended to keep the area safe and under control late at night. MORE….
I’m back! I have returned from maternity leave and attended my first City Council meeting last week. We’ve got a lot coming up on the agenda, not the least of which is a very challenging city budget and the Love Field concessions contract. More on these and other issues in the coming weeks.
BABY
Audrey Belle is doing great, though sleep has been hard to come by. THANK YOU to everyone who has sent us so many well-wishes!
BIKE PLAN
The city is updating its quarter-century old bike plan, and Councilmember Sheffie Kadane and I are co-chairing the committee overseeing the revamp. We held our first public meeting about the plan last week, and the turnout was amazing. The council chambers were overflowing as the bike plan consultant presented dozens of options for bicycle infrastructure.
I had met the lead consultant, Peter Lagerwey of Toole Design Group, last year when he was getting close to retiring as the bicycle program director for Seattle, where he oversaw the successful planning and implementation of their bike plan.
What impressed me most about Peter’s presentation last week was that he didn’t come to the first public meeting with an almost-finished bike plan for Dallas – one that the masses would be permitted to slightly tweak around the edges, allowing him to claim public input in a process rigged from the start. I’ve seen that type of Kabuki theater play out too often in government-sponsored projects where public input is supposedly invited but in reality given short shrift.
And apparently Peter has, too, since by way of contrast, he asked the audience if they’d ever been to meetings where they felt like the plan had already been written ahead of time ( lots of hands went up, including mine). Peter explained he wasn’t there to offer a plan at this point, but to show different infrastructure types that could be considered for our bike plan, and then get feedback from the public. He was very clear that this bike plan will be built from the ground up, with a focus on providing Dallasites with an infrastructure that meets our needs.
If you couldn’t be at the meeting last week, you’re in luck: Patrick Kennedy from Pegasus News was there and did an excellent summary. As he points out, the biggest challenge is whether the city will actually change our car-centered culture or just talk a good game. It’s fine to laud the concept of complete streets, but what happens when that means reducing car lanes to expand bicycle paths and the pedestrian realm? Do policy-makers and city staff have the courage to follow through?
Patrick hits the nail on the head when he warns self-congratulatory city leaders, “[L]et’s not count our chickens before the[y're] hatched. Will [policymakers] stand up to transpo or DOT when they shrilly scream, ‘OMG, we won’t hit level of service A if you remove that lane of traffic! We have arbitrary formulas that prove it!!!!’”
Policymakers and city staff will only be persuaded to create real complete streets with real bicycle infrastructure in Dallas (and not a failed, faux version) if they (1) learn how other cities have successfully made the transition from car-centric streets to ones that are bike- and ped-friendly, (2) understand how important complete streets are to our city’s future economic development (attacting the “creative class” and thus the companies that want to hire them), and (3) hear the public express a real interest in redefining our city to make it more liveable. On the last point, if a progressive bike plan and complete streets are important to you, please attend the next public meeting and make your voice heard (when we have a date, I’ll post it).
In the meantime, you can give your input via the Dallas Bike Plan website, which includes an interactive map and questionnaire (Peter’s presentation will be posted soon). And check out another great meeting recap by Daniel Rodrigue over at Unfair Park.
AWARDS
I was humbled to have received two awards right before I went on leave. First, Dallas Voice readers selected me as Dallas’ “Best City Council Person” for the third year in a row. Second, the League of Women Voters of Dallas honored me with the Virginia Macdonald Leadership Award, which is “given to a League member who has exhibited courage in working for change and who inspired leadership in others.”
Thank you so much to both Dallas Voice readers and Dallas’ League of Women Voters! I am deeply honored to have received these awards and will do my very best to continue to earn your support.
Well, no, actually the park debate (by which I assume the DMN means the referendum to remove the toll road from the floodway) did not slow, even by a day, improvements to our levee system or lack thereof. But let’s set that aside for a bit.
Perhaps the more important question is: Is the fact that critical levee improvements have been hijacked by the Trinity Toll Road actually news to anyone who’s been following this issue?
Let me take you back over a year ago, when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers informed the city that our levees were rated “unacceptable” under the new federal standards. The day after that announcement, the council voted to fund a study to determine the extent of the failures and plan for remediation. It was crystal clear then (and frankly, before then) that the city’s insistence on intertwining the levee improvements with the toll road had slowed flood control improvements for years. Take a look at the council meeting beginning at 01:59 where I point out that the mayor and council’s fixation on placing the toll road within the floodway has hopelessly intertwined the toll road with the levee improvements, thus grinding critical flood control measures to a halt. That were it not for the toll road’s interminable delays, we could move forward on much-needed levee improvements.
That’s not news over a year later. What’s news is that the mayor, city council, and city manager still refuse to acknowledge this reality and sever the two projects. We can move forward on our levee improvements if we have the political will to put the safety of our residents ahead of this toll road.
In his article, Lindenberger states without attribution or explanation, “[I]n 2007, council member Angela Hunt led a referendum aimed at preventing a toll road from being built within the levees, citing worries about costs and impact on the parks. Things came to a halt again.”
Absolutely not true. Take a look at 02:27. No one at the city, NTTA or Corps ever stated that the referendum was slowing down their ”progress” (or lack thereof) on flood control matters. To the contrary; city staff was adamant that the project was proceeding full-speed ahead, despite the referendum.
So I challenge Michael Lindenberger to back up his statement that the referendum delayed much-needed levee improvements by even one day. What particular aspect of the levee project “came to a halt”? At what point did flood control plans halt due to the referendum and later resume and who made those decisions? What evidence exists to support this unsubstantiated claim?
Aside from this clearly erroneous assertion, there is no news in this article. The city has known for decades that our levees are in critical condition. The mayor, council, and city manager have known for years that by interlocking the toll road with levee improvements we are irresponsibly and interminably delaying flood control safety.
Recently, city staff estimated that bringing our levees up to federal standards will cost somewhere in the range of $50 to $150 million. Right now, $46 million remains of the 1998 bond funds allocated to the toll road.
What will be news is when the mayor and council decide to actually put flood control safety first and not just talk about it – when the city finally decides to cut its losses on the failed, unfunded, and unapproved toll road and shift that $46 million to critically-needed levee improvements. That will be news.
Greenville Avenue will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day on Saturday, March 13, and I wanted to explain the initiatives the city is taking this year to limit the impact of the St. Patrick’s Day parade and party on our Lower Greenville neighborhoods. (Sorry in advance for the incredibly long post.)
This is a joint effort of Deputy Police Chiefs Vincent Golbeck, Julian Bernal and Tom Lawrence, neighborhood residents, special events office, code enforcement, sanitation, parking enforcement, event sponsors, myself, and others. Note that these events are privately sponsored and are not endorsed by the City of Dallas. Check for updated info at www.dallascityhall.com.
BULKY TRASH
In response to my request to ensure as much bulky trash as possible is picked up before the Lower Greenville festivities, I received this response from Mary Nix, Director of Sanitation at the City:
Although our brush/bulk crews are straining to get back on their regular schedule – as the snow storm debris collection is a massive undertaking – we recognize the need to address the Greeneville neighborhood’s immediate need.
We’ve sent several rotoboom trucks to collect storm debris (starting earlier this week) – and are making sure they’ll cover the area for several blocks to both the east and west of Greenville from Ross Avenue to Southwestern. They’ll go additional blocks as time allows. We’ll do our best not to inadvertently collect the temporary “No Parking” signs as we go!
If you’ve driven on Lemmon Avenue recently, I hope your suspension has not been completely destroyed.
The worst area on Lemmon is between the toll road and Inwood, which has tons of terrible potholes, one after another, which have been exacerbated by recent weather. (It’s not that it’s smooth as silk elsewhere; it’s just particularly bad on this section.)
Crews are working on filling literally hundreds of potholes on Lemmon, and they anticipate it’ll take a week or longer to finish. I’ll be monitoring.
Today the city council decided to take $4.75 million from Trinity Park bond funds to pay for a federally-required levee study. I voted against this and instead proposed that we use Trinity Toll Road bond money to pay for the study.
The toll road isn’t going to happen. The NTTA has said they are more than a billion dollars short in funding for the road. There are no “buckets of money” to dip into that the mayor once proclaimed were lying around for the road. The NTTA has also said that due to its current project commitments, it wouldn’t even be able to consider any other projects for five years. So, realistically speaking, the toll road is dead.
So if the toll road is dead, and the park is still viable, why on earth would we divert funds from the park instead of the toll road? We must move forward on flood safety improvements, so there’s no question we need to fund the federal levee study, and quickly. But take the money from a project that is clearly stalled, and let us get going on some park improvements that we can enjoy now.
Here’s a wrap-up of some recent news articles about the Trinity Toll Road: MORE….
Last night, I went to the Double Wide benefit concert for the businesses and employees who lost their jobs as a result of last week’s fire on Lower Greenville. The Doublewide was great to host this, and Chelsea Callahan did an outstanding job organizing the five bands in such short order, helping raise funds for these newly-unemployed workers.
The neighborhood support for these restaurants and pubs — Terrilli’s, Mick’s, Greenville Ave., Hurricane — has been amazing. Neighborhood associations are selling t-shirts to benefit the employees, a local bank and other business owners have set up a fund to provide financial support, and a facebook page has been created to highlight other job opportunities.
I’ve gotten so many emails from people — lawyers, planners, historic preservationists, architects – offering their services to the building owners free of charge, so the building can be rebuilt and the businesses (and their employees) can get back on their feet as soon as possible. (I’m passing along this info to the owner, who pledged to keep the historic facade and rebuild quickly.) A testament to the community support for these businesses can be seen in the many flowers now adorning the chain link fence surrounding the burned-out property — letting the owners and employees know that we are deeply saddened by their loss, that their departure has left a hole in our community, and that we wish them well.
This outpouring of support got me thinking: Would we have seen the same response if a block of Lowest Greenville — say, south of Bell Avenue — had suffered a similar fate?
I don’t think so.
It’s not that the loss to the business owners or employees would have been any less traumatic or worthy of the neighborhood’s generosity. But the businesses we lost last week were just the kind that we want on Greenville Avenue — restaurants and pubs that attract mostly neighborhood folks, that are family-friendly, and that have patrons visiting throughout the day not just late at night.
We see too few such businesses on Lowest Greenville — too few restaurants, neighborhood pubs, and retailers and too many bars. Way too many bars. All crammed into the middle of a residential area. MORE….
I just spoke with Jon duPerier, a general partner here in Dallas who owns the Lower Greenville block that burned. He told me that he and his partners are history buffs who feel strongly that their building is one of the most historically significant on Greenville Avenue. He acknowledged that while it would be cheaper to scrape and rebuild, they would rather make the investment and keep a part of Dallas’ history alive. They are going to preserve the facade and rebuild in the same footprint asap. The city will be expediting permits for the project, and I told Jon that I would work with him if any issues arose.
This is great news on so many levels. Jon was very sensitive to the loss to the business owners and their families and wants to get them back in business as soon as possible. The reconstruction also means that we won’t be looking at a burned out building for months, and will get to see a part of our history revived in short order.
It’s so great to know there are property owners who are invested in our community, not just their small piece of it. Many thanks to Jon and his partners for their commitment to Lower Greenville and our businesses, residents, and history.
From the Lakewood Advocate Backtalk Blog, here’s a great picture of original plans for the building back in 1931 versus today (pre-fire). The sketch appeared in the June 14, 1931 edition of The Dallas Morning News along with the caption, “J. T. Piranio is erecting the modern store building at Greenville avenue and Goodwin street at a cost of $25,000. This will provide six large store-rooms, designed in the latest style.”
The Lower Greenville fire has resulted in a lot of folks losing their jobs overnight. There are several ways you can help:
New Info: From the Lower Greenville Neighborhood Association:
LGNA volunteers will be selling St. Patrick’s t-shirts at the block party between Vanderbilt and Vickery on Saturday 3/13. T-shirts will be sold for $10 each, and 100% of gross sales will be donated to restaurant employee assistance. LGNA is donating the t-shirts that will be sold.
Benefit for employees of Terilli’s, Mick’s, Hurricane Grill is Sunday Five bands are playing a benefit concert Sunday at the Doublewide for employees of Lower Greenville restaurants that were destroyed in a fire this week.
The bands are Corey Howe, STEW, Manned Missiles, Cocky Americans and Slider Pines, plus sets from DJs Sista Whitenoise and Woodtronic. The party starts at 8:30 p.m., and tickets are $7.
How to support the employees of Terilli’s, Greenville Avenue Bar & Grill, Mick’s and Hurricane Grill Collection of information, job leads, etc – Help Lower Greenville Facebook page
Restaurant Employee Relief Fund Bank Account
A bank account has been opened to raise money for employees directly affected by the fire. Donations can be made at any local Branch Banking & Trust (BB&T) branch. The account name: Restaurant Employee Relief Fund, Account #8056613196.
The account is coordinated by the Greenville Avenue Restaurant Association, The Greenville Avenue Area Business Association, The Greenville Merchants Association, and the Historic Greenville Avenue Area Business Association. Funds will be dispersed by the owners of the businesses on a case-by-case basis in coordination with the Associations managing the account. MORE….
