Articles about Civics
Former Councilman, State Rep. Fred Blair Dead at 70
Fred Blair, who sat at the Dallas council horseshoe from 1980 to 1984 (including stints as Mayor Pro Tem and Vice Mayor) and then was a state rep from 1986 to 1992, died Wednesday at age 70.
Blair was, according to his obit in the Dallas Morning News, only the third black person ever elected to the Dallas city council. D Magazine’s coverage of him (or at least some of it) can be found here.
Former DMN City Hall Scribe Heads To Politico
I keep forgetting to mention this, and so far Dallas South News’ Shawn Williams is the only one to say anything, but former prolific city hall beat reporter Dave Levinthal, who moved to Washington D.C. and took a job at the Center for Responsive Politics as the editor of its OpenSecrets.org, is changing jobs again.
This time, he will write for Politico, where he will continue his vast and astute reporting and tracking of the money involved in politics that garnered him appearances on all manner of national Sunday talk shows. He starts in the middle of this month.
Maurine Dickey Writes to AG to Review County Redistricting
Just a few minutes ago, I got a passel of documents from Dallas County Commissioner Maurine Dickey, who has already expressed her extreme displeasure regarding the redistricting maps the commissioner’s court voted on a few weeks ago. Seems Dickey will now seek a review of the map by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and the U.S. Justice Department.
“The new map was approved by the Dallas County Commissioners without the benefit of public review or comment as required. I ask that the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Justice rule the new district map invalid and restore the original redrawn district map that was presented to the public for comment,” Dickey says in a press release. “The court failed to give the public proper notice which has resulted in what is, at a minimum, a disenfranchisement of thousands of voters.”
You can read the full press release here, read the letter here, and see the old map and the new map here and here, respectively.
Mayor Caraway Introduces Wooden Giraffe to Populace
I almost wanted to have a caption contest with the first photo in Rudy Bush’s blog post. But instead, I’ll just tell you that Dwaine Caraway put a wooden giraffe named J.J. in the foyer of the Mayor’s Office.
Also, those are not pajamas, as many on Twitter were asking me. It’s an agbada, a robe generally worn by important men in Africa. One also assumes that it would come in handy if you were trying to obscure the fact that your pants needed pulling up.
If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be Time for an Outburst at Commissioner’s Court
Some day, I think, voters will suddenly get very tired of theatrics in their county commissioners, and will instead want to vote for people who want to conduct business without, I dunno, calling people bobos.
And yet, today’s Dallas County Commissioner’s Court outburst is brought to you by Maurine Dickey, who was upset about a county redistricting plan. And listen, maybe it was a bunch of hooey and she was right not to like it. But bobos? And this:
“If you would like to drag me out, please do,” she said. “Do you want to haul me out? I’m ready to go to jail.”
So yes, sigh. For one thing, what does that even mean? Is she referring to an ethnic group from Burkina Faso? A boogyman from Egypt? A Chinese boy band? Or, uh, any of these meanings? And secondly, seriously? There wasn’t a more professional way to register her displeasure? Or for that matter, for any of them to voice their displeasure?
Why You Should Probably Vote in City Elections
I know voting can be a giant pain in the butt. OK. No, I don’t. I was trying to sound sympathetic there, but no, voting isn’t a giant pain in the butt. This isn’t Afghanistan or something, where you vote and you might die. Voting in the U.S. is easier than finding an open checkout lane at Walmart, yet the people who will stand in a line 15 people deep to buy one Kit Kat will eschew voting because it’s too hard, even though you can vote early and pretty much walk right up to a voting booth. In the grand scheme of hard work, it’s closer to working an ATM than digging a ditch.
Dallas recently had an election to decide who would be mayor. Mayor of a whole city, a fairly big city, a city looking at a budget shortfall and an aging infrastructure that is home to some pretty awesome stuff but is also home to some pretty bad stuff that should probably get fixed. Someone should really have a plan for that. You know who usually has a plan for that? The mayor. (more…)
National Review Profiles Rick Perry
I read it. Twice (just like I read “Fed Up” twice). The takeaway? Rick Perry named his boots (Freedom and Liberty). That I get – I named my flip flops Tequila and Cherry Limeade. Other takeaway? The word crotchety is still so funny.
Dallas Readies For Redistricting
From City Hall comes word that it’s Redistricting Commission time again. Has it been 10 years since the last decennial figures were released? Time flies, friends. Time flies.
If you have some definite opinions on precinct boundaries, click here for a list of meetings. See you there. At all of them. Bring cookies.
Kunkle and Dodd: How It All Began
It’s cold and icy outside. You’re likely stuck at home. So here’s a hot and steamy story from our January 2007 issue to warm your bones (not to mention the cockles of your heart). “The Police Chief and Reporter” reminds us how Sarah Dodd and David Kunkle initially got their groove on. Enjoy.
‘Nothing is Happening’ in Dallas? Says Who?
I really enjoy PvP, Scott Kurtz’s Eisner-winning comic strip about the staff of a video-game magazine called Player vs. Player. But something in the current storyline is sticking in my craw. Kurtz’s characters are moving from Dallas to Seattle, just as their creator did last year. The Jan. 7 edition includes a character’s assertions that “nothing is happening” in Dallas, while Seattle has “a very tech-savvy community.”
As Zac Crain recently found out, Dallas is awesome. And it is such a tech-savvy city, D CEO just published a special report on the subject.
Things to Do in Dallas Tonight: January 17, 2011
It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day in America. The downtown Dallas garage where I park my car was relatively empty this morning, so I know that many of you are enjoying a day off. But after you’ve slept in, watched The Price is Right, and raised the energy to finally change out that light bulb that’s been burned out above the kitchen sink for the last couple months, take some time to reflect on the legacy of Dr. King and the reasons why we take this collective pause from business-as-usual in the middle of January.
Tonight the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture is hosting an event to help you do just that. Jeffrey Toobin of CNN and the New Yorker and civil right attorney Fred Gray are headlining the Institute’s sixth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium at the Winspear. This year’s event is centered on law and the key role it played in the civil rights movement.
Other things to do in Dallas here.
Dwaine Caraway, Arthur, and Archie
I know Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway made his statement yesterday, admitted he lied to the DMN about why cops were called to his house, and said, “That’s the end of all of this with me. That’s my statement. There’s not going to be anything else. No more questions, no more nothing.” But I have a question. How do you diagram the following sentence, which came from his statement?
“Those of you in this audience that are married, those of you that are listening that are married, if you’ve not always wanted eggs and bacon and some of you may have wanted something else, but you didn’t get it and that’s just what marriage is all about.”
That’s the way marriage go?
Sessions Screws Up Congress, Ctd.
It gets worse. Turns out that Sessions was at a fundraiser when the Oath was given.
Leading Off (1/3/11)
1. If (or, as our January cover story asserts, when) Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert decides to give up a second term as Dallas mayor in order to run for a senate seat, his successor will likely not be a minority, Gromer Jeffers writes. The reasons should trouble you: financial hardship caused by the position, the lack of groomed minority candidates, and the projected expense of running a successful campaign. Have we left behind the brief era that saw mayoral candidates from historically underrepresented populations of the city for the reemergence of a system in which the only viable candidates are those who can both afford to hold the office and are cherry-picked by the business elite, who fund their campaign?
2. Fort Worth turned its back on a $25 million federal grant to help fund the construction of a downtown streetcar. Now, Dallas hopes to get its hand on that money to help with the cost of its own streetcar program. So who’s being shortsighted, the city that believes the investment in streetcars of upwards of $88 million isn’t worth the projected returns, or the city that is going to go all-in on a $100 million streetcar system with the hope that it contributes to the livability and densification of its urban core?
3. The Wall Street Journal picks up on what we have known for some time: for the last ten years, it has been heartbreaking to be a Mavs fan.
Newt Gingrich Hits Up The Lodge – Again
Remember how last year Newt Gingrich’s fundraising organization, Americans Solutions for Winning, told Dawn Rizos (owner of The Lodge) she was winning a big award and all she needed to do was pay $5,000 for the privilege of winning?
And then remember how Newt’s folks (and by that I mean his people, not his actual parents, although that would be pretty funny, too, now that I think of it) figured out that Rizos’ establishment was not a restaurant, but was a strip club? And then they said, “Sorry, we can’t give this fake award to a strip club, so um, we’re taking back our invitation and our award”? And then Rizos had to get the money back, and she used it to start a shelter for dogs called “Newt’s Nook”?
Well, today The Lodge’s PR man, Michael Precker, sent me a clip of the Rachel Maddow Show that is so full of funny that I actually snotted my desk. It seems that after Newt said his fact checker/screening folks would be doing a better job after the last debacle, Rizos got another letter recently, asking her to donate $1,000, or even up to $2,000. She’d even get a cool card that says she is a member. There was even a mock up of that card.
Rizos told Maddow’s show that she would like to have a conversation with Newt before she hands him any money. Instead, she sent him a membership card, too: A lifetime VIP membership card to The Lodge.
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