Mark Arthur Shekter
                             

4/7/9  Our Downtown Betters are going absolutely nuts!

Have you noticed anything strange lately?  The ODB and all their wannabe's are bouncing off their padded walls.

A few weeks ago, The Dallas Managed News Editorial Board called Mayor Leppert a liar, Editorial: Leppert didn't level with voters in Trinity campaign (DallasNews.com, 3/24/9), then the DMN's Steve Blow says Dallas' Mayor Leppert a liar? No, he's a focused leader (DallasNews.com, 4/5/9).

Why are they picking on Mayor Leppert?  If the Editorial Board has gone South on the Mayor, how's Steve Blow getting away with defending him?

I hear people saying Mayor Leppert knew he was lying during the 2008 Trinity campaign.  He was just repeating the party line the DMN has been repeating for over a decade, since Con Jerk/Ron Kirk originally hawked the big lie.  If Tom Leppert didn't level with us in 2008, what was Con Jerk doing in 1998?

Tom Leppert said nothing in his 2008 campaign speeches that was not said by Con Jerk in his 1998 campaign speeches.  I don't remember the DMN ever calling Con Jerk a liar.  DallasArena.com certainly did, but The Dallas Managed News never questioned any outrageous lie from Con Jerk. 

Con Jerk does not like to be questioned, even by the experts.  He certainly does not appreciate the experts bothering him with facts and data.  Who cares if a bunch of poor people get flooded out of their homes?  A flooded Downtown Dallas might be the final solution to all the revitalization schemes and studies we have paid for in the past 20 years.  Ex-Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk frustrated with Army Corps over Trinity project  (DallasNews.com, 4/3/9)

In the past ten years, our city resources have been drained to fund one big ticket project after another.  Each project was going to be the ticket to revitalize Downtown.  None have been, but the money keeps on running down a bottomless pit.  We are about to spend a half a million dollars on another study to figure out another way to fix Downtown, City to Take Stack of Downtown Dallas Master Plans, Turn 'Em All Into One "Area Plan" (UnFairPark, DallasObserver.com, 4/6/9).  With all the money we have already spent in the last 20 years on revitalizing Downtown, rather than throughout the city, it's nuts to think another half million dollars is going to find the solution this time around.

It's not just Dallas that has spent millions, if not billions, trying to make their Downtown work to no avail.   According to Brookings Institution, Dallas is the Third "Most Decentralized" City in U.S. (UnFairPark, DallasObserver.com, 4/6/9).   The basic information:

When I lived in Oak Lawn near Turtle Creek and worked Downtown, the rest of the city barely existed to me and my neighbors.  It was absolutely essential for Downtown to get spiffed up.  Otherwise, my old neighborhood would be on the edge of a dead zone.   Well, Downtown did get a lot of attention.  Developers were given big bucks to restore and convert empty office buildings to housing.  Some projects were successful.  But, businesses continued to leave Downtown and needed retail did not come back.

Tom Leppert has towed the ODB/DMN party line.  He has been a one-man cheering squad for Downtown redevelopment.  He has become the face of the people supporting the taxpayer owned convention center hotel, and the anti-hotel campaign (the YES campaign) has made him Public Enemy Number One in their very slick, very expensive TV ads.  Don't get me wrong, that's exactly what they should do, but I don't see the pro-hotel people coming to his defense.

How come we aren't seeing any big TV ads supporting the hotel (the NO campaign)?   

To add to all the confusion and craziness, Mayor Leppert's opponent in last year's election has come to his defense.  Ed Oakley had a letter to the DMN:

Fifteen years ago, I would have agreed with Ed Oakley, but Pioneer Plaza is very popular and incredibly unique.  It is more often the subject of local background shots than Reunion Tower. 

I'm not taking an official position on the convention center hotel.  For once, the Aginners seem to be better funded than the ODB Rah! Rah's!   Neither side needs me, which is just fine by me.  I don't understand why Ed Oakley has stepped into the fray against some of his biggest political benefactors (the Crow Family) to support the ODB and Tom Leppert.  It may be as simple as pay back because the Stemmons Corridor people are sticking with Dave Neumann, rather than going with Ed Oakley's potential challenge for the District 3 council seat.

That only makes for more confusion because I understand that Ed has moved back to Oak Lawn in District 14, which would put him in Angela Hunt's district in 2011.

Say what you will, but in all of the current municipal schizophrenia, the Crow family spending big bucks to protect their business is the only sensible action going. 

It makes no sense for the DMN  Editorial Board to attack Tom Leppert and then a couple of weeks later having one of their columnists defend Tom Leppert.  

It makes no sense for Con Jerk to criticize the Corps of Engineers for speaking the truth.  It makes no sense for the council to ignore the Corps' concerns and act like it's just a bureaucratic glitch that can be solved politically.

It makes no sense for a bunch of people to run for city council, when they have never bothered to vote in a city council election.  Quarter of candidates for Dallas City Council skip voting in elections (DallasNews.com, by Dave Levinthal, 4/7/9).   Don't you love it!  Politicians who don't vote or have a clue how the system works.

Guess we just need to stop expecting or even hoping for sanity. 

Go crazy, Baby!

sb