|
Sharon Wilkins
Shane Reber
| |
08/23/04 Aesthetics vs. Sales Tax
Revenue
Attention, all Dallas residents and property owners! We are officially living in Alice's Wonderland.
No "almost like". No "it's like". I mean we are there.
We live in a city where the elitists like to attend operas so they can see each
other being "cultured". They do not like having to see each other at Fair
Park because they have to pass less than desirable neighborhoods on their way to the
concert hall where they can see each other. So, Joe Taxpayer gets to pony
up his and her hard earned dollars to build a new facility for Dallas elite to
see each other and not have to see unpleasant areas to get there.
Those undesirable neighborhoods are there because we waste our tax dollars
catering to the elite rather than on Code Enforcement and raising the salaries
of our police officers, and hiring more of them.
Here's where it gets really ironic (or ironical), did you see the pictures of
what the opera house and the performance hall are going to look like?
DallasArena.com covered it in
Who's Got the Ball?
-- Another Jonestown Massacre?
(It is a stretch from football to an opera
hall, but this is DallasArena.com.)
 |
Designs applauded, booed
Plans for center called innovative by some,
impractical by others
June 10,
2004 By TOM SIME / The Dallas Morning
News |
The
unveiling of preliminary designs for the two major venues of the Dallas
Center for the Performing Arts has drawn enthusiasm from the organizations
that will perform there and some puzzlement from the public.
... the unveiling of the designs for a
black-tie crowd at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center on Tuesday
... Richard Hamburger, artistic director of the
Dallas Theater Center, praised Rem Koolhaas' striking vertical design for
the Charles and Dee Wyly Theatre
... Architect Brooks Howell of Houston, who
attended Tuesday's event, was more cautious.
... Debbie Higgins of Dallas was more harsh.
"Frankly, the opera house looks like it belongs at Disney World," she wrote
in an e-mail. "And the theater is one of the ugliest buildings I've ever
seen."
... Community activist Sharon Boyd said the
buildings aren't suited to the climate. "We need to
require any architect doing a major building in Dallas to spend
a summer here," she said by e-mail. "They would
then use less glass on the building and less cement on the ground."
Mr. Howell agreed that the operable
glass windows of the Winspear Opera House, "while appropriate in Northern
California, [are] not particularly practical in Dallas."
... |
So tell me, why a big ugly, glass box that will
drain our future budgets to maintain and keep cool is a striking design
and a Super Walmart that will generate millions in sales tax revenue is something
to be banned from the city?
It's spooky to find myself agreeing with John Loza and James Fantroy,
but they can't always be wrong. What in the world were the majority of the
council thinking by posing a moratorium on building new retail stores in Dallas
-- no matter what the size?
This all started because Walmart is going into
a former upscale (that failed) shopping center in North Dallas.
Imagine that! Building a big retail store in a shopping center with acres
of existing parking and paved surface -- not into a
neighborhood, not on unpaved land, not next to some historic structure (not that
we have many).
|
|
|
Politiklish:
Just when I thought our city council couldn't become more
incompetent, this stupid moratorium passes.
Big box stores generate
revenue, jobs and economic development for the city of Dallas.
I hate
having to drive to Plano to shop at a Khol's,
Costco or Walmart SuperCenter.
It would be nice to have these stores on Central Expressway south of LBJ.
I understand the traffic woes in Far North
Dallas, but is it fair to deny the opportunity for the rest of Dallas to
reap the economic benefit of big box stores?
|
|
Whatever happened to the notion of giving people what they want?
We want
the convenience of buying lots of stuff at one time in one store. I use
"we" because I actually don't much like to go to Walmart. If their pet
food were not so cheap, I would likely not darken their doors more than a couple
of times a year. I dearly love Target, and I make excuses to go to Home
Depot, both big box stores.
Oak Lawn was my home for almost 30 years, and we had that same bias against "pad
restaurants" and big stores. So, CityPlace put their retail on the East
side of Central. Oak Lawn has all these little high priced boutiques that
go in and out of business because they are too small to generate a lot of income
and they are under parked.
Now, Princess Velveeta thinks that everyone in Oak Lawn walks because that's
what her little clique tell her. One look at the group she
prefers over Oak Lawn Committee members will immediately confirm
they are not walkers. Neither are most Oak Lawn residents, who
drive to the grocery store, the drug store and the hardware store.
All that has happened in Oak Lawn is that it is now too pricey for many
long-time residents to live there anymore. |
|
|
Polly Hill -
Big
boxes for shopping: Wait'n for Wal-Mart in
vacant Downtown.
Council tells retailers 'We
don't want you.' Council tells shoppers
with buying power to move to the surbs and shop
there.
When I'm in the metroplex, I now shop in Fort Worth.
The only time I go to Dallas is to repair vandalism on
my properties, or to answer a city
citation -- even though My property is the only
building on the block with a security light
burning in the parking lot in the past 30 years.
Editor's Comment: Polly lives in Abilene and owns apartment and
commercial properties in Dallas -- and pays Dallas property taxes.
|
|
Princess Velveeta's prot??(some call her the M Streets Mussolini) led the
vigilantes who imposed a Conservation District limiting what people can do
with their own property, even people who owned their homes BEFORE the
Conservation District. Drive down Central and look at the great new two
story structures that went in before the M Streets CD. Those are what Princess Velveeta's prot??hates and has banned from
her domain. Those new houses are very urban and upscale and accommodate the lifestyle of the
people who own them.
By banning "big box stores" in Dallas, the council is forcing families to
spend their sales tax generating dollars in Farmers Branch and other adjacent
cities who welcome big stores in their cities.
This is such a dumb idea it would have to get better to qualify as
short-sighted. |
|
|
Michael
Davis:
Are these elitists serious?
Please don't tell me that glass
cube thing on the Dallas Center for the
Performing Arts website is what they want to build Downtown.
I am speechless. It is hideous..
I live in just outside Oak Lawn (Cedar
Springs, south of Love Field).
We don't walk anywhere. I drive
every place I want to go. I'm not sure who these "walkers" are either.
|
|
Oak Lawn is a microcosm of what's happening in Dallas. One of the most
popular and long-lasting restaurants in the area is Uncle Julio's. It's a
"pad restaurant", and it's what people want. One of the most successful
and enduring retail businesses in Oak Lawn is Elliott's Hardware -- a big box
store with a great big parking lot. People drive from all over the County
to spend a couple of hours there.
Middle class people are packing up and moving out of Oak Lawn. Same thing
has been happening in the city as a whole.
There is a real snob thing among the elitists and wannabee's like Princes
Velveeta. They want things to look like some quaint little town that
exists only in their imagination. Once upon a time, Dallas may have been
quaint -- back before we had gladiolas in every restaurant in town. We had
an image. It may not have fit our betters from Chicago or New York, but it
was our style. |
|
|
Officer CS:
Was I the only one who heard the.
Mayor whining about Walmart?
She didn't hate them because of their
size or their prices. She made a public
statement how she hates Walmart because they underpay their employees and
don't give decent benefits.
Gee, I guess I've been working for
Walmart all these years.
Seems to me, the Mayor has been
following Walmart's lead in how to treat employees.
|
|
Women dressed up to go Downtown, not just to work but to shop. Dallas
women were known for their big hair and coordinated outfits. Men wore
blue/white striped seersucker suits or khaki suits in the summer, because
it's hot here. School children were taken to symphony concerts at Fair
Park two or three times a school year. Oh, yes, we shopped Downtown.
You know what changed our shopping habits? When the current Savior of
Downtown Raymond Nasher built NorthPark shopping center, it all started
changing. Then we stuck those sky bridges up above the streets and dug
those tunnels below the streets and took the people away from the remaining
retail stores Downtown.
Greed and bad planning put an end to Downtown retail and taught people it was
more convenient to hit one big store near their home with lots of various
products (albeit limited selections) than to drive from one little hardware
store with limited selections to a small clothing store with limited selections
to a linen store, etc., etc., etc.
Even when a developer builds something like West Village that tries to fit the
wants and restrictions of elitists and Princess Velveeta's prot?? City Hall
comes back and hits them with all kinds of regulations they cannot meet.
You cannot build a quaint, semi-historic looking shopping center and still have
it meet ADA standards that did not exist in the era conservationists want to
copy. City Hall requires them to meet sign standards that make no sense in
that locale.
Look at the chaos of Deep Ellum. Leaking sewer lines below businesses.
Twelve assaults (beatings, shootings, etc.) this year. Most of those
assaults occurred after Midnight as the patrons were on their way back to their
cars which were parked in obscure places because THERE IS LITTLE OR NO PARKING
in Deep Ellum -- but, it looks very hip and cool and urbane.
Back when Our Mayor was Laura Miller (before she got swapped for a Stepford
Wife), she decried the fact that she and several others on the council were
"housewives". Lois Finkelman took great offense, so DallasArena.com
created the nickname "Housewives Extraordinare" for Finkelman, Sandy Greyson,
Veletta Lill and Mary Poss. It's time for a business woman to serve on the
council to show people we are capable of making sensible decisions. By
that, I mean a business woman like Candace Marcum who was born a woman.
Donna Blumer was not offended to be labeled a housewife, so she was exempt from
the nickname. Besides, Donna Blumer is truly extraordinary and beyond
nicknames.
Back to our Dallas image. DMN has an outstanding editorial that must have
been written by Victoria Loe-Hicks because it is so sensible:
|
|
Warts and All: Houston touts its
disadvantages
Editorial Page,
Monday, August 23, 2004 |
We learn again from Dallas' big sister down
the interstate, this time in the area of sloganeering.
Houston already has been instructive
on how to compete for the 2012 Olympics, how to attract and host a Super
Bowl, and how to build domed stadiums (three of them, two downtown).
Now some Houstonians are coming to grips
with the folly of trying to excite the populace with national image
campaigns about the city. Stay awake here for a recitation of Houston's
official slogan: "SpaceCity ? A space of infinite possibilities."
Last month, a competing, unauthorized
campaign began via the Internet with its own slogan, a waker-upper borne of
disarming honesty. The message: "Houston ? It's Worth It."
... The edgy directness of the campaign generates
charming expressions of fidelity and badge-of-honor bravado, judging from
the hundreds of comments Houstonians posted on
www.houstonitsworthit.com. (Warning: Some could be offensive to
Dallas.)
... They set out to give Houstonians a slogan that
would click because it feels genuine to those who know the city best.
... More than 20,000 caps, T-shirts, mugs and
other items have been ordered so far, according to ttweak's partners.
They say they have taken flak from
the city's official visitors bureau but have support from their paying
clients, including heavyweights in the Houston arts, business and political
world.
... Meanwhile, back at the Dallas Convention &
Visitors Bureau, work goes on promoting the city with our new slogan. Now,
what was that again? |
You do remember our new city
slogan "Living Large"? Is that too embarrassing?
The best hands down new slogan for Dallas is the one by Officer CS:
DALLAS, Where even the
COWBOYS will rob you.
Here's DallasArena.com's submission for our city slogan:
Dallas, Like it
or get lost!
In an effort to make nice (which DallasArena.com hardly ever does), a second
choice:
Dallas: A
class of its own!
Our Downtown Betters and their wannabee's always pine for our city to be "World
Class", DallasArena.com pines for our city to once again be "Dallas Class".
A city with strong, big buildings and structures like our historic viaducts.
A city with people who took pride in the city's appearance and their
personal appearance. A city that took care of its properties, like Fair
Park and the Cotton Bowl. A city where the majority of the population
actually grew up here, went to school here, had roots here and could care less
what anyone thought about us.
A commonality that makes Ft. Worth, San Antonio and Houston special is that they
never tried to import their image and make their city look like someplace else.
They like what they have and who they are.
 |
|
People in Houston build whatever they want,
wherever they want and don't give a hoot about a rivalry with some out of
state mess like New York. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
People in San Antonio make a fortune off their
city's heritage. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
People in Ft. Worth like being Texans and don't
elect people to office who don't. |
One thing I like about
Councilman Steve Salazar (who beat me soundly in our council race) is that he is
really "Dallas". He wants retail in Oak Cliff and West Dallas, including
big box stores. His home base never had the "quaint" boutique shops that
are so dear to Princess Velveeta and her M Streets prot?? Instead, West
Dallas, Arcadia Park, etc. had mid-size grocery stores with limited but
over-priced stock. Do you know West Dallas did not have running water
until the mid-50's? Getting by was a much bigger issue than aesthetics.
When Steve meets with community groups (which he is doing a lot more this time
around), he doesn't talk about aesthetics. He talks about getting us more
police recruits out of the Academy graduating classes, about getting good
retailers into our areas and limiting bad businesses that plague neglected
neighborhoods. Steve knows he's in Dallas and did not vote to ban big box
stores from our city.
Why is a city with a slogan "Living Large" denying its residents the opportunity
to shop in large stores and keep their sales taxes in Dallas?
Why is a city that is spending millions on a big glass box for the arts to
accommodate the elite denying regular folks the right to shop in a big box
store?
Why is a city strapped for cash and begging for retail Downtown denying big tax
revenue sources an opportunity to serve Dallas residents?
This council's slogan for Dallas would be:
Dallas, Keep
your money to yourself and watch us drown in debt.
sb
| |
|
