Spinzone
Officer CS
Harry Trujillo
Rafael Rodriguez
                             

09/17/03   All the news Belo thinks you need to know.

It's that special time of the year when the council looks at our limited resources and decides how to spend our money.  You would barely know it from the coverage in the town's only daily.  Apparently, Belo has not only moved their print operations to Plano but their staff and focus.  

Did you catch Sarah Dodd's Ch. 11 story about Beat that Indictment Fantroy receiving  $160,000 worth of contracts from a developer trying to get city, state and federal funds for a huge apartment complex in District 8?

Have you seen a word about it the DMN?  What about The Dallas Observer?  Nope!   This link should take you to the video of Conflict of Interest?  Councilman Fantroy's Development Projects on Ch. 11's website.  They don't print the text and the website is awful, but the reporters at Ch. 11 are just rocking the house.  If you don't know about Fantroy's under the table deal, you probably are not watching Ch. 11.  

I called reporters at both DMN and The Dallas Observer to see why neither were covering Fantroy's crooked deal.  Excuses from both were terribly lame.  I got the impression only a couple of DMN reporters are assigned to Dallas City Hall now.  Since one is Go-fer Jeffers, that means only one DMN reporter covers City Hall and she's been tied up with Ted and Terrell.  Except, this is Thursday, that was Monday.  Still, no Fantroy story in either DMN and The Dallas Observer.

So, what is the DMN covering besides Ted and Terrell?

Well, there's a DMN story about the additional tax money it's going to take to do the Trinity Boondoggle.  I'm going South on this deal.  I have come full circle on the Trinity Boondoggle, opposing it originally because we didn't have enough information and what we had sounded impractical and potentially dangerous.  One presentation of this new group showed more park, less pavement, more protection of the hardwood forest in the River area, and I was willing to believe it might work.  Turned out to be wishful thinking.

Trinity park price swells; Council told greenbelt's water flow to cost extra $12 million 03:20 AM CDT on Thursday, September 18, 2003 By VICTORIA LOE HICKS / The Dallas Morning News

How many greenbacks does it take to make a greenbelt? . . . Complete estimates won't be forthcoming until November, but some outlines began to emerge at a council briefing Wednesday.    It would cost about $12 million, council members were told, to pump enough treated wastewater upstream to create the flow necessary for a full complement of "water features." That's $12 million in addition to the $31 million voters approved to build a park and lake in the 1998 Trinity bond election.    "The operative word here is we 'desire' it,' " said Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan. "We can't really afford it in this first phase."    Unless, she added, the city can come up with the extra money. . . .  "It may be worth $12 million," said council member Sandy Greyson, one of the few members to voice an opinion before the council hurried on to matters related to next week's vote on the 2004 city budget. . . .  One consequence of shifting the lakes from the center to the east side is that storm water entering the floodway from downtown can't flow naturally into the river ? the lakes get in the way. The city would have to build three concrete culverts beneath the lake, at an estimated cost of $9.4 million, to get the runoff into the river. . .

This new plan will not work anymore than the first joke.  It is an environmental nightmare waiting to happen.  Ned Fritz may be old and he may take too long to explain his concerns for some people, but he has been right on this thing from the get-go.  

You can't force the river into troughs and consider that flood control.   It has not worked anywhere else the Engineer Corps has put rivers into concrete shoots.  That technique only causes flood water to run faster and harder and cause more destruction.

Those lakes are problem.  Under the old and new plans, if the river floods and contaminates the lake(s), the lakes must be drained and refilled with clean water.  It is assumed the river will flood frequently.   We don't have this kind of money! 

Let's leave the river alone and spend our money on more police officers and firefighters and squad cars and fire trucks.

Even if we found the money to do the project, how can we keep the park area safe?  We are going to delay the pay raise for our police and firefighters, but there's money for an arts center? 

Let them cake -- and all that?

 

Plans for Dallas arts center unveiled 10:39 PM CDT on Wednesday, September 17, 2003 By BRAD HAWKINS / WFAA-TV

Dallas is on the verge of investing $250 million in the arts over the next decade. . . . "When all of this is finished, what we want to do is break down the barriers - the cultural buildings, the outdoor spaces - to make it a place for everybody to come to," said master planner Spencer de Grey. . . . "It's very, very hot; it's humid; and the weather is quite extreme," said de Grey.    New trees and water features are designed to bring people downtown and attract more families and companies to North Texas. The Asian Festival in May already draws 15,000 people each day to Annette Strauss Artist Square.    "This is one of the first master plans that's addressed the climate issue in a positive manner," said Les Tanaka of the Greater Dallas Asian-American Chamber. . . .

Les Tanaka is right to be pleased when any big name architects would actually come to Dallas before designing something we will have to live with after we pay for it.  We have two of I.M. Pei not-right-for-Dallas buildings, each of which would be more appropriate for some other city or facing different directions in this city, but both cost us a lot of money because the architect ignored our climate.

This Downtown Park might be great, but we can't afford it.  We can't afford to build it, we can't afford to maintain it and we can't afford to protect it.  

We can't afford the Meyerson, and we can't afford to close it.  We can't afford the maintenance on any of these art houses.  We can't afford the police personnel we need to protect what we have, and we continue to add to our inventory. 

At a recent Bachman/NW community meeting, Tim Dickey and others talked about having their cars broken into while they were out jogging or walking around Bachman Lake.  About the only advice the police officers could give would be to lock their stuff in their trunks.  Tough to do if you drive an SUV.

Our police officers can barely keep up with emergency calls, park patrol is not very high on their priorities.

Most, if not all, of our existing parks are not safe during the day if you are alone.  Only a fool would go to a park alone or even with a couple of others after dark.

Did you see this letter to the DMN Editors?

Letters for Wednesday 09:58 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 17, 2003 Troubles growing at White Rock Lake

We are losing White Rock Lake to the bad guys. . . . Given recent efforts, it is now somewhat cleaner, but White Rock Lake is no longer a safe place to visit.    Just recently, my walking partner's car was broken into and vandalized as we strolled. This year, each of our cars has been broken into while parked in broad daylight in front of the Dallas Boat Club ramp at White Rock Lake.    I've lived in the Lake Highlands area for almost 40 years with no problems until recently. Now, my 10-year-old car has been broken into three times during the past 18 months (at White Rock Lake, at home and at the retail area at Northwest Highway and Ferndale ? parked next to a police car while I grabbed a take-home sandwich). The criminals are obviously not very afraid of me or the police or the judge or the prisons. . . .   In general, crime in Lake Highlands is a growing, serious problem that every authority acknowledges but does little to lessen. It's slowly but surely ruining what was a wonderful neighborhood. Looks hopeless given the absence of effective counter-crime efforts. . . .   the variety of problems at White Rock Lake are something else. It's a smaller place and more contained, somewhere serious attention can be focused on behalf of the entire city of Dallas. . . .  Dan Stone, Dallas

Well, that's the issue.  We are living in crime ridden city and we desperately need more police officers to make the city safer.  What we are getting instead are more parks and performance halls.  

Wasn't it Nero who fiddled while Rome burned? 

Our Downtown Betters and apparently most of our council and our Mayor think we can ignore our crime problems because those are immediate, mundane problems.  They are looking at the big picture -- their political legacies.  Lakes on a river.  Downtown parks and performance halls and plazas.  

Belo is back doing Happy Talk after weeks of Terrell Bolton's vaudeville act.

Now, that Bolton has had his 30 minutes of whatever that was, we will only get positive pieces about parks and big ticket projects from The Dallas Managed News.  They are not about to cover a story about another crooked councilman who happens to be Black.  Thanks to Bolton's firing, two Housewife Extraordinares felt the pain of "the community" and voted to put a confessed and convicted bribe-taker on the Police Review Board.  Thanks to Bolton's theatrics, the DMN is afraid to do an expos?on Fantroy's $200,000 contract with that developer in District 8.

I don't believe the ODB or Belo think $200,000 is insignificant.  They just don't want us to know about it.

The Mayor may have strayed from the nuts and bolts we thought would be her agenda, but she is not ignoring this clear conflict of interest on Fantroy's part.  I want the Mayor to get off these big ticket deals and re-focus on the little stuff that makes our city livable.  That's not likely to happen. 

Still, I am proud of her for standing up to Fantroy.  She could pull a Lill or Finkelman stunt and ignore what Fantroy has been doing.  Neither The Dallas Observer or The Dallas Managed News think it's newsworthy, or at least news that you and I need to know.

That's called managing the news.  There's a new group, Texas Media Watch, which is headed up  by Sherry Sylvester.  Hopefully, this Fantroy cover-up will get her attention.  Check out their website, TexasMediaWatch.com.