Rad Field
Michael Davis
Judd Bradbury
                             

04/28/05  ... and we don't yet have a Strong Mayor!

If you are in doubt about what will happen if the Blackwood strong-arm mayor proposal passes, you might want to visit with Harlan Crow.  Of course, if you move in the circle that gives you entr? to Harlan Crow, you are connected to Our Downtown Betters (the ODB), and you have likely already had a conversation with Harlan.

If you wonder just how far Our Mayor will go with her power should the Blackwood proposal pass, read this story from DMN's ace reporter, Dave Levinthal:

Miller-Crow clash could decide tax zone; Vote might be delayed on Trinity proposal that could aid hotelier Wed., April 27, 2005 By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

Mayor Laura Miller wants to build a tax-subsidized Dallas Convention Center hotel, which she says would help revitalize the city center's sputtering tourism industry.    "It's our No. 1 priority for downtown," she said.    Wyndham Anatole hotel owner and Dallas real estate magnate Harlan Crow wants to block the hotel's construction, which he says would further dilute a weak hotel market.    "It'll be bad for the city, ..." he said.    So today, when the City Council debates whether to create a tax increment finance reinvestment zone on the banks of the Trinity River northwest of downtown ? which would include Mr. Crow's Wyndham Anatole ? Ms. Miller says she'll fight to delay a vote, if not to scuttle the zone plan altogether. ... Further souring matters between these captains of government and industry is the mayor's claim that Mr. Crow has lobbied state lawmakers to repeal part of Dallas' hotel tax earmarked for the proposed convention center hotel. ... "He's trying to kill the subsidies for our priority hotel, and he made it clear to me that he's going to do everything he can to kill the tax." ... "I don't know of any such plans," he said ....    What bothers Mr. Crow, he said, is that the mayor, during several discussions in recent months, "told me that in her mind, the two issues are not tied together," meaning the tax increment finance district and Dallas' hotel tax. Now she's going back on her word, he said. ... Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill, ...  "The Crows love this city, and they're very committed to this city. We should be careful of how we handle them from a public standpoint. And we need to keep in mind this will be the first significant development along our Trinity River Project." ... As for the convention center hotel, it's far from a done deal.    The council is also scheduled to discuss negotiations the city and Dallas-based Woodbine Development Corp. have entered in hopes of building the proposed 1,000-room Marriott on Griffin Street between the Dallas Convention Center and Young Street.

I assure you a convention hotel is NOT "our" No. 1 priority of residents near Walnut Hill and Brockbank, but then Our Mayor doesn't know we exist, much less what would be our No. 1 priority.  Our councilman knows we want sidewalks and gutters on Brockbank.  Our councilman knows we want to see more police cars on our neighborhood streets. 

Mayor Miller wants a convention hotel, her wants do not make a convention center "our No. 1 priority".  She is already thinking in the monarchial mode -- that she thinks for us and her wants are "our" wants.

Ask the Stemmons Business Corridor folk if building a convention hotel Downtown is their No. 1 priority, or if their No. 1 priority would be to improve the area around the market center's anchor hotel. 

As a journalist and a councilwoman, Our Mayor was a major critic of Ray Hunt and his alter ego, Woodbine Development Corp.  She frequently railed against his sweet deals at City Hall - like giving away valuable city owned land for his expansion of Reunion Hotel.  As Our Mayor, she now champions an even sweeter and slimier deal for Hunt/Woodbine.   Rather than tax abatements and outrageously one-sided land swap deals, she now wants us to build an entire hotel for a Billionaire she once considered the Anti-Christ. 

This is what even the hint of a strong mayor system will do for our city.  Those who have Our Would Be Queen's ear will see their projects funded and approved.  Those who cross her, no matter how wealthy and connected they may be, will see the back of her hand.

I have been opposed to the Blackwood proposal from the beginning because there is not one city that has the strong mayor system that has not seen graft, corruption and sweetheart deals. 

Democracy is a much more tedious process than a dictatorship, whether benevolent or not.  Including the people's representatives (our council members) in the decision-making process is also less efficient than one person making all the decisions.

The problem with monarchies, dictatorships and strong mayor systems, inevitably a weak mind gets the throne.  Worse, an evil crook gets the throne. 

		I don't think Laura Miller is evil or weak minded.  I think she has lost her way, and is too proud to turn back to her friends who might speak the truth.  That's another problem with monarchies, the only people who get close to the throne are those who flatter the monarch and answer her questions with what she wants to hear.

In the olden days, our mayors knew how to pick their battles and with whom to do battle.

Speaking of olden days, sage Joe Martin had this little reminder for us:

Isn't that interesting?  A liberal Democrat carrying water for two arch conservative Republicans?  1991?  That would have been early into 14-1.  That would have been under the reign of Steve Bartlett as mayor, who forced Jan Hart Black (our last good city manager) to seek employment in the private sector.  So, a liberal Democrat was really carrying water for a former Republican Congressman who had returned to Dallas on Ray Hunt's orders to run for Mayor.  This is getting curiouser and curiouser. 

Then there's Our Mayor's race-baiting of late.  She called Terrell Bolton an idiot, and you can hardly dispute the accuracy of that statement.  The problem is she's the Mayor, and she has a responsibility to be a little more circumspect in her public statements.  If she could clean up her profanity to be a mayoral candidate, you know she is constantly aware of the words she uses.

If you think Laura Miller did not intend to stir up controversy and outrage in the Black community by calling that idiot Terrible Bolton an idiot, she's got a couple of string thing bridges to sell you.

That stunt at Wednesday's council meeting was bought and paid for by the Park Cities Cabal.  If you are a North Dallas white voter, you were immediately reminded that "those" Black people are supposedly against the Blackwood proposal.  By the same token, it was obvious that the "pretty White Lady Mayor" is for the Blackwood proposal.

This is plantation politics at its worst.  You have a limousine liberal overseer with an agenda who needs to keep the poor folks digging and fetching while all the profits are skimmed off the top and to be spent entertaining the ruling class.  Since the limousine liberal overseer can't be expected to actually mix with field hands and servants, she needs to have managers like Old Al, Lee Alcorn, et al, to keep the workers in their place.

It was a little hard to buy her act of throwing Alcorn and his cohorts out of the council chambers when they demanded an apology from her for calling an idiot an idiot.  Just a few weeks ago, she sat smiling calmly while Old Al Lipscomb compared her to Hitler.  Old Al didn't get thrown out on his ear.  Another staged race-baiting event designed to get White North Dallas voters to support the Blackwood proposal.

Someone at City Hall needs to call Our Mayor out on this stuff.  It needs to be a White council member, but I doubt any of them will dare.  You would think one of the out-going members would have nothing to lose by standing up to the Mayor's race-baiting, but it's a little late for Princess Velveeta or Lois Finkelman to start showing character.

I have been against the Blackwood proposal from the beginning, as was Our Mayor. 

For the past few nights, I've been calling District 6 voters in my area to get them to vote FOR Steve Salazar and AGAINST Blackwood.  One retired Lt. Col. told me he was voting NO to Blackwood because of something he learned while he was in the service at a management seminar -- you can't trust anyone.  He said he's voting NO because you can't trust giving any politician as much power as Blackwood's proposal bestows on the Mayor.

If I'm not mistaken, Harlan Crow was a big contributor to Our Mayor's campaign.  He probably also wants to know what happened to Laura Miller.  He probably wants to know when a convention center hotel became our No. 1 priority when just a couple of weeks ago the Trinity Project was our No. 1 priority.

That's the danger of any strong mayor system.  Your priority may be high on Our Mayor's list today, but who knows where you and your priority will rank tomorrow. 

Our Mayor isn't just having a power struggle with Harlan Crow, she's having a power struggle with herself.  Apparently, someone keeps reprogramming our Stepford Mayor and her memory bank is having difficulty prioritizing her priorities.

sb