Let's just close the Mockingbirg exit from the tollway and put a fence around the Park Cities (better than a fence along the border). Then, as Ms. Hunt suggests, charge the good folks tolls to come and go. We can call the project To Kill a Mockingbird.

effin' A man. Let's us dallasites start charging not only Parkies but Planos, and Rowlettians, and also Friscant's, and oh Garlandites...and especially Farmer's Branchians and especially....ESPECIALLY...Arlingtones.

That oughta pay for everything we've gotten ourselves into lately.

eff HP.

Here's a thought. Why don't we give them Dallas' City Council. Y'know, the one they paid for . . .

This is awesome... it's only been a matter of time before this came out. Heh. Elitist damn Parkies...

Sometime I think, I really need to move away from this god-forsaken place that is Dallas and head down to Austin-way.... then something like this comes along and makes me oh, so happy that I live here...

Go AHunt!

You can't blame Hp for wanting to protect their city. Elitism really has nothing to do with it. Mockingbird for all intensive purposes IS a residential street and if they don't put a toll on it then they will put speed bumps all along it. It has a University, 2 elementary schools and a Middle School on or near Mockingbird. i.e., allot of little pedestrians. Dallas needs to get its act together regarding mass transit and or Dallasites need to think about where/how they have to commute when they decide to take a job that pits HP between their job and residence. Why Dallas will build a tollway in a flood plane and not a tunnel/freeway and or DART Rail under Northwest Highway, I don't know.

Univesity Park has already started building the fence you are talking about. Along NWHighway (close to Northpark Mall). I call it the "Great Wall of UP". BTW, its hiddeous. We just need to start collecting a toll when they come into OUR city.

JB, I own a home on McKinney Ave, not an inexpensive piece of land either, we have a middle school, a high school, a large park and much more pedestrian activity along with a (free) form of public transportation.

Would you be equally supportive of me and my neighbors prohibiting or taxing drivers on our street since by your definition is is a residential street as well?

Is that the McKinney Ave that has three lanes running one way? Yeah, that's a good comparison to one lane/two way Mockingbird in HP.

Luis, I drive along that stretch of NW Hwy every day and that wall is indeed hideous. Not only is it ridiculously tall, but they had to cut down quite a few beautiful, big old trees to put it up. The day I saw nothing but stumps where those trees had been, I was in shock.

How can these Parkies claim not to use Dallas streets?

Have they created an elitist ghetto, wherein all their daily requirements for survival - eg caviar, maids, champagne, and the occasional weed for the misbehaving teenagers - are all found within their borders???

Last time I looked, NorthPark Mall and Galleria were part of Dallas, yet they claim not to shop in these stores??

The lawyers who live there don't practice law out of their homes, but from within the tall towers in Downtown Dallas.

The stay-at-home mommies must eat at restaurants outside of Snider Plaza??

You gotta know all the Mexican and Blacks working at the DCC don't live across Beverly Street and walk to work each morning???

I propose a boycott of all things HP. Stay off their streets. Don't shop in any store within their borders. Don't eat at any restaurant within the city limits.

(Must resist the temptation to create a website).

So they want to be a ghetto?? Let's help them go there...

It is a ridiculous idea but I doubt it is more than just posturing by the HP council.
Either way we should totally smack them down though. But don't do it by another toll road, instead let's move the Bridge Homeless shelter to the edge of Highland Park. Nothing against homeless people but there are few things parkies like less.

Maybe they should've built that tunnel under Mockingbird after all.

For all intensive purposes.... hmm... did you mean... never mind. I'm reminded of Emily Litelivision and Endangered Feces. Anybody with me?

Anyway... There's a lot of good & healthy righteous indignation going on around here. Just a few things I'd like to point out, though, before all you villagers light your torches and go mobbing off into the night.

The Golden Rule does apply here. As in, "those with the Gold make the Rules". How do you think Highland Park and University Park came about, anyway?

Do you all realize they pay lower property taxes per thousand of valuation AND they have better schools? Natonaly award winning schools, by the way.

Why? Because they get to skip out on paying for all the infrastructure they use every time they drive through The Ghetto - that being where we live - to get to where they live.

It's been that way for more than 100 years. The Park Cities are an island of rich people surrounded by The Rest Of Us. Did you know that when they go on vacation, they can call the Police and the HIGHLAND PARK POLICE WILL DROP BY AND PICK UP THEIR NEWSPAPERS OFF THE LAWN? Try that in your neighborhood the next time you go camping for the weekend.

Don't get me wrong. I love rich people. Where would we all be if it weren't for rich people? I mean, where would we all get our crummy jobs if not for the opportunity to wage slave at companies owned by... wait for it... rich people!

You know, even if they did put a toll on Mockingbird, and we turned around and put tolls on every point in and out of Highland Park, they'd pay it without batting an eye. I hate to keep pointing this out, but they have all the money. They'd all have a good laugh at the next costume ball; talking about how cute it was that we got all so uppity about it.

Look folks, in case you haven't noticed, the Park Cities are being transformed into a gated community. There will be no entry or exit that is not monitored, tolled or restricted. I have been telling people this for two years and keep being told how absurd my notion is.

Well, what the hell do you think the walls (enclosing both burgs is more than 60% complete), toll talk and impending arrival of the Bush family and their god forsaken museum (library is way too dignified to label this abomination) mean???

Bush security will be the final justification for sealing the borders and checking the papers of any citizen (or non-citizen nannies, yard crews and construciton workers to the natives) deigning to traverse the Park Cities without permission.

God Help Us All

Please raise your hand if you want more traffic down your residential street.

Steven, there were at least three votes over the years about annexing the Park Cities into Dallas. It took approval of voters in each town AND in Dallas. My recollection is that Dallas turned it down twice and then in 1948 Dallas approved it and the Park Cities voted it down. interestingly, in the 1948 vote the town of Preston Hollow was annexed. Dallas had a chance but failed to go forward.

Mr. Chase's characterization of Mockingbird as a "neighborhood street" typifies the arrogance and myopia of people who live in his "neighborhood." That assumes that none of the rest of Mockingbird runs through any "neighborhoods."

Fuck you, Chase, and rest of your stinking "neighborhood."

Perhaps if our servants drove us down Mockingbird they could have an exception to the rule

Forget about the whole rich vs. poor thing. It's more basic than that.

If you move into a floodplain, don't bitch and moan when your house gets flooded. DEAL WITH IT. Get insurance and hire a good cleaning crew.

If you move near the airport, don't bitch and moan about the noise. DEAL WITH IT. Get earplugs and sound machines.

If you move to the suburbs, don't bitch and moan about the long commute to downtown. DEAL WITH IT. Carpool or get into books on tape.

And... if you move to HP or UP, don't bitch and moan about the traffic. DEAL. WITH. IT. Don't charge tolls for people cutting through your landlocked city.

"For all intensive purposes"...sorry, I cant take anything you say seriously after reading that.

Dallasites, Please consider our plight, we are forced to tolerate you enough. But speeding through the heart of our cities without having to pay any respect to us is simply wrong. A toll will help equalize the imbalance of you encroaching in areas you are not fit to be in.

Anonymous, I agree. I believe the phrase he was looking for was "for all intents and purposes." heehee.

Please let's stop all the fuss. As you come off the Tollway, simply continue on the access road past Mockingbird and use Beverly to drive across our fine island. Be sure to honk as you drive past my mansion. And I believe the phrase is 'for all incense and porpoises'.

Avi, you're being even more of a hypocrite than usual. You're the one whose always screaming about people parking on "your" street, and campaigning for Resident Only Parking to keep folks from other neighborhoods out of yours. Now, when the tables are turned and someone else takes the exact same attitude you do, you start yelling "elitism" and "boycott".

You are pathetic.

"Avi, you're being even more of a hypocrite than usual. You're the one whose always screaming about people parking on "your" street, and campaigning for Resident Only Parking to keep folks from other neighborhoods out of yours. Now, when the tables are turned and someone else takes the exact same attitude you do, you start yelling "elitism" and "boycott"."

**************

Thanks, Bill, for the great ideas! We'll all go park on Mockingbird in the proposed toll road area, bring out some kegs, get drunk and loud and rowdy, and pee in the Parkies' front yards. Oh, and leave our litter everywhere, of course. As long as we pay the toll to get in, what will they have to complain about?

There is a really big difference between residents in a so-called but not really entertainment district having to deal with drunks every weekend and a small landlocked city within a big city deciding to charge tolls to non-residents.

Our issues - and resident parking only - are only meant to affect bar patrons who do not live here, do not respect private property and have no problem fighting in front of our homes for maybe 6 or 12 hours a week (depending on the street).

We do not impact millions of people who depend on streets like Mockingbird Lane to get to work or anywhere else.

The Park Cities are part of a larger mass (mess?) of traffic and congestion that impacts the whole region, and for years they have stuck their heads in the sand on the 18th tee at DCC ignoring the issues.

The RPO only affects a few drunks who probably come from the Park Cities anyways.

I think DART may wanna remove #36 bus from Preston and/or #539 from Mockingbird! If Parkies elitists dont want Dallasites driving along thorofares within their fortress borders, they sure as heck dont wanna see outsiders riding dart buses thru their little "Fort Knox"!

Having grown up in Dallas starting in the 50s I can say that the 'tude of the Park Cities has changed dramatically. I don't think there ever was this us v them 'tude ever.

"Along NWHighway (close to Northpark Mall). I call it the "Great Wall of UP". BTW, its hiddeous"

I'm waiting for the day that some graffiti artist tags the wall with Ronald Reagan's statement "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!"

replacing Gorby's name with the current name of the UP mayor
I hope other graffiti artists will decorate the Wall with images just like the Berlin Wall was.

Finally is the Wall designed to keep the UPites in or us scruffy Dallasites out?

I am reading these comments throughly bemused. Such bile and venom spewed over some stupid ideas that were tossed out like yesterday's garbage.

Yes there are idiots that live in the Park Cities (as there are in Dallas, Plano, Southlake etc...) - most of those who maintain that "Parkie" stereotype are posers anyway. And I hate that word.

Throw in a few older residents who still miss their "good old days" and anyone can find someone to be quoted that drops the average IQ around here by more than a couple of points when they open their mouths.

But most of the people that I know in the Park Cities are low key, hard working families who are interested in family and community and live here because of the school district and the neighborhoods.

All of the people I have talked to about this "idea" cringe when it is mentioned - it may be as dumb a proposal as anything the Dallas City Council could dream up.

I grew up in the Park Cities, went through the school system and when I had a chance to move back to Dallas, moved into the Park Cities and rented a house until I could afford to buy one. My oldest child just graduated from HP and I have another going to school in the HPISD.

Is it perfect? No way, but IMHO it is as good as you can find around here.

Avi, even though you don't like the music, many people do.
So it is an entertainment district. I live by tietze park. I hope it's okay with you if I frequent a bar on Greenville Ave. Maybe
you can videotape me walking from Skillman to Belmont and put it on youtube.

They always say never explain jokes, but for everybody on the little bus - or for those of you who don't read ALL THE THREAD BEFORE CRACKING WISE - here goes:

Look up to JB's comment. Read it. See? Second line, "Mockingbird for all intensive purposes IS a residential street..."

You see, I was pointing out HIS mistake. Not perpetuating it. Okay?

But then, ya'll are probably too young to remember Gilda Radner's great bits as Emily Litela. "What's all this about Endangered Feces? My God, if there's one thing on the sidewalks of New York City that's not endangered, it's feces!"

"Emily, it's not Endangered Feces, it's Endangered Species."

"Oh, that's different. Never Mind."

Get it?

2 things -

1) Remember that poster that came out in the early 80's titled, "Do You Belong in Highland Park?" It was a hilarious self-humiliation, and it was fun to read, but it did smack of some definite stereotypes.

2) HP/UP fought the Katy Trail for YEARS, thinking it would 'bring in an unwanted element.' Well, the day they cut the ribbon, HP/UP got a FREEE park and trail system. I personally think we should charge a toll to all users of the trail who reside in the Park Cities. I mean, after all, didn't they threaten to arrest Kunkle when he was with his running group a couple months/years ago?

The Park Cities really IS the land that Reality Forgot.

Oh puhlease, since when was this area of lower greenville (south of belmont) an entertainment district?

Unlike the areas north of here - which have a history of places like GABG - this area was community retail until the mid-90s when the property owners were desperate to have anything with a pulse and a checking account rent their spaces.

Look at this before and after list -

http://www.barkingdogs.org/barkingdogs_archives/312%20Myth1.htm

and this list

http://www.barkingdogs.org/news/node/279

As for walking to a bar in the area, go ahead and have a nice time (it's probably a good idea since the neighborhood south of Belmont owns all the streets in the area).

But if you have to park, take a look at streets like Velasco, Palo Pinto and Goliad... They have lots of open spaces and unrestricted parking.

I apologize to the literary elitists here. But my point stands.
And Avi, there is no difference in you wanting to protect your neighborhood from outside traffic and congestion and Park Cities tax payers want to protect theirs. Keep your barking dog on your side of the fence where you belong. You truly are a hypocrite in this matter.

Having grown up in the HPISD and having lived in UP for 36 years, I think the toll road is the dumbest idea that HP could have put forward. It is unneighborly, unenforceable and makes no sense. I am surprised at the level of vitriol about the Park Cities, especially the wall on Northwest Highway. Think about it. If you lived facing a major highway, wouldn't you want a wall? Why is the wall there any different than the wall on the Tollway to protect Greenway Parks on the west and Highland Park on the east or the wall that goes all the way north. It just makes it a more pleasant place to live, whether you are in Greenway Parks, the Park Cities or Preston Hollow.

Lee, since when did it become the job of the taxpayer to increase the property value of those houses on Northwest Hwy by putting up a wall to block the noise and the view of all that plebian traffic? Do you think it might have anything to do with the fact that they're starting to scrape those lots for redevelopment?

Why aren't they putting up a wall down on NW Hwy east of Midway? Are those folks somehow less deserving? (of course they are; they have less money) Some of those houses down there are actually right on NW Hwy and not removed from it by Northwest Pkwy.

But I'm sure that it's not something as base as enriching a few builders at the taxpayers expense. That kind of thing NEVER happens here in Dallas.

There IS a difference in the two issues...

HP residents don't want Dallas residents using the streets of their landlocked city and are considering charging a toll to non-residents.

Despite the fact that all the roads are part of a large urban network of streets that can't just be pulled apart like some concrete puzzle.

Lower Greenville residents are using a City of Dallas code to restrict the use of their streets only on certain days and certain hours in order to (wait for it)...

"... to promote the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of certain neighborhoods in the city of Dallas by addressing the problems that arise when residential streets are used for the parking of motor vehicles by persons using adjacent nonresidential parking generators, but who do not reside in the neighborhood. The establishment of resident-parking-only zones would reduce these problems, which include, but are not limited to, hazardous traffic conditions, air and noise pollution, litter, and inability of residents of these neighborhoods to obtain easy access to and adequate parking near their residences. (Ord. 23863)"

In other words, we can by law limit the number of drunks parking and pissing on our streets, which somehow has been construed as a means to kill off the so-called bars operating in areas they should not be located in, serving drinks to people from places like Park Cities, Carrollton, and god-knows-where-else-but-Dallas.

And since RPO requires a petition signed by 70% of the people living on the street before the survey even happens, well I guess they are tired of that crap too.

Taking a few streets from the drunks on the weekends is NOT going to turn the N. Texas traffic grid on its ass, but the HP Toll Road will.

It's okay, we have seven streets on RPO and two more to follow.

na na na na boo boo. I will shit on your porch and piss in your house. Don't mess with Texas........

puhlease? Really?

I guess if you want to get technical, the area used to be mud
with horses going up and down the street. I suppose things change, avi. maybe we can have some more pawn shops.

How does this comment section become a comentary on that asshole trying to police lower green shit?

Keep your eye on the ball folks, this is not about the piss in the assholes yard.

This is the future of Dallas and how it will deal with the same sort of control the Bush mentality will overlay the City.

Fuck Avri, Fuck Bush and fuck all the fascists they represent.

Peace to Dallas, I don't hide, Call me out if you have the balls.

Bruce Ashford Morrow 214 207 2692

Most Lower Greenville bars and pawn shops both serve a level of clientele that can only be described as gangbangers.

Either way you go, there is no more parking for them.

Yeah, I am amazed at all the grief that asshole started here... apparently he believes that I have no right to make a statement on any issue, and if I do, he will just turn it around and tell me I am responsible for the seven plagues, Tony Romo's failed social life and his inability to find a parking place on Lower Greenville.

Talk about being way off topic?

Here's my last word before I go clean the beer bottles off my lawn...

Get with the system folks - Lower Greenville is a gangbanger heaven, and for all I care it can stay that way. If you don't believe me, just park yourself on any corner at midnight and watch all the two-legged trash walk by.

I don't care what kind of clientele you want to serve or party with or take home at night to sleep with. That is your problem and I am sure there are antibiotics to cure what ails you later.

But do not sit there and tell the people who live around this weekend toilet that we have to bend over, spread our cheeks and take it with their noise, cars and trash on OUR streets just so you have a place to park your car and avoid $20 valet fees.

It's one thing to be a neighborhood association that works to protect its residents, it's another thing to be a neighborhood association that has the money to buy the streets and actually do something.

We now own the parking rights on several streets around here (some have been ours for nearly ten years, so don't tell me you never saw it coming).

We bought three in the last six months, and we have another one coming online next month (a really big street that is so gonna piss you off). And we are expanding two existing RPO zones from one side to both sides.

If you don't like it, too damn bad. You don't live here, you don't own a property here, and therefore no one gives a damn what you say.

And even if you do live here, as a few may, your neighbors voted you off the island by signing the petitions needed to get RPO. If you said NO, no one cares. If the property owner for your rental signed, then he does not care what you think either.

So why don't you crawl back in the bottle you came out of and stay there.

Back to talking trash about HP, that's much more fun. Actually this whole toll road thing is moot to me. I drive a beat up 1979 Checker Marathan (which was probably the same year this Avi dude got laid last.). And I can't make it through that damn berg without getting pulled over. But I have all my gestapo paperwork, which really infuriates them.

That stretch of road has been jacked up for years and the rare times I brave that street, the "flow" of traffic allows me to blaze up to all of 5mph. Which gives me plenty of time to wonder what sap would pay top dollar to live right off that congested piece of shit.

It's obvious the powers that be in HP have not thought this through. Mockingbird is simulated moon surface in Dallas up until it gets close to the bubble. If they piss off Dallas, the road maintenance crews undoubtedly put their efforts elsewhere and they will be treated to what we live with every day. And those new Jags are very sensitive to bumps, unlike my Checker.

Anyone know where I can find a copy of that "Do You Belong In Highland Park?" poster online? I found info on it, that's it:

http://tinyurl.com/5e43aw

Everyone that parks on YOUR street is not a drunk. I don't understand why you'd want to live in "a gangbanger heaven"
and a "weekend toilet". I'm sure you'll work it out, Avi.

You are correct, not everyone parking on the street is a drunk, a pissant, a whizzer, a fighting fool, or a burglar.

But enough of them are to make it unsafe for those of use who LIVE on the streets to consider and implement Resident Parking Only.

And the fact that you are paying upwards of $10 to park on Greenville ($20 at Lucky's) shows that the demand is high, but the supply is low.

And when I moved here in 1980, there were maybe four bars on the south end of Greenville (not including areas north like GABG).

So by your reasoning, I should move and let the bars take over?? Why not turn it around and tell the bars to f--- off??

Obviously neither one of those scenarios are legal or practical.

So let's just level the playing field by having the City enforce existing and close the so-called bars in restaurant clothing.

Ooops, I did not really say that - cuz we know it ain't gonna happen.

So Plan B - We buy all the streets in the neighborhoods with Arcadia Funds money (after all the residents sign the petitions).

The City makes money on the signs, and they make money on the towing and ticket fees.

Amen, brother.

No, Avi, I don't want you to move. I'm just being selfish. I enjoy going to the Cavern every now and then to hear some music. Love Good Records. I miss Poor Davids. Loved The Arcadia. I also miss my bangs.

I understand Houston is upset about Dallas being a bottleneck for citizens wanting to get to Chicago. Houston wants to widen Central Expressway to ten lanes each direction.
It is Dallas duty, of course, based on all of your arguments, to knock down homes and businesses, ignore the well-being of its own citizens, give up its sovereign rights as an incorporated city and make this work "for the good of the area." Austn and Chicago think it is a good idea too.

I understand Houston is upset about Dallas being a bottleneck for citizens wanting to get to Chicago. Houston wants to widen Central Expressway to ten lanes each direction.
It is Dallas duty, of course, based on all of your arguments, to knock down homes and businesses, ignore the well-being of its own citizens, give up its sovereign rights as an incorporated city and make this work "for the good of the area." Austn and Chicago think it is a good idea too.

OK now I see the difference. The RESIDENTS get to pay a fee to park or "use" their own streets around their neigborhood on Lower Greenville and HP wants the NON RESIDENTS to pay a fee to use their streets. Hmmm.....

JB - you are way off on the Lower Greenville side of the equation...

The BELMONT NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION pays for all the expenses associated with RPO - petitions, signs, first set of hangtags - for as long as the money lasts (and that is gonna be awhile).

We are NOT preventing anyone from driving down the street on their way to a bar. In fact we encourage them to drive down all the streets and then out of the neighborhood, so as to give the valet parking lot services all the income they can earn in one night.

We ARE telling the bar patrons these are residential streets and cannot be used by as personal parking lots while partying on Lower Greenville.

Fine. But I just don't see the difference in the concept of HP taking measures to protect its citizens from outsiders coming in, putting wear and tear on a 2 lane road its taxpayers build, discouraging 'outsiders' to come in and commit petty crimes like car break ins or throwing starbucks coffee cups out the window during a commute, and discouraging high traffic in a residential/high pedestrian area vs. yours and the Belmont Associations efforts to keep people from doing essentially the same. I commend your efforts but I feel you are being prejudiced against the people of HP simply because they live in HP. I have lived in both lower Greenville and HP and still travel, shop, eat, and enjoy both. Dallas will continue to grow and areas like HP and Lower Greenville are assets to the whole area. There is nothing wrong with maintaining and keeping safe both areas in a time where Dallas is bucking the growth/economic trend of the rest of the country. And I would love for somone to give me a detailed (i.e. 'follow the numbers') explanation as to how the Dallas City Council is bought and paid for by the Park Cities when Park Cities residents don't even vote in Dallas City Council elections. In fact most Park Cities residents work in Dallas where their businesses pay taxes to Dallas yet don't get to vote on where that money goes.

Steven, relax a bit. I repeat, if you lived on Northwest Parkway, wouldn't you want a wall. Those people gave up significant portions of their land to make the wall feasible. I am told by people that live two or three streets in that the sound level has improved. I do not see anything wrong with the UP tax payers funding the wall, any more than the requirement that NTTA put up a wall the entire distance of the Tollway or that TXDOT put up a wall by Central. Why is it a problem for any City to do something to enhance property values? Dallas does it all the time through landscaping, code enforcement, new roads, etc. I can't speak for the people east of Midway. I do recall that there is a wall east of Midway on the south side for some distance. The two do not have any connection. Again, I agree that the Mockingbird toll is stupid, but find the discussion of the wall on Northwest Highway to be petty.

I

Anonymous, you've made my point for me. You're correct. The citizens of UP have every right to spend their tax money any way they see fit. You are, however, missing the Big Flick.

The very fact that UP & HP are able to pay for those things and not have to worry about infrastructure improvements anywhere else in The City That Makes Them An Island, in the city that they have to drive through to get to ANYWHERE, speaks to the idea that they are already a gated community, with or without the wall.

This city that surrounds them is draining pools this summer to meet budget constraints, and the Park Cities are decorating their parks with bronze sculptures of children playing and taking buggy rides. These event are occurring within a few miles of each other, at the same time. On the Same Planet.

And as if things weren’t imbalanced enough, they have the temerity to think it’s alright to publicly banter the idea of placing a toll on our access to their village streets, simply to make their lives yet again better, or in your words, “to enhance property values”, regardless of the inconvenience it places on the people whose tax money pays for the infrastructure that creates the city that makes their lives In The Bubble possible in the first place. How long you think they’d keep everything they’ve acquired if, for example, DPD didn’t show up for work for awhile? How long before the wolves would get them? Yet they foot no part of that bill.

Their whole existence is predicated on the inequities that allow them a bigger piece of the pie in the first place. And while I know that this goes on in every major city in the world, very few of them set up separate taxable districts for the Moneyed Class so that they get still more Bang for their Buck.

And I hardly need to relax. I don’t say any of this with any anger. It is, quite simply, The Way Things Are.

About living on NW Pkwy... I had a chance for a really nice place on Royal Lane a few years back. It was an older home but in pretty good shape and it was HUGE and on a big lot and all that, but we opted for a much smaller place - same price - out by WR Lake because it wasn’t on a busy street three doors down from a major intersection. However, if I HAD bought that place, I wouldn’t expect everyone in Dallas to kick in and build me a wall to block the noise, because I’m not Entitled to it.

Get it?

"I do recall that there is a wall east of Midway on the south side for some distance. The two do not have any connection. Again, I agree that the Mockingbird toll is stupid, but find the discussion of the wall on Northwest Highway to be petty."

if you are referring to the wall on Forest lane that wall is one-third the height of the UP wall on NWHighway. The latter wall is offensive. That stretch of NWhighway has always been busy. anyone who buys a house there and was unaware of the traffic noise must have been deaf the day they viewed the house.

NWHighway has been six lanes wide since the early 1960s as far as I can remember

the Park Cities gain innumerable benefits from being associated with Dallas without having to put forth a single nickel.

I well remember hearing folks from the Park Cities complaining because they couldn't check books out of the Dallas Library. They don't fund the library so why should they be able to check out books. The response was always "well my business is in Dallas and we pay taxes in Dallas" yeah but your residence is in UP/HP.

The claim that PC residents don't contribute to the Dallas tax revenue is plain goofy.

where are we gonna buy all the good coke when we can't get into park cities?!? This is totally going to ruin my day.

(kidding...hugs not drugs)
btw- Bruce morrow is the man

Obviously, the solution is that HP/UP should annex Dallas.

I personally enjoy the area, the people are very nice and pretty and their BM's smell like freshly baked oven rolls.

What will the toll be -- three, four bucks? A small price to pay for spending several hours cruising around HP in an El Camino. (Actually, admittance will be free from entry points on Beverly, Armstrong, University, etc.)

jeez if you use Mockingbird through HP as a thoroughfair then you deserve to pay a toll.

Consider it a tax on low intelligence.

We wouldn't even be having this discussion had not HP Judge William Taylor gotten HPISD out of the desegregation case in the 1970s and created their own version of apartheid.

Jeez, to the paragraph posters here, good lord.
Brevity. Please?

I bet you're a big Hemingway fan.

Jeez and good lord in the same sentence? Brevity. Pu-leeez...

You could always, ya know, skip down.

I'm all for this idea if we could tack a provision to it that prevents any crook or liar living in HP to become the mayor of Dallas (like the current mayor).

Then we might could actually keep some green space in the city and the council wouldn't be back pedaling as hard as they can over re-naming Industrial "Cesar Chavez Parkway"

This is the best news I've heard in a long time.

With apologies to the yelping hog, I have to give it up to the ironic observation of Brett.

The wry comment holds more than your retreat to a Bush I catch phrase. I will now have to go off topic myself:

Why has the front page story of an SMU Coed being murdered and dumped in a Porta-Potty in Waco been driven off the local radar?

Could it be the fact that the man charged with her murder ran high stakes poker games at three locations in The UPPChood with drugs and strippers and was willing to name names of his local client base?

Hmmmm, who is reporting that? No one and I mean no one will touch it. He has been deep sixed before anything as tawdry as his relationship with some of the "townies" could be disclosed.

Does anyone else smell something?

Peace. Bruce Morrow

"And... if you move to HP or UP, don't bitch and moan about the traffic. DEAL. WITH. IT. Don't charge tolls for people cutting through your landlocked city."

This response pretty much sums up the whole discussion in my opinion. You guys could have chosen to change the discussion of UP's idiotic request to make mockingbird a tollway into a discussion about how ridiculously crappy our city's roadways are (despite the fact we seem to exist soley to build new roads) - and instead you let a sharp city council member lead you by the noses to the "lets hate rich people party", which is a pretty cool trick, considering that the Dallas city council only exists to cater to the needs of the wealthy.

I'm mean come on, can't we both hate rich people and expect better driving conditions, especially on residential roads, regardless of what neighborhood they happen to run through?

All I hope is the Great Wall of UP can be seen from space.
(Perhaps we can make it a tourist spot)