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Stan Aten
Citizen D
Spinzone
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01/01/03 The more we repeat history.
If you haven't got a copy of Darwin Payne's "Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an
American Supercity in the 20th Century, Revised Edition", you might want to make
that a must do for 2004. "Big D" is so well written.
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In October, I
wrote about some people thinking that Dallas needs a
Red Light District. I quoted
extensively from "Big D" about the city's previous two red light districts
and their negative impact on the city, and who did what to break them up. |
That piece was in response to the Mayor suggesting we might need to move all the
sexually oriented businesses into one area, possibly the old Naval Air Station.
Of course, Grand Prairie would be really pleased to have that stuff near them.
Now, that great intellect Wick Allison is calling for a new red light district
in Dallas. The jerk lives in the Park Cities, so he considers most of
Dallas as trashy and just an area to drive through on his way to where the
better people like him reside. A friend called this little bit of
stupidity from D Magazine
to my attention.
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Five Great Ideas for
Dallas
Some we borrowed, some we stole, and one we came up
with by ourselves. From building an airport in South Dallas to a minor
league baseball team to creating a red-light district (seriously), these are
five ideas that can make Dallas better. |
FIVE:
Create a Red-light District
It seems every day
brings us another news story about homeowners protesting the relocation of
a topless bar to their neighborhood (see PT?s Gentleman?s Club and Club
Silk). But someone must want the bars;
otherwise they wouldn?t be so profitable. And owners have no choice but to
seek new locations because the city code forbids ?sexually oriented
businesses? from operating within 1,000 feet of each other.
We say change the code. Cluster the topless bars in a red-light district.
We suggest a stretch of Northwest Highway in West Dallas, beyond Bachman
and near Irving. It?s accessible by I-35, there isn?t a residential
neighborhood for nearly a mile, and several premier strip clubs already
inhabit the tract, including the Lodge, Baby Dolls, and the Men?s Club.
We?ve had one before. Frogtown was in the West End in the late 1800s and
kept many of the city?s bordellos and burlesques concentrated and removed
from citizens? day-to-day lives. It failed due to general lawlessness, but
a new district would be regulated by City Hall.
?Troy Slonecker
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Good ole' Wick is a wannabe
ODB. So, him calling for a red light district and more bars and no zoning
laws (like he said at a recent Greater Dallas Planning Council meeting) means
Our Downtown Betters must think sanctioning whorehouses is good for Dallas
business.
Apparently, I have someone's attention about all this sex club business because
the Dallas Observer
is now taking note. I mean -- I rated 2 entries in their 2003 review.
That's a pretty big deal. Don't get mad -- this is funny, funny stuff.
And, NO, it wasn't me at the Nasher event. I haven't been to see the
collection yet. I'm OK with naked statues, so long as they aren't touching
the art patrons.
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Sob Story:Buzz
sheds a tear for 2003
BY PATRICK WILLIAMS
dallasobserver.com | originally
published: January 1, 2004 |
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October-December . . .
No peeking: Dallas
city officials consider a proposal that would outlaw lap dances and
any form of physical contact between customers and dancers at the city's
numerous strip clubs. "These are whorehouses," community activist Sharon
Boyd tells Observer columnist Jim Schutze. "For somebody to say he
has a right to a lap dance, well, no, he doesn't. If it's something he
wants, then he needs to get his wife or girlfriend to do it." A
representative of the city's sexually oriented business responds that "if
wives and girlfriends did that sort of thing, we wouldn't even be in
business." News of the prospective ban soon reaches the ears of Phillip
Jones, who is found curled up in a fetal position and weeping underneath his
desk at the Convention & Visitors Bureau.
. . .
Cover up: The
long-awaited Nasher Sculpture Garden, featuring a $70 million museum
and gardens housing the $400 million sculpture collection of developer
Raymond Nasher and his late wife, Patsy, is unveiled to fanfare downtown.
Opening festivities are marred, however, when security guards catch Sharon
Boyd draping a nude bronze in a full burqa. "If men want to see that sort of
filth, they should get their wives and girlfriends to strip at home," Boyd
tells reporters. |
Back to the serious stuff,
Chip Northrup reminds us of another decision made by the ODB back at the turn
of the century that we are revisiting here in 2004.
Of course, the source is Darwin Payne's "Big D". (That's why you need to
get a copy for your own.)
"Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an
American Supercity in the 20th Century, Revised Edition" by Darwin Payne, Ch. 8,
p. 180
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"In those heady days great dreams were envisioned for the 3,300 acres of
floodplain between the levees. This acreage, as Dealey had said in his
ground-breaking speech, was to be transformed into a huge park system,
available for use except for occasional times of high water. The slanted
sides of the levees would be covered with beautiful wildflowers, especially
bluebonnets, and on the flat lands between these verdant banks would be
sunken gardens, baseball diamonds, polo grounds, golf courses, bridle paths,
archery ranges, trapshooting spaces, winding drives, and a two mile long
lake with a Coney Island atmosphere. Even a landing field for airplanes was
projected for the space northwest of where Turtle Creek entered the river." |
But, the page before really
says more about how things work in Dallas.
"Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an
American Supercity in the 20th Century, Revised Edition" by Darwin Payne, Ch. 8,
p. 179
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A petition signed by a majority of the levee property
owners, most of whom stood to make substantial profits with their land made
usable, authorized similarly the "private" awarding of a contract for the
levee work. . . . George B. Dealey, appropriately was the
speaker. . . . "A blot on the landscape near the heart of Dallas will
be removed, and a great industrial development will gradually follow.
Not only this, but near the heart of our splendid city there will be
developed a park containing hundreds of acres, with a clear channel in the
middle of it -- a park equal in width to ten city blocks and miles long," he
optimistically proclaimed. |
That's just rips me. What they did in 1902-1912 (the opening of the
Houston Street Viaduct) was more to enrich three major families than it
was about what's good for Dallas or the every day people who got to pay (and
still serve as indentured servants) to make
those families rich. All with the promise of a giant park near
Downtown. Another of those un-kept promises made by Our Downtown Betters.
George B. Dealey was and is synonymous with Belo Corporation and Belo is
The Dallas Managed News.
Citizen D has a clever idea for DallasArena.com readers to add to his list
of broken
promises that we have heard over the years to get us to vote for and back ODB Big
Ticket Deals that mostly benefit the ODB. After you
review Citizen D's list,
submit some other projects that were either not done, not done as
promised or cost us much more than the proponents had promised. |
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Chip Northrup:
Dealey, Moroney and Stemmons. This speaks to the
fact that bait and switch on the Trinity is a multi-generational
game. |
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Chip Northrup (Part II):
For the record, (and I'd ask you to post this),
I think Jim Mornoney III is a major improvement on
Burl Osborne.
I don't think the DMN is behind the
political confidence game on the Trinity. I
just don't think they've done their best to separate fact from fabrication. |
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Editor's Response:
We will have to disagree on this one. I believe
Belo is totally the moving force on the Trinity.
Look at their slanted coverage on the lawsuit. Whenever council
seems to be focused on something else -- Belo makes them bring
the Trinity Project back to full center.
Rena Peterson had her failings,
but Rena was great and fair and balanced as
compared to the new little twit who is now Chief
Editor -- little twit -- Rena was great. . |
I'm ready for a new day where things get done right, get done as promised and
get done for the city's benefit -- not just to enrich Our Downtown Betters and
their families.
Here's to a Happy New
Year and
a Happy New Way of doing things in Dallas.
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