The inmates

First -- DallasArena.com has been remiss in failing to note councilwoman Veletta Lill's strong defense of Downtown and opposition to the Palladium tax abatement. Her points were well stated. She was right about the impact of the sky bridges and tunnels. She has been a strong ally to the Mayor even though she supported Tom Dunning in the campaign.

An interesting cast of characters spoke to the council with a big split among the ODB. None of the speakers in favor of the Palladium deal were upper level ODB. The biggest names they had to offer were Dave Biegler and Architect Larry Good, both of whom were hardly just doing their civic duty. Biegler was the CEO of TU when they sold the plant and land to Hicks and Perot. Good's firm has done a lot of the design work in the Victory project and with their arena.

Many of the people who spoke for the Palladium extortion represented low level Chambers of Commerce. They even got someone from the Oak Cliff Chamber to speak in favor of Palladium -- an obvious attempt to embarrass the Mayor. My personal favorite was the Black "real estate" guy who said he wanted a piece of the deal and wanted somebody to teach him and other young Black professionals how to do these deals for themselves.  Very altruistic!

The people speaking against it were the most impressive. Attorney Joe Geary, Pryor Blackwell, Vance Miller, Jack Gosnell, et al. Pryor Blackwell has been working to turn around Downtown for at least a decade. Vance Miller has developed retail shopping centers for several decades. Jack Gosnell has been involved in real estate deals in Downtown and near Downtown neighborhoods. These are men who know what they are talking about, and they told the council crooks they should not vote for the Palladium deal.

Geary, Blackwell, Miller and Gosnell had important things to say, but they were saying them to 9 council crooks who have never in their life been part of any business deal on the level that Blackwell, Miller and Gosnell do on a regular basis. They were speaking to the dumb and dumber. They were speaking to Duh Walne, Brain-Dead Thornton-Reese, Beat that Indictment Fantroy, Mayor PreTend Poss, Shakedown Leo Chaney, Dr. Elba Garcia, Send Me Some Money Loza, Don Hill and Ed Oakley.

Today, Alan Walne more than lived up to his nickname.   He said a whole bunch of stuff, very forcefully -- and not one word of it related to the issue at hand. This guy works for his mother's company (car body repair).   Herb's Paint & Body does not do real estate deals.

Atty. Don Hill quoted Ed Oakley as he made his speech in support of Palladium. What does that tell you? He said Ed told him the property values in the Decorative Center (that bunch of warehouse/showrooms off Oak Lawn, West of Stemmons) were up 45% because of the arena. I had already heard that ridiculous assertion, and it sounded just as dumb coming from Hill as when I heard it from Oakley.

The property values in my new neighborhood have jumped up since last year, and the Hicks/Perot arena had as much to do with that as the property values increasing in the Decorative Center.

Just because the Appraisal District folks raised everyone's property values for tax purposes does not mean those values are going to hold or that anyone will buy those properties for the new appraised values. The council can't even do their budget planning until they get a better idea of the true tax base.

Why would a sports arena improve the property values of warehouse/showrooms that mostly cater to interior decorators? It's the same kind of logic the other 8 morons used to justify betraying Dallas taxpayers.

But, the joke's on them. This thing is not going to happen. They don't get the tax abatement if they don't build $300 Million worth of stuff. Unless some pension fund operated by crooks like the city employee who has been skimming off the top of the police/fireman's pension fund, no one would loan money to build a new hotel in Dallas when existing hotels are closing down whole sections of their buildings because there is such a glut of hotel rooms in Dallas.

www.barkingdogs.com
   Ed Oakley has turned out to be such a major disappointment to the folks who not only supported him but walked his district getting voters to come out for him.
   As one supporter told BD - When Ed calls me to ask for help with his campaign, my phone will already be tied up making calls for the other guy.
   The "other guy" will be Mark Housewright, District 3 rep, due to the vagaries of redistricting. Oak Cliff residents have a long memory about who votes against the way they feel.
    Congrats and kudos to our own Council Rep - Veletta Lill -for voting No on Palladium, and holding her ground well.
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Dr. Wm. Gordon:
     I was waiting for your post-election article. It is all I expected and more; you have told it just the way it is.
    As you know, I have one serious complaint. I have had experience with inmates suffering heavy-duty mental illnesses. They have ranged from simply confused or depressed to some of the nastiest, violent and #^$%&**-up people imaginable. But, the worst of the crazy and psychopathic I have ever seen don't hold a candle to the Noxious Nine.
   "I knew Inmates.
     Inmates were patients of mine.
    Noxious Nine, you are no Inmates; they are far your betters."
     Please consider the insult you have directed to the hospitalized or institutionalized mentally ill by implying they are anywhere near as loathsome as these pathetic petty politicians. Then do the right thing and print an apology to the Inmates.
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James Northrup:
Read the accounts of Palladium in Observer and DMN.

It strikes me that, seeing Palladium had the votes, Laura and Mitch reverted to a safe distance and left negotiations to Ted, who seeing Palladium was still in full-court press with the votes to make it stick, fobbed it off onto Ryan (a good guy), who took the fall and decamped to Midwest (to Bolton's secret hideout). This was a team effort for all involved.

Laura resigned to take pot shots at the deal and Mitch to browbeat staff - gratuitously.

Where should the buck have stopped on this ? I've been in enough mayor/manager meetings to know the answer.

Doesn't take a charter review to fix this. Just a new CM and a new council.

Victory's next test: retailers; Palladium says it is up to the challenge of finding tenants

05/24/2002 By RICHARD ALM / The Dallas Morning News

. . . Manny Ybarra, executive vice president of Dallas-based TPMC Realty Corp., said Palladium faces an uphill task in trying to recruit tenants in a market that already has a glut of retail and office space.

"It's really a question of what the market can support and the timing," he said. "In today's economic climate, Dallas cannot support the level of retail Palladium is proposing."

Competing for tenants

John Zogg, senior vice president at Dallas-based Crescent Real Estate Equities Ltd., questions whether Palladium can find enough tenants for such a large development, especially if it continues to seek above-market rates in its leases. "It will be an extremely tough sell," he said.

Mr. Wong said his company would try to sell prospective tenants on the superiority of its project and the likelihood of a vibrant Dallas-area economy in 2005. "I'm confident, but I think it's going to be a very challenging assignment," he said.

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Did you know the Palladium people are claiming they intend to build luxury condos @ $300 a square foot next to the arena? Unless your unit is up really high, Woodall Rogers blocks your view of Downtown -- if you are on the South side of the building. Otherwise, the view from your condo would overlook Stemmons or Woodall Rogers or a great big parking lot!

If you have millions to spend on a condo and you have to choose between living on Turtle Creek or next to a sports arena, there would be little question that you want to live in a Turtle Creek highrise -- unless you are that nut case who owns the Mavericks.

Initially, I was just devastated that someone else I trusted would do something so morally wrong as to vote for the Palladium extortion. Now, I am convinced that the inmates are currently in charge because too many of us have relegated our civic responsibilities to others.

Jim Schutze has a very insightful column in this week's Dallas Observer,

It was a very comforting read after listening to 9 morons earlier. Schutze talks about the return of the middle class to the core city and their expectations from elected officials. He thinks they are going to stick with Miller in her fight to fix City Hall. He's right. We are just one election away from a council where the majority aren't so dumb they have trouble walking unassisted.

Did you vote in the last election? Do you know who represents you on the city council? Did you work in that person's campaign? If you answered NO to any of the questions, you have room for improvement. You have time to make amends.

Getting elected to an office does not make you smart -- look at Maxine Thornton-Reese.

You can't apply that measure to the likes of Fantroy, Hill or Chaney because Miller did not carry their districts. Tom Dunning may have won those districts -- but the turnout was really not so great for him. It might have been higher had there not been so much press watching the mail-in ballot crooks.

When Duh Alan Walne, Mayor PreTend Poss, Send Me Some Money Loza and Ed Oakley go against Miller -- they are clearly ignoring their constituents. Walne and Poss can't run again so they don't care (if they ever did) what the voters in their district want. Loza only got 600 votes in the last election, so there are no voters in his district to worry about one way or the other. Oakley is my biggest surprise and disappointment.

Oakley has to run against Mark Housewright in District 3 next May. Although the Oak Cliff Chamber may have trotted a stiff down to the horse show to speak for Palladium, that is not the way the district feels about it. The Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce is so disconnected and ineffectual that many businesses refuse to join it anymore. It is still controlled by ODB wannabe's who think they score points with the big guys every time they assume the position.

Housewright was articulate and on point during the Palladium debate. He understands the difference in apples and oranges and doesn't seem to be awed by the big boys. He knows the pulse of District 3.

Oakley certainly was not representing District 6 when he voted for the Palladium give-away.   He frequently talks about what the Decorative Center wants or Industrial Blvd. property owners want -- but they did not vote for him because there are not supposed to be any residents over there. The people who delivered his victory over Dwaine Caraway were right up here in my neighborhood. We clearly have no representation at City Hall for another year.

Whenever a politician's victory speech includes "you may not always agree with my decisions", you might as well assume he is not going to take advice from you. He takes your time, your energy, your money for his campaign -- but he will not be taking your advice in the future.

All that happened with the Palladium vote is that we got to see who's with us and who's against us.

What reputable lender is going to put money into more office space, condominiums or retail when every week the DMN's own real estate section reports on more vacancies? Plano's big new shopping mall is not doing so great even though a whole lot of people with a whole lot of money live up there.

Vance Miller said his company did their Dallas area projects without public assistance. The same thing can be said for Trammell Crow projects -- 3 major office towers that give order to the Arts District. There was no public assistance when the Wynne family built Plaza of the Americas.

Those companies looked at the market and determined they could make money with a certain product. All of them took risks and almost lost their investments -- but that's capitalism. Why should Dallas taxpayers guarantee a successful deal for out of town developers when we did not do it for the Miller's, the Crow's, the Wynne's?

One council crook -- pretty sure it was Fantroy -- referred to CityPlace and the fight the Thompson twins had with the community on both sides of Central. There is absolutely no comparison. That was a zoning fight. We were not concerned about TIF's or any other tax abatements. There was to be a DART station at CityPlace, and no one questioned that public money should be used to get that going. We were fighting the ridiculous density that was planned for both sides of the freeway. There was no way you could put that many office towers and buildings and apartments with practically no parking and have it be a success or not have a negative impact on neighborhoods near the CityPlace Planned Development District.

We wanted street retail -- they said they couldn't afford to do that with the price they paid for the land. Guess what? They lost their shirt. The people who got the land from them at a much lower price have put in retail and even a driving range. Look at West Village! Look at Target on the East!

There will not be that second tower to CityPlace because it never made sense to put that large of a project that far off of the Central Business District. We commoners were right, and the experts and their lackies on the city council were wrong.

That's what will happen at Victory. They may build one office tower or even that hotel, but I doubt it. They have no tenants! They lied in their pro forma. The Mayor pointed out all the discrepancies. Did it have one impact on Oakley or Poss or Walne? Went right over their heads!

Oakley builds and remodels night clubs. Poss is a rich housewife who sits on boards and committees and used to go to every convention she could. Walne works for his mother's company -- that his dad started that repairs wrecked cars. They are not rocket scientists, but this was not a complicated business deal to understand. The basic premise -- Dallas has too many hotel rooms for the demand -- Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex has too much retail space available -- Dallas has too much empty office space (Downtown and all over). We don't know need to use public money to create a bigger glut in three areas.

Oakley told me that we weren't giving Palladium anything. If they don't build their project, they don't get anything. Wrong! Any money they spend on new streets in and around Victory, sewer lines and other infrastructure will count toward meeting that $350 Million goal. They get to keep $43 Million out of the general budget to spend on their preferred needs. You don't get to keep $43 out of your tax assessment to spend on repairing the pot hole in front of your driveway. They get to put their needed repairs at the front of the list. You have to wait in line. Why is that so hard for him and the other 8 morons to understand?

Dr. Key made an important point to the council when he said, with all these TIF's, the council is taking all the taxable land off the tax rolls, land that would have created new taxes will now add no new revenue for general use. It's a serious issue.

Dallas' money woes could postpone bond; City may first work to balance budget, then fix infrastructure

05/23/2002

By COLLEEN McCAIN NELSON / The Dallas Morning News

Budget woes could force a delay of the planned September bond election, several Dallas City Council members said Wednesday.

Faced with a projected shortfall of more than $50 million . . . The election could be pushed back to January, they said.

"Without having a more concrete idea of what kind of tax increase, if any, we may need to maintain city services, it's going to be difficult to make decisions about the bond program," said Mayor Pro Tem Don Hill. . . .

The preliminary rolls showed a 14.75 percent increase over last year's property values.

However, city officials cautioned that an unusually large number of appeals, coupled with the tax abatements that must be subtracted from the total, probably will offset much of the apparent increase. Final tax rolls are certified in late July, after the bond package was to have been finalized.

The city manager's office estimates that final property values will show a 2.4 percent increase over last year.

How could they go forward with a $43 Million give-a-way when they are facing a $50 million shortfall? Please note "city officials cautioned" that tax abatements must be subtracted from the tax roll increase.

Don Hill is a complete idiot, but the morons who voted with him for Palladium are even dumber.

Wish I could say "that's what you get for staying home on election day or not getting involved", but I worked my rear off to get Loza and Oakley elected -- look what it got me!

But -- there's good news. The morons only have 11 months before they have to face voters. With the new residences in District 2, surely there will be someone to challenge Send Me Some Money Loza. Poss can't run again, and hopefully one of the Staff's (Roxan or Randy) will win that seat. Walne can't run again, and although anyone would be better, straight shooter Bill Blaydes would be wonderful on the council from District 10. Housewright will defeat Oakley in District 3, and Oakley no longer has a base in District 6 to fall back on. T-Reese will be gone by Court Order or otherwise.

There will be no changes in Hill, Fantroy or Chaney's districts because the machinery is too deep. It is dangerous to challenge them, although one little radical is considering running against Chaney. I would not be surprised if Elba Garcia steps aside for Domingo -- now that he is out of the Legislature after the November elections.

Things are going to get better -- because we have been scraping the bottom. It's time for Dallas citizens to take back control of the asylum. It's time for you to get engaged and involved -- because Plato said it best . . .