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Stan Aten
Ralph Goin
Rich Sheridan
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07/05/04 After a month of rain, it's
Suddenly Summer.
This is the time of year when the real people of
Dallas own this city. When it gets July hot, Our Downtown Betters (the ODB)
and their rich friends head to cooler parts of the country where they can
socialize with their equals without having to pretend they like mixing with the
rabble in Dallas.
Of course, the ODB, et al will return to deal with our little mundane world way
too soon for them and the rest of us. When they do get back to Summer in
Dallas, our nasty old budget process will be on the front burner.
There's already an $8 million shortfall -- and that is with a property tax
increase.
Remember how Our Stepford Mayor reacted when told it would cost over $100
million to bury those unsightly utility lines in the Trinity Corridor,
so future condo owners would not have their view
obscured?
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Council's $100 million dream: providing
electricity without view
May 26, 2004
by EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News |
When Dallas Mayor Laura Miller
envisions the future Trinity River project, she sees scenic parks, busy
sidewalk cafes and sold-out luxury condos.
Hundred-foot-high, tapered steel
power poles don't fit into this rosy picture. But the city's utility company
says they might have to, if Dallas wants to keep up with growing demand.
... the mayor said she would
do what it takes to remove existing electric eyesores in coming years ? even
if it means the city paying millions of dollars to bury the lines.
The City Council's dream plan
would cost the city nearly $100 million over the next six years.
City staffers ...
recommended earmarking funds from Oncor's franchise fees or adding a
surcharge to Dallas ratepayers' electric bills ? at least for a portion.
"If you have a
luxury condominium, you can't have windows looking out at big towers and
wires across their path," Ms. Miller said. "We can't have economic
development like this. At the end of the day, we're going to have to take
existing lines and put them underground."
... Mr. Gill said transmission lines are
typically buried only if there is no space for overhead lines.
... At first, the city entertained thoughts of
putting the entire line underground ? at a cost of $72 million.
... In the next three years, council members hope
to free up the Trinity River by consolidating existing lines from the East
Levee onto Irving Boulevard and converting aerial lines near the future
Woodall Rodgers Signature Bridge to underground lines. These projects would
cost a combined $24.6 million.
And by 2010, the mayor said, she
hopes to bury the power lines along both levees ? at an estimated additional
cost of $60 million.
... "Why would you build the
[Woodall Rodgers Signature] bridge and have it obscured?" Ms. Miller said.
"If we have to pay to put them underground, that's what we're going to do."
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Our Stepford
Mayor says she "would do what it takes to remove existing eyesores".
Our Stepford Mayor
will
push to get the PUC approval to allow TXU to raise our utility rates to fund
her $100 million cost to
bury utility lines in the Trinity River corridor, but
Our Stepford Mayor doesn't think we can
afford to hire 400 new police officers.
What
did Councilwoman Miller say should be done if she turned out like other
politicians who changed from "passionate
populists on the campaign trail to indistinguishable pulp in office"?
Look at Our Stepford Mayor's reaction to what experts are saying about what we
need to reduce our crime rate.
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Experts: Cutting crime will take more than
new DPD initiatives
Sunday, July 4,
2004 By
MICHAEL GRABELL / The Dallas Morning News |
Dallas has launched a flurry of
anti-crime initiatives over the past year, hoping to break a six-year streak
as the city with the highest crime rate among the nation's largest cities.
But according to experts, while
Dallas has the tools, it may be missing the blueprint to put it all
together.
... The Dallas Morning News presented 16
criminologists, policing consultants and former police chiefs with a list of
various anti-crime initiatives as well as media accounts of the crime
problem and the state of the Police Department.
... The experts say Dallas has assembled a
promising cache of anti-crime initiatives but should establish a strategic
plan, boost police morale and increase resources
if it wants to see a sharp decline in crime.
... Dallas officers have said that the ICP
program has strayed from its original philosophy to imbue all officers with
the community-policing ideal. Instead, "budget cuts,
power plays [and] political correctness" have divided the department
into officers who work in community relations and those who primarily answer
calls for service, one lieutenant said.
... He added that the community tends to rely
heavily on its ICP officers while despising the other officers.
... The City Council is awaiting the
findings of a Police Department efficiency study before deciding if it needs
to hire more officers but has proposed hiring 129.
"You're talking about doing
everything from prostitution and adult entertainment to reducing robberies
and Project Safe Neighborhoods," said Robert Taylor, chair of the University
of North Texas criminal justice department. "It's
always going to boil down to the resources."
... Ms. Miller said the city is committed
to giving police the needed resources but must do so within limited funds.
"If the efficiency study says 129 is
not the right number and says we need 400, I think that that could be a
problem," she said. ... |
Pretty strange priorities for a
populist, but more evidence we have a Stepford Mayor, not Candidate Laura
Miller who defeated Tom Dunning. The switch must have occurred right after
election night because just a few weeks later Our Stepford Mayor announced she
was betraying her biggest group of campaign workers -- DPD cops and DFD
firefighters.
Candidate Miller signed the police/firefighter petition for a referendum to get
them a 17% raise, which would have only put them in the top 1/3rd of police pay
of Dallas County municipalities -- not the top. Dallas Police officers are BELOW GRAND PRAIRIE!
Mayor Miller not only did not support their referendum as all Candidate Miller's
campaign literature indicated she would, but she led the campaign to oppose
their raise with the unenforceable promise that they would get 3 annual 5%
raises (15% over 3 years vs. 17% in 1 year) if the voters would reject their
referendum. Each year since the referendum failed, the council has
saved money by delaying that raise. Worse, all city employees have seen
their health insurance premiums skyrocket.
Our Stepford Mayor has tried to do away with "step" (tenure) raises that
encourage experienced employees to continue working for the city. She
doesn't understand how it is to the city's benefit to pay employees for not
missing work and taking their sick leave. Being from the privileged ranks,
it is difficult for Our Stepford Mayor to empathize with working people.
For cops and firefighters, their 5% raise barely keeps them even with their 2001
take home pay since their insurance premiums increased almost that much, if
not more. Civilian employees actually have less take home in 2004 than
in 2001 because they have had no raise.
When the city cannot pay its employees a competitive salary, the council should
not allow $5 million to be spent on a water park near Dead Bird Airport.
Can you imagine how much fun Journalist Laura Miller would have had covering
that misapplication of tax dollars?
Yes, it is the Park Department and they don't have to answer to the City Manager
or the Council, but the Park Department is also responsible for the Dallas Zoo.
The Park Board should not spend $5 million on a water park near Dead Bird
Airport when our zoo could lose its accreditation. Councilwoman Laura
Miller represented North Oak Cliff, and surely the Wading Pool Queen would have
put our zoo before a water park.
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Deterioration persists at Dallas Zoo
Campaign tries to shift funding to county
Sunday, June 20, 2004
By DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News |
... Zoo officials are preparing a campaign to
persuade voters to convert the zoo from a city to a county institution, from
one dependent on the city parks budget to one supported by county taxpayers.
Moreover, the incident buttressed a
public perception that the Dallas Zoo is crumbling and outdated, three years
after the zoo's accreditation was held up until officials could make $1.6
million in emergency repairs.
... the accreditation report by the American
Zoo and Aquarium Association praised some aspects of the facility in Oak
Cliff.
The accreditation team singled out
problems with infrastructure and maintenance, including deteriorating
exhibits for the elephants, giraffes and hornbills.
The report expressed concern about
slow staffing replacement and uneasiness about the depth of community
support. ...
... The Dallas Zoo never generated the support of
the city's wealthiest families the way the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony
Center or the Dallas Arboretum did, said Ron Kirk, who was chairman of the
zoological society in the early 1990s.
... Location was a factor, too. Oak Cliff is home
to many of the city's Hispanic and African-American residents.
"It's just part of the old Oak Cliff
bias," Mr. Kirk said. "People in North Dallas thought of it as over there."
... |
It's not just that we are
spending $5 million on a water park instead of our zoo, but the management
company gets all profits from the water park the first year, the city gets 3% of
the profits the second and third year, and 6% of the profits in the fourth year.
Of course, that means the water park will never be profitable. We are more
likely to spend hundreds of thousands above the $5 million, rather than seeing
any money from the park operations.
Basically, we are facing an $8 million shortfall in what we have or likely to
have in tax revenue and what we need to meet our 2004-2005 budget.
Ms. Miller said the
city is committed to giving police the needed resources but must do so within
limited funds. "If the efficiency study
says 129 is not the right number and says we need 400, I think that that could
be a problem," she said.
Our crime rate gives us the dubious distinction of being the Nation's #1 Crime Capital, which might be a serious deterrent to economic development.
If you actually consider buying a condo next to a sewer trough, your judgment
might be a little faulty. Given that consideration, even someone severely "tetched"
might find the city's crime rate more of a negative than
unsightly utility lines.
Of course, being a little person and not in Our Stepford Mayor's inner circle, I
might be more "sympathetic" if I had "seen what she has":
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Body-Snatched?
:
Did somebody steal Laura Miller?
06:47 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 29, 2004
By HENRY TATUM / The Dallas Morning News |
Her one-time political ally,
Sharon Boyd, now refers to her as a "Stepford wife."
Her former Dallas Observer
colleagues accuse her of forgetting her roots as a firebrand City Council
member who regularly criticized then-Mayor Ron Kirk for pushing big and
costly projects.
Did someone clone Laura Miller and
reprogram the new version to be in love with the Trinity River improvements
plan, downtown revitalization and a new stadium for the Dallas Cowboys at
Fair Park?
The Dallas mayor, once referred to as
the "pothole princess" because of her fixation with street repairs, is
thinking big these days to the consternation of some of her longtime
supporters.
... So was Laura Miller transformed by a mad
scientist hidden away in a lab at City Hall? No. A dose of reality did the
trick.
... The mayor could have continued down the path
of saying it's "the little things that make a big difference." But for
Dallas, that is no longer the case. This city could use something big right
now.
...
The mayor is sorry that some of her supporters
are unhappy with her new thinking about selling Dallas. But she is convinced
they would be more sympathetic if they had seen what she has.
...
Ted Benavides and numerous municipal department heads, who say she
still has her fingers in plenty of the "little things" at City Hall.
... |
I don't know what Our Stepford
Mayor has seen that would make me more sympathetic to hiding utility lines and
building a String Thing Bridge in the Trinity Corridor.
I don't know why we should put a water park near Dead Bird Airport before our zoo.
I don't know why one penny should be spent on a String Thing Bridge or millions
should be spent to hide utility lines in the Trinity Corridor when we can't
afford to hire enough police officers to keep us safe.
I don't know why Our Stepford Mayor and the rest of the ODB
feel they must flee Dallas in the summer, but it's better for us when they are
gone.
I'm a native, and Dallas summers are all I know.
sb
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