1. The City Council’s Economic Development committee will get an update on the Downtown Dallas 360 plan today. Which plan, you ask? I know, it is hard to keep track. This is the one that kicked-off last October and is focused on building connectivity downtown. Though I’m plan-weary, I like the approach of the 360 team. Not so Car Free in Big D. The blog drags out nifty, homespun graphics to prove the tough truth: the real downtown solution, dismantling the highway ring, will never happen.
2. It’s 2010, and we shall all be counted. Except perhaps not all of us. The Washington Post reports that in a number of major U.S. cities, including Dallas, the census’ efforts to reach out to immigrants are inadequate.
3. I ran into an old friend a few weeks ago who is finishing up nursing school. That’s good, I said. I heard nursing is recession-proof. Not so, reports the Star-Telegram. And the tough times trod on.
Today is the first day that DISD magnets accept applications. Getting your application in early gives your kid an advantage. If his grades and test scores tie him with another applicant, the decision is made based on which application was turned in first.
So here I sit with a dozen other parents outside William B. Travis, in Uptown, freezing my butt off. The first guy in line got here at 2 a.m. I got here at 4:30. I’m No. 8. It’s a friendly group. We all recognize each other for what we are: parents who take things too far. “You gotta do what you gotta do,” one woman says. A man shows up, takes his spot at No. 14, and says, “What are we in line for?”
The guy in front of me says parents started camping out at Dealey on Friday.