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Oak Cliff wants its Chilli's.
Rad Field
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03/25/04 Grandpa Jones kicks off his
campaign.
Did you get your slick mailer from the Jones Gang? What a disappointment!
Did it give you a sense of d??vu? Not to worry, it's just your short term memory
kicking in from 1998. A slick mailer promising new jobs, tourism, economic
boom times, and you get a sense of "been there and done that" -- even bought the
t-shirt.
Let's talk about the mailer before we get to the DMN's current fairly balanced
reporting on the Jonestown stadium. |
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From
Those who can't, collect data and prepare reports:
I
want to feel safe. I want Webb Chapel to look as nice on the Dallas side of
LBJ as it does on the Farmers Branch side. I want Dallas parks to look as
nice as the parks I pass in Carrollton and Farmers Branch on my way to
work. No huge sports complexes, just open spaces with walking paths and
swing sets and bridges and pavilions.
Amy H:
Amen to that! As one who lives at
Royal/Webb Chapel intersection and who spends much
of her time on the Farmers Branch side of Webb Chapel (at parks and the
library), I can attest that the difference is startling. |
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Growth, new jobs & tourism: Billions in economic impact.
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Where is the growth stimulated by Texas Stadium which was state of the art
in its early days? What about the non-development around Reunion
Arena? Then there's the open space around the Hicks/Perot arena, where
they may or may not be breaking ground for a parking garage for a
hotel/condo to add to the 65% hotel vacancy in Dallas. |
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Are those the same jobs that didn't get created by the Hicks/Perot Arena?
Janitorial? Part-time ticket takers and security and food hawkers?
It's not like they can have daily events at any stadium. Any
construction jobs will be temporary. |
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When was the last time you took a trip to any city anywhere to see their new
sports facility? Or even a sports event? |
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The Super Bowl: $300
million in economic impact.
"The Super Bowl in Houston is predicted to have brought more than $300 million
in economic growth ...." Three months later, and they don't know if it
made money or not? Look at the mess Houston's employee pension plan is in!
While they were conning the voters into supporting a football stadium to replace
the Astrodome, their employee pension has a $400 million shortfall.
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March 25, 2004, 12:12AM
Firm enters pension mire;
Consultant to assess damage, propose fixes
By KRISTEN MACK Copyright 2004
Houston Chronicle
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... taxpayers
would have to contribute an extra $100 million per year to close a shortfall
projected at $1.5 billion over the next 18 years in the municipal employees'
pension system.
Still to be addressed is
an estimated $480 million shortfall in the police pension system.
"The city needs reliable,
independent numbers to guide us in making our plans for the future," Mayor
Bill White said. ... White said the city faces a
big gap between its obligations and its financial ability to meet them.
"I think the problem is manageable if
we meet and confer with the pension board," he said.
... As part of the effort to deal with the problem, the City Council
has called a May 15 election to allow voters to decide whether the city
should exempt itself from a state constitutional amendment that locks in
accrued benefits to city employees. ... |
Sounds like they got their
optimism training from the same school that our council attended. This did
not happen over night. They knew there was a problem with the pension plan
even while they were planning and promoting the stadium to the voters. Do
you think Houston voters would have supported that stadium if they knew they
were looking at a $1.5 billion shortfall in their "municipal employees' pension
system"? Their answer: betray their commitment to city employees for
"accrued benefits".
That is truly evil thinking, but not any worse than what Our Mayor and Ted
Benavides did to police and firefighters injured on the job protecting you and
me.
Even this week, Our Mayor compares a police officer recovering from shotgun
wounds taken while trying to rescue 4 children to a sanitation worker who falls
off a trash truck. I can't believe I'm quoting Old Al Lipscomb, but Jim
Schutze says he said:
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Cops and Monsters;
Lipscomb takes high ground on cop pay, leaves Laura
low
By Jim Schutze Published
March
18, 2004 |
... Even
extreme financial need doesn't let us off the hook on certain fundamental
moral obligations. If you can't afford to slap a badge on somebody and ask
him to go take that bullet for you in the neighbor's darkened house, then
don't do it. Don't ask. Walk in the house and check it out for burglars
yourself. But if you do ask someone else to go in harm's way for you, do you
not owe a special debt when that person is harmed?
That's basically what Lipscomb said
to me when I talked to him about this last week. He had introduced a measure
before the citizens police review panel calling on the city council to
reject cutbacks on pay for injured cops and "...to assure the men and women
of the police department and their families that the people of Dallas will
not abandon them when they most need our support."
On the phone Lipscomb drew a moral
distinction between injuries that can happen to sanitation workers and
injuries suffered by cops: "People say to me, 'Well, what about the garbage
workers?' But those are accidents."
The difference, he said, is that the
public wants the sanitation workers to be shielded from danger whenever
possible. But we ask the police to go straight at danger.
"We are placing people in harm's
way," he said, "and expecting them to protect us." ... |
Frightening times when Our
Mayor who got elected on the backs of police and firefighters support and
efforts has to take a lesson in common sense from a convicted and confessed
bribe taker. She pays Rob Allyn thousands a month to advise her.
Since Young (and gorgeous) Allyn's doing such an underwhelming job on this first
leg of Grandpa Jones' campaign, Our Mayor might want to throw a few dollars at
Old Al for some on the side advice.
Major College Bowl Games: $125 million in economic impact.
We already have the Cotton Bowl. Are we supposed to spend $630 million to
hang on to the Cotton Bowl Classic?
NCAA Final Four: $110 million in economic impact.
Didn't we just build an arena that was supposed to get us playoff tournaments
(even though we knew it was too small from the getgo?
Texas-OU Tradition: $25 million in economic impact.
"Dallas Cowboys stadium would retain the Texas versus Oklahoma football game
in Dallas County ...."
Have UT and OU struck a deal with Grandpa Jones to play in his new stadium?
What good does it do Dallas hotels and taxpayers to have the Jonestown stadium
in Irving? We already have a stadium in Dallas County.
As much as we all love having the Texas-OU game in Dallas, are we supposed to
spend $630 million for a $25 million economic impact.
A Destination Attraction: America's home for competition.
"Funded by fees on rental cars and hotels ... stadium would be a year-round draw
for visitors from around the world. ..."
Baloney! The Cowboys seldom fill up Texas Stadium. As Chip Northrup
points out -- if they build a 75,000 seat stadium, we will never see local
Cowboy games on TV again because they will never have a sell out.
BarkingDogs.org has a great cartoon we are going to borrow:
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If you go to
www.BarkingDogs.org, you can order a
bunch of the "Cowboys will rob you!" bumper stickers. Or go to
www.NoJonesTax.com for their bumper
sticker.
If you caught the 6 pm interview with political guru, Rob Allyn, you probably
nodded off. His enthusiasm was overwhelmingly lacking. He would have
to get excited to have been bland. Allyn's statement was as bland as the
mailer he put out for the Jones gang.
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Cowboys promise jobs from new stadium
08:45 PM CST on Wednesday,
March 24, 2004
By DAVE MICHAELS / The Dallas Morning News |
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This week, Dallas County voters received a
Cowboys mailing that says a new team stadium would bring hundreds of
millions of dollars to the local economy.
... "The only way to get the $300 million of
economic impact that Houston got is to build a Super Bowl-quality stadium,"
said Rob Allyn, the political consultant whose company produced the
brochure.
... The mailing, which went to 100,000
voters in Dallas County, promises that a stadium would draw numerous
visitors and create thousands of jobs.
Critics do not agree. Increasing the
hotel and car-rental tax rate to pay for a stadium ? which the Cowboys favor
? could hurt the city's ability to lure business travelers and tourists,
they say.
Football stadiums create mostly
part-time, low-wage jobs, they argue, and do not spur development because
they host only eight to 10 games a year, they contend.
Mr. Allyn's "claims are very
misleading," said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College
in Massachusetts who has written books about sports business....
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Rob Allyn is a really smart guy, but he's got a creep for a client. Jerry
Jones is so unpopular that he can't sell his own pig in a poke. You know
having to stay on the side lines in this campaign is as grating to Grandpa Jones
as his having to stay out of Purcell's way on the sidelines at Texas Stadium.
Allyn will do a slick campaign, but the election will rise and fall on
whether honest voters get to the polls in numbers greater than the mail-in
ballots Kathy Neely will deliver for a hefty (even if illegal) price.
The person to watch is Our Mayor. What excuses will she use to promote the
stadium taxes at the expense of former supporters? I hope she surprises a
lot of us who were former supporters and fights for Dallas taxpayers instead of the
interests of her new friends among Our Downtown Betters (the ODB). But,
the police and firefighters already know how deep her loyalty goes when she's
building her resum? |
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Rad Field:
"Jones" is being hit pretty hard these days what with you, Avi, Capps, me,
and hopefully Allen Gwinn.
We have a great chance to defeat
the Jones heavy hitters...
Rob did
look a "bit" down during his last speech on TV
where he had to tell some more lies. I don't see how he
can work for those guys, but a million bucks has changed others in
the past. |
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She's already shafted NW Dallas by getting federal money we needed to fix LBJ
transferred to her String Thing Bridge going to Singleton.
As Chip Northrup says:
Our tax dollars
at waste. LBJ got shafted in the process, all the oxygen goes to Singleton and
Marty Frost.
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Funding for bridge preliminarily OK'd;
$60 million in
federal money pledged for I-30 span over Trinity
09:28 PM CST on Wednesday, March 24, 2004
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News |
Local
congressional officials on Wednesday preliminarily secured the bulk of a
funding request to build the Interstate 30 suspension bridge over the
Trinity River, which Dallas Mayor Laura Miller has called the "most
important public works project the city of Dallas will ever undertake."
The $60 million funding figure for
the high-profile project is very encouraging, but hardly final, said Rep.
Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, a member of the House transportation
committee.
... The bridge project's magic number is $75
million ? the amount needed in federal funding to get it built. Dallas city
officials have secured $55 million through other federal, state and private
channels.
Dallas' two U.S. senators could
provide the additional funding this year, Ms. Miller said. "I feel very
confident that we'll get it done," she said.
... "I wanted to take a balanced approach to
alleviate and remove the congestion in Dallas County," said Mr. Sessions,
who also requested $17 million for the I-635/I-35 repair project.
... House transportation committee Chairman Don
Young, R-Alaska, blasted Mr. Frost for conducting a made-for-media
conference call in January with Ms. Miller, during which he announced his
transportation allotments. Mr. Young called the conference call
grandstanding and a "good way to jeopardize a project."
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