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They’ll be moving into Mack Hicks’ (he’s the son of Tom Hicks) three-bedroom unit at the W highrise. Realtor-to-the-bold-face set Allie Beth Allman, no stranger to high-profile-athlete clients, did the deal. In fact, they liked Allie Beth so much, they mic’ed her up for Khloe & Lamar, the couple’s reality TV show.

Earlier news reports had the couple checking out the nearby Azure condos, where they were supposedly looking for a three-bedroom place renting for $8,000 to $15,000 a month.

Does this make you feel like you're five minutes from the beach?

You’ll hear it said about some neighborhoods, almost always meant as a compliment: “It doesn’t feel like Dallas.”

Does this happen in other major cities? Do people feel a sense of pride in living someplace so unlike the rest of the area?  Those aren’t rhetorical questions.

Usually I hear these statements made about quiet, tree-filled settings with an actual bit of hill-like topography, qualities rare on this flat plain we inhabit. But take a look at the image above of the Hebron 121 Station apartments. That doesn’t look like Dallas, either, does it?  And as Steve Brown notes (behind the paywall) about the development in today’s Dallas Morning News:  ”The colorful Caribbean-style architecture, resort landscaping and location on Denton County’s new commuter rail line has made the 90-acre development a hit with renters.”

I was not surprised to learn in Brown’s piece that Huffines Communities is responsible for the project, as they’re the same firm behind “resort living” and “Cape Cod-style homes” in landlocked Denton County. With Hebron 121 Station, they seem to have taken their building philosophy to another level. Given that they’ve got a waiting list for those dying to live in a flood plain former flood plain, and they’re going to build even more units, I guess there are plenty of people who believe more is better when it comes to palm trees in a parking lot. Just listen to this resident:

“My apartment faces the lake and fountains, and it’s got palm trees,” said Miller, a travel agent. “This is a great place for me because I love the beach and vacations.”

Yep. Nothing says “vacation home” better than an apartment complex next to a transit station near the intersection of two major highways in Lewisville.

I’m sounding snobby, aren’t I? I know, I know: different strokes for different folks. So why do projects like this gall me? As with the faux town squares discussed recently, it’s that they seem phony, inauthentic. And, as Christine Allison wrote in D Home last year about the popularity of palm trees in Dallas:

Is there a reason we are importing a dated marketing ploy? Can’t we just be us?

Exactly. Why have we got to pretend we live in the Caribbean? Can’t we just be us?

Then again, when it comes to authentic home design, who are we?

UPDATE: The House, Azure; Victory Park, Harwood: all the generi-lux really does blur together. That said, the FBvians in the comments are right, TO’s former pad was at the Azure.

Parents in Custody After Severe Case of Child Neglect: This story is pretty disgusting (flaking skin?!), but it is encouraging that it was a teenager visiting the house of Justin and Brittany Alston in Hood County who called the police after noticing that the couple’s 8-month-old child was starving to death. The baby is now in critical condition at Cook Children’s Medical Center. It may sound odd, but I sure hope drugs were involved. At least it would be an explanation.

Cowboys Iced: For the second week in a row, Dallas Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey hit a last second field goal only to have to try to kick it again because of a last second timeout before the snap. Two weeks in a row, Bailey didn’t make the second attempt (granted, last night’s kick was blocked). Oh, and adding injury to insult, Dallas running game revelation, DeMarco Murray, fractured and sprained his ankle. And the defense blew a 12-point lead. Hello December!

Is Southlake Town Square the exception or the rule?

Long-suffering Denton residents have heard this before. Golden Triangle Mall has new ownership. The long-troubled shopping center is going to get yet another renovation. This time the city of Denton itself had to kick in $9.5 million to make it happen.

The news reminded me of something that came up during my recent breakfast with Ray Washburne, he of the MCrowd Restaurants and owner of Highland Park Village. We mostly talked about all the changes coming to the Village, but something that didn’t make it into the published article were his comments about Denton.

MCrowd had a deal in place to put a Mi Cocina location into the Rayzor Ranch development in Denton, but with that planned mixed-use project having slowed down due to economic factors, it hasn’t happened. “It was going to be the classic suburban lifestyle center,” Washburne said. “As a college town, I think a small Mi Cocina or Taco Diner would do well up there.” Then he added:

“Denton doesn’t have a sense of place.  That’s what these lifestyle centers have done — like up in Allen — is create a sense of place.”

Obviously, I disagree. But I’m from Denton. Washburne is a Dallas/Park Cities guy through and through, so I get it. To him Denton is just another faceless suburb, devoid of its own personality. Can’t say I don’t feel the same way myself about Richardson or Garland or Duncanville, or any of the other cities I don’t know well.

But the notion that a “suburban lifestyle center,” which is bound to be chock-a-block with franchised restaurants and chain retail shops, being the way to bring a “sense of place” to a city?  Does that work?

Maybe in Southlake at its Town Square? (Then again, maybe I’m drawing a false correlation between “sense of place” and financial success.)  What about Washburne’s own example, Watters Creek in Allen? Or Frisco Square? I know that Flower Mound’s Parker Square hasn’t worked out quite as well as was initially hoped.

The thing about Denton is, though, it doesn’t need to create a faux town square. It’s already got a real one.

Greeting scores of invited guests at a Highland Park manse on Gillon Avenue yesterday, the ex-HP resident (pictured in photo by Jeanne Prejean) was asked his opinion of the Occupy Wall Street protests. “That’s crazy,” he replied, waving one hand dismissively. “I’m not one of those who think that’s going to do any good. It’s hard to tell what they’re for and what they’re against.” The former veep was dismissive of Obama as well, calling the president “a train wreck.”

“I can’t get over the fact that he doesn’t have that sense of exceptionalism about America,” Cheney, addressing guests in the mansion’s big backyard, said of Obama.

He recalled the president’s 2009 speech in Cairo, where “he said we’d walked away from our basic fundamental American values”–and he was going to set things right.

“He operates on the assumption that the United States is not a special place, and I don’t buy that,” Cheney said. “So I hope we can beat him significantly. I’ll be careful here. Is ’significantly’ okay? You know what I mean.”

Cheney also seemed to relish tweaking the media, noting that his new book (written with the help of his daughter, Liz) “went straight to No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. I don’t much care” about being No. 1, he said, “but I loved the fact that it was the New York Times.”

Asked by a guest how he handles all the media “abuse”–and whether he might have any advice along those lines for Rick Perry–Cheney said a thick skin, and a sense of humor, help a lot. He recalled appearing on the nationally syndicated Don Imus radio/TV show, even after Imus had skewered him over the Iraq war, calling him names including “Pork Chop Boy.”

“He was not exactly friendly; in fact, he was hostile most of the time,” Cheney said of Imus. “But I’d turn him on in the morning while I was shaving.”

When Imus publicly invited him on the show, never thinking the vice president would accept, Cheney decided to take him up on the offer–and did the show. The I-man “couldn’t have been nicer,” Cheney said. “As I was getting ready to leave, I walked right past him and pulled a big pork chop out of my pocket, and threw it in his lap.”

The Highland Park visit by Cheney–who was accompanied by his wife, Lynne–was arranged by mega-Realtors Allie Beth and Pierce Allman. Their Dallas company has the listing on the Gillon Avenue mansion (price: $9.65 million). It also handled the sale of the Cheneys’ $3 million house on Euclid when the Cheneys left for Washington D.C., to join the George W. Bush administration.