D

Super Bowl Gives Highway New Name

I know you all love hearing Super Bowl updates whenever we get them (lookin’ at you, Mike), so here’s another one brought to us by the Star-Telegram. Michael Morris, director of transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments made an announcement last night that Interstate 30 between Dallas and Fort Worth will be renamed the Tom Landry Super Bowl Highway. The change isn’t official yet. Morris wants to run it by the NFL. I’m not sure when the change may take place, but what I want to know is whether or not the highway will go back to its original name after the game. And, also, how costly will this project be? (Wait before you say I’m not a journalist because I didn’t do any investigating. I have a call in to Morris to ask these questions. He’s just busy.)

An Admittedly Myopic Recap of the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade Festivities

By myopic, I mean my recap will not extend much beyond the patio at the Barley House (well, except we’re going to talk about a transportation snafu involving DART). Anyway, Eric asked me yesterday to answer five questions about the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade. After the jump, I’ll do my best.

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Dallas Saves You Time, Kinda

This month, Real Simple did a list of the top 21 time-saving cities. The magazine ranked cities based on how easy and fast they are to get around; how long it takes to see a doctor or the response of emergency services; availability of wireless and broadband and resources such as 311 hotlines; bike friendliness and recycling; and on the number of personal trainers and takeout restaurants per capita. Dallas came in at number 16, in a tie with Cleveland. We scored a 14 on the time-saving scale (getting around: 2; health and safety: 3.5; information and technology: 3; green time-savers: 3; lifestyle: 2.5). I think Dallas should have had a higher score in lifestyle, but I’m biased.

Also in the same issue, I learned I could use a ketchup bottle as a pancake dispenser. So there’s that.

Leading Off (3/8/10)

1. What gets me about this extensive report in Sunday’s paper about the Trinity toll road isn’t the fact that the levee repairs will continue to hold up the construction of the road or that the NTTA has said again that projected tolls don’t justify the total cost of the project. My problem is that the conversation is still, “how are we going to build the toll road,” and not, “how are we going to raise the money to build the Trinity River Project without the toll road?” Last year at this time, Wick’s rough estimates put the money needed to build the project without the toll road at around $90 million (to put that in perspective, according to the DMN story, the toll road is currently about $1 billion underfunded). The toll road is never going to happen, so let’s pick up the conversation from there.

2. I’m starting to feel like the Monday barker who brings bad DISD news. This week’s sad song: ten of more than 30 DISD high schools are considered chronically failing.

3. A simple question for you to fight out in the comments: who is going to enjoy the Dallas Zoo’s six new elephants more: Elizabeth Lavin or John Carona?

John Carona Talks Gas Tax, Upcoming Elections at D Magazine HQ

Periodically, we invite interesting people to come speak to our staff about interesting topics as part of the Brown Bag Series of lunchtime talks we started when we moved into the new building in October. (So far, those interesting people have included the Dallas Museum of Art’s Charlie Wylie and aerial photographer/more than I can list here Bobby Haas.) Yesterday, as part of the series, State Senator John Carona and Dallas County Republican Party chairman Jonathan Neerman paid a visit to our office. Their visit was timed to Carona’s appearance on our March cover. A few notes on the discussion, moderated by Wick, after the jump.

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Leading Off (3/1/10)

1. The federal pen time has been divvied up. Don Hill: 18 years; D’Angelo Lee: 14 years; Sheila Farrington-Hill: 9 years. Enjoy.

2. Things you don’t text a 17-year-old boy when he is your student no. 142: “Hey Baby – I just wanted to say hi before I go to bed. Good night baby! I’ll meet you in our dreams. I miss you baby! Muaah!” It really won’t ever get easier for DISD, will it?

3. Last month I was a little peeved that our state leaders gave the president the cold shoulder when he came around trying to throw billions of dollars at Texas high speed rail. On the DMN’s opinion blog, Mike Hashimoto points to some of the second guessing going on in California (who got the cash), and wonders if the numbers really don’t add up for high speed rail travel. As for me, I couldn’t care less about cold feet in California. Sure I’m irrational, but I think high speed rail is so cool I would support it even if there was complete and utterly undeniable proof it would bankrupt the entire universe. So I’m still sticking with my grudge against Austin.

Dallas’ Density Problem

Last week’s awarding of a federal grant to the local streetcar effort was lauded as a coup for the future of Dallas urbanism. Jim Schutze more or less crowned Jason Roberts king of pedestrians and heralded Oak Cliff as the new Copenhagen. In the comments to Schutze’s post, a commenter called “FairsAreForTourists,” who sounds like someone inside city hall, points out that Oak Cliff doesn’t have the density to support a streetcar system without heavy subsidies. In other words, the streetcar thing is being built on spec – if you build it, they will come (and I think they will). But the urban victory reminds us that Dallas’ real urban problem is, was, and will likely remain a lack of density. The difficulty is, as Stewart Brand reminds us in this must read piece entitled “How Slums Can Save the Planet,” density is messy, unorganized, not friendly to regulators, organic, and demands patient residents and city leaders. In other words: a lot of stuff that tends to make Dallas nervous.

Streetcars Coming to Dallas

By now you’ve perhaps heard the news that Dallas is getting $23 million in federal funds to get a street car line up and running. Patrick Kennedy over at Living Car-Free in Big D offers the best analysis of the deal I’ve read. (Okay, it’s the only analysis I’ve read.) He’s also got some pics of streetcar lines in other cities so that you can imagine what ours might look like.

Silent Bob Speaks Out Against Southwest Airlines

Film director Kevin Smith tweeted over the weekend about being booted from a Southwest Airlines flight because the captain determined he couldn’t safely fit into just one seat.

I’ve passed the stinkin’ arm-rest-test. And still, the lady asks me to get up and come with her off the plane. I get up without a fuss at all, quietly grab my bag, make eye contact with a fellow Fatty who was praying he’d pass, and leave.

Southwest Airlines apologized but stood by its “customer of size” policy.

Now it’s time for Kevin Smith to apologize to me for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

How to Stalk Jet-setters Coming to NBA All-Star Game

I mentioned yesterday that it looked from our downtown vantage point yesterday that private jet traffic into Love Field was picking up, and I guessed it was because of the All-Star Game. Someone pointed out in the comments that the private jets normally take a different landing route and that they’d been rerouted yesterday for some reason, which would explain why to me it looked like traffic had picked up (when, in fact it hadn’t). In either case, a snoopy FBvian points us to this site, where you can watch the traffic into Love. It only gives tail numbers, so you’ll have to do some more work to find out who is actually onboard. For that, it would help to know someone who works at the Love Field FBO.

The Perils of Flying

First comes news that American Airlines will start charging coach passengers $8 for blankets and pillows (but you get to take them home and you get a coupon for $10 off a $30 purchase at Bed Bath & Beyond!), then we hear that Southwest is being investigated by the FAA for a third time in two years. I still think it’s safer for me to fly rather than drive, and no one offers me a pillow and blanket when I’m in the car. So, really, I don’t think it’s all that bad.

Las Colinas As Development Model

Speaking of cities of the future, Indianapolis is trying to get in on the game with their new airport development, which is being styled as an “aerotropolis.” One of their models: the “postmodern urban development” called Las Colinas.

Unidentified Flying Objects Heard Near Love Field

In today’s FB version of “Anything You Ever Wanted to Know,” a question from the nation:

Could you ask if anyone knows what was going on Saturday the 23rd at 2pm around the Love Field area?  I was convinced a plane was going to crash in my front yard the noise was so loud. The plane(s) flew over 2 to 3 times at extremely low altitude.  My neighbor said he saw 2 military jets.

My first thought is that the Frontiers of Flight Museum was flying around their historic birds again, though I couldn’t find any event announcements on their website. Thought number two: maybe a few of those military cargo jets that sometimes careen over Hollywood Ave. after 10 p.m. were landing at Love Field. But this is all speculation. So, dear informed readers, please share if have info.

Leading Off (1/25/10)

1. An eyebrow-raising report in the Star Telegram Sunday says nearly $1 billion in transportation funds were spent on things other than roads, but Dallas Morning News transportation reporter Michael Lindenberger counters that it all needs to be taken in perspective. That’s eighteen years of spending, Lindenberger writes, or about $55 million per year – not huge dollars in the transportation world. I wasn’t quite scandalized by the piece because I tend to think that renovating the Hill County Courthouse, restoring the Battleship Texas, and funding the Woodall Rodgers Park is much more interesting than adding lanes to freeways.

2. I feel for places like Plano and Irving who have been dutifully donating a half-cent one cent sales tax to DART over the past few decades, while their neighbors spend the same a half-cent paying-off sports teams and businesses to relocate to remote, netherworld places with names like “Frisco” (thus further straining our transportation needs – and essentially keeping me from becoming a game-attending FC Dallas fan). So allowing new cities to join DART at a discounted rate sounds like a good idea. But from the pseudo-socialist, draconian-loving, suburb-ruing perspective, outlawing the half-cent sales tax economic development slush fund would do a better job at leveling the playing field. Let the hate ensue in the comments.

3. We’re getting excited for the Super Bowl in 2011, which is shaping up so well places like Florida are getting nervous. Little did we know the NBA All Star game, which will be in town next month, is going to make the “Super Bowl look like a bar mitzvah.”

UPDATE: DART’s Morgan Lyons fact-checks me: DART members donate one cent of every sales tax dollar to the transportation system, not a half-cent. I’ve corrected the post, and my former newspapering self has rapped my knuckles.

Fast Company Gives Calatrava a Big, Wet Kiss

Are all you Trinity-Project-hating, Calatrava-bridge-poo-pooing commenters ready to get your hackles up and your fingers flying? Because an alert FrontBurnervian points us to this Fast Company story all about how awesome Santiago Calatrava is. If you don’t have much time, skip to the end. That’s where it discusses how the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge will save West Dallas, “a poor, largely Hispanic neighborhood of heavy industry, gun shops, and small houses.” Ready to comment? Go!

America’s “Worst Commutes”

I’m disappointed. The Daily Beast concocts a collection of the nation’s  75 worst commutes, and Dallas doesn’t make the list. True, #15 says Dallas-Fort Worth, but Loop 820 in Fort Worth doesn’t come close to Dallas. Austin made the list. Houston made the list. Fort Worth made the list. But no Dallas. Is DART that good or did they measure the traffic during the broadcast of a Cowboys game?

Buy a Piece of Warren Buffett, Thanks to BNSF

It’s reported that Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway will likely approve a 50-to-1 stock split tomorrow in order to finance the company’s purchase of Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway. That’s supposed to drop the price of the company’s Class B shares (now $3,247) down to about $65.

That would enable “inferior” investors to afford the stock. Here’s what Buffett wrote in 1984:

Were we to split the stock or take other actions focusing on
stock price rather than business value, we would attract an
entering class of buyers inferior to the exiting class of
sellers. At $1300, there are very few investors who can’t afford
a Berkshire share. Would a potential one-share purchaser be
better off if we split 100 for 1 so he could buy 100 shares?
Those who think so and who would buy the stock because of the
split or in anticipation of one would definitely downgrade the
quality of our present shareholder group.

Buffett must believe in the long-term value of his deal with BNSF, to depart from a long-held strategy like this.

Thanks, TxDOT, for Making the Place Ugly

One quick question. Has anyone ever seen helpful information (or even useless information) displayed on these signs standing along Northwest Highway, not far from the White Rock DART station? I’ve never seen do anything other than they’re doing in this picture: look ugly.

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An Open Letter to the Bullet Train Financiers

Dear federal government: I understand that you have a “river of cash” to distribute for high speed rail in places not called the “East Coast.” I also understand that Texas’ application “lacks the kind of political support from the governor and the Legislature that would help it compete against other states where that support has been stronger.” I just wanted to let you know that our governor and Legislature can be a little silly. They have all sorts of things on their mind right now – elections, redistricting, cutting the budget “to the bone.” They also have to think about Herb and the eagle. Oh, and Perry is a ranch guy, an Aggie, and rail goes through ranches – so it’s sticky. But, here’s the deal:

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Leading Off (1/18/2010)

1. I like the idea of the convention center hotel funding the much-needed second downtown DART alignment. If that deal was on the table at the time of the vote, it would have influenced this voter, at least. Only, please, everyone stop talking about urban renewal around the convention center. Loads of makeup salespeople traveling through underground tunnels directly into a hotel, whose design is already at odds with the surrounding streets, is not going to do anything for downtown street life. Really, it’s not.

2. If you talk to the heads of local arts organizations you hear an often repeated complaint: it’s difficult to raise money in this town now that the AT&T Performing Arts Center has turned out the pockets of Dallas’ philanthropists. How hard is it out there? Now the PAC itself is faced with stagnant fundraising.

3. Oh, and classless? Doesn’t matter.

American Looks to Lose JAL Bid, Delta May Benefit

News comes that American Airlines’ bid to inject $1.4 billion into struggling Japan Airlines is likely to fail. It appears that as part of a bankruptcy plan, JAL may also switch from American’s Oneworld Alliance to Delta’s SkyTeam.

UPDATE: American may not be out of it yet, they tell Bloomberg.

Leading Off (1/11/10)

1. Sometimes losing your pants is harmless fun, like on a cold Sunday afternoon on a DART train because, well, there wasn’t “anything better to do.”

2. It get’s trickier when you allegedly lose your pants. That’s the situation Van Morrison is in, and because he may have lost his pants in Dallas, the local gossip-teers are bristling with excitement as the legend makes his way to North Texas later this month.

3. But whatever you do, don’t talk about pants-less things. That’s what Tom Hicks Jr. did in an email to a Liverpool supporter. Hicks Sr. and Jr. were probably already the most hated people in Liverpool. Now, after Hicks Jr.’s rant, Liverpool supporters are all calling for resignations. (Good thing that boy from Nacogdoches is over there making Americans look good despite the ongoing Hicks soap opera.)

Business Travelers Favor American’s JAL Bid

Or, to be more accurate, the Business Travel Coalition says that travelers should prefer American Airlines, not Delta Airlines, invest in Japan Airlines. American reportedly just added several hundred millions to its bid, increasing the offer to about $1.4 billion.

The coalition says that fares would increase if Delta wins out because the number of major airline alliances would effectively be decreased from three to two. The lobbying group also thinks that regulators wouldn’t approve any Delta-JAL anyway.

Southwest on Top, American Airlines at Bottom

The Wall Street Journal’s Scott McCartney put together a scorecard of airline performance for 2009 and Dallas’ own Southwest Airlines came out on top, while Fort Worth’s own American Airlines brought up the rear among nine major airlines. He factored in on-time punctuality, flight cancellations, baggage handling, complaints, and bumping.

He said the gap seems to have closed somewhat between the best and the worst on the list, but he still sang the praises of Southwest:

It’s worth noting what an accomplishment the on-time crown in particular is for Southwest. Other airlines used to dismiss Southwest’s on-time prowess as artificial because the airline didn’t have automatic reporting of arrival times and instead had pilots writing down times on paper napkins, allowing fudging. But Southwest added automatic reporting devices to its jets years ago. Southwest’s record was downplayed because the airline didn’t fly to the congested Northeast for many years or congested hub airports. And now it does. It does have the advantage of a diverse route network where problems in one city won’t bog down most of the airline. But Southwest’s system is a lot more complex in many ways than other airlines. It operates far more flights each day than any other U.S. airline, and keeps a frenetic schedule with quick turns at each stop, requiring timing and hustle. It’s dependable transportation. Not much muss. Not much fuss. Sit down and go.

Sometimes, that is what you look for in an airline.

New John Wiley Price Decals for Your Car

Over the break, an alert (though apparently reckless) FrontBurnervian sent me this pic of a car he saw on the road. He confirmed that it was someone other than John Wiley Price behind the wheel. Which makes me wonder if I can get my Prius wrapped with a smiling Ken Mayfield. Then, if I ever crossed paths with that SUV, we could do battle.