Articles for February 24th, 2011
The Park Is Only $17 Million Away
Katie Minchew went to today’s meeting at the Hunt building to hear about the latest fundraising news regarding The Park.
Linda and Mitch Hart with students from the Laureate Preparatory School
Today the Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation announced “significant progress in the capital campaign.” Since I have been following the construction of The Park on FrontBurner, I was invited to the press conference to meet some of the new donors.
After a little meet and greet, Mayor Tom Leppert spoke, thanking everyone who is involved with the project. Today we met donors Linda and Mitch Hart and two members of the Richard Fisher family. Along with the other new donors, nearly $9 million was donated. They are only $17 million away from completing this campaign, which strangely, doesn’t sound like much to me.
While the new donors were announced, a small group of kids from Laureate Preparatory School, which is five blocks away from The Park, waited impatiently for their turn to be in the spotlight. The kids stole the show as they presented the Mayor and new donors with framed Crayola-inspired artwork of The Park.
But I think Mayor Leppert’s statement defined the purpose of The Park best: “What once was the divider is now the magnet.” —Katie Minchew
Dwaine Caraway’s Breakfast Preferences
We’re no longer posting all the content from each issue of our magazine. The move wasn’t made in an effort to make us more money; it was made to save us time. Which is money. So I take it back. We’re making more money with this move. In any case, here’s the back-page essay from our March issue, which isn’t online. The March issue is. Just not the back-page column. Except I’m posting it here. So I guess it is online. Just goes to show: you can’t fight the internet. Without further ado, here’s the PDF. And the text:
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Dwaine caraway is an interesting man. You’ll recall that in his tenure on the Dallas City Council, the mayor pro tem has: launched a crusade against saggy pants; arrived at a meeting late and limping, delivered a rambling speech in which he mentioned that he and the Council loved the mayor, and said he’d fallen out of his pickup the night before; tried to get the cops to stop hassling people at his favorite poker house; steadfastly denied that he is a “sixty-fivehundred- dollar Negro,” even though no one had called him a sixtyfive- hundred-dollar Negro; and, most recently, revealed that he has two imaginary friends. I’m sure I’m overlooking something.
Keyes Pondering Life After Blockbuster
What will become of Blockbuster chairman and CEO Jim Keyes once the Dallas-based video-rental company is sold? “I’m gonna take some time off,” Keyes said yesterday. “I might stay on through the transition–depending on the buyer.”
And after that? “I don’t know,” replied Keyes, who’s a competent painter and sculptor in his spare time, as explained in the new issue of D CEO. “I might become a starving artist.”
The Next Time It Rains, It’s the Ocean Raining On You: Cousteau at the Winspear
Jean-Michel Cousteau and friend.
So said Jean-Michel Cousteau (eldest son of famed underwater explorer Jacques-Yves) last night, just a few minutes into his National Geographic Live! talk at the Winspear Opera House. He was explaining his father’s considerable influence — the knowledge of how impacted we are by the health of our seas. And since the evening was billed first and foremost as a “heartfelt tribute” to Cousteau’s father (who would have celebrated his 100th birthday in June of this year), I was expecting to be at least a little bit moved by this portion of the program.
U.S. in “Terrible Spot” On Energy, Pickens Says
If civil strife in Algeria were to pinch off oil supplies there, the price of crude oil could hit $180 a barrel, T. Boone Pickens says. The Dallas energy billionaire, who earlier predicted $100 per barrel oil by the end of the first quarter, said $180 oil would put us “back to where we were in 2008,” when high oil prices had gasoline costing more than $4 a gallon, sending shock waves throughout the U.S. economy.
“We’re in a terrible spot right now,” Pickens said in Dallas last night. “You can see how fast it’s spread,” he added, referring to civil unrest in the Middle East. Violence in Libya had oil reaching nearly $100 a barrel yesterday for the first time since October 2008, and average U.S. gas prices crept up to the $3.20 range. If Saudi Arabian oil supplies were to be disrupted, Pickens said, $300 per barrel oil wouldn’t be out of the question.
DART Ridership is Down? Could’ve Fooled Me
I was surprised to see a Morning News headline declaring that DART ridership dropped in 2010. The picture you see here, snapped during my commute this morning, is a fair representation of the conditions on most every train I ride. Claustrophobics, beware.
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: Feb. 24
Forgive my petulance this morning, but I’m miffed. My alma mater won’t say yea or nay, but rumor has it that Bill Clinton is this year’s commencement speaker. Guess who I got? Alec Baldwin. On a cold, rainy day much like this one, I spent three freezing hours in an uncovered section of Yankee Stadium (wearing a cheap plastic poncho and probably sprouting mushrooms) listening to a hypocritical snooze-fest about the merits of love and family. Life. It’s grotesquely unfair.
Also filed under “unfair”: asking a lady to marry you without mentioning the fact that you’re already engaged. But what’s worse is neglecting to tell future wives numbers one and two about fiancée number three. That’s basically the plot of Boeing Boeing, the classic French comedy that starts tonight at the Circle Theater in Sundance Square. Make an evening of it with dinner and drinks at Ferre, only about block away. The less time spent wandering around in this bad hair day weather, the better.
For those who have retail therapy on the agenda tonight, there’s the Sample This! grand opening party in Mockingbird Station. I can’t guarantee how festive it’ll be, but I trust our shopping expert when she says it’s full of good stuff for fairly cheap. Beware, though. Only tiny people can shop here, because in true sample sale fashion, the sizes only range from 2-6.
Go forth and find more things to do tonight right here.
Texas Pollution Worse than Ohio and Florida Combined
And those aren’t exactly tiny states. But, by God, we’ll fight the EPA to the last smokestack. The report is here.
New York Times Talks to Local 12-Year-Old Designer
If you haven’t read this story that Kristin Hull wrote about 12-year-old designer Grant Mower, then get to it. It seems the topic of young, budding fashion designers is a hot one. The New York Times picked up on it and wrote about several kids who are making their names known before they even reach high school. They talked to Grant and his mom toward the end of the article.
One line from the article that I thought was interesting was, “But the fact that fashion has become a field that is so easy for a tween to crack says a lot about how much the perception of a designer has changed. The allure of fashion is no longer the craft, but the flash.”
Another thing about the article that was intriguing was one of the sources saying he had conflicting feelings about kids starting their careers at such an early age. I know many 25-year-olds who are still trying to figure out what they want to do as a career. If you have it figured out at 12, good for you. Go with it.
Alert! 118,534 People in Dallas Missing!
A Frontburnervian points me to this estimate made last year by the North Texas Council of Governments that the 2010 Dallas population was 1, 316,350. The U.S. Census figures just out — and shown on another page of the NTCOG site –puts that number officially at 1,197,816.
So what happened to the other 118,534 people? Was I out of town when the Rapture happened?
Behind the Scenes of David Hopkins’ Burlesque Story
You can read David’s piece about the former Tammi True right here, and you should, if only for the part about — you know what? You will see for yourself. It makes me laugh and cringe every single time I read it.
As David writes on his blog, he could have written an entirely different story. That one sounds pretty interesting, too. Check that out here.
Groupon Jumps the Shark
Seriously? This is the deal today for Dallas? A Sarah Palin bobblehead doll? Really? I mean, REALLY really?
Leading Off (2/24/11)
Police Officer Accused of Beating Handcuffed Man. I know. This has happened before—a dashboard camera shows a police officer beating a suspect. And we’ve discussed that policemen must protect themselves. So if you resist arrest (as this man was) or act suspiciously, cops have to react. But in this case, once the suspect’s handcuffed and on the ground, the police officer walks over to spray mace in his face and kick him. The police officer has been fired. Another has been reprimanded for lying on paperwork. But the good news, as Chief Brown puts it, is that a 23-year veteran turned the officer in.
Don’t Turn in Found Money in Dallas. Gwen Patterson found $470. She wanted to do the right thing, so she turned it in to Dallas police, thinking that if the rightful owner wasn’t found in 30 days, she’d get the money back. Wrong. Dallas keeps the money. Patterson has learned an important lesson: don’t turn the money in. I also learned something from this story: there’s an $8 Fashion Outlet in Dallas. Who knew?
Little Boy’s Prayer Goes Viral. Last week, I told you about a 7-year-old musician. This week, I bring you a 6-year-old boy and his prayer at Potter’s House when he was 5. Apparently, the video of his prayer has gone viral and caused quite the stir. He’s adorable. And confident. And he has great style. I’m digging those shoes of his.
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