1. Virginia McAlester is a valuable civic watchdog and preservationist, but she is wrong, wrong, wrong to suggest that Whole Foods needs to change its current design for the store planned in Lakewood, and the City of Dallas is absurd to not grant its request for a zoning change — made so the design can be more aesthetically pleasing to the neighborhood. Folks, don’t be mistaken: this is not about what is best for the neighborhood that I live in, which would be a gorgeous new Whole Foods. (I’ve seen the design; it’s fantastic.) This is about neighborhood power politics and a city that is ticked off because the public (at neighborhood meetings) saw the watercolors before they did. It’s ridiculous that Whole Foods has to go through this dog and pony show to appease this vocal minority and their collection of cranky supporters. Not that I have an opinion on it.
2. The HiPa Po-Po is shocked — shocked! — that a couple of HP middle school girls were caught with a marijuana cigarette. In related news, the 1950s are over.
3. A group of women have been targeting men at the W and area bars, promising them sexual favors, then drugging them and robbing them. The paragraph from the story that begs for more detail:
One man lost his money while dancing in a hotel elevator. Another lost his wallet while inside a car with his pants around his ankles.
19 comments
The good news is, I think Trey got his wallet back…
Now we know where Tim Rogers teaches dance.
I totally agree with you on the Lakewood Whole Foods.
and how ’bout that new wachovia bank? it’s oh so pleasing to the eye. and needed.
further from the insightful DMN reporting:
And one 21-year-old Dallas man suffered a scalp wound that may have been inflicted by a high-heel shoe.
The Whole Foods will be a fantastic addition to Lakewood- I wish they’d stop delaying it.
Next thing we’ll hear: “The latest local victim of the Mickey Finn bandits suffered blunt head trauma, apparently inflicted by an oversized handbag.”
#3 is so true. I’ve lost my money 14-15 times down there now. In fact I’m headed down to Victory Tavern tonight to see if I can try and find my money again.
Re Lakewood Whole Foods: First of all your reporter is obviously a bit off, stating that Virginia McAlester is a resident of Parks Estates – her family has lived on Swiss Avenue since time immemorial(note her Daddy was Dallas mayor Wallace Savage Woodrow ‘29). Her parents even have a park named after them on Swiss Avenue.
The PD was finalized after a three-year process where nearly a dozen neighborhood groups had to hammer out disagreements and forge compromises in an arduous process. So it’s not some busybody with a powerplay delaying this much-needed store.
Whole Foods, of all companies, should know that a sea of parking in front is not good urban design.
I don’t think Lakewood is as picky as the Parkies about Snider Plaza, but these PD rules have been in place for 20 years.
Money quote from the HP story:
Oh haw haw!
Obviously, the answer is to step up the DARE campaign. They need much, much more of the same tactics if they ever hope to be effective.
‘ere…
I look forward to hearing the Whole Foods case at the CPC…it should be interesting.
Soo…. The PD idea for any design on that property is 20 years old? Cause thats exactly what it sounds like an 80’s “mini-mall” like structure along Abrams with a “sea of parking” in the back along Gaston. This sounds worse then the existing stucture. At least its front opens to both Abrams and Gaston at the corner. Nah. I think I’d rather stick eith Whole Foods’ archetects well paid design.
I saw the Whole Foods conceptual drawings at a neighborhood meeting and it will be amazing for Lakewood and the surrounding neighborhoods. And I never knew Abrams had a “Main St. feel” to it to begin with? Cantina Laredo, Scalini’s and Snow Pea all have a parking lot in between them and Abrams. Mrs. McAlester’s suggestion that Whole Foods should front to Abrams is ridiculous. Maybe she could point out a grocery store in Dallas that fronts to a major through street. Kroger on Mockingbird? No. Tom Thumb on Mockingbird? No. Albertsons on Mockingbird? No. Central Market and Tom Thumb on Lovers? No.
Whole Foods is doing Lakewood – and Dallas – a favor and people like Virginia McAlester (and those who support her) are spitting in their faces. They don’t have to put up with their BS and I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before Whole Foods tells Lakewood to shove it. Then, Mrs. McAlester can enjoy the boarded up Minyard building for a few more years.
Mr Duffey that parking lot you describe in front of Scalini’s etc. is the former Abrams Road, which you would know if you knew anything about the area.
I guess you weren’t around for the Abrams Bypass battles which resulted in Harrell Park.
Sorry but people take ‘Downtown Lakewood’ seriously and want the best for the best neighborhood in the best city in the best country in the world (to paraphrase Doc Harrell).
Re: The HIGHland Park juvie joint-puffers
You know these HP kids get the best stuff, too!
This totally brings to mind the George Bernard Shaw quote: “Youth is wasted on the young.” And so are the good drugs…
“The juveniles, girls ages 12 and 13 years old, were remanded to their parents’ custody after police did not file charges because there was not enough of the cigarette left to process as evidence, Adams said Tuesday.”
Please…it’s not that they didn’t have enough to process as evidence…I’m sure it’s because of who these girls’ parents are…or what they might have found if they searched the parents.
Classic Highland Park coverup by the HP popo.
And for the chief to be shocked that DARE isn’t working…he needs to get real.
“Youth is wasted.”
Re: the marijuana cigarette. I’m confused, on the one hand, there is enough of the cigarette left to definitively state that it was, in fact, a marijuana cigarette. On the other hand, there is not enough of the cigarette left to say that it was legally marijuana.
Isn’t it one or the other: either the marijuana cigarette exists, in which case the legal system applies; or it doesn’t, in which case the chief should shut his mouth.
Lakewooder,
That parking lot that used to be Abrams Road that is now a parking lot means that zoning laws had to change just as they should for Whole Foods. Change happens and zoning laws change with the times. Yes, even in Lakewood. If they didn’t then Swiss Avenue and countless other historic districts wouldn’t be what they are today. Downtown Dallas had to go through a tremedous amount of zoning law changes. Think Arts District.
But your argument is really this: YOU don’t want the zoning to change so it shouldn’t. But if YOU do, then it should.
I have a feeling I know which argument is going to win this battle.