06/07/04  This really hurts.

For the past few months, I have been reading with great intensity Sharon Boyd?s columns about Laura Miller.

Hey, you helped me get elected Mayor. Why shouldn?t I call you?

That Laura the (former) Council Member got caught up in the same heady City Hall atmosphere that sucked in Ron Kirk, members of the City Council and just about anyone else who is elected to serve at Dallas City Hall.

Laura forgot about her populist supporters, her neighborhood supporters, her volunteers, and her friends. She became Laura the Mayor.

I am damned if I can explain the How, but the Why is obvious.

Power. Fame. Fortune.

Our Council Members and Mayor wield unreasonable power, despite the City Manager form of government. Throw in Council Districts that are more like political fiefdoms and you have no trouble understanding why some people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to run for an office that pays between $37,000 and $60,000 a year without benefits.

There are many other candidates out there every two years -  good folks who care about the City and their community. But the good ones don?t always win.

I grew up in Philadelphia, which has a Strong Mayor form of government. I was active in ward politics, college campus politics, and was an appointee to the city?s Youth Services Commission. I know the advantages and disadvantages of both systems of city government.

I knew Frank Rizzo. Frank Rizzo was a friend of mine. Laura is no Frank Rizzo.

I don?t blame Laura the (former) Council Member for succumbing to this change and becoming Laura the Mayor. I just thought she would be immune for a lot longer.

This really hurts

It hurts to write these words, it hurts to read them, it hurts to know we were fooled so badly. We all expected so much better and more from Laura the Mayor.

We thought her kitchen cabinet would be real people like you and me, people who had the neighborhood scars to show for our battles. Not people like Bob Decherd and the ODB folks, who now seem to have her under some kind of spell. Not people who want String Thing Bridges and downtown parks, instead of street repairs and code enforcement.

The last time any of the campaign worker-bees got together with Laura as a group was a breakfast in August 2002. There were probably 12 or 15 of us at that table. I don?t think any of them still talk to her on a regular basis.

I can think of only a few of her in-the-street campaign supporters who still have positive connections with Laura the Mayor today Though they still support her - with some reservations - compared to the person we thought we elected, they keep telling me, Don?t worry, she will come back to the good side of the Force, now that [fill in the blank news event] has happened.

I am still waiting.

Reality Bites, Round II

I knew during the second campaign things were not quite the same, that we were going to be in trouble, but I kept my peace. As one friend tells me,

Laura is ruthless, but not when she needs your help.

I was Laura?s campaign web master, but Laura never had the time to write the articles she promised to post on the web site. I had to beg Rob Allyn?s folks for copies of campaign flyers and photos.

[In the interest of fair disclosure, let me state here that I also built the web site for Steve Wolens two years ago. Allyn?s folks had the final say on how that site looked and operated.]

I managed Laura?s campaign volunteers database and the yard sign distribution. I knew the volunteers and what kind of hours they had available. No matter how many times I was told to get them out on the streets every day, I could not beat these folks up and force them to take time off to put signs out during the week.

About two months into the campaign, Laura called to fire me - because she was not seeing the signs in yards all around the city.

I explained (and had been explaining in e-mails) that during Campaign I, there were volunteers staying up till 4 am assembling yard sign lists, which were distributed to many more volunteers, including lots of off-duty DFD and DPD officers. They would go out to the warehouse, pick up the lists and take them all over Dallas every single day.

The enthusiasm for Laura in Campaign I was to the point of giddiness - we finally had someone who understood us, and we were not about to lose an opportunity for real change at City Hall.

During Campaign II, this enthusiasm (and many of the volunteers) was gone. We were dependent on idealistic middle-class folks who worked real jobs during the week and could only put signs out on the weekends. We probably had two or three teams of retired folks, and her paid staff, to deliver signs during the week.

Laura dumped me in favor of someone who ended up having less success than I did. Thank God Mary Poss was a non-candidate or we might have been in real trouble.

After getting dumped, I unloaded my frustration to one of Laura?s handlers. I told this person about my wish list and even sent a copy.

Not 15 minutes later, I got a reply via e-mail, which I keep to this day, telling me I was crazy for using my web mastery to manipulate Laura, and that I should keep working with my mouth shut. Or I would be sorry.

The beginning of the end

I supported Laura the Council Member to be Mayor for lots of reasons. But the most important reason was also the simplest:

If Laura was elected, then really important and positive changes would come to Lower Greenville and other neighborhoods.

Those changes could mean that many of us might not be fighting the scumbars much longer, or worry about illegal construction, or have to deal with illegal bars and strip joints.

Not a quid pro quo, just a simple political formula:

Work for the election of the candidates who believe in the same things you do, and maybe you can get the changes you want.

It?s done all the time in elections all over the country. Nothing sinister or evil about it.

My political wish list was not very long or difficult ? better code and zoning enforcement on Lower Greenville, offering to help build a database for tracking the sales of restaurants and bars selling alcohol so we could monitor the ratios, making Resident Only Parking easier to get (delete the petition fee, raise the sign fee), speak at the Belmont NA meeting (she did that), speak to my kid?s school assembly.

Pure political geek stuff.

Laura the Mayor never promised to do anything or everything on the list, and I knew it. But she read the list and said it had good ideas. She even told me I should consider running for the City Council in 2005.

Back to reality

After the election, I did not attend the swearing-in events (though I had invites) and pretty much stayed away from City Hall. There were enough things going on in my life ? and on Lower Greenville ? that made it obvious things were not going to change.

Even if I did not work this hard for Laura, I could never have voted for either Tom Dunning or Mary Poss. Not in a million years.

And I absolutely will never consider running for City Council - ever. My narrow focus (and recognition) in the Lower Greenville area would be lost in the shuffle of big-picture, whole-city issues.

When the crime wave hit Lower Greenville last  fall, the idea to invite Laura the Mayor was an unplanned spur of the moment public relations gimmick. Laura e-mailed me asking how things were going, I suggested she might come down for dinner. When she accepted the invite, I sat there and said, Damn, I better find her a place to eat at.

The event was a great success, even though the ENP we touted is now on life-support. But the media ate it up, as we hoped. And crime did go down in the area, which was good for the residents, the patrons and the businesses. I don?t regret my efforts to get the ENP back here for one single moment.

Laura the Mayor and I have traded e-mail and some phone calls on local items of note ? the crime wave, zoning issues on Lower Greenville, personal things, local development and such. I did call her Chief of Staff to complain about the phony DPD investigation, but he never returned the voicemails. I remember sending a message to her BlackBerry, asking if she knew a good lawyer - no reply.

The ignore the neighborhood leaders attitude at City Hall gave the DPD a green light to carry out political libel? using DPD staff, resources and tax money for the benefit of the scumbar owners.

And that list of suggestions I gave her before the election? Apparently String Thing Bridges are more important now.

I have notified by my own council representative that my proposed changes to the ROP law would be unconstitutional. But since the City Attorney?s staff wrote the legal opinion, they don?t have to release it under the Public Information Act.

Don?t ask about Code Enforcement on Lower Greenville ? things have gone from bad to worse, and probably won?t get any better now that many of the inspectors have been fired for fudging their reports.

So now what?

If Laura the Mayor really cared about Dallas neighborhoods, then neighborhood leaders might be more welcome at City Hall. Instead, they are hunted down like wild animals for being too loud or opinionated, daring to ask Laura to make good on her campaign promises.

You can just hear someone at City Hall saying,

We had to destroy the neighborhood in order to save it.

Many neighborhood leaders - including those who gave hours of effort or lots of money to Laura?s campaigns - find themselves being shut out and ignored at City Hall on a regular basis.

Ask the Bachman Lake folks what they think of a homeless shelter in their neighborhood (don?t ask about the money for a big Laura supporter to pay for the facility). Ask them about the new strip club on Harry Hines with the Janet Jackson-like sign out front (the one where oral sex is on the menu). Is it a bar or a strip joint?

Not even City Attorney Madeline Johnson seemed to care, until News8?s Brad Shipp showed her the video.

You already know that things are going from bad to worse out here on Lower Greenville ? Milkbar gets an SUP (but never finalizes it) and FirstWorthing?s $22 million dollar development is dumped at the City Plan Commission.

You have to be na?e to think that our Council folks are not interfering with their appointees to various commissions in order to make sure they vote the right way.

Stay tuned, it?s not over yet: A major Lower Greenville property is about to change tenants unless there is a last-minute reprieve.

If you love barscum operators who hate neighborhood residents, you are just gonna love the changes coming down the road.

This new tenant will make some of these barscum operators look like a bunch of namby-pambies who don?t know how to play hard ball.

What I learned in kindergarten did not include this stuff

I did not know that being a neighborhood activist required a sizable personal fortune stowed away in a bank account in Switzerland, no need to work on a full-time basis and pay bills, and more sharply tailored business suits than I will ever own in my life.

If I had those things, I might also have Laura's attention to solve neighborhood problems.

Heck, if I had those things I would already own the neighborhood and be making plans to install a new taxpayer-supported stadium instead of worrying about phony restaurants and not enough parking.

Would my personal life be normal and quiet, would I have a really good job, would I not be worried about how to pay my bills if I had just sat back and not become involved in what I (still) believe are important issues for my neighborhood? God, I hope not.

Do I think I will be sorry when these comments are published? Every time I say things can't get worse, another shoe drops on me. I am too numb to care anymore.

The attitude of Laura as Mayor does not bode well for residents in other neighborhoods who face similar issues - or worse - and get no help from City Hall on a regular basis.

The hottest rumor at City Hall this week is that Madeline Johnson will be the next City Manager. She is a mediocre City Attorney who has not met a lawsuit she won?t settle out of court - ask all the slumlords or the owners of strip bars on Northwest Highway.

Things will probably get worse in Dallas before they get better. With budget deficits, Johnson as a City Manager who won?t tell Laura No, and the new Cowboys stadium proposal driving conventions and tourism out of town, you have to wonder if Dallas is worth saving anymore.

Get ready, 2005 is just around the corner

The next City Council election will be a true test of Laura?s support, or lack thereof. She has handpicked four candidates to run in open council districts, getting them money and support (but no public endorsements from her, like in 2003).

Beth Ann Blackwood is a carpetbagger for District 14 and one of Laura?s Stepford Candidates. Beth Ann Who lived in the Park Cities until last year, when she moved to State-Thomas, and now she wants to be a City Council member.

She?s got Rob Allyn (who did Laura?s campaign) doing her campaign web site and her campaign mailings (they even share graphics), and a large North Dallas-based developer supporting her.

Wow, talk about dedicated, but well-financed and uninformed, public citizens who want to serve their City.

Why all the campaign shenanigans? So Laura can change the City Charter in favor of a Strong Mayor/Weak City Manager format by 2006. After a year for the transition, she would then run for Mayor in 2007 - the new council and her would be the first Strong Mayor/Council elected in Dallas.

If she doesn?t get her way on this Charter change (as happened in 2003), expect her to pull a Ron Kirk by resigning in 2006 to run for Kay Bailey Hutchinson?s US Senate seat (while Kay Bailey comes back and runs for Texas governor).

Are you better off now than ...

With the passing of Ronald Reagan, we are reminded of his rhetorical question from the campaign against Jimmy Carter, which I paraphrase here -

Are you better off now than you were two-and-a-half years ago?

In my mind, the answer is No, No, No.

The next election can?t come soon enough. I just hope we can all survive until 2007.