Remember Tom Leppert? He used to be the mayor of Dallas, but then he quit so he could become a senator maybe. And then Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst joined the race, too, and Leppert has been all, “DUDE, do you mind?”
Well, the Austin American-Statesman and PolitiFact sort of busted Leppert on calling Dewhurst a career politician, since Dewhurst was a businessman pulling in some serious cheddar before deciding to run for land commissioner back in 1998, and has only been in politics for 13 years. Only, Leppert’s people say, “Nuh-uh, we’re just using the same rules he did when he talked about this other guy.” Then a bunch of poli-sci professors said a fair determiner would be how long the individual had been in politics. They also said that we should quit using the term as a pejorative, because sometimes being good at your job and staying there for a long time is good.
A Hong Kong company has snapped up Dallas’ iconic Rosewood Mansion on Turtle Creek and Rosewood Crescent hotels, reports say. In all, the $570 million acquisition by the family of Hong Kong billionaire Cheng Yu-tung includes five properties that had been owned by Maritz, Wolff & Co. and Rosewood Corp.
The other hotels in the reported deal are in Santa Fe, N.M., the British Virgin Islands and (the Carlyle) in Manhattan. In June, a unit of Cheng’s New World Development Co. agreed to pay Maritz Wolff and Rosewood Corp. $229.5 million for Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, which manages a portfolio of luxury properties. Rosewood’s been asked for comment, but so far nobody’s gotten back.
UPDATE: A spokesman for The Mansion has now confirmed the sale reported above, but without disclosing a purchase price. The sale closed Friday afternoon. According to a “fact sheet” released this morning by Maritz Wolff, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts will continue to manage the five sold properties: the Crescent and Mansion here in Dallas, the Rosewood Inn of the Anasazi in Santa Fe, The Carlyle, A Rosewood Hotel in New York and the Rosewood Little Dix Bay in Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands.
Hot Week Ahead. I’m not really sure what 110 degrees feels like. But I do know I’m not going to enjoy it. And I’ll be complaining. But we all need to be smart about this heat wave. Drink water. Don’t take your dog for a long walk on the hot concrete. And, please, do not leave your kids in the car.
A Push To Get Certain Drinks Out of Downtown Stores. After the whole Angela Hunt/bum situation, a petition circulated multiple apartment complexes downtown. The petition was for getting downtown convenience stores to stop selling high-alcohol content beverages (which just so happen to be rather cheap). Downtown Dallas Inc. is behind the push saying that when stores have agreed to stop selling the beverages, there has been a drop in crime.
Fort Worth Boy Talks About Shark Attack. Twelve-year-old Nicholas Vossler was attacked by a bull shark earlier this summer. He escaped, but not without injury. He spent about three weeks in the hospital, and he’s had at least a half dozen surgeries on his leg. He’ll have more. But his family is thankful he came out of the ordeal so well. Think about that while you’re watching Shark Week.