At the Belo Mansion Pondering "Dallas Tomorrow" While Eyeing the Cash Bar

• "By drilling down through the numbers, DMN reporters fought back preconceptions, like, for instance, crime being higher in North Dallas than in the south." Yes, blacks and mexicans live all over town now, thanks to Section 8 and other liberal monstrosities. Look at the Dallas Morning News' google murder map and you will see that the murders in North Dallas are almost exclusively in areas of apartments with lots of blacks and mexicans living in them. THANK YOU LIBTARDS!!! ------------------------------- http://www.dallascityhall.com/committee_briefings/briefings0109/PS_homicideReport_01052009.pdf Race of Suspect - 2008: White - 9 = 6% Black - 72 = 47% Hispanic - 24 = 16% Unknown - 49 = 32% You can be absolutely sure that at least 90% of the "unknowns" were committed by blacks or mexicans. At the very least, without the "unknowns", blacks and mexicans commit at least 63% of murders in Dallas. Whites commit only 6%. EVEN IF EVERY SINGLE "UNKNOWN" WAS COMMITTED BY A WHITE, THE BLACK-COMMITTED MURDERS STILL OUTNUMBER THEM!!!!! To really put it in the proper perspective: http://www.city-data.com/city/Dallas-Texas.html Dallas Population Racial Data: Hispanic - 547,781 (44.6%) White - 355,922 (29.0%) Black - 274,087 (22.3%) ......

• Patrick, those of us who are vertically challenged are a tiny bit offended by your reference to pygmy chickens and tiny omelettes. By the way, sliders come from pygmy cows...

• @Anonymous- Oklahoma City has also conceived, designed, implemented and is in the process of expanding a huge riverfront park in cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers-- all in the same amount of time Dallas has been stuck in neutral. As an aside, Oklahoma City never even considered routing its new crosstown interstate highway alongside the river park.

• Richard S. Good point about the wakeboarding park. To compare how far behind the City of Dallas is compared to Fort Worth, the City of Fort Worth, as part of their Trinity River Vision Plan, is already building a cable wakeboarding park next to their Trinity River just north of downtown. Its called Cowtown Wake Park: http://cowtownwakepark.com/

• John: Believe me, no snark intended towards the rooftop pygmy cows -- and really, what's the advantage of keeping a rooftop pygmy chicken? Who wants a tiny omelette? Just felt like they haven't been near as much a part of the conversation as they deserve to be.

• Patrick, The rooftop-pygmy-cows are mine, not the Mayor's. And just because you've been snarky, I'm replacing them with chickens. Take that.

• "Recreational water sports are just the biggest thing in cities now." Ah. That must explain why the Dallas Housing Authority carefully killed a million dollars of private investment in the wakeboarding park at Fish Kill Lake.

• Solar-powered water taxis and monorails. Next, jet-packs and zeppelins. This hallucinatory crap would be amusing except that those monied idiots and their shills and minions are deadly serious about making the rest of us pay for it.

• Also Fort Worth is doing a pretty good job of things...man I like how they are handling their segment of the Trinity.

• <i>"It's difficult to find any community that's investing as much in itself as we are in Dallas," Leppert says.</i> No, it's really not-- just head up I-35 to Oklahoma City, which has spent (or is in the process of spending) a mind-boggling sum of $2.8 billion on a variety of forward-thinking civic improvements that have already succeeded in revitalizing the urban core. I suspect other examples abound-- it's just that Oklahoma City was the first example I ran into-- being one of the two closest metropolitan areas to DFW.

• warden, Thanks for the correction there -- did seem like a mighty quick growth projection. Fixed it in the comment above, though our comments don't seem to let me strikethrough the old year. Erik, Sounds like a solid undercard for the next UFC bout we get in Dallas. Jessica did indeed introduce herself, shortly before I huddled in the far corner next to the only open power outlet in the room. Sam, In the clear light of tomorrow I think we can all agree (say it with me now): "There will be water taxis, solar-powered."

• Patrick, you must have heard Lee Jackson wrong through his good ole boy accent. The projected growth for UNT-Dallas is 16,000 students by 2030, not 2013. There is no way they could gain 14,000 students in 3 years. And, as a side note, I'm an adjunct prof there. The campus and its students remind me SO much of Community on NBC.

• I'm almost crying with laughter. You folks should have turned out. Why save these gems for the internet? Patrick, next time you're there, please introduce yourself to Jessica Smith, our media relations person. I imagine we could benefit from having some Observer folks there. I'm imagining Jim moderating a panel with the Mayor, Price, and Susan Reed.

• The solar-powered water taxi stuff is a joke, right? Please, Patrick, tell me you're bullshitting!

• Did Ms. Thomas give an update on the standing wave timeline? After the last delay, the Corps had to re-evaluate the whole thing because the plan was revised, but it was never said how long it would take to start things up again.

• Lots of talk about the big ditch but nothing about elementary public education? The Dallas of tomorrow is in trouble if it's being run by the typical DISD student of today.

• So everthin's up to date in Kansas City?

• We're out of time, Wiley says, noticing that we've run up against this hard-and-fast 7:39 deadline, which means they didn't get to my written question about the rooftop pygmy cows. Kingston takes the podium real quick to plug the DBA's upcoming debate -- September 23 at noon! -- between DA candidates Danny Clancy and Craig Watkins, for which they'll hopefully re-stock the snack mix bowls at the bar. You can RSVP, we're told, to sevans@dallasbar.org.

• Wow, seems to be a big interest in Dallas from the California contingent. L.A. people moving here, CA mayors calling Mr Tom for advice. What's next, a hi-larious cop show?

• Q for Gail Thomas: How are you cleaning up the Trinity? We will, she says, once we've got the standing wave and the solar-powered water taxis to generate interest in the river. "It's going to take public will," she says, implying that the will isn't quite there today. "Recreational water sports are just the biggest thing in cities now. We know that we will have the public will to clean up our water." As for these rumors about the river water being so dirty right after floods (full of trash and "birds and animals," Thomas says), that's mighty misleading because really, who's going to be out in the flood water in a kayak anyway? "We're going to be canoeing and kayaking in rather clean water in the lake itself." Q for Leppert: Would a small tax increase help the city handle the budget crisis? Short answer: We'll get a balanced budget for the city just fine, thanks, and our low taxes are what keep impressing the mayors who call in from California to complain about how lousy things are out there.

• UNT-Dallas is one of the big opportunities in southern Dallas, Leppert says, because "you're working with a putty that you can mold." It also helps to have new laws in place that "literally let us go in and demolish buildings that are just a problem in the community." Wiley asks Thomas what drives her when she's working on such a long-term project, and she answers, in a word: people. All the new people moving here from L.A., in particular, proving Dallas is a draw already. It's so aggravating when we have have to roll back our efforts, Thomas says. Leppert jumps in to add that "we are over a hurdle, that the momentum itself" will carry the project from here. The fixes to the levees, he says, "are not challenging to engineers," so we've got that covered too.

• I owe you 10 drops in the bucket of Maker's Mark for this. Fascinating.

• "We're pushing for significant education reform in West Dallas" and "some particular zoning reforms," Wiley says, wrapping up, commending the mayor for "being very attentive." Quick break now while we write questions on our note cards/cut out to the bar at Stephan Pyles, as Wiley asks the mayor for input on southern Dallas, since that's where we've got so many challenges. Southern Dallas is "hugely important" to Rest of Dallas too, Leppert agrees, because it's running on "a formula that doesn't work 20 years down the line," Leppert says.

• Wiley's here to talk about the DMN's Bridging the North-South Gap, which you perhaps have read about in the papers. It was tough to know where to begin revitalizing the southern half of Dallas -- with residential or commercial development -- but after asking a lot of people, she says, they were up to the task. By drilling down through the numbers, DMN reporters fought back preconceptions, like, for instance, crime being higher in North Dallas than in the south. "It seems like a laughing matter, but stray dogs are a very serious matter," Wiley reminds us as we look at an interactive map, then shows a map of South Dallas houses with peeling paint. The project's included 200 editorials over the last three years, Wiley says. "10 drops in the bucket" is another series helping to "spotlight needs and encourage change" in the Dallas of Tomorrow. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/DN-10drops_07edi.State.Edition1.aa76b4.html Wiley moves on to Challenges of Tomorrow, which include creating a economic development commssion for southern Dallas, and pushing parental involvement. "Those are the Citizens of Tomorrow," Wiley reminds us.

• "It's difficult to find any community that's investing as much in itself as we are in Dallas," Leppert says. "As much as we've completed, there's just as much in the pipeline," Leppert says in closing, which, again, could be read a few different ways. How do you run a city and grow in a tough economy, Kingston wonders. "Work hard," Leppert says, and be creative to get the message out. Leppert also mentions a super-secret device that's an iPhone with video of himself talking about the city, and other buttons with direct lines. "So there really is an app for that," Kingston says. "There really is an app," Mayor Tom volleys back. Wiley up next. @downtown_worker, Pretty sure it was the I-30 Signature Bridge in the background in that shot, emanating an even glow from the background. http://www.trinityrivercorridor.com/html/ih30_bridge.html

• Leppert bursts out of the gate with one of his all-time crowd-pleasers, "The City of Dallas Needs To Move Forward As A City," (sing along if you know it), and running right into the underrated B-side, "I Knew Downtown Dallas Has Come So Far When I Saw People Walking Dogs and Baby Strollers." The mayor's working unplugged tonight, without a PowerPoint, while I've, ironically enough, had to remove myself to the floor in the corner by the power plug. Companies coming here -- Comerica, for one -- give us a vitality in the core of the city, and so do fast food establishments. But also: the Convention Center Hotel, the Meyerson, and the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park. "Strategically, that element of the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park...will really redefine our definition of downtown." We'll have dog parks, children's parks and restaurants downtown, which you know can only mean more dog-and-stroller tunes in the years to come.

• "We're waiting for the environmental impact study from the Corps of Engineers to do the lakes," Thomas says" before we start digging the lakes. And that's coming in 2013, and at that point we...add two feet to the levees, which puts us at the 800-year flood level." An amphitheater would hold 20,000 people, Thomas says, while five hot-air balloons hover over the river beside her on the screen. Kayaking is a great new sport, Thomas tells us, all over the United States, and is something we'll all finally get to enjoy once the standing wave is put in, just beside the bridge where DART will cross the river. We're on to the real-life pictures now, as Thomas closes with "a beautiful magical place" called the Great Trinity Forest, which, we see, has owls and ducks. Here comes the mayor.

• Does her night-time rendering show the Margaret Hunt Hill bridge with any sort of lighting feature? Or as Lady Gaga would say: Are we putting batteries on that disco stick over the river?

• It's a "mighty big" project, the Trinity River Corridor, and all the sign you need that us Dallas folks have got plenty of hubris. "You move a little water taxi, solar-powered," she says, then repeats "water-powered solar taxis," for anyone playing along with the drinking game at home. In a five-year flood, the pavilion is full of markers that look like lily pads underwater, giving us all something soothing to look while we're hip-deep in levee mud. On to the whitewater courses -- not one, but two -- to draw young people to live downtown, right where the recreation happens. (Here Mayor Tom, trying to cross behind the audience without interrupting, is greeted with a round of applause.)

• Tonight, Lady Gaga looks an awful lot like the good Dr. Gail Thomas, who's here to talk about something "that will change your life." Monorails. Wait for it... technical troubles as Thomas clicks all the way through the PowerPoint by accident, but from what I gleaned she's going to spend the whole time on the Trinity River Corridor Project, for which "there's incredible impatience," she knows. "It's worth our patience, it's worth our passion." "We'll have the chance to work on this for the rest of our lives," she says, which is either a pep talk or a threat. Thomas shows an artist's rendering of tomorrow's Dallas at night, cars along Woodall Rodgers under the deck park, birdges over the Trinity in the distance. Now, she says, we can all imagine having a relationship to the river.

• As for UNT's other new campus, Jackson has a correction: it's not in South Dallas at all, but <i>southern</i> Dallas, on Houston School Road above I-20. Won't be a satellite campus, neither, but a full-blown university of its own -- <i>two</i> buildings, even. Projection: 16,000 students enrolled there by 2030. How about the projected ethnic makeup? 37% white, 34% black and 24% Hispanic. "In order to leave time for Lady Gaga," Jackson says, he'll end there and take questions while the Belo Mansion A/V Club swaps out the PowerPoints.

• Lee Jackson up at the podium says he "feels like the opening act to Lady Gaga," which I hope is a reference to Mayor Tom, though any of the panelists would work. "We can tell you something about the size: law schools are not huge." New law schools have small law libraries these days, internets being smaller now. So "you'll feel better about the department store" the UNT-Dallas law school's headed into, Jackson shows a slide of UC-Irvine's new law school, which occupies a former 24 Hour Fitness. Each of which sound about right.

• The Dallas Bar Association's Philip Kingston is up at the podium now to introduce each of tonight's esteemed panelists. He is, he says, "Thrilled with the caliber of people we've got here this evening": University of North Texas Chancellor Lee Jackson to cover the UNT-Dallas law school and UNT's South Dallas campus. Next up: Trinity Trust President and CEO Gail Thomas whose job is to remake the Trinity River Corridor -- not a real big job," haw haw. Instrumental in creation of Pegasus Plaza downtown, where eight dudes yelled outside my window every Saturday afternoon. The mayor's introduced next, but won't be here till around 6:30. Doesn't damper the applause one bit. DMN editorial page editor Keven Ann Wiley, "someone with brains" is here to moderate as well as to speak. The note cards on our seats are for the Q&A session to follow, so feel free to chime in with your deepest, darkest questions about the future and the winner gets theirs sent up front.

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