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Rad Field
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01/20/06 Why force
criminal drivers to obey the law, when you can stiff taxpayers for Billions?
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At Wednesday's council briefing, Dr. Elba (I'm Only a
Dentist) Garcia and other council members made all sorts of excuses as to why
people who do not obey the law should not be punished when they are caught
driving a car on Dallas streets without car insurance. James Fantroy,
Pauline Medrano and Steve Salazar were against towing the cars. Wish they had as much compassion for
Dallas taxpayers as they do for deadbeats who disobey state law. |
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01/20/06 Stan Aten:
At least a few of the cameras Downtown
should be installed at City Hall
in the offices of all city council members. That
would reduce the chance of bribes taking place at City
Hall. |
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While some (hopefully not 8) council members don't expect drivers to spend their money
on car insurance as required by
state law, a majority of the council is ready to come at us again with a
record-breaking bond package to be sold with a pack of lies and paid for
by law-abiding Dallas property owners.
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Council starts talks on billion-dollar bond
issue;
Record-setting plan would tackle long list of
needs
Wednesday,
January 18, 2006
by DAVE LEVINTHAL /
The Dallas Morning News |
... Dallas' second- and third-ranking elected
officials, Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill and Deputy Mayor Pro
Tem Elba Garcia, say they favor a $1.5 billion bond program.
... Dr. Garcia said. "We need to look at the
bigger picture. The $1.5 billion should be a starting point."
If city officials clearly explain to
voters that Dallas must invest in its deteriorating infrastructure or face
numerous and mounting civic problems, "they will spend
the additional money," Mr. Hill said. "Support for it will grow."
Council member
Maxine Thornton-Reese told her colleagues she'd support a $2 billion bond
program.
... City staff members estimate that Dallas would
need more than $7.2 billion to address every item on its public needs
inventory.
... Beginning next week, council members are
scheduled to conduct constituent meetings in their districts to discuss the
details of a new bond program.
... "I don't favor any number," Mayor Laura Miller
said. "I'm going to go out to these meetings and listen to what people have
to say.
... Bill Blaydes,
chairman of the council's Economic Development and Housing Committee: "If
we're going to turn this horse around, we're going to need to step up and
spend the dollars. I'm not afraid of a high number."
... City Manager Mary Suhm warned that a
bond program concentrated on building and improving city facilities, for
example, could increase the size of the city budget by adding annual
operations and upkeep costs that a road- and infrastructure-heavy bond
program wouldn't.
... downtown redevelopment projects and
renovations to Fair Park's Cotton Bowl may rank among the program's
higher-profile items.
... The heated issue of whether council members
would receive 2006 bond program discretionary funds ? millions of dollars in
bond money they may earmark for projects they choose ? went all but
unmentioned Wednesday. ... |
What you want to bet "downtown
redevelopment" means the last Calatrava String Thing goes in the bond package?
It would be different if we were borrowing all this money for immediate
projects, but the FBI's Favorite Target Don Hill, Shakedown Leo Chaney and
Brain-Dead Thornton-Reese have not designated the $3 million each had to spend
on pet projects in their districts. Millions that we have borrowed at high
interest, just sitting there for Don Hill's next scheme. That
discretionary district fund component of the 2003 bond
election should have been omitted if each council member did not have specific
projects where the money was to be spent.
Speaking of Calatrava's String Things, we are about to be the laughing stock of
the World. The ODB's (Our Downtown Betters) favorite architect is falling
out of favor with architectural critics with his ridiculous designs that do not fit the geography or
character of the locale where they are to go.
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"Exuberantly shallow";
Suspension bridge of disbelief
By Robert Wilonsky
BUZZ; Published:
Thursday, January 19, 2006 |
...'Today, we break ground on our
Eiffel Tower for Dallas,' Mayor Laura Miller cheered. 'Once we start, there
will be no stopping. Our project has arrived.'"
Whoa, there. Our project? How about your project,
padnuh.
Sure, by now we all know Calatrava
has a superior rep as a builder of fancy-schmancy bridges the world
over. He has the awards and big-budget contracts to prove it--most, like the
job in Dallas, paid for by taxpayers. ... Is all
about making things look like they're part of nature, if nature had a
$250 million budget to spend on a bridge and not, oh, more cops.
... Turns out others are turning on Calatrava too.
Seems like a good opportunity to share that with you since, in about two
years, Dallas will have at least one Calatrava bridge most of the city will
never drive over or, for that matter, ever see.
Just last week,
The New Republic ran a piece on Calatrava
that takes to task his recent projects, including the World Trade Center
transportation hub in Manhattan. Writer and Harvard Design School instructor
Sarah Williams Goldhagen describes much of Calatrava's work as "exuberantly
shallow." She likes his bridges better but writes that "not every
highway overpass requires an artistic statement." Couldn't have said it
better. Ultimately, though, she damns his body of work with the ultimate
pejorative: "That word is 'kitsch.'"
... two weeks ago in
The Financial Times of London, written by Edwin Heathcote.
Heathcote's a reformed fan of Calatrava's who was once enamored of his work
and ideology but has since turned on the master.
Calatrava's work was once "radical
and fascinating," Heathcote writes, but "then it all seemed to go a bit
wrong. ... Buildings such as the Tenerife Opera
House and his extension to the Milwaukee Art Museum were poorly received by
critics, and his work has been seen as one of the worst offenders of the
icon-syndrome, the relentless brand-building of cities
trying to establish themselves on the international-tourist and
weekend-break circuit."
Relentless brand building? He must be
talking about other cities. Doesn't sound like Big D at all, does it? |
Do you get the feeling Dallas
is about to have an "Emperor has no clothes" moment?
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The
Calatrava Bridges are so ODB. They always think if we copy something
done somewhere else it will work for Dallas, too. Copies are never as
impressive as the original. Plopping down a monstrous bridge across a
sewer trough is not going to change the Trinity into a destination point for
tourists. No more than plopping down all that Nasher sculpture at the
DMA has turned it into a tourist draw. |
I agree with Robert Wilonsky's
appreciation for Heathcote's comment "relentless brand-building of cities trying
to establish themselves on the international-tourist and weekend-break circuit."
Rather than focus on real life issues, the ODB and most at City Hall chase expensive big ticket projects that are going "to turn around Downtown",
or "stimulate economic development" to "increase our tax base"
-- but never deliver! Have you
noticed no one is using the phrase "World Class" lately?
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01/21/06 Barbara Senter:
What do you bet that the third
"String Thing Bridge" is built before the new animal shelter?
This just goes to show where their
priorities are.
I don't think they can relate to the
average person, and they don't care either. |
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01/21/06 James Northrup:
Calatrava Clones becoming kitschy civic follies = It's known as the
edifice complex. |
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They can build those String Thing Bridges while they neglect the needs of most
of the city, but eventually some little kid is going to say out loud as he's
driven across one of those bridges --- there's no water down there.
Where's the river? The fairy tale king paid a lot of money for a
non-existent suit of clothes and his ego and stupidity allowed walked down the street naked.
The town big shots were afraid to say aloud what their eyes and common sense
told them -- the emperor was naked. The ODB
are spending a lot of our money for a bridge that will ultimately span a sewer
trough. We know and they know that the Trinity is not a river, and the
less attention called to it -- the better.
Things are not all bad. The towing law may squeak through a council vote
next week, but there were some really lame arguments against it during the briefing
discussions.
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Towing plan drives
Dallas council to division;
Uninsured drivers' cars could be impounded;
red-light cameras may be installed by August
Thursday,
January 19, 2006
By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News
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Dallas officials tackled two measures
on Wednesday designed to reduce auto accidents: one to impound vehicles of
uninsured drivers involved in accidents and another to install cameras to
catch red-light runners across the city.
And while council members expressed
strong support for the long-awaited red-light cameras, they were divided
over the towing initiative, airing concerns that it would be subjective and
target immigrants and low-income residents.
... "We want people to feel safer in our city ?
that's why we're doing red-light cameras and towing," Mayor Laura Miller
said. "It's an incentive for people to slow down and watch how they're
driving. This combination is going to make people feel a lot better about
driving on our streets."
The impounding plan would deter
people who aren't authorized to drive from getting behind the wheel, and
from causing costly ? or fatal ? accidents, said Ms. Miller, who designed
the program with the Police Department.
... "No one should be driving around without
insurance," council member Linda Koop said. "There's no reason why, if
you're breaking the law, you shouldn't be penalized."
... council member Pauline Medrano said. But she
said she fears "someone in Oak Cliff being stopped, and having their cars
impounded," and someone in another part of the city being let off the hook.
... "Sure, everybody should have insurance," Mr.
Fantroy said. "But I don't want us putting something together that is
creating revenue off of poor people."
... council member Angela Hunt said.
"If someone is involved in an accident, and
they don't have insurance, they don't need to be driving on Dallas streets,"
she said.
... Mr. Salazar said, it has holes. What
about the language barrier among Hispanic drivers? he asked. What about
immigrants who aren't familiar with insurance policies, he said, who don't
know what's available to them?
"We have people here from Africa,
from the Middle East, from China, from Vietnam and Taiwan," he said.
... The council had little discussion on red-light
cameras on Wednesday, agreeing to put out bids for them immediately. The
cameras, which have been a priority for the city since 1999 and are
supported by a great majority of the council, should be operating by August.
... Frisco, Plano and Richardson are installing
red-light cameras. Denton and Rowlett have plans for them. Garland ? which
in 2001 became the first city in Texas to use them ? has reported a 21
percent decrease in red-light violations since installing the cameras.
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My good friend, councilman
Salazar, was off his mark on the towing discussion. If an immigrant is
driving a rental car, he was required to show a driving permit and proof of insurance to the car rental
company. If an immigrant holds a VALID Texas drivers license, he was
required
to show proof of insurance to get his license. If someone is driving
around without a Texas drivers license or car insurance, he is breaking the law.
I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said "Ignorance of the law is no excuse".
People who are concerned about "Big Brother" misusing the red-light cameras are
not going to like this news:
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Dallas plans cameras to aid in crime fight;
Grant funds 34 downtown eyes; rights activists call it Orwellian
Thursday,
January 19, 2006 by
TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News |
Is it Big Brother or a big bite out
of crime?
Police plan to install surveillance
cameras around downtown thanks to an $840,000 grant from the Meadows
Foundation.
... "It's a good tool for helping the police,"
said Grayson Gill, chairman of the Downtown Improvement District's safety
committee. Reducing fear of crime in the downtown loop "is a huge issue for
us. We're excited about this," he said.
... "It will dramatically lower the incidence of
street harassment downtown," said Mayor Laura Miller. "The fact that we're
going to have this, and the red-light running cameras, and the new cameras
at Fair Park ? "
... Council member Angela Hunt, whose district
encompasses much of downtown, said she's very appreciative of the monetary
gift. But she said she's worried that around-the-clock cameras downtown
could "negatively impact civil liberties."
... Cameras were used during part of last year in
Deep Ellum in a joint public-private experiment where they were placed on
the roofs of several businesses to monitor rowdy crowds.
"We saw a dramatic reduction in
crime," said Police Chief David Kunkle. He said surveillance cameras are an
"important part of an effective crime-fighting strategy."
... Downtown business leaders have said in recent
months that the perception that downtown is crime-ridden has hampered
economic development efforts. Most welcome the cameras.
... City officials plan to use light duty or
injured officers to monitor the downtown cameras virtually around-the-clock.
No schedule has been announced for when the cameras will be in place.
... Although civil rights activists have long
argued that surveillance cameras are an unwarranted intrusion on privacy and
don't really reduce crime, surveillance cameras are in vogue ? from
Melbourne, Australia, to Los Angeles.
... "The naysayers will tell you the cameras did
not stop the terrorist attacks, but what it did
was to enable the London police department to quickly identify and apprehend
the offenders," said Patrick Camden, a Chicago police spokesman.
... |
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| Obviously, I'm at the stage of
life where I'm less concerned about my privacy rights than I am about my personal
safety. I want the bad guys off the streets and caught if they do bad
stuff. |
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01/21/06 James
Northrup:
Cameras on downtown street are cops looking for bad guys -
one monitor at a time. That's welcome
surveillance.
Feds getting wire taps without court
orders and Google search records on millions of users --
now, that's Big Brother. |
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Hopefully, the council words the red-light law to incorporate the agreement
worked out between the North Texas Tollway Authority and the car rental
industry, so we can avoid future litigation.
All in all, I love Mayor
Miller's quote "it's
going to be a 'Big Brother' city."
Might as well be upfront about it. Maybe the bad guys will go someplace
else to do their bad stuff.
sb
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