Well, first, because he looks great in Billy Reid. But, more import, because he does work like this. I remember, in the wake of Senior Cpl. Norman Smith’s death, reading this news account of the apartment complex in which Smith was shot and reading this editorial in the News. And I remember thinking that the apartment’s owner, Alex Stolarski, must be a real slumlord scumbag. Taken together, the news story and the editorial pretty much laid the blame for Smith’s death at Stolarski’s feet.
Jim Schutze this week shows what an injustice was done to Stolarski by the News. Let’s just start with the fact that Schutze found out that the crime rate in Stolarski’s apartment is one-third what it is in surrounding complexes. There’s much more.
If you read the News stories when they were published, you owe it to yourself to read Schutze’s column. And you owe it to Stolarski.
30 comments
I agree Jim’s piece this week is great, and changed my view of the apartment owner. My bigger issue with Schutze, however, is that he spends most of his column inches talking about how everyone else is wrong, yet on the few occasions when he has been clearly wrong, he either glosses over it or blames external factors. You can’t be the eternal conspiracy theorist and retain your credibility unless you’re willing to admit openly when your predictions don’t come to pass.
Mmm…. apparently you missed the Schutze’s public self-flagellation with respect to County Judge Jim Foster. Schutze has been beating up on him for quite awhile, but recently decided he was wrong and publicly “outed” himself.
I guarantee you’ll never get that level of self-awareness from Steve Blow!
Steve Blow doesn’t have enough of a self to be aware of. No, I’m not dismissing the man’s personal virtue, spiritual value, or even his intelligence. But you know what I mean: Is he going to spend sleepless nights torturing himself about whether he was too rash when he said puppies are cuter than kitties?
Jim Schutze’s exposure of Stolarski’s casual, throwaway scapegoating and Trey Garrison’s hilarious sendup of the Emperor’s bare gun-buying bottom are just different scenes in the same “Dallas” movie.
Shouldn’t it be disturbing to all Dallas citizens that the one who dominates the Dallas Morning New’s online Opinion page, if not necessarily every editorial page opinion, seriously regrets the bloody Enlightenment itself and its rational values? Surely having such an incurious, un-Enlightened inquisitor weighting down the bench can’t be good for an Alex Stolarski or for any other hapless Dallas citizen that gets caught in their sights for that matter. Thank goodness for the rationally curious Jim Schutze, despite his foibles.
I was telling a friend the other days that at this point I honestly think that the DMN’s continued existence does a greater disservice to the citizens of Dallas than if it was to go away.
This just convinces me further that it needs to go away for the good of Dallas.
@Tony
If we’re going to get rid of every judgmental journalist with his or her own “jump to conclusions” mat then we get rid of journalism.
so because he has less crime than the neighborhood he’s some sort of saint? that’s the part that doesn’t make sense to me. “we only have 10 dope dealers instead of 30″ so we’re happy about that?
I’m not looking for a scapegoat…but knowing that the oakwood/wadsworth apts has been a hellhole for years leaves me wanting something that’s more thought out..
When Jim’s good, he’s very, very good. Few better. The problem is that when he’s not good, which is all too often, he’s terrible. He undermines his own credibility. He’s obsessive about certain subjects, and stubbornly wrong. There aren’t enough conspiracies in the world to accommodate Jim’s pet theories.
I love to read Jim when he reports and writes. I dread him when he’s in his pundit mode.
Michael:
“Hell hole for years?” Did you read the piece? Did you look at the current stats for this property?
Dallas is not alone in having a large (and growing larger) need for affordable housing, especially affordable housing owned and managed by ownership groups who at least try to do the right thing. I know you know that much.
So what do you suggest? Throw the baby out with the bathwater? Throw all these residents out on the street because of the actions of one? Destroy the reputation of one property owner/manager to write an editorial that serves only to get the flamethrowers fired up?
“He’s obsessive about certain subjects, and stubbornly wrong.”
All I know is that on the subject he has been obsessed on the most for the last few years, the Trinity Toll Road, he has turned out to be pretty much spot on.
The project IS a billion dollars in the hole.
NTTA is NOT likely to pick up the tab.
The USACE has said that the levees ARE in pretty bad shape, and putting more impediments to flow in between them, like a few million tons of cement, is probably not a good idea.
In fact, what exactly has he been “stubbornly wrong” about?
He’s mostly right on the Trinity.
He’s mostly wrong on regional rail, Dallas vs. the suburbs, the shape of neighborhoods, the desirability of landmark architecture, and so much more.
Wonderful writer. Indifferent thinker.
hsh
The dmn wrote the editorial not me.
I know about oakwood from driving by the place at night a couple times a week over the past 5 yars.
I have lived in knox henderson and in oak cliff so I speak from experience.
And being involved in oak cliff I can tell that some complexes enforce the rules, and hold tenants to a standard that is more like uptown. All of those complexes that hold tenants to a high standard in oak cliff are nice affordable places. An example is at 67 & kiest..two miles from oakwood and a zilliion times safer;and they have about 500 units total which is way more than oakwood.
“Wonderful writer. Indifferent thinker.”
Not agreeing, but what a marvelously brief summation/quip.
“And being involved in oak cliff I can tell that some complexes enforce the rules, and hold tenants to a standard that is more like uptown.”
I used to live in what was the most expensive apartment complexes in Uptown at the time, the only differences is they cleaned the place up more often, the tenants still trashed the place, vandalized it, stole from it and violated every rule in the book. It was also home to three drug dealers that I knew about because they were arrested, one in a raid on their apartment by the police and at least two prostitutes. I have heard similar stories from other people that live in expensive Uptown apartments currently.
So what exactly is Jim wrong on? The Trinity? Actually, he pretty much told us how this was going to unfold two years ago. You could either read the Morning News every day to learn about the latest set back to the project (delays, money, danger)–or you can just re-read his old columns from 2007. They both cover the same facts, only Jim got there first.
And his stuff on the John Wiley Price shakedown at the Inland Port should win a Pulitzer.
“And his stuff on the John Wiley Price shakedown at the Inland Port should win a Pulitzer.”
Damn straight.
Wow…I’m sold! Let’s all meet at Stolarski’s apartment complex for a backyard barbecue. Schutze — you bring the beer. Daniel, bring the burgers and Trey — bring the buns. Fun times, right?
@Bill Marvel: I respectfully disagree with one point. I don’t think you can be both a “wonderful writer” and an “indifferent thinker.” I think that wonderful writing is the by-product of rigorous discipline, whether the writing is a piece of narrative non-fiction, an essay or investigative journalism. What Schutze does is write screeds that are thin on facts and high in adjective-laden insults and ad hominem fallacies, which are the fats and sugars of online journalism. Online readers tend to enjoy such Big Gulp writing over rigorous analysis. So, in the end, I have to disagree with you this one time, Mr. Marvel.
Tony,
Good catch, on Dreher better than his anti-Halloween screed (http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2008/11/someone_anyone_take_the_candy.php), always knew Rod was a monarchist, he definitely hates democracy, equal rights, and civil rights. Of course these petty little princes all have fantasies of their own nobility. The Red Neck who would be king.
AMDG,
I sniff a Jesuit.
If clear thinking and good writing were the same thing, we’d either have a whole lot more thinkers or a whole lot fewer writers. Trust me. I’m a writer who doesn’t necessarily always think clearly. (Though in this case…)
Writing is one form that thought takes. Political punditry is another, and this is where Schutze falls down. He’s perfectly capable of observation and of vivid and clear writing.
But his view of politics is colored by the partisan colors of the late 1960s and ’70s. In this, he and Rod Dreher, although they come at politics from opposite directions, are two of a pair. My guess is if they sat down for a beer on Jim’s front porch some afternoon, they’d be the best of buddies.
Both, by the way, excellent writers. But indifferent thinkers.
What Jim pointed out was the Morning News lack of credible research, mangling and complete lack of understanding of the issues they opine about each day. Do they really think that drub dealers announce themselves when renting an apartment? Come on. Drug dealers send others in to rent who don’t have criminal records. Landlords can evict them and Stolarski and other do that. But get real. Are a landlord with no police powers or his unarmed property managers supposed to handle drug dealers who are willing to gun down a police officer in cold blood? Stolarski should sue the Morning News for slander. He will certainly win. Of course the worst possible outcome would be that he would take control of the paper and then really lose his butt.
@Marvel: Schutze is to writing what the WWE is to sports.
“@Marvel: Schutze is to writing what the WWE is to sports.”
If that were true, what does that make the DMN: T-Ball?
Schutze eats the DMN for lunch with less staff and less resources. Lipscomb? Bill Clements?
Whatever happened to Schutze’ sidekick Glenna Whitley? She was at the Observer but disappeared. She could lampoon them good also.
Schutze is always a good read because he puts passion into his work.
Across town, Steve Blow writes a column telling the gray-haired DMN readership about how local streets are named. Stop the presses!
Compounding the Dalian meltdown of credibility at the DMN is the fact that this morning, Rod Dreher’s post yesterday on the Opinion blog at least questioning whether the DMN owes Stolarksi something in reparation no longer exists. Did it ever? Jim Schutze, at least, thinks it might have, because he commented on it. At least you imagine he thinks it might have.
At this point it’s hard to decide which is worse, the casual smearing of Stolarski or the New Journalism of the Spotless Mind. It’s probably unlikely the decisions of Stolarski’s potential tenants will turn on DMN editorials, so, although he became for a brief editorial time a lesser man in the eyes of those of us who don’t know him from Adam, he’ll probably be okay.
The problem with the New Journalism of the Spotless Mind, though, is its opposite. If it can be the case that what we once read as real and “true” now can not ever have existed, how are we to evaluate what we currently read? Did what it claims to tell us ever occur, was it ever true either?
Like a WWE wrestler, Schutze always needs a cartoonish villain, or heel as they call it in the business. The DMN serves the purpose as his “Andre the Giant,” so to speak. And his online fans, like those who come to the wrestling arena, aren’t interested in real analysis or good journalism. They want blood. They want entertainment. They want to see ranting and raving. Like I said, it’s the WWE, masquerading as writing.
Dane,
I went and checked in the mirror and — by-god, yes — my hair is gray. And sure enough, there’s a copy of the DMN on my coffee table, which I will soon get around to reading. After I take the time to answer this shoot-from-the-mouth nutcase who apparently imagines he’s never going to get old.
My guess is that he will, if he’s lucky. But he won’t learn a thing along the way, because his opinions are already fixed — a sure sign of senility, no matter the color of your hair.
But speaking of Steve Blow, I can only wonder — as I have so many times — if Steve’s columns are so negligible, so lightweight, so inconsequential, why is it so many damn fool on this and several other forums feels compelled to take a swipe at him? Could it be that, gray-haired or not, folks read Steve. And really like what he writes. That he has a large and loyal readership, which is what most writers — including Jim Schutze — really work for?
Pardon me, now, Dane. I’m going to go drink my Ovaltime and read the News, and perhaps doze off and drool a little. Old age does have its compensations.
Just trying to pay the rent.