Caraway: If You Vote Against the Hotel, Dallas Will Look the Same "50 Years From Now"

By Robert Wilonsky Thu., Apr. 30 2009 at 9:27 AM

Categories: Politics

We missed the pro-convention center hotel wingding in front of Dallas City Hall last night. Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway did not. Here's his pitch for the hotel, and it apparently has something to do with ... cell phones?

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Can anyone say hooked on ebonics? The convention center hotel is the "going thing" or "what's popular now" if we don't have it we won't get the conventions.... So..........in 10 years when it's not the going thing the public gets stuck with the bill.....VOTE YES!!!!!!!!!! Leppert must be loosing his mind to put this idiot in front of the camera... Hey.......Here's an Idea.....fire Omni....approve gambling.....and then recruit Harrah's to build the hotel, with a casino in it.........best of both worlds...and the gambling would pay for the hotel, and bring money to downtown....there's a proposal I would get behind!
Vote Yes on Prop. 1 -- No on Prop. 2. That's all you need to remember at this point. Although I saw a slight glimmer of hope as to gambling earlier in the session, I think it's now dead. Too bad. We will need it sooner rather than later. Rawlins, I don't disagree with any of your analysis. I just find it somewhat depressing to think that he's pick of the litter. But you're right, compared to his predecessors, he's Adrian Fenty. And here's to hoping that in 2011 districts get redrawn to honor actual communities of interest.
Unless we legalize gambling or prostitution or get us a beach with waves, we're probably never going to be a Destination City and so a Convention Center Hotel is, logically, going to sit empty. So I'm voting Yes, I mean No. I mean... Yes?
Fairness Doctrine Bottom line PS: If the only opinion you had of Councilman Caraway was based on media coverage of his appearance on TV re: sagging pants, etc., it's small wonder to wonder. But ask him a question as I did at the last meeting like �why are we paying people to tear down Reunion when we have not yet finished paying for it?�.... one on one...and you'll realize there's some spicy steak behind that sizzling, sometimes spattering grease. He's our councilperson since I'm on the eastern most fringe of Dwaine's horribly gerrymandered District 4. And he makes his predecessors look like wind-up doll cadavers. Plus he can be very entertaining. Check out the list of his predecessors and you'll clearly see why this neighborhood is loaded with black/brown and white household yards with 'Caraway' signs in their yards.
I was in Lubbock last weekend, too. The City of Lubbock is not building the hotel, nor is it anywhere near the City's Convention Center. It may have a few tax incentives, but I can assure you taxpayers in Lubbock aren't nor would ever pay for it. You can call a monkey a goat -- that doesn't make it so. As to Uptown, its birth began with McKinney Avenue's redevelopment in the early 80s and Phil Cobb's streetcar. Victory is merely a small part of Uptown. Most of Uptown is actually in PD 193 -- commonly known as Oak Lawn. Again, private development. I would support the right "development incentives" for a hotel, but that requires PRIVATE development and ownership. I do not nor would I ever support a taxpayer owned-hotel that would not be a fair competitor to privately owned hotels, which, I might add, PAY property taxes. This proposed hotel is not in that category.
HSH -- Everyone knows the players in Uptown and the development risks they took. But it took the city's investment in AAC with Hillwood to make it happen and create the buzz which everything in Uptown spun off of. Downtown did not build 1 office tower inside the CBD in all of the 1990's. Everything went to Victory/Uptown. You know why? I know you understand development issues and it multifaceted and often requires incentives (tax/financing advantages). Lubbocks new 300 room hotel is offically designated as their "Convention Center Hotel" with ballrooms and Lubbock has plenty of tax incentives invested. I was there last week reviewing it. I travel and attend many conferences a year. Most conferences outside of Orlando and Vegas are all business, hosting shorter 2-4 day events since 911. The convenience of a hotel within immediate walking distance is almost a requirement now for 40% of the conventioning groups. That % is growing not shrinking. It used to be that Dallas's geographically central location within the US offered a strategic advantage for "affordable airlift" and "time convenience" to convention travelers. Now a hotel is the critcal component to compete for convention business. It's a fact.
Paul -- "Geez, even Lubbock is about to open theirs." Stop talking out your ass. Lubbock has no convention center hotel nor is it building a convention center hotel nor will it ever need a convention center hotel. There is a new PRIVATE hotel being built two blocks off of University Avenue, next to the Tech campus, to serve the Tech community primarily. It is PRIVATELY funded. Uptown's growth had NOTHING to do with Ron Kirk. Private developers, namely Neil Sleeper, Harwood Development, et al., working with residents of State Thomas and Oak Lawn are to be credited for Uptown. You can spout off all sorts of crap really fast with lots of superlatives but that doesn't make it true.
The man could have used a better analogy instead of cell phones to describe the importance of a convention center hotel. The VOTE NO if you are down for the hotel and the VOTE YES is a little bit confusing. I would imagine the convention business in general as taken a dip due to this economy, but I must admit it would be pretty cool to have the Adult Video Awards Convention in Dallas. HaHa. I would rather see a Downtown Casino in the old Reunion Arena spot before a Convention Center-Hotel. I think that a casino would bring more revenue to the city than a hotel would...I dunno just my thought.
For once Dallas leadership is actually focused on economic development. Now they are being chastised? Real vision is being demonstrated. The city council is focused on making downtown great again knowing that the economic benefits will help council's individual districts too. They finally get it. Victory and Uptown were Ron Kirk's leadership legacy today. What did Laura Miller leave us with? With Mayor Tom Leppert, we have leadership vision again. He recognizes that we already have a first class convention center that is bleeding millions of dollars. Why?..... because the convention center business has changed!!! Dallas can't even compete with other Texas cities. Have you been to Austin, Houston or Ft. Worth lately? Gezz even Lubbock is about to open theirs. These visitors will spend millions of dollars that will fuel our downtown at a time when it needs it most. Particularly new development on Main Street, the Dallas Farmers Market District and south to the Trinity. New urban neighboroods created because a market analysis can support then being financed because of a better convention center business in the near future. There are certainly allot of pieces to work on but the DCCH hotel is a BIG ONE. Name another potential economic opportunity left other than convention business? Especially given we have already lost out on the sports venue drivers. Too bad the Rangers jumped for Arlington in early 90's or downtown would already be well on its way. 80+ nights of downtown activity lost. At least we have a new minor league team coming to the Cedars! Bottom line, there are not many opportunity trump cards left in the deck for Dallas to play with. Kudos to Dallas leadership on this one. Study and learn the lessons of other less fortunate cities like Detroit before it is too late. As a native Dallasite please VOTE NO in favor of Prop 1 & 2.
Is this guy for real?
What is doubly sad is that we will probably end up with both Caraway AND Ron Price on the council after the elections. Then it will be a contest in a) who can run in front of the camera quicker, and b) who can then say the most stupid, incoherent, "I didn't speak English until I was 12" statement first. Then they will get re-elected again. Every time the voters in South Dallas elect one of these fools... oh, wait. North Dallas elected Jerry Allen! I guess we can't blame South Dallas for all the idiots running the place. As someone who is currently embroiled in what SHOULD be a simple bid process with a certain governmental entity, it has become depressingly clear that the majority of our elected representatives are not very bright and believe it's more important to reward their backers than to do what is right for the city or school district.
I would take a bullet for my iPhone.
Rawlins, pay no attention to Nathan. Your rapport with the cogent Caraway is self-explanatory.
As a reminder, yesterday afternoon was when several hundred members of R.I.P. Dallas (aka "Leppert Youth") were supposed to "swarm" City Hall. Evidently, the rain scared them off... reports I have read suggest that only 15 - 20 showed (and that includes their organizers/handlers.
Rawlins, that may be true -- as the saying goes, don't sweat the small stuff. But every tough, big-picture decision or stance required of Mr. Carroway since his tenure on the council and as "Mr. Deputy Mayor" has been to carry water for Mr. Leppert, damn the torpedoes, and spread all the misinformation he has to in order to accomplish his ass-kissing goal. He crows about Dallas losing the Cowboys stadium to Arlington. Dallas had no structure or taxing room left on the public side. The public funds, if any, would have had to come through the county and the county would have had to get the Texas Legislature to change the law to give them the ability to fund. Where was Mr. Carroway in that legislative fight? I don't recall seeing or hearing him in the halls of the Capitol. A true leader takes tough positions when necessary and works with everyone to get them done. Carrying water for Leppert is no tough position.
@Rawlins Yes, I find that shocking. On the one hand there's your vague, unspecific references to Caraway's coherence. On the other, there's all of the video clips and quotes that are posted here and on the DMN City Hall blog which indicate that the councilman's mouth is operating at a faster pace than his brain.
Shock Alert:Dwaine can appear to be his own worst enemy but I have come to cut him slack after spending time with him at our homeowners' mtgs. I came to believe he sincerely cares whether we see eye to eye or no. And yes, I and others became impressed at his cogent explanations re: detailed questions we asked.
Don't worry he will be reelected so we can listen to him for at least the next two years
OMG. This is why "local", as in city, politics is always so dreary and mind-numbing. Steve Jobs, will you please call Mr. Deputy Mayor (notice how he NEVER calls himself a councilman anymore?) and tell him the development of the iphone had nothing to do with convention center hotels? That has to be the absolute worst analogy of all time. I understand that Mr. Carroway has determined that the quickest way to elevate himself to the mayor's office is to become the all-time greatest ass kisser for the current mayor, Mr. Leppert, but could he please at least attempt to get his facts straight and STOP talking to "the audience" (as in residents of Southern Dallas) as if they have an average IQ of ten and no education beyond the second grade?
What you�ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.
The City of Dallas decided 3 years ago that it wanted to be the only city in the U.S. to restrict low-cost airline flights within the city limits (and force all future passenger traffic to fly into DFW Airport in Tarrant County-- across the street from the privately-owned Gaylord Texan Hotel & Convention in Grapevine (Tarrant County), Texas. At the time, the City of Dallas knew that this would cost the City hundreds of millions of dollars in economic development. Now, three years later, the City decides it needs to spend $500 million of OUR money to partially fix THEIR mistakes? When the City decided to restrict Love Field, they had the opportunity to seek financial assistance from the parties they were placating (the City of Fort Worth, Fort Worth based American Airlines and the Irving-based DFW Airport Board)-- they chose not to. I don't know where we go from here, but I sure as hell don't want the Dallas City Council digging around in my pockets. Fix the City first and a private developer will be more than happy to pick up most of the tab (and more importantly, absorb the contingent liabilities) associated with a convention hotel.
But if the city manages the construction of the hotel as well as it has other projects, they may not actually start construction for fifty years. Frankly keeping Dallas looking the same for 50 years is not such a bad thing. Mapsco would love it!
On May 9th, I am most excited about the change in council members -- so we can get real vision in downtown Dallas. Telling us that the only way we can "save" downtown is by building a hotel is a fallacy. The US Government studied whether this type of development actually changes downtowns and, "universally concluded that sports stadiums, convention centers and hotels do not increase economic activity in downtown areas." http://oversight.house.gov/story.asp?ID=1228
Any second thoughts I may have had about voting YES on Prop. 1 were erased after listening to this idiot.
So ... if we let them build this hotel we get this half BILLION dollar debt that will end up, one way or another, adding to our tax burden and thus resulting in either higher taxes or even less money spent on road and levee maintenance. On the other hand, if we successfully stop them from building this hotel, they're going to raise taxes just out of spite. Hmmm, you don't suppose if they do that and they don't have some damn fool hotel to spend that money on that they'll maybe spend it on road and levee maintenance?
It sounded as if he was saying that all the popular playa cities were doing the popular playa things popular playa cities do, talking and texting on playa city cell phones, letting their playa city pants sag, and building playa city convention center hotels, and that if we wanted to be a popular playa city now and in 2050 we would too. (Well, we've got the first covered and we sure let our southern sector sag so maybe the second as well.) That and, if you DON'T vote for this hotel we'll raise your taxes. If you didn't buy the cell phone thing maybe THIS will get your attention, playa?
I agree with Nathan except for the fact that we AREN'T a great city (go to a great one and you will instantly know the difference). However, a freaking hotel won't change that. There are so so so many things we could do with that money that would lead us further down the path to greatness. Won't happen in a million years. I have said it before but it bears repeating. Dallas, the Can't Do City.
Doesnt caraway already have his hands full w/ pulling up young black mens droopy drawers and shopping for pimp..er..sunday service suits, possibly doing both at the same time?? ;) C'mon playa, get off it already. I dont have an issue w/ building a hotel, enterainment district, ect.. But id rather see a private developer do this accordingly w/ their own money. The city screws up everything up it touches (Farmers Market, Dallas Zoo, Fair Park), so im not really confident my tax dollars would be used to their fullest effect.
Ok, Councilman Caraway, allow me to give you a brief (and apparently desperately needed) lesson in local civics. When a group of citizens want to restrict the actions of our elected officials (that would be you), then they have to propose either an amendment to the city's charter or code. Simply put, this means the group proposing such an amendment ALWAYS has to get the FOR/YES vote. Accordingly, the group against the proposed amendment is expected to release misleading videos, signs, and radio ads which don't debate the merits of the proposed amendment, but rather play to people's fears and prejudices. Example: "If you vote yes, the city won't change for 50 years and you'll have a salary cap, MWHA HA HA HA HA!" One of two things is going on here: either you know this and you're misleading your audience by telling them that the VOTE YES side is intentionally trying to confuse people by somehow hoodwinking the City Attorney's Office, which they are not. Or you are ignorant as to this matter, which doesn't speak highly of our city if somebody with your grasp of local government is holding the public trust. A VOTE YES is a vote FOR Dallas! We don't need a silly hotel to be a great city, we ALREADY ARE A GREAT CITY! I'm sorry some people have a hard time seeing this.
Wow. This is a guy who's kinda in charge. And if we don't vote no for progress and believe that the hotel is like an iphone, in 2059 we're gonna lose the horserace track.