06/23/04  Send Me Some Money Loza sticks it to another neighborhood.

Now, no one can accuse DallasArena.com or Sharon Boyd of being pro-apartments.  I live in Northwest Dallas where we are plagued with run down, over-populated and under-inspected apartment complexes.  We have those monstrous 3 story, balcony things surrounded by parking lots with a scraggly crape myrtle or bush desperately clinging to life.  Many of our apartment buildings are controlled by drug gangs, but some owners try to run their properties decently.

For almost 30 years, I lived in Oak Lawn and served on the Oak Lawn Committee for much of that time.  The OLC was organized in part to defend residential neighborhoods from the wrecking ball of developers who were sticking office buildings and small apartment buildings on what had been a single family lot.  We developed a plan to encourage density while preserving single family neighborhoods.  Land values soared and quality projects got built.  If you like a busy, urban environment, you will love Uptown (McKinney Ave area) and Turtle Creek and Oak Lawn. 

It got a little too crowded for me and my dogs, so I bought a house further North where I only have to contend with hookers, massage parlors, sex clubs and non-conforming businesses -- all operating under certificates of authority issued but non regulated by City Hall. 

Some of those "little things" Our Mayor once thought "make a big difference in people's lives."

Just in case you didn't pick up on this particular line:

Her vision has really changed since she drank the water at City Hall and caught Big Ticket Fever.  It doesn't even embarrass her.  Look what Our Mayor is saying now:

Miller says vision growing broader: 'Big, big announcement' planned for mayor's State of City address Wednesday, June 23, 2004 By DAVE LEVINTHAL and EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

Her Honor's priorities were definitive.    Improve parks and pave potholes. Save swimming pools and redouble policing efforts. Elevate essential resident services over big-dollar public projects.    That was Mayor Laura Miller more than 16 months ago when she delivered her first State of the City address. Today ...  And by her own admission, her priorities have changed.    "I have evolved into realizing that if we don't have a big vision ... we will continue to be in a cycle of stagnant development and increasing need and increasing population," Ms. Miller said. "I certainly have a broadened approach to governing." ..."I have no idea what she's going to say because I don't know her anymore," said Sharon Boyd, a community activist in northwest Dallas who once ranked herself among Ms. Miller's fervent supporters. "She's turned her back on the communities that supported her the most. She doesn't call us; she doesn't talk to us. And she's so far afield from those basics she touted."...

Excuse me?  It's been City Hall's focus on "a big vision" for the last 30 years that has us in this mess.  What Our Mayor considers "evolved" looks much more like she's been "assimilated" by the Borg.  She is no longer one of us.  She uses collective speak.  She brokers no differing views and seeks no opinions that cause a dysfunction in the ODB's roboton network.

It is repetitive of me to continually compare the quality of life in Farmers Branch and Carrollton to Dallas, but it is particularly relevant today.  The reason Carrollton and Farmer Branch are so well managed and have a budget surplus are because they stick to the "little  things that make a big difference in people's lives". 

Our Mayor has become as shameless a suck up as Send Me Some Money John Loza. 

In case you don't remember how Loza got his name -- We ran John Loza as the anti-arena candidate who would not support using public funds to pay for an arena to be used by a private enterprise.  That was in May of 1997.  That Fall when I heard he had flipped, I was furious.  I went to council to speak against it (back when I still believed anyone might listen to a regular taxpayer).  John came out to where I was sitting and tried to justify betraying me.  He said "Sharon, if I go along with them on this, the guys Downtown will see they can work with me and SEND ME SOME MONEY."  To this day, I don't know whether I was more shocked that he would say something like that out loud or that I was more insulted that he would think that would be a justification that would work with me.

During the most recent redistricting, SMSM Loza's appointee to the commission (Joe Thug May) and Princess Velveeta's appointee (Mad Max Aaronson) carved up East Dallas and Oak Lawn into slivers that dissected communities and drained Oak Lawn of any representation at City Hall.  The Dallas Managed News made no noises against the gerrymandered map that resulted from their efforts.  Now, they see the results of a system that is poisoned to its very roots.

Do What's Right for Dallas: Council must end 'back-scratching' tradition Editorial Page - Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Good Dallas planning requires thoughtful City Council discussions of important zoning cases ? not trade-offs between council members.    A zoning request on the council agenda today proposes an interesting mix of retail stores and apartments along a stretch of Lower Greenville Avenue that is sorely in need of new development. First Worthing, the company proposing the development, says the $22 million project can help stabilize the area.    But odds are against the City Council approving this project because Mayor Pro Tem John Loza is opposed. The development is in Mr. Loza's district.    The City Council overwhelmingly follows the recommendation of the council representative from the district where the zoning case is located. ... First Worthing officials have lined up significant neighborhood support. Nearly every property owner abutting the site at Greenville and Lewis favors the project. The plan also has the backing of the Vickery Place Neighborhood Association ...  But Mr. Loza says he is persuaded by other Greenville Avenue area homeowners, who think the project has too many apartment units and will generate too much traffic. One of those homeowners served on the redistricting panel that kept Mr. Loza's district intact in 2001. ... the council follows old patterns of letting the representative for this district make the call.    It's time to toss out this tradition and make zoning decisions based solely on what's right for Dallas.

This particular project would actually stabilize the area.  You have to remember that Lower Greenville is overwhelmed with bars and nightclubs.  No one can call them "neighborhood bars" because the traffic and parking problems clearly indicate the crowds are not from nearby single family homes.

What happened on this deal was that someone must not have talked to Mad Max first and she got her large drawers in a twist.  Since she has Veletta Lill's ear and John Loza never listens to community leaders, Mad Max has much more influence at City Hall than she does in her neighborhood.  She is absolutely the most unpleasant and unattractive female (using that term loosely) in this entire city.  Just a disgusting excuse of a human being. 

Did I make  my attitude clear about the scum bucket Aaronson?

Update:  After paring down the project, the council sent it back to P&Z for some tweaking but for all practical purposes it was approved.  Mad Max was just disgustingly unctuous.  Send Me Some Money Loza called her his "good friend", and the two of them make a lovely couple.

Lorlee Bartos had a great DMN letter to the editor:

Letters for Tuesday 06/21/2004 Public shuns meetings when no one listens

The editors continue to lament that so few people show up for meetings ? this time with the prospective new police chief ("Hits and Misses," Saturday Editorials). Obviously, up there in your ivory tower, you are unacquainted with the facts.    As a veteran of way too many meetings, one reaches the point where you decide it isn't worth banging your head against the wall. The presenting entity ? city/council/Dallas Plan/highway department/DART ? has decided what it wants and the meetings are simply for show.    I was at a meeting where 41 of 42 of us were opposed to taking park land for a driving range in Samuell Grand Park. Have you driven by that park lately?    Recently, 35 of us signed a petition and 52 more sent letters (out of only 500 houses) and still Dallas City Councilman John Loza decided he knew better than the neighborhood and that we should get a new basketball backboard rather than the sidewalks that have been deteriorating for 50 years.    The Dallas Plan showed up with questions like: Do you want a boat ramp or a riding stable in the river bottom? What happened to the question about leaving it as simple open space?    The recent highway meeting asked: How do we accommodate all the extra cars ? not how do we get people out of their cars?    They have their answers before they come ? the meetings are simply to tell us what we are supposed to want. So don't castigate anyone for not showing up. Lorlee Bartos, Dallas

It may be time for a class action lawsuit.  State law says you can't have zoning in your city without a public hearing.  There are no hearings at City Hall.  There are only discussions where the council person over a district gives a thumb's up or down, and nothing that get said by any citizen is taken into consideration.  No amount of petitions.  Nothing!

Another citizen warrior who never gives up and never gives in is Joe Martin who furnished the following:

But then, it's been a long time since City Hall was run according to state law or even local city ordinances.  We've got council members handing out tax abatements to campaign contributors, and all sorts of mayhem at City Hall.

We thought electing Laura Miller as Mayor would end some of the corruption, but it's worse under her watch.

We thought electing Laura Miller as Mayor would give us a voice at City Hall again, but the ODB rule more completely under her watch.

We thought electing Laura Miller as Mayor would open up City Hall to regular people again, but inside connections and ward politics matter more under her watch.

We thought wrong.

sb