Dallas Blog

No benefactors? Is that why Eddie Deen's fronted lunch for 600 people at RIP's kickoff?

The RIP kiddies and their mentors see their dreams of grandeur slipping away with the financial bust. The convention hotel is their last grasp at a bailout for downtown real estate interests.

Well, as long as the taxpayers are ignored they may be able to break early for a snack. I hear the wife of a former head of France recommends the cake!

Observation: There seems to be a heck of a lot of vitrol being spewed at a sector of Dallas that hasn't exactly been uber-involved in local politics, probably ever.

Whether you agree or disagree wholeheartedly with some of these people's opinions, I would think those on here that are usually championing more civic participation in these sorts of matters would be excited to see some of these names actually participating in the process.

Plus, anyone that willingly subjects themself to go speak in front of our council deserves some sort of pat on the back.

Really bizzle? You want to celebrate a few venal folk willing to trade their token names, skin color and integrity for cash?

I grew up with several friends like this, who sadly have little compunction saying whatever it takes enrich themselves. These people are lazy intellectually as their short-cut/fraud evidences.

Sadly, our "democratic" system rewards bold liars who's rosy proclamations out shine the qualified hope of the earnest and honest. So, their sloth infects us all, though only they benefit.

I don't know about you, but that is the opposite of what I hope to see politically. I don't know what is new about this that you think deserves praise.

I wonder what they hope to accomplish by "storming City Hall." For the most part, they'll be preaching to the choir by addressing the Mayor and the City Council about the virtues of the hotel.

My guess is that most of these RIP Dallas-types were for the tollroad, which obviously has turned out to be an embarrassing non-starter. Part of the thing about being young is learning from your mistakes. By putting their faith in Leppert, it's clear they have not done so.

If these RIP dolts have older siblings, they were probably all in favor of Victory Park. Ha.

Dominique LaShae (one of the other R.I.P. speakers) is the head of a "grassroots" marketing and ad agency: http://www.theqnetwork.com/services.php

Dejuan Collins (another one of the R.I.P Dallas speakers) serves on the Mayor's Southern Sector Dallas Task Force (along with Dupree Scovell and Brett Shropshire).

And 99% of the funding for Vote Yes is coming from the Anatole Hotel Operators.

No, Harlan does not pretend to be a grassroots group of young professionals because, um, he couldn't form one if his life depended on it, could he. Takes more than 4 or 5 people to make up such a group.

And sorry guys I misspoke earlier -- I meant to ask how attendance is coming for your Battleship Galactica convention. My bad.

Keep calling the people actually working to improve the city "arrogant", "dolt" and "idiot". It does so much for your cause. I mean really, would any of you please illuminate us as to what you've done for Dallas that has truly improved the quality of life here ... I mean for someone outside of your Second Life family?

Cricket. Cricket. Cricket.

OK well get back to watching your reruns of Babylon 5. And tell your boss you've done a great job -- this Hilton Frequent Guest who has sited 12 business meetings at Hilton Hotels all over North America in the past 2 years alone won't be sending any more business to Hilton, thanks to you guys.

And once again, Wylie H. cuts through the garbage to give us the story behind the story. Very nice work. If these speakers are a representative sample of the RIP Dallas folks, they're all in bed with the city power brokers. They are entitled to their opinions, but the whole press release and campaign seems a bit forced and "young!" and "young professionals!" and "viral!" to me.

The debt that these "free-market" socialists seek to saddle the City with is the same demon these folk protested last week.

Gov't should serve the common good, facilitate business even but operating private ventures is fraught with peril. This hotel could hurt competition or perhaps lag behind for profit competitors. Neither is an appropriate role for gov't. Private schools, water services, parks are not competing with a vast private market.

Lobbying our city officials, which I've done is sadly futile. Their positions are bought and paid for. I don't have the means to compete with the contributions, conflicts of interest and kick-backs that drive our council members decisions.

There's a little room for movement but it's tough getting traction among those who aren't going to a meeting of like-minded. It's precisely this verbal engagement that confronts the accepted wisdom.

Have you followed the story of the only Pulitzer prize winner that didn't get mentioned, or his story described? The fellow who broke the story:

"The New York Times' David Barstow won a richly deserved Pulitzer Prize yesterday for two articles that, despite being featured as major news stories on the front page of The Paper of Record, were completely suppressed by virtually every network and cable news show, which to this day have never informed their viewers about what Barstow uncovered. Here is how the Pulitzer Committee described Barstow's exposés:

"Awarded to David Barstow of The New York Times for his tenacious reporting that revealed how some retired generals, working as radio and television analysts, had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq, and how many of them also had undisclosed ties to companies that benefited from policies they defended.""
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/ from Tues Apr 21 2009.

As we see with Belo, the media is rigged too. So Marie, what do you suggest we do, form knitting circles? Is Knottygirl into knitting?

Is Knottygirl into knitting?
**********

Does a half-finished sweater for Knottybaby count? It's been half-finished for almost a year now.

Marie Antoinette - You don't know much about how the hotel business is structured, not that it is intuitive. "Hilton" is a flag, a brand, not the owner of that hotel. There can be three distinct groups in a hotel; an owner, a manager, and a brand/flag. Hilton does not have any ownership interest in the Anatole.

Your lack on knowledge of the hotel business, although it is completely understandable, is a prime example of how people who aren't in the hotel business, shouldn't pretend they know what is best form an investment perspective.

Marie, I don't think Hilton would would miss the business from someone with your attitude.

Apparently, the campaign strategy of the RIP Dallas group is to make ad hominem attacks at strangers on online forums all day long.

Marie,

To answer your last question, the first season of Heroes has been out on DVD for some time. Available at your local Best Buy. While you're there, be sure to also check out "Yes Man," starring Jim Carrey!

Karen:

Really all of your behaviors are pretty silly and juvenile. Although I must admit, being female, I do like some of Marie Antoinette's barbs. If she is truly female.

Fact is, I was netural on this topic before I started exploring it.

It is unfair for the Vote No crowd to ridicule Mr. Crow for being a billionaire. And he is not trying to destroy downtown.

At the same time, the attacks on the mayor and the R.I.P. crowd are unprofessional and hurt the Vote Yes crowd in my book and that of many of my friends. These are reasonable people whose worst "crime" has been that of planting a few signs in public lots; they are not liars or idiots and such namecalling is hurting your campaign.

I've been to all 3 web sites and found worthwhile facts on all of them. I've decided to vote no because I think a downtown convention center hotel, over the next 25 years, is a worthwhile investment for a city with a weak downtown, plain and simple.

Now stop the silly carping all of you (however, Marie, if you can't say anything nice about anybody...come over here and sit by me) ;-)

Why are we not at all surprised you'd know Heroes' first season has been out on DVD? Truly, the factoid the rest of us with real lives care so little about.

And I checked with NetFlix and they say they are out of Yes Man ... all of their copies are, for the time being they told me, rented out to the executive offices of the Hilton Anatole...

"Human Being -- I know far more about you than you are comfortable with. But you certainly don't know the 700+ people who make up RIP Dallas. Don't pretend that you do."

Really? Tell me about myself then.

Karen, sorry I guess you are new to these boards over here at Unfair Park, or perhaps haven't been following the hotel discussion here. I think the general feeling of the board is that we are against the proposed hotel.

Now many of us, I dare say most agree with you that a convention center hotel would be a good thing. However, where we've all broken with this effort has to do with the structure of this deal.

In fact, there was a private proposal that would put the hotel on the South Side of the Convention Center and even have a skywalk that would span the I-30 canyon and meet what appeared to be an identical tower.

This plan got killed. And, we wonder why other structures wouldn't be considered. For instance, I believe one conventional plan would have the city offer a ground lease to a hotel. The hotel would lease the land for 20-50 yrs, build and operate their own hotel, pay regular taxes and bear the burden for operating the hotel.

I've suggested GIVING the land away to any hotel operator willing to build a hotel that fit certain criteria. But none of these or any other proposal or subsidy has been offered.

The hotel project that Leppert is pushing is a BAD DEAL! Why should the CITY be on the hook for a hotel? Why was the private hotel killed?

Further, on these blogs we've been educated on the suppression of critical data on the Trinity River Levees just before the election. We're further embittered that BELO abetted this suppression of the truth. This would have undoubtedly affected the vote.

So, when we decry Leppert as a liar it is not an ad hominem attack. Further, his credibility is very much at issue as we are forced to trust him. The stock holders of Washington Mutual trusted him too.

Karen --

I'll save you the trouble of trying to decipher Anonymous's long, laborious, graduate-level thesis on the hotel. It's not that difficult, as much as they want it to be.

Dallas has dropped dramatically as a convention destination over the past 10 years. Louisville now gets as many major conventions as Dallas does.

Trey Garrison wrote an op/ed piece claiming Dallas needs to develop a great downtown before it builds the hotel.

That's all very sweet, but Trey is not and never has been a meeting planner, and meeting planners all tell the Convention & Visitors Bureau (someone else the Vote Yes crowd lumps into their ever expanding net of arrogant liars) that DALLAS is not the issue -- our lack of a convention center hotel is.

Then there is the problem with the way the Proposition 1 is written. It says the city can not provide incentives to any form of lodging. Period. If the city wants to fund an international youth hostel, can't do it. Wants to fund a senior facility that plans to offer for-rent rooms to family and friends as many do now, no can do. The Vote Yes people themselves early on agreed the wording of the Proposition was a mistake.

It. Is. Too. Vague. It. Will. Make. Developers. Flee.

Do you want to live in a St. Louis, Pittsburgh or Detroit? Because Prop 1 if passed will turn us into one of those types of "big (yawn) cities." If not, then VOTE NO! on May 9. http://www.ripdallas.com

Marie: Question -- why should the city invest so much in a hotel that private development has absolutely no interest in building?

Carl: Answer 1. -- why should Arlington invest what it is investing to help build a football stadium Jerry Jones has no interest in building entirely with his own money?

These days, for more risky locations that need a boost (like downtown Dallas and Arlington) the city has to take on a greater share of the risk. Jerry wont even build his stadium without a city helping out. If this were someplace where developers were beating down the door, the need for city ownership wouldn't be as strong. But to kick-start downtown the need is there. It's worked elsewhere -- why do you have so little faith Dallas can pull it off?

Answer 2. The vote is not just about building the convention center hotel. In fact the words convention center hotel appear nowhere in the proposition. The proposition, as written, prevents the city from owning or providing financing to ANY form of lodging at all.

That means if the proposition passes, the city can never help fund an international youth hostel, because that constitutes lodging. It will prevent it from helping to fund new senior complexes that want to include for-pay rooms for family and friends, as many do these days.

My neighbor is a 40 year old recent transplant from New York who is a world-renowned scientist at UT Southwestern. He gets it. "Why doesn't this Anatole guy want the hotel?," he asked me in the front yard last night. "Doesn't he get it will help the Anatole, not hurt it?"

When he first got to Southwestern, his superiors didnt want him doing ultrasounds for fear it would take business away from the others at UT-Southwestern who perform them.

"Instead, he told me, "they are now thrilled I'm doing them, because my ultrasound patients are now also going to UT Southwestern for surgeries and other services they went elsewhere for prior to now. Why doesn't this guy get it?"

He's from New York. He gets it. I travel the world regularly and I get it. Tired of the let's make Dallas be more like Waco mentality who don't get it.

The question is NOT about a hotel, it is about a city owned hotel. Why are the right suddenly on board with this socialism?

Grapevine, and the Gaylord Texan is better suited to accept conventioneers. The Wright Amendment's passing will help Dallas, so would a streetcar network in Old Dallas.

A streetcar network would carry one 1/10 the cost and then perhaps make Downtown Dallas a destination where Condos, Hotels and all aspects of urban life can be found.

Anonymous, you make a good points in answers 1 and 2.

But, your analogy about your doctor neighbor is ridiculous. You're comparing ultrasounds to hotels? Really?

And btw, being from New York doesn't make you enlightened. For one thing, the Big Apple is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Cracker Daddy enjoys Scott's posts. Cracker Daddy observes, as have others, that Scott seems to have a streetcar fetish.