Rizos vs. Boyd
                             

11/13/03  It's hard to Stay Hopeful, but Hold On.

When you listen to a council meeting, do it for the comedy or you will want to pack your bags.  This week's council meeting was like the Mad Hatter's Tea Party.  The Mayor tried to keep things running smoothly, but everything just went on and on -- even the shopping cart ordinance.

Whenever Maxine Thornton-Reese talked, it was like she was a wound up Jack in the Box.  She would just pop up and say something more stupid than her last comment.   

With all the problems we are having in this city that are directly caused by great big apartment complexes where people live like rabbits in a warren, council keeps offering tax abatements for more of them or helps apartment developers qualify for state or federal funding.  Why?

Sandy Greyson frequently talks about the problems caused by apartment complexes.  She votes for them anyway??  Yesterday, she voted for another big subsidized complex (just what we need), and afterwards commented about how bad it is for the council to encourage more apartment building???   Bill Blaydes and Mitch Rasansky both made excellent points about why we should not be giving up $800,000 in property taxes for 30 years on a particular project, only to have Gary Griffith ridicule Rasansky.  Blaydes and Rasansky were the only ones with the good sense to VOTE NO. 

The company getting the tax abatements promised to give $300,000 in scholarships.  That was supposed to be a trade-off for the abatement.  Can you spell RIP-OFF? 

Who gets to distribute the $300,000 in scholarships?  Who determines the recipients?  I bet it won't be anyone you know, but even money says Leo Chaney will know where the money goes.

This week, several readers expressed frustration over different issues.  These are activists who care about Dallas.  It is worrisome when they feel disenfranchised and abused by City Hall.  
 

The city doesn't look good anymore.  It just looks ragged.  Dylan has an idea about how he can gets some focus on our appearance.  When he is ready to go, DallasArena.com will announce.  It will be another community tool for all of us.

Drive North on Webb Chapel or Denton Dr. or Josey and cross under LBJ.  You can't miss the difference in street maintenance when you leave Dallas city limits.  Farmers Branch and Carrollton do so much more with much less revenue.

They actually landscape their medians.  I don't mean just Downtown medians -- medians in more modest areas like Valwood at Josey. 
A linear park runs through Farmers Branch either side of a small creek.  Beautiful walk ways with swings and landscaping!  How do they do it?  Nice, affordable houses overlook the ribbon park. 

Yes, we do know what she means.  The NPS is granting us $375,000 to spend IN Dallas, IN South Dallas, and no one at City Hall thinks it's significant.  There are citizen groups all over town trying to keep their little areas together with little or no support from City Hall.  Meanwhile, cronies of certain council members get all the help they need. 

Thanks to the continued efforts of Roxan and Randy Staff,  Bachman/NW Highway issues stay on the front burner at City Hall. 

If RANDY STAFF AIN'T HAPPY, he is not going to suffer in silence, and they know it at City Hall. 

It's hard to keep Randy's level of energy and still have a life.  You turn around an look at the past week, and it was a series of meetings and telephone conversations and e-mails -- just like the week before -- most about bettering the City -- most fruitless efforts and uphill battles and lost causes.

Ever so often, your community wins something big.  Even winning something small makes the effort worthwhile.  If you want to be an activist, focus on the wins (no matter how small). 

Recently, two neighborhoods north and south of Walnut Hill (West of Webb Chapel) had a big win when the application was withdrawn to turn Pugsley's Library into another giant topless club.  Local TV stations were very helpful in getting our message across the city. 

A few weeks later, several people from different neighborhoods near Buckner and I-30 contacted me separately via e-mail to ask about using the signs (NO MORE SEX CLUBS and NO SEX CLUB HERE) from our Walnut Hill demonstration.   I was able to put them in touch with each other and loaned them our signs.  That's the power of our community e-mail network.  You see something or hear someone saying something on TV, and you are likely able to contact that person by e-mail.

I used the term loaned about the signs because the Walnut Hill area seems to be a high choice location for sex clubs.  They may have thought our councilman will not interfere.  That would be wrong thinking.  It has been a pleasant surprise how helpful Steve Salazar has been to our efforts and making himself available to our community groups since he DEFEATED me last May in our council race. 

Speaking of sex clubs, I got an interesting e-mail from a guy claiming to represent Dawn and Nick Rizos (Caligula Rizos).   See Legal Warning.  I would love to have your comments and will post them as fast as I can.

Just as we celebrate scaring off one group of sex club investors, we learn an outfit operates a club on Composite between Cabaret Royale and Texas Show Girls that may be worse than all of them. 

Although she may be an agent or employee or friend of some competing sex club operator, a woman sent the following to Avi Adelman who forwarded it on to me.  I was able to alert several neighborhood leaders about Club Iniquity.  I don't care where the information came from or their motivation.  If the sex clubs are turning on each other, all the better. 
 

Well, I visited that web site.  You would not believe it!

You may think this stuff is just fine, but Iniquity does not have a sex club license to operate.  Iniquity has a dance hall permit.  It's a rock's throw from Cabaret Royale.  Right next to a high rise motel/hotel and not too far from Texas Show Girls to the North.  If Iniquity is not within 1000 feet of Texas Show Girls, it certainly is within 1000 feet of Cabaret Royale.  That's a NO-NO for a sex club.

This is a Code Enforcement issue, a Building Inspection issue, a City Attorney issue and likely a public lewdness issue which makes it a Police issue.  Whichever city agency we contact will tell us the other one is responsible.  When Councilmen Rasansky and Salazar and the City Attorney met with our Walnut Hill residents last week, City Attorney Johnson  danced around several questions or passed the buck to Code Enforcement or blamed the TABC.

Even though we did not get all the answers we wanted that night, it was enlightening for new community activists to see how convoluted things are at City Hall.  Some were discouraged.  Some got so mad, they are more determined to clean up this mess.

Here's what we want from City Hall. 
 

This is not just for sex clubs.  It ought to be for every illegal business operation in this city.  The Bachman/NW area has dance halls operating under a restaurant license.  We have billiard halls operating under a restaurant license.  We have a mess.

It's our town.  Keep fighting for it.