Tim Dickey
                             

06/15/06  Angela Hunt rocks, Council Sucks.

If you listened to this week's city council meeting, you already know what I'm talking about.  If you haven't kept up with this Comprehensive Plan (aka Forward Dallas!) stuff, then you have not been a good DallasArena.com reader.

I can't tell you the final outcome because WRR stopped broadcasting the council meeting at 6 pm, right after Councilman Mitch Rasansky seconded Councilwoman Hunt's motion to reinstate many (if not all) CPC changes to Freaking-Easy's plan he designed for Portland, Oregon. 

Here's the DMN version of what happened at city council:

Forward Dallas land-use plan gets go-ahead; Council backs city staff's proposal, rejects commission's version Thursday, June 15, 2006 by DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

Despite stiff public objection, the Dallas City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved Forward Dallas, a comprehensive land-use plan presented by city staff and meant to guide city government's development decisions for decades to come.    With its 12-2 vote, the council rejected an alternative version recommended by the council-appointed City Plan Commission. Earlier this month, the plan commission approved the comprehensive plan by a 10-2 vote, but not before recommending to the council numerous amendments. ... Dallas hired urban planner John Fregonese to produce the comprehensive plan, and he did so after about 18 months of community and professional input.    "Input doesn't mean a damned thing if it's not incorporated into the final plan," said council member Angela Hunt, who voted against the plan. "This to me is a failure of process. This is the first public hearing before this body. How it is appropriate that we take a vote on this is beyond me."    Ms. Hunt tried without success to persuade her colleagues to pass the comprehensive plan with many of the plan commission's amendments reinserted. Council member Mitchell Rasansky told his colleagues the vote should be delayed. ... During a public hearing Wednesday before the vote, dozens of Dallas residents argued for and against the city staff's recommendation to the council. ... supporters of the plan commission's version said that the city staff's proposal doesn't solidify enough green space for future generations and that City Hall will treat the plan as law, instead of a tool to guide development decisions.    Former council member Veletta Forsythe Lill, however, praised the city staff's proposal.    "We can create a sustainable community with good urban design," Ms. Lill told the council. "It encourages more efficient land use. I urge you not to fear change."    The plan will not supplant current neighborhood land-use plans, nor will it preclude neighborhoods from pursuing special designations, such as historic districts, said Theresa O'Donnell, Dallas' development services director.    Council members voting for the staff-recommended plan were Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia, Mr. Blaydes, Mr. Chaney and James Fantroy, Gary Griffith, Linda Koop, Pauline Medrano, Ron Natinsky, Ed Oakley, Steve Salazar and Maxine Thornton-Reese. ... Mayor Laura Miller, who was involved in private Wright amendment-related meetings throughout the afternoon, wasn't present for the public hearing or council debate and did not vote. ... Some supporters of the city staff's recommended plan, for example, questioned whether the plan commission's amended version focused enough on southern-sector development.    The amended version, meanwhile, placed greater emphasis on the development of detached, single-family housing units. The staffers' plan called for greater development of apartment, townhouse and condominium housing.    The amended version also scrapped "transit corridors," designed to produce denser developments along well-traveled Dallas thoroughfares.

See what I mean? 

During the citizen testimony (which the council ignored), I kept checking www.DallasObserver.com for its Unfair Park: The Dallas Observer Blog.  Robert Wilonsky and Jim Schutze were at courtside sending back blow by blow accounts of the doings.

Unfair Park: The Dallas Observer Blog June 14, 2006 Live from City Hall

2:44 pm The chamber is packed with Angela Hunt fans?if nothing else, their bright green ?CPC YES? and ?PEOPLE?S PLAN? stickers suggest they also want the version of Forward Dallas! containing the Plan Commission?s alterations. Not yet to the discussion yet, and room is getting warm and restless.   3:01 pm Jim and I have decided Laura is on a Southwest flight to Vegas, cause she sure as hell ain?t here. One thing I did notice as Bill Blaydes was bemoaning the yay vote regarding the homeless shelter (?It will destroy the southeast corridor!?): He?s kinda?unhinged. ? 3:27 pm The first speaker against the plan was Neil Emmons, a plan commissioner. He was representing Cay Kolb, a former city planning commissioner and former DART board member. She could not attend the meeting today, Emmons told the council, because she is tending to her husband in an intensive care unit?and not taking him off life support, as Emmons mistakenly told the council?but she had enough time to write a letter to the council in which she said: ?Never?have I witnessed anything as fraudulent or underhanded as this ForwardDallas! comprehensive planning process. The public input has been supressed; the staff has funneled a foregone conclusion upon which they are asking you to vote today. Please take a deep breath and do not be sucked into this fraud.?    And things are just beginning. Oh, and by the way, still no mayor. 3:57 pm  So far there have been legal and accounting issues raised regarding FD! One speaker said it violates Texas zoning law, another said it?s inviting dangerously speculative development along the so-called transit corridors that cannot even withstand the density proposed in the plan. And a woman from Bluffview cried at the podium, terrified the transit corridor plan will gut her neighborhood. And the council looks like it could not care less. Ed Oakley really oughta stop biting his nails. The mayor still a no-show, lucky her. 4:04 Among those in the audience is Dwayne Jones, executive director of Preservation Dallas, who says he is ?perplexed? by the outrage being directed toward the plan and the council committee that approved it. Contrary to the opinions of the speakers snaked around the council chambers, who insist ForwardDallas! will ruin their neighborhoods by stuffing them full of multi-family housing, Jones insists FD! is in fact receptive to and protective of neighborhoods. ?I?m very perplexed by the comments that people feel that their neighborhoods are being threatened,? Jones says. ?I didn?t see that anywhere in the plan, and we are, of course, supportive of neighborhoods. Either there has been some grave misunderstanding, or there?s something in the plan that I didn?t see.?     And something we didn?t see? The mayor. 5:25 pm The council?s talking now, and I think it?s gonna be a sweep, damned near. ?Dallas is the ninth-largest city in the country, and we?ve developed half of it,? says Bill Blaydes, who looked like he was dozing during the naysayers? speeches. ?There is a major need for what we are doing today.?    Now he?s offering a stunningly fascinating history of city streets, which pairs nicely with Linda Koop?s talk about Boston?s rapid transit. (Is this what hell is like? A civics lesson from this guy? James Fantroy loved it: ?I was gonna invite Brother Blaydes to the Sunday morning service.?)    I think Fantroy is for the plan. Says he: ?At last, at last, thank God at last there will be development of southern Dallas.? So, yeah. Also, he said you can ?threaten? not to vote for the bond election, the Trinity, the ?American center,? but shame on you for being so short-sighted and so wrong.    And now Ed Oakley?s giving Theresa O?Donnell, director of long-range planning, a big, wet kiss for all her hard work. Fregonese is at the podium with her. All that?s left is the shouting?Angela Hunt, you?re on yer own?and the passing of a version of ForwardDallas! largely bereft of community involvement.    Mayor Laura, yer thoughts? Oh. Wait. Never mind. ? 4:50 pm John Fregonese, the proud papa of ForewardDallas!, is in the house, but has kept quiet. He?s been walking around, standing and sitting and stroking his beard, looking alternatively bored, frustrated, aghast and elated as his baby gets batted about the room.    His name has been evoked a hundred times today?sometimes positively, sometimes as a perjorative, sometimes just plain wrong. (?Freakin? Easy? has been my fave thus far, courtesy of a South Dallas property owner.)    The pro-FD?ers are up to bat now, and the room has cleared out considerably. Even the anti faction has started to leave, resigned, perhaps, to the inevitable. ?They?ve made up their minds,? Virginia McAlester, well-known local preservationist, says of the council. Nonetheless, she insists she is holding out hope for the passing of the Plan Commission?s version.    What Jim and I hope for? The mayor.  ?Robert Wilonsky

See what I mean?  Unfair Park: The Dallas Observer Blog is really a must read (unless you are obsessed with the latest celebrity sighting or restaurant closing, then you need to stick with DMag's FrontBurner).

Listening to the speakers, David McAtee, Virginia McAlester, Steve Clique, Pat White, etc., it felt like I was reliving the 80's when we were all fighting the monster City Place project (which only half-happened, thank God), fighting DART to keep light rail off the Katy and get it in a tunnel under Central Expressway and defending the Wright Amendment for Love Field. 

We were right about City Place.  The retail on both sides of the freeway would have never happened under the original Planned Development Southland wanted and got from City Council.  It would have been a massive office complex to fit the pink thing on the East side.  It was going to be a new Downtown -- just what the Central Business needed.  Now, even Southland is leaving their building for a new building in the old Downtown (which you and I are subsidizing for Lucy Billingsley with a huge tax abatement).

We were right about having DART in the Central corridor and not using the Katy (one-track) line.  The Katy Trail is now a major draw and actually stimulates development and property sales in the area.

Looks like we just delayed the inevitable regarding the Wright Amendment, but we had almost 20 years of noise abatement.  If we get another 7 or 8 years of limited flights out of Love Field, technology may resolve the matter by then with new types of carriers.  We might even find a better use for Love Field altogether by that time.

Back to the Comprehensive Plan.  Angela Hunt just rocked during her comments. 

The last person to speak to the council was Princess Velveeta Lill (former councilwoman), who started by mentioning how many days it has been since she was on the city council.  Doesn't that sound great:  former councilwoman Lill?  She is still a pedantic, puffed up bag of wind.  There was no reason for her to speak because her side (the Freaking-Easy side) had it all locked up.  She didn't identify herself as a paid consultant or lobbyist, but that's the only explanation for her being there and pointing out how long it's been since she bored us to tears as a council member.  Anyway, she alienated her former base of supporters on Wednesday.  That must mean she's given up her dreams of running for County Judge of the Commissioner's Court, or for Mayor or Queen of Egypt.

The people who were there against Freaking-Easy's plan are the Who's-Who of East Dallas and Oak Lawn/Turtle Creek.  They are the only people in town who even know Princess Velveeta, and they will not forget what she said and did Wednesday.  That's good news.

I was disgusted with the tone of council comments supporting Freaking-Easy's plan. 

Bill Blaydes was clearly trying to endear himself with Black voters in South Dallas, which indicates he has not abandoned his impossible dream of running for mayor. 

Elba Garcia pretty much called Angela Hunt a liar by taking forever to respond point by point to Hunt's call to arms about the Comprehensive Plan (see Councilwoman Angela Hunt), which DallasArena.com and several websites posted.

Ed Oakley was just ridiculous, trying to convince those people in the audience that he knows more than they do about anything. 

Councilman Fantroy played the Southern Sector vs North Dallas card (as in race card). 

Those mayoral wannabe's (excepting Fantroy, who keeps reminding us he's on borrowed time to do God's work) pretty much killed any chance they ever had at being elected citywide for dog catcher.  That's good news.

When Angela Hunt ran for council, I supported Candy Marcum (big mistake) and then Hunt's opponent in the runoff.  I didn't know Hunt personally, but her relationship with Princess Velveeta was enough to make me look elsewhere.  Like a lot of people in Oak Lawn, I wanted Districts 2 and 14 divided at Central Expressway, rather than splitting up East Dallas and Oak Lawn/Turtle Creek into two districts that dissected neighborhoods and communities of interest.  Princess Velveeta did not want to give up her rich arts patrons on Turtle Creek.  Her suck-ups (Cay Kolb, Neil Emmons, Judith Herst Smith, etc.) backed her and Mad Max Aaronson's efforts to keep Oak Lawn neighborhoods under-represented at City Hall.  They were not happy with what Lill had to say Wednesday.  That's good news.

I could be wrong because my brain just clicks off whenever I hear Mad Max Aaronson's voice, but I think she was taking Lill's side.  Aaronson spoke during the pro-Freaking-Easy time, but so did Joyce Lockley who spoke FOR the CPC Version.  If anyone understood what Aaronson said differently, please let me know.  If she was siding with Lill against Hunt, that is truly interesting news.

As I said, Angela Hunt just rocked.  Hunt was dramatic, without any of the theatrics we suffered from Princess Velveeta.  Hunt was emotional, without any of the fakeness of Princess Velveeta.  Hunt was articulate, using multi-syllabic words when necessary, but mostly speaking very plainly and firmly.  She didn't say "Input doesn't mean a damned thing if it's not incorporated into the final plan".  She said "Input doesn't mean a damn thing if it's not incorporated into the final plan".  She didn't stutter.  "Damned" is not the same word as "damn". 

She would pause, catch her breath and just cut her colleagues some new body cavities.  I would have loved to have been there to watch her body language and the rest of the council (except Mitch Rasansky) squirming and frowning.

Because Hunt was grateful to Councilwoman Koop for an amendment she was to make (after WRR left the hearing), I guess we should cut Linda some slack -- but not much.  She's so smart, and I'm so disappointed Linda's such a team player.  I knew she would not be a maverick like Paul Fielding, but I really thought she would be more independent than she is.  That's not good news.

If you don't care about zoning or land use, all of this probably is no big deal.  If you own property in the city of limits of Dallas, Texas, you better start caring about zoning and land use.  The Freaking-Easy Plan that the council passed is going to be a killer for North Dallas.

Unless you struggled to listen to Weeping William Blaydes, you missed his response to a woman who is worried about the impact on her near-Northwest Highway home and neighborhood (Bluffview).  To paraphrase, he said 'Yeah, MY  home is safe from Freaking-Easy because I didn't buy near Northwest Highway.  If you buy near a highway, you are stupid and deserve for your council to stick it to you."  Never mind that she pays buckets full of property taxes that get wasted and could get more bank for her tax bucks living outside our city limits.  Never mind that City Hall has allowed and encouraged development right up to Northwest Highway's easement. 

Blaydes pretty much sums up City Hall's attitude toward Dallas homeowners -- you invest in Dallas, you take your chances. 

It's the same attitude they have toward Love Field area homeowners.  You invest in Dallas under a 30 year old contract the city has with Ft. Worth, you take your chances that new people at City Hall will break the city's municipal word, not only with Ft. Worth but with Dallas homeowners who bought their homes with the protection of the Wright Amendment in place.

Just goes to show you -- you can't trust MOST politicians.  That's old news.

I'm going to try to make some time this weekend to actually watch the repeat of the council meeting on cable.  I don't know for sure what happened or what the council finally did on Wednesday regarding Freaking-Easy's Plan.  But, neither does the council know what they did.  If you think anyone but Hunt poured over every section of staff's recommended version of Freaking-Easy's Plan, there are THREE UNFUNDED String Thing Bridges I can sell you for cheap.

The fact that 12 council members ignored a recommendation supported by 13 of 15 Plan Commissioners is truly bad news.

Who do you think appoints the Plan Commissioners?  Every council member who voted against their Plan Commissioner's recommendation on Freaking-Easy's Plan pretty much tells you they don't respect the person they appointed.  The Plan Commissioners had multiple hearings and meetings and sessions regarding Freaking-Easy's Plan, and they changed it a lot.  That was good news.

City staff (not elected or appointed public officials) didn't like what they got from the citizens who volunteer their time to serve on the Plan Commission, so they refused to present the CPC's recommended version that reflected community input.  This is really bad news.

As Jim Schutze and others have said, this is the worst council we have ever had -- ever had.  Some complain because the Mayor can't form a coalition with enough of them to get her agenda through.  I say, good for Mayor Miller for not sinking to their depths.  To be a team player with this council means you have to check your common sense and integrity at the door.

Frequently, important votes at council are 13-2 with Mayor Miller and Mitch Rasansky the sole votes holding out against corrupting developers and bad projects and unmerited tax abatements to billionaires.  Doesn't make the rest of the council right and Miller and Rasansky wrong -- just shows who has the guts to stand for the right thing against all odds.

This week, Angela Hunt stepped away from the sleazy pack and voted her conscience.  As you would expect, Mitch Rasansky was the only one with the courage to stand with her in a 12-2 vote.  Mayor Miller was in Wright Amendment negotiations all afternoon, but I know she would have been the third vote with Hunt.

I don't know whether my early opposition to Angela Hunt was right or wrong.  She clearly was not as tied to or controlled by Princess Velveeta as I feared.  Velveeta was always embarrasingly unctuous toward Lordi Palmer (one of her District 14 predecessors and mentors), and I assumed Hunt would treat Lill in the same manner.  Apparently, Princess Velveeta made the same false assumption because Councilwoman Hunt has been anything but unctuous toward Lill on several matters.  That's really good news.

Speaking of news, or gossip, it's pretty much a given that Don Hill has been convinced to run for Mayor.  One of my really smart friends, who is very often right on the money, says the woman behind Hill's mayoral aspirations is none other than our favorite MPossible.  We hear Mary has been dragging Hill in front of various big donor groups and touting his potential, never mind a recent divorce or a little FBI investigation.  The fun part is that MPossible is a big backer of Sandra Dee Gary Griffith, who also is pretending to run for Mayor.  My friend says this is a Griffith/Poss scam to make sure another mayoral candidate cannot carry South Dallas. 

It's only going to get better.  It can't get worse.

sb