Avi Adelman
Harry Trujillo
David Tuthill
                             

05/22/06  Common sense is needed, but Nonsense prevails in Dallas!

Not everyone is as focused on dumb doings at City Hall as are you, DallasArena.com reader.  There are people who actually don't care how their tax dollars are wasted, or how much they have to pay in taxes.  They don't care if "nonsense" is the order of the day at City Hall, rather than common sense.  They expect folks like you and me to fight their battles and keep them informed, but we can't expect them to even bother to show up at a neighborhood crime watch meeting or any other community effort.

Before we get to foolhardy thinking at City Hall, there was and is some serious need of common sense on all sides in Avi Adelman's latest disaster.

Hardly anyone who knows him hasn't gotten crosswise with Avi Adelman, at least once or more.  He can be a pain in the rear, and that's on a good day.  He's always on someone's **** list.  Lucky for him, he's smart and has an even smarter friend in Allen Gwinn.

The three of us (Gwinn, Adelman and Boyd) were permanently united by Ron Kirk and Mary Poss, when they tried to shut us down back in the early days of DallasArena.com.  It was pretty unsettling for me to have the City of Dallas spending my tax dollars to prohibit my right to free speech.

For Avi, it was absolute heaven.  He loves to be the center of controversy, except when it's serious.  His latest controversy is very serious.

		Police Ticket Activist, Send Obscene Email Over Noise Complaint Allen Gwinn on Sun, 2006-05-21 01:03.
At 10:37, Adelman received an email sent through a form on his BarkingDogs.Org website which read: "HEARD YOU GOT A CITATION FOR ABUSING 911. YOU DERSERVE(sic) THE TICKET YOU SELF SERVING PIECE OF <expletive>...HAVE A NICE DAY.  CALL BRETT SHIPP."

Avi should not have been issued a ticket for calling 911 to report loud noise coming from a Greenville Ave. bar.  I call 911 when there are illegally parked cars in my neighborhood.  I would have called 911 to report loud noise coming from a bar near my neighborhood if we had a dance club near us.  The noise coming from bars/clubs we have near my neighborhood tends to be grunts and moans coming from pervert horn dogs and the fake orgasms coming from the hookers who service them at massage parlors or topless bars. 

Common sense tells you to call 911 for matters that DPD officers must resolve.

Common sense and Avi Adelman don't usually get said in the same sentence.  Avi just cannot control himself.  He can take a situation where he is completely in the right and turn everything against his own best interest.

Police department under probe after alleged revenge citation Sunday, May 21, 2006 By BERT LOZANO / WFAA-TV

The Dallas Police Department is undergoing an internal affairs investigation after a man said he received a citation based on revenge when he made a 911 call.    Neighborhood watch activist Avi Adelman said he made the 911 call Saturday night to make a complaint after hearing loud music, which was coming from a new rooftop patio at a club on lower Greenville near his home.    However, he said when Officer Michael Welch arrived at his home, instead of asking him about the noise, he took his driver's license and issued him a ticket.    "This was pay back time, retaliation," he said. "The police tell you to call 911 for an emergency, call 911 when only a police officer can deal with."    Adelman said a half hour later he also received three e-mails laced with profanity. ... One e-mail Adelman said he received read, "Heard you got a citation for abusing 911. You deserve the ticket." The e-mail then called Adelman a bad word and told him to call News 8's Brett Shipp. ... When Adelman checked into the e-mails, he said he tracked them to the department's central police substation through an IP address.    Dallas Police Department authorities said they are now looking into the e-mails.    "If we determine that it was sent from a police department city computer, if we got the individual identified, Chief Kunkle will take the appropriate discipline," said Lt. Rick Watson, Dallas Police Department.    Officials also said they are investigating why Officer Welch issued the 911 citation. Dallas police said Adelman did not do anything wrong by contacting 911 and making them aware of the loud music, and were unsure if Officer Welch made a visit to the club to check on the music.    "The legal term is official oppression," Adelman said. "That man needs to lose his badge and his certification. He does not deserve to be a police officer anymore, as well as the officers who sent these other e-mails."

Rather than let the DPD investigate which officer or officers were involved in his 911 ticket or the obscene e-mails he got from DPD computers, Avi is calling for their badges.  Oh, please!

What happened to "Let the punishment fit the crime"?  Any officer who was involved in this mess needs to be disciplined, but this is not a shooting or theft.  From the nitwit officer who issued the 911 citation to whoever sent the e-mails from DPD headquarters, there should be serious repercussions.  Common sense tells you that.  Common sense also tells you we don't have a cop or two to spare.  Dallas residents and businesses need hundreds more police officers.

What were those officers thinking?  Did a supervisor suggest or instruct them to pull this stunt?  Common sense says demotions are in order all around, but not firings.

I don't like what happened to Avi Adelman just because he called 911 to report loud noise.  He's correct to call it "pay back", but it was "pay back" as much because he's such a grand stander as anything else.  Still, no one should be harassed by public officials just for being a jerk on occasion.  Avi has done a lot of good things over the years.  Certainly, people who live near Greenville Avenue have benefited from his efforts to control the negative impact of the bars on surrounding residential neighborhoods.

I don't like what those DPD officers did, but they can be dealt with short of termination.  It would be a waste of our investment in those officers.  Tax dollars have been spent in training those officers.  Clearly, they need a crash course in common sense and possibly a suspension without pay to get their attention.  Suspension or demotion, but no termination.

I also don't like the City of Dallas wasting our tax dollars to sue the City of Coppell and Coppell ISD on behalf of Henry Billingsley, a convicted Federal felon who smuggled Libyans across the Mexican border.  Lucy and Henry Billingsley can afford to pay their own legal fees.  After all, they got a huge tax abatement on their Downtown project.

Dallas suits say Coppell attempting 'land grab'; Officials say suburb is seeking acreage to stop North Lake project Wednesday, May 17, 2006 By EMILY RAMSHAW and ERIC AASEN / The Dallas Morning News

Dallas officials have filed lawsuits against the Coppell City Council and school board, accusing members of condemning land within the Dallas city limits to derail a development project ? not because they need it for municipal or educational purposes.    The Dallas lawsuits, filed Friday, are the latest salvo in the North Lake battle pitting Coppell against Dallas and developer Lucy Billingsley.    Ms. Billingsley wants to build a residential development on about 350 acres near the lake ? land in northwest Dallas but within the Coppell Independent School District.    Coppell city and school officials have filed petitions against Billingsley Co. to try to seize part of the property, which borders Coppell and Irving. Coppell wants land for parks and workforce and senior housing, while school officials would use it for new campuses. ... Dallas officials say Coppell is attempting an unlawful "land grab" that would damage Dallas' tax base. Ms. Billingsley has estimated that the city will receive nearly $33 million in tax revenues in the first 10 years after the Cypress Waters project is completed, according to the lawsuits.    "Autonomous and sovereign cities have a right to develop their city as they see appropriate," Dallas Assistant City Manager Ryan Evans said. "We never have, nor do we now, intend to hurt our relationships with our suburban cities. But it's still Dallas. And it's our right to develop it."    Suburban officials are concerned that Cypress Waters residents will overcrowd Coppell schools, congest streets and overwhelm city programs. They oppose the project in part because of the large number of proposed apartments and townhouses.

If the Billingsley project is going to necessitate more schools from the Coppell ISD, where else should the new schools be built but on the land generating the problem?

I want to challenge right here Lucy Billingsley's assertion that her project will generate $33 million in tax revenues in the first 10 years.  In the first place, 10 years is longer than the shelf life of popularity for apartment developments. 

Does her $33 million include the cost of building a DFD fire station to service the residents of her development, since it is way too far from any existing DFD station to adequately protect their lives and property?  We will have to buy land from the Billingsley's to build a fire station to protect their property. 

Does her $33 million include the cost of additional DPD officers needed to patrol her development, since apartments and multi-family generate much more demand on police and fire protection than do single family communities?  Apartments never pay their fair share of property taxes when compared to their pro rata drain on public services.

Lucy Billingsley is a fine one to talk about $33 million in tax revenues, when she demanded and got such a huge tax abatement on her 7-11 building Downtown.  It was no more needed or deserved than Ray Hunt's $6.2 million tax abatement.  Common sense tells you both projects were going to get done without Dallas homeowners subsidizing these high rollers.

It is absolutely outrageous for Dallas homeowners to pay for Lucy Billingsley's legal fees against Coppell and Coppell ISD.  The fun part of all this (if there is any) is that our City Attorney's office is so bad, we ought to just concede defeat before we waste any more tax dollars. 

		... "Hang me just as high as you please, Brer Fox, says Brer Rabbit, says he, "but for the Lord's sake, don't fling me in that briar patch," says he. ... "Drown me just as deep as you please, Brer Fox," says Brer Rabbit, says he, "But please do not fling me in that briar patch, " says he. ... "Skin me Brer Fox," says he. "Snatch out my eyeballs, tear out my ears by the roots," says he, "But please, Brer Fox, don't fling me in that briar patch, " says he. ...  Of course, Brer Fox wanted to get Brer Rabbit as bad as he could, so he caught him by the behind legs and slung him right in the middle of the briar patch. There was a considerable flutter when Brer Rabbit struck the bushes, and Brer Fox hung around to see what was going to happen.
...  By and by he heard someone call his name and 'way up on the hill he saw Brer Rabbit sitting cross-legged on a chinquapin log combing the tar pitch out of his hair with a chip. Then Brer Fox knew he had been tricked. ...  Brer Rabbit hollered out, "Born and bred in the briar patch. I was born and bred in the briar patch!" And with that he skipped out just as lively as a cricket in the embers of a fire.

Coppell officials must feel like Brer Rabbit pleading to Brer Fox not to throw him into the Briar Patch.  They know their position is a valid use of eminent domain for public uses, not to further enrich some billionaire or millionaire.  They also can read the papers and know the pitiful record of our City Attorney's office. 

Brer Coppell is begging Brer Dallas "Please sue us for protecting our community against a greedy developer."  "Please sue us and let the metroplex see which public officials put their constituents' quality of life ahead of imaginary future tax revenue."

Common sense and real city experience tells us that large (and often small) apartment complexes are guaranteed future problems, no matter how nice and expensive they are initially.  You only have to look at the situation in the Park Lane/Greenville Avenue area or the Northwest Hwy/Bachman area for confirmation.  That is, if you have lived in Dallas since the 70's when both areas were overbuilt with apartments and townhouses that are now crime ridden hell holes.

We not only should not be assisting Lucy Billingsley and her federally convicted felon husband in their plans to ruin some beautiful undeveloped lake front acreage, we should be discouraging apartment complexes in the city limits.  If someone wants to build new multi-family units, force them to buy up and demolish a matching number of old units first. 

Common sense tells you the last thing we need are more apartments in our city limits, but the Comprehensive Plan being pushed at City Hall will pretty much wipe out any chance of new single family developments in North Dallas.  They will sacrifice the town's biggest tax base to promote development in South Dallas.  It's not about what's good for Dallas.  It's about what's good for a handful of connected and powerful developers, like Lucy Billingsley and the company her dad founded.

If that North Lake land were developed with expensive homes, it would be a guaranteed source of permanent tax revenue, rather than a temporary bonus that will wind up draining our budget and public services in the future.

Common sense is sorely lacking in Dallas these days at almost every level.

sb