Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld
                             

03/04/04   Are they playing a Br'er Rabbit on us?  Or, are some folks lost in the 80's?

Little quiz to see if you are up on Dallas civic history, or a newcomer or oblivious to to who has run our city into the ground for the last 25 years of so:

Here we are in 2004 with another divisive election campaign (not the Presidential or the District 3 Congressional races) looming on the horizon.  We are facing an election worse than the arena sales tax election where Con Jerk sold a bill of goods for Ross Perot, Jr. and Tom Hicks.  Compared to Grandpa Jones, Perot and Hicks were relatively obscure rich guys.  We were still able to make the election about the Robber Barons wanting to rip off Joe Taxpayer, and we almost won.  900 votes the other way, and we might be paving our streets and maintaining our parks and paying our city employees and booking more conventions, rather than driving past a big airport hanger with great expanses of parking spaces and none of Ron Kirk's promised development.

Grandpa Jones hired the best PR guy in Dallas, Rob Allyn.  No doubt about it!  The guy knows the local players and has a pulse for the city.  He takes polls and usually knows how to read them.  They have taken polls about Grandpa Jones and another sales tax.  They know it is an uphill battle.  They know how people feel about that creep from Arkansas.  They also know how most voters feel about Old Al Lipscomb.

This election will be county-wide.  A small pocket of dead voters and a squad of vote harvesters won't be able to pull off another squeaker for Grandpa Jones.  Which brings me to the Br'er Rabbit scenario.

Remember how Br'er Rabbit got the Bear to carry him to his home in the briar patch by begging the Bear not to take him anywhere near the briar patch?  "Please, Mr. Bear, not the briar patch!"  That feels like what's been going on the past several months while Grandpa Jones and his clan were steadfastly opposing any suggestion of building a new football stadium at Fair Park.

The first clue was when Commissioner Price got very indignant about a Fair Park site.  He said it would not be big enough to do all the stuff Grandpa Jones has promised to build if we will only destroy what's left of our convention business and build him a new stadium on our dime.

The city owns a lot of confiscated land near Fair Park that we've taken for back taxes, etc.

So, if you are really an unpopular guy and you want something really bad, wouldn't it be smart to make people think what you truly want is the last thing you want.  If you are the smartest PR guy in town, you know how easy it is to use racial politics to score big (unless your client is Tom Dunning or Mary Poss).

You line up African-American with big names on both sides of the issue.  You put the least unpopular people on the pro-Fair Park side, and you put three of the most unpopular and polarizing people on the side opposing Fair Park as the new stadium site.  If they even know who they are, County voters don't really care about Don Hill or Leo Chaney or Thornton-Reese.  They are just Dallas politicians.  County voters know Diane Ragsdale, John Wiley Price and Old Al Lipscomb.  Many people who live in the suburbs now left Dallas because of those three politicians.

You have Old Al claiming the city will condemn homes near Fair Park to do the Jones stadium development.   After all, they did it 40 years ago!  You have Princess Diane saying Fair Park causes too much noise for the community now!  Fair Park is the epicenter of South Dallas, and she knows it.

This is a shell game that Rob Allyn is playing and we all may get sucked in.

Fair Park is the perfect location for a new stadium.  We have one there now.  We have a Midway.  We have wonderful Art Deco buildings and mature trees and landscaping and a lagoon.  We don't have the artsy crowd there much these days because they prefer to address racial issues by throwing money to "community leaders" rather than going near poor people of color.

DART will have two stations in and near Fair Park very soon.  If Our Mayor doesn't get all our transportation dollars diverted to her Trinity Project, DART may get the funds we need to complete light rail up past Carrollton and further North.  Can you imagine how many people would go to Fair Park on the weekends if they could hop on light rail and not have to park out there?  The Zoo's attendance tripled once DART put a light rail stop next to it.
 
As usual, Ace Reporter Sarah Dodd (CBS 11) caught the real action behind the press conference Councilman Don Hill staged in the Flag Room at City Hall.  Did some council staffer have to secure that podium for his political announcement?  It was definitely a pro-stadium political photo-op.  Will Lovie Lipscomb file an Ethics Complaint against Don Hill?
 

		Opposition To Cowboys Stadium at Fair Park Mar 3, 2004 5:51 pm US/Central   CBS 11 City Hall Reporter Sarah Dodd
	As Dallas city leaders push for Fair Park as the site for a new Cowboys stadium... There is opposition emerging.     Some residents and community leaders are raising serious concerns.     Initially Fair Park seemed to be a welcome answer to those wanting to bring the Cowboys back home to Dallas. After all the Cotton Bowl is where the 'boys started out.     Standing with a group of south Dallas leaders, deputy mayor pro tem Don Hill announced he's supporting bringing the Cowboys back to Fair Park. Touting the promise of economic development in the area, Hill dismisses critics concerns.     ?I think that the concerns are misplaced and they should be comforted that we will be a benefit and not create any harmony that area.?     But for every new endorsement, there seems to be a detractor. Former councilwoman Diane Ragsdale who lives steps away from Fair Park says this development would devastate the area.     ?This recommendation would only open a door...negative and adverse affects of this.?     Ragsdale points out that even with the fair, people don't stay and spend their money in south Dallas. She doesn't think the Cowboys will be able to help keep money in the area either.     Former council member Al Lipscomb raises another issue...warning of what he calls a potential "land grab"     ?You?re talking about putting a development of this size.  Where are they going to be??     They say these houses on the east side of the park are close enough that the city could try to use imminent domain to take their land.     40 years ago the park expanded into neighborhoods, and council member Leo Chaney says he understands the concerns. But still thinks this is a good opportunity to bring jobs to the area.    ?If we can replace the Cotton Bowl. I think it's a win win.?     Every council member we spoke with today says if Fair Park were chosen, the city would not use imminent domain to take property.     But the Cowboys tell us they are still evaluating "if" there's enough land at Fair Park to do the stadium and an entertainment complex.

Here's what Grandpa Jones and Rob Allyn are cooking for us.  They are pretending the African-American community is split over the Fair Park issue.  If and when they announce the Fair Park site is the preferred site of the Jones clan, there will be a coming together of the pro- and anti-Fair Park teams in the spirit of "community unity".  Then, anyone who opposes the sales tax for a new stadium for Grandpa Jones is a racist who doesn't want to see new development and activity in South Dallas -- the Southern Sector.

If they pick another site than Fair Park, the same two pro- and anti-Fair Park teams will come together to support that location and the stadium out of appreciation for Grandpa Jones protecting the South Dallas community from hordes of people spending money in that part of the city.  Then, anyone who opposes the sales tax for a new stadium for Grandpa Jones is a racist who really wanted to wipe out the South Dallas community.  Slick!

One little ex-con who lives with his Mother is already calling me a racist because I support the Patriot Act.  Like I am really concerned about what some little Momma's boy thinks about me.  He's going to have a field day if they actually pick Fair Park and still try to levy another sales tax on the hotel/motel industry and car rentals.  Nothing that happens at Fair Park with or without a stadium is as important to this city's financial future as is our convention business.

This voter will not support a sales tax levied on car rentals or hotels and motels in Dallas or Dallas County.  I will support user taxes (tickets, parking and locker rooms) at the stadium. 

I will support a Tax Increment Financing District (a TIF) for stadium-related development if it is at Fair Park.  The land is off the tax rolls now with no likely new development in our lifetime, so we lose nothing by letting Grandpa Jones build a hotel and a shopping mall near his stadium.  TIF's were intended to stimulate development in blighted and declining or undeveloped areas, and South Dallas certainly meets all of those standards.  The area where the Hicks/Perot arena is built was booming before anyone even contemplated a new arena, much less plopping it down where it is.

Patrick Williams of the Dallas Observer interviewed me (The More Things Change) because it's clear DallasArena.com is probably not Our Mayor's favorite reading these days.   He correctly catches my concern that Our Mayor will eventually support the sales tax that Rob Allyn wants to get passed for Grandpa Jones and his clan.  After all, Rob Allyn is her PR consultant, too.  She certainly respects his opinion more than anything the people who supported her campaign might say.

Jim Schutze takes the issue even further (Lysol Miller Enough with the Martha Stewart act. Fix some potholes, will ya?) and compares Our Mayor to Martha Stewart.  I still like Martha Stewart.  Schutze does have a point about Our Mayor nitpicking and prettying up the house when there are holes in the walls, ceilings and floors.  It's like Our Mayor's crocheting doilies to cover up the potholes.

What fun we are going to have in this city for the next year or so!