Articles for August, 2009
Jody Dean’s Suggestion For Cowboys Management
Dallas radio vet Jody Dean has a suggestion for management about the giant video board at Cowboys Stadium: Hang a sign on it saying, “Hit sign, win suit.” Dean, the new announcer at the Dallas Cowboys stadium, is only partly joking about the screen, which was hit by an opposing punter a couple of weeks ago, touching off an NFL controversy. Dean is breathing easier in general this week after drawing some rough reviews for his opening-game performance in the announcer role. Saturday night, he contends, he was much better: “This time, I didn’t wet my pants.” But the stadium’s acoustics still need work, he says: “They have a lot of ’slapback,’ because of all the hard corners. They need to get that mix right.” Meantime, Dean predicts the juice and the buzz surrounding the new stadium–including the controversial video board, pictured here–might be worth an extra couple of touchdowns for the ‘Boys each home game this season. Says Dean: “At a Thursday night client party, Jerry Jones told people, ‘I paid that punter to hit that board!’ ” The Cowboys owner was only kidding–Dean thinks, anyway.
Things To Know Before Visiting Cowboys Stadium
1.) Forget about buying popcorn there. It’s only sold at selected venues and, like me, you might be directed to three of them–on three different levels–and still never find one. 2.) No videocams allowed. 3.) The video board is so amazing, it may cause conflicted feelings. Watch the action on the field–or on the giant Mitsubishi screen? But if you’re doing the latter, why not just stay home and watch the game on TV? 4.) If you’re 6-feet or better, leave your knees in the car. The seats–at least in the Lower Hall of Fame level–are amazingly comfortable, but there ain’t much legroom. 5.) You gotta visit the Hall of Fame-level restroom if you get a chance, if only to use the paper hand towels. They’re as thick as terrycloth, embellished with a blue-and-silver Cowboys star. 6.) Don’t toss your ticket in the trash, or you could wind up sleeping in the stadium. For some reason the attendants insist on scanning your ticket before you’re permitted to exit. 7.) Mark well where you park. They need more signs flagging the different areas in the lots. Until they get ‘em, one wag advises, you might consider leaving bread crumbs.
Dallas Tourists Come to Visit Parker, Arlington
This travel piece has been making its way around the wires, and many of our country’s finest daily newspapers, for the last few weeks. It’s confirmation that Dallas has yet to expand its image nationally much beyond J.R., the Cowboys, and the JFK assassination.
And one Deseret News reader had a couple more attractions to add to the list:
Just left that area 2 years ago for Denver. What a delightful move it has been for us. Not even any fire ants here. If you want “snooty” then you will love Dallas.
When will those new bridges turn us into a tourism magnet?
Dallas Stylist’s Publicity Stunt Ends Today
Valerie Elizabeth has been wearing the same little black dress every day this month. It’s gotten her lots of attention because the Associated Press picked up the story. She’s inviting people to vote on her best look. Me? I’d rather just re-watch this tangentially-related episode of Seinfeld.
UPDATE: Silly me. I neglected to mention that it was D Magazine that launched her summer media blitz, when she was named the Max Factor Face of Dallas in June.
Local Lawyer Stars on Weeds
Okay, “stars” may be too strong a word. But I think you’ll find Ray Balestri’s performance — miming a conversation over dinner in the background of this season 5, episode 5 scene from Weeds (a walk-on part purchased at a raffle at a Dallas charity event) — riveting. That’s him in the background during the first half of this clip, at least during one of the camera angles.
Charity Beaver Still in the Hunt
Lest you forget, the “10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas” contest — or, as we affectionately refer to it, the “10 Most Beautiful Women in Dallas” contest — is chugging along. Three more women were eliminated. But Charity Beaver wasn’t one of them. I know I speak for semi-aquatic rodents everywhere when I say, “You go, Ms. Beaver!”
D Magazine Moves Downtown: The Update
No one is more interested in our impending move downtown than you are. We know this. Which is why we’ve consolidated our scrapbook of moving pics on this page. Check out the new time-lapse video by Gustav Schmiege, and pay special attention to the :50 mark, at which point they saw a hole in the floor. Also of note is the 1:40 mark. Not sure what happened there. I guess that construction worker decided it was time for his closeup.
And don’t worry. We’ll keep you abreast of future developments. I’m particularly looking forward to the hanging of the outdoor signage.
Leading Off (08/31/09)
1. The good folks at SMU have abandoned plans for a pedestrian bridge leading from DART to the Bush presidential library. You know who wouldn’t have given up? The good people at Baylor. They would have built a bridge–over a moat with magic fish–that rivaled the Golden Gate. Of course, Waco lacks anything remotely similar to DART. And yet the city gets mentioned in every single news report about the library. Go Bears!
2. In incredibly sad news, a pregnant woman who was struck by lightning on Thursday not only lost her baby–she, too, died yesterday at Parkland.
3. Does your letter from an outfit called Property Tax Assessor–with promises of hundreds of dollars they can save you on propery taxes for a mere $55 fee–sound too good to be true? It is. The form they offer to work this miracle? You can get it for free on the Tarrant County Appraisal District website. Oh. And they overstate how much you can actually save. Obviously.
Dallas Heavily Taxes Travelers
At least that’s what this repetitive press release from the National Business Travel Association says. Dallas is ranked No. 3 among cities that impose the highest total taxes per day on travelers, and No. 5 for the highest “discriminatory” travel taxes (those on lodging, car rentals, and meals). I’m guessing this is partially a state matter — since Houston and San Antonio are right there with us on the lists.
(Oddly, Portland, Oregon, is No. 1 for the lowest tax burden, but also No. 1 for the highest discriminatory taxes. Oregon has no general sales tax.)
UPDATE: A helpful FrontBurnervian suggests that spankin’ new sports arenas here and in Houston and San Antonio, and the taxes that we approved to help pay for them, are the culprits.
Collin County Forces Arts Hall Forward
Are Collin County leaders gnashing their teeth every time they’re reminded of Dallas’ shiny new arts district opening this fall? In almost seven years of efforts, the Arts of Collin County — a partnership between Allen, Frisco, and Plano to create an arts hall and park — has only managed to help build a road.
And while Dallas raised more than $330 million in funding during a nine-year campaign, the Arts of Collin County Foundation collected just $9 million (granted, in only about four years of concentrated effort). For some reason, the Foundation disbanded, saying that the Arts of Collin County Commission could take it — and the remaining $12-16 million shortfall — from there.
Then last year, the executive director who had been hired to usher the project into existence figured his work was done and headed off to North Carolina. That was shortly after project leaders asked McKinney to consider yet again participating in the project and ponying up $19 million as the other cities already had. McKinney refused even to take it back to the voters that had rejected it already.
Mike Simpson, the former mayor of Frisco, was tapped late last year to get the project out of its purgatory. You certainly can’t fault the man’s optimism. Last week, the Arts of Collin County Commission voted to start taking bids. Though they remain well short of their stated fund-raising goals, it seems they’ve found some new math to lead them to salvation: (more…)
Lake Highlands Town Center Delayed
Lake Highlands has a strong sense of being a town all its own. But, as I learned in my former life at People Newspapers, one thing they lack in being entirely self-sufficient is a town square, a place that allows them to do most, if not all, their shopping in the neighborhood.
Neighborhood leaders would tell us that they were most likely to drive over to NorthPark Center, or the Galleria area. So there was a lot of excitement about the new Lake Highlands Town Center when plans were unveiled last year. At that time the first phase was supposed to be done by 2010. Now Prescott is saying it won’t be finished until 2012, because of general economic difficulties.
Why Dallas Teachers Unions Must Never Get Power
When I read of a complaint or a threatened lawsuit by the AFT or another union against the DISD or another local school district, I automatically side with the school district. Maybe it’s because I don’t take the time to study the facts of the particular case, so I don’t know if — one chance out of a hundred, say – the union may be right. Or maybe it is because even our relatively weak Dallas unions have a record of defending incompetence to their last breath. In the August 31 edition of The New Yorker, Steven Brill shows what happens when union intransigence is combined with political power.
Dallas-Houston Bullet Train: Economics Brawl!
Is a high-speed rail line between Dallas and Houston practical? In a four-part series for the New York Times, Harvard professor Edward L. Glaeser used the example of a possible Dallas-Houston line to do his back-of-the-envelope calculations on whether it is worth the money. His conclusion: as much as he would like to be pro-rail, the cost-benefit ratio doesn’t justify it. Economist Robert Samuelson then used Glaeser’s numbers to denounce high-speed rail as a “boondogle” in the Washington Post, a piece that was quickly attacked by economics writer Ryan Anent as a “hack job.”
On Tuesday, transportation researcher Yonah Freemark delivered another sharp rebuttal to Glaeser:
The problem is that–through a sorry mix of omission, oversimplification, distortion, and deficiency–his calculations bear no relation to the effects he is claiming to consider. So it’s important to show that “the numbers” do not at all undermine the viability of HSR in the US, even outside the northeast and California. In fact, they tend to support it.
Using projected population figures for 2019 (it would take ten years to build the line), Freemark concludes the only rational conclusion is to “build, baby, build.”
Yesterday, George Mason economist Tyler Cowen took a pencil to Freemark’s numbers, and did not like what he found:
I’m not sure what discount rates he is using but even if we put that problem aside this screams out: don’t do it. Given irreversible investment, lock-in effects, and required hurdle rates of return, this still falls into the “no” category. And that’s an estimate from an advocate writing a polemic on behalf of the idea. I’m not even considering the likelihood of inflation on the cost side or the public choice problems with getting a good rather than a bad version of the project. How well has the Northeast corridor been run?
We link. You decide.
Leading Off (8/28/09)
1. The first confirmed swine flu death in Dallas County was reported yesterday. A 52-year-old woman passed away from the virus a week ago. “Should people be afraid? Yes, they should be afraid, because it is a lot of unknowns in this. [It is?] But not the extent that we’re paralyzed and not able to move through our daily activities,” said Zack Thompson, director of Dallas County health department. Um, hold on to your effin mask?
2. Next time you’re flying to Lubbock, be sure to look down. A man there wanted to spread his disdain for Obama’s healthcare plan to pilots coming in from Dallas. So he did what any man would do: He plowed. A lot.
3. Apparently, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for the jurors in the City Hall corruption trial as the prosecution should wrap up by the middle of next week. Then it’s the defense’s turn. Then there’s that whole deliberation thing. The judge said she wants the case finished in October. Wait, where’s that light again?
4. (Special Nightengale bonus Item!) There’s nothing like spending an afternoon with your mom, then being handcuffed by “immigration officers” and being told you’re going to Waco. Then passing Waco and realizing something’s wrong. Then watching your mom escape from the car and you getting dropped off on the side of the road. In related news, I will be avoiding Valley View Mall for quite some time. UPDATE: The kidnapping happened at a bazaar on Harry Hines. So the mall’s safe.
City Finally Allows North Haven Gardens to Sell Chickens
A couple of months ago, just as North Haven Gardens was getting its urban henkeeping program up and running, the city stepped in and cried “fowl.” (Sorry — we’re deep into shipping the October ish, and I’m getting a bit punchy.) North Haven was allowed to continue selling supplies for backyard coops and hold basic henkeeping classes. But the heart of the garden center’s efforts — actually selling hens — was cut out. Today, North Haven got good news: “The city is changing the certificate of occupancy. Right now we are zoned to sell plants and related garden center products. The city has now said that chickens are garden related.” Full disclosure: that quote comes from my wife, Nikki, who works there. Anyway, on September 19, North Haven will have pullets (juvenile hens) for sale at the store. And Nikki now owes me one. So everyone wins.
Texas Thrillerz! Perform “Thriller” Dance at Oak Cliff’s El Ranchito
Randy Eli Grothe, who shot the below video, was kind enough to hook me up with a link to a group of artists, architects, and copywriters — better known as Texas Thrillerz! — performing the “Thriller” dance at an MJ tribute night at El Ranchito in Oak Cliff. Enjoy.
Stanford Financial Lawyers Make Bank
Dallas attorney Ralph Janvey was appointed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in February as the receiver in the Stanford Financial fraud.
The American Lawyer has some questions about how Janvey is running his operation:
The choice triggered some surprise in legal circles; Janvey had worked on only a handful of other receiverships, none close to the scope of Stanford.
But he billed like an old pro. For the first eight weeks of work, Janvey requested nearly $6 million for Baker Botts, his main outside firm, for the services of 101 attorneys, representing an eighth of the firm’s lawyers. He asked for nearly $2 million for Thompson & Knight, another firm he tapped, for some 66 timekeepers. Millions more were designated for firms in Canada, Switzerland, Britain, Antigua, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and for other professional services.
In August, Janvey requested another $7.6 million in fees for seven more weeks of work by 14 professional services firms. He has recovered about $81 million, meaning that the fees requested are equal to 34 percent of the recovery.
New Group to Press for Western Civ in Texas
The Coalition of American Traditions and Ethics announced yesterday that it will launch a campaign to install a Western Civilization curriculum choice for students in Texas universities. We’ve already recounted the battle at UT Austin, which led to a squishy kind of academic compromise (which in academia means “not in our lifetimes”). Here’s CATE’s website and a petition. I’ve already signed. Check it out and see if it’s something you, too, want to support.
S&P Lowers Debt Rating on Belo
Yesterday the agency lowered its credit rating on Belo (the broadcasting company). As the FrontBurnervian who sent me the news last night remarked, “Things are getting uglier at Communicatons Center.” The full release after the jump, but here is the key paragraph:
“The downgrade reflects our expectation that Belo’s operating performance will remain weak over the intermediate term, which will cause the company’s leverage metrics to stay above a level appropriate for a ‘BB-’ rating,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Deborah Kinzer. “In addition, we are concerned that the company will need to amend the financial covenants in its credit agreement to avoid a covenant violation as early as the fourth quarter of 2009.”
Cowboys Stadium Already a Financial Winner
So says the great (and not easily impressed) Mitchell Schnurman. There should be no doubt in anyone’s mind that Jerry Jones is one our region’s greatest assets.
“Spirit of Communication” at AT&T Hdqts.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of visiting AT&T Headquarters where I beheld for myself the massive 16-ton, 24-ft high “Golden Boy” also once known as the “Genius of Electricity” and renamed “The Spirit of Communication” in the early part of the 20th century. It was sculpted out of bronze and layered with gold leaf by Evelyn Beatrice Longman in 1914-15 and placed atop the original AT&T Headquarters on lower Broadway in New York in 1916.
The AT&T lobby was remodeled to accomodate the sculpture. The lobby is contemporary and sleek, showing off the company’s latest technological wares to great effect. The lobby’s design makes the huge sculpture even more startling and dramatic, as well as giving company employees a historical connection to their roots. Pete, the information-booth guy, spends most of his day, as far as I could tell, proudly explaining the piece’s provenance to bedazzled visitors. (Nice job, Pete.)
The commission of such a work must have been an enormous prize, and it is a little surprising now to think that in 1914 it went to a female artist from Ohio. But Longman had already secured her reputation with a “Victory” piece at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904.
By the way, this photo was taken with my IPhone, which I think is kind of poetic.
UPDATE: A design-doing FrontBurnervian informs me that the lobby I so admire was done by Gensler, the same sylish folks who designed the new D Magazine World Headquarters.
Leading Off (8/27/09)
1. Anthony Kallas and Sheri Brown moved from McKinney to Royse City to protect their dog, Rocky, from doggie death row after he attacked Brown’s mother last year. “Just as long as they know they’re not welcome in Dallas,” Eric Celeste said, as he racked his shotgun and took a long drag from his cigarillo.
2. Is there anything else about a home so attractive to hoodlums as A/C units? If they’re not ripping it apart for the copper, then they are stealing the freon. How about you guys pick on skylights, huh? Everyone knows they have it coming.
3. TCU and SMU want their colors kept off cans of Bud Light as part of the beer’s Fan Cans promotion. Bud Light responded, “Oh, we included you guys? That doesn’t sound right.”
Verbal Atrocities of the North Texas Commission
I just had a pleasant chat with Dan Petty, the president and CEO of the North Texas Commission. I’m pleased to report that not once during our talk did he refer to our region using the M-word. This is notable (and Tim noted they were moving away from it last year) because they invented the phrase.
They confirmed that “North Texas” is their now preferred term. Sure, some people elsewhere in the country still think they’re talking about the Panhandle. But they think that will all change when the national spotlight begins to focus on the region next year in the lead up to Super Bowl XLV. By the time the big game is played in early 2011, they expect everyone from Anchorage to Key West will know that North Texas means Dallas-Fort Worth and its surroundings.
In the meantime, Mr. Petty asked that I get Wick’s opinion on another term he hopes will gain some traction. He didn’t coin it, but he’d like to make it the mindset of organizations across the region: (more…)
When Ross Perot Questioned I.M. Pei
Dallas’ much-praised Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center turns 20 years old next month, and one of the people behind its success is EDS founder Ross Perot, who ponied up $10 million to build the place. During an event at NorthPark Center last night to announce a Sept. 12 gala marking the Meyerson anniversary, the diminutive billionaire recalled an early exchange he had with I.M. Pei, the symphony hall’s world-renowned architect. Perot noticed that some of the center’s ceiling tiles were cut at different angles, and he asked Pei why. The architect replied it was because he wanted the ceiling tiles to match the floor tiles exactly. “Who would ever notice that?” Perot asked. Replied Pei: “I will!” To which Perot said: “Well, you are I.M. Pei–and I am ‘I Will Pay.’ “
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