Dallas News Blog

Sam Merten

​In case you missed it, Michael Lindenberger reported in Saturday's Dallas Morning News that the Texas Department of Transportation finally submitted its proposals to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers aimed at solving the soil issues currently stalling construction of the approaches to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge. And if the corps doesn't green-light the remediation plans by December 1, TxDOT will likely sever its contract for the approaches. The potential delay is estimated to add $117 million to the cost of the project.

Tasty information indeed, but I was left wondering: What the heck are the proposed fixes? That same question was asked by a commenter online, and Lindenberger responded thusly:

@Spugs: Thanks for reading, but yes, I was told the details of the fixes, because I asked, and felt there was no way to briefly explain them in a way that would inform readers without taking space I didn't have, and besides the wisdom of the folks involved, at every level, suggested that what matters is if the corps likes the plans, not whether a reporter, a reader or even the engineers who have reviewed or submitted them, feel they are satisfactory. Predicting what level of comfort the corps will demand is an uncertain prospect at best. Beyond that, not sure how this story, which touts engineers' and cities' view that the fixes are manageable, helps support your thesis that I have a long-standing position on anything, much less that the parkway is destined to fail.

In search of the answer, I contacted TxDOT spokesperson Cynthia Northrop White, who I hoped would be willing to hand over a copy of the proposals. No such luck. She said they aren't releasing anything until the plans are accepted by the corps. It's "a sensitive issue with a lot of different players involved," she told me.

Chris Heinbaugh/Office of the Mayor

Mayor Tom, somewhere behind a protective mask, tours a wind-turbine blade-making plant in China. Naw, you'll never see this photo again on Unfair Park. Can't imagine.

​Mayor Tom Leppert, council member Ron Natinsky, Economic Development honcho Karl Zavitkovsky and the rest of the Dallas delegation presently in Asia have moved onto Beijing, where last night they toured a plant that manufactures wind-turbine blades -- and to think, for that they missed a council briefing on drainage and erosion. How sad for them. Chris Heinbaugh, the mayor's chief of staff, sends this missive from the mayor for those interested in his whereabouts (like, oh, Merten and ... Merten).

What says Mayor Tom about his meetings with the Chinese? "They understand -- on so many different levels -- that Dallas is one of the best places to do business. If this trip moves them over the goal line, we're ready to welcome them." To which Wang Wen Baio (Scott's third cousin twice removed on his stepmother's side) replies, "To come here to visit, to recruit business, this is the correct approach."

​So, you don't like The New Official License Plate of Texas, hunh? Well, then: There's always MyPlates.com, which went live today and offers extremely personalized plates via the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles. It's amazing the stuff they let you get away with.

Photos by Patrick Michels

Ross and Margot Perot enjoy the party alongside museum president Nicole Small.

​When the city began work on the Woodall Rodgers Deck Park, they didn't just break ground -- there's no ground there to dig up -- they held a "ground-making" ceremony instead. When they invited guests for a first look at Main Street Garden, they didn't cut a ribbon; they simulated a laser slicing through a fiber-optic cable, then shot fireworks.

So how to mark the start of construction on the Perot Museum of Nature and Science? Well, sure, why not this? There were VIPs with shovels, a giant dinosaur skull, a cheering audience in blinking blue LED glasses and a 10-foot leaf-man on stilts, painted green, moving like an elephant and lolling his head around with an amused smile (looking just a little stoned) pointed at the 500-strong crowd.

Incorporating some geology, paleontology and whatever you call the study of human-plant gene-splicing nightmares, the Rube Goldberg-style contraption nodded to the diversity of exhibits you'll find in the museum when it opens in a 170-foot building at the south end of Victory Park.

Along with hearty congratulations from politicians, and reminders from fundraisers that the project's still a $58-million donation short of its $185 million target, the ceremony was heavy on hands-on science fun for the kids. A bag of goodies with pinwheels, bubbles and the blinking LED glasses tucked under each of the 500 chairs helped educate and entertain the kids, before scaring the hell out of them with a giant leaf-man.

The Masonic Temple on S. Harwood, which is being sold in a package of properties that also includes 508 Park Avenue, 1900 Young Street and a block on Harwood and Canton

​As I wrote Friday, the owners of 508 Park Avenue will ask the City Plan Commission tomorrow for permission to demolish the building, after the Landmark Commission and its Central Business District Task Force already told Bennett Glazer to put down the wrecking ball and back away slowly. But as it turns out, there is an interested buyer: the Sammons Center for the Arts.

Joanna St. Angelo, the center's exec director, tells Unfair Park today that she's "very interested in the property," as well as the neighboring Masonic Temple on S. Harwood Street, which Realtor Candace Rubin has been trying to sell as one package for almost a year. St. Angelo says the Sammons, which serves as the rehearsal space and performance home for more than a dozen permanent performing-arts "clients" and dozens more "non-resident" users, has outgrown the former Turtle Creek Pump Station and needs more space for a second outpost. She envisions using the Masonic Temple as a performance-rehearsal space and 508 Park Avenue as an office complex -- complete, perhaps, with a museum acknowledging its history as the spot in which Robert Johnson, Charlie Parker and Bob Wills recorded.

There are, of course, myriad roadblocks -- chief among them an economy that has all but crippled nonprofits' efforts at fund-raising and the death in January of Elaine Sammons, who served as the center's chair, chief benefactor and, of course, namesake.

"The two properties would be perfect for us to develop a second facility, but we're not in a position to say, 'Yes, we will do this, we can do this," St. Angelo says. "As a small nonprofit, we're struggling like all nonprofits. And after the death of Mrs. Sammons, we're still trying to put new leadership in place. It's just a matter of priorities, and ours is making sure we can sustain our original facility before expanding into another. In the best of all possible worlds, we wish we were in a position to develop the buildings into a similar facility, but it's not the best of all possible worlds."

Justin Terveen

​You watched it fall -- all that tension leading to a sudden, violent demise. Now, courtesy the great Justin Terveen, the peaceful aftermath in a series of photos he took Tuesday evening. The last photo of Reunion Arena we'll ever post on Unfair Park.

On a related note, Bike Friendly Oak Cliff yesterday announced the route for this weekend's Tweed Ride.

​Good news for anybody who has ever avoided bicycling in Dallas for fear of the automobile: The city's new bicycle coordinator, who moved here from Virginia, is on your side. Says Max Kalhammer of biking in Dallas: "My own experience has been mixed in terms of enjoyment and my own feeling of safety with riding. ... Some streets I feel very comfortable on. But others I don't. I've just learned to pick my routes very carefully."

You should do the same, he recommends, at least until Dallas gets a new comprehensive bike plan, as we mentioned Tuesday morning. We'll have much more with Kalhammer -- not to mention his predecessor, P.M. Summer, in next week's paper version of Unfair Park. But, as promised, here are more details concerning the bike plan update:

This December, North Central Texas Council of Governments and the city of Dallas will release a Request for Proposal to firms for a bicycle-friendly design for Dallas. Four to six weeks later, local government will begin to sift through the various applications and conduct any necessary follow-up interviews. Finally, by February or March, we should have a winner.

Now for the part that requires some patience.

​When the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report earlier this week that placed Texas second only to Mississippi when it comes to the swelling ranks of hungry residents, Jan Pruitt wasn't surprised. After all, the president and CEO of the North Texas Food Bank had just released her own data on the growing need of North Texas families as part of a major food drive heading into the holidays.

"I wasn't surprised based on what this last year has looked like for us," she tells Unfair Park, saying that not only have local agencies increased food distribution in response to greater need, but that more and more of the people struggling to buy food have only recently landed in dire straits. On average, Pruitt says, there's been a 36-percent rise in first-time visitors to local food pantries in recent months, and in Collin County, Frisco Family Services Center has seen a 56-percent rise in first-time clients. "We're averaging one million pounds of food out our doors each week, and with all this effort, we still know we're only meeting a portion of the demand."

Many of those seeking help at the food bank's network of more than 1,000 pantries are members of the working poor, Pruitt says, people who, despite having jobs, are unable to keep food on the table.

The front of the the George W. Bush Presidential Center, as designed by Robert A.M. Stern

​In advance of a formal presentation today on the SMU campus, USA Today sneak previews architect Robert A.M. Stern's conceptual renderings for the George W. Bush Presidential Center. Yes, but will there be "freedom" involved?

One feature of the library will be a "freedom collection" with videos of testimony from "freedom activists and dissidents," including residents of the former Czechoslovakia, North Korea and Iran. Visitors will enter the library through the large open space of the Freedom Hall, which will be topped by a lantern-like roof, Stern said. "In the evening hours," he said, "it will be lit from within, and it will glow."

He then went on to say that many SMU students are also lit from within during the evening hours.

Update at 3:52 p.m.: The Los Angeles Times' Christopher Hawthorne just offered this assessment of the center's plans, which were formally presented at SMU this afternoon: "Architectural plans released today for the $250-million, 225,000-square-foot George W. Bush Presidential Center ... carry no hint of the swagger, bravado or taste for confrontation that Bush was known for as president."

Patrick Michels

Since all of my photos from last night turned out too dark to use, we'll recycle this one again. S'up, Sarah?

​The chief and council member attended a little meet-and-greet in Northwest Dallas last night -- big turnout too, about 150 folks who didn't come for the way-too-early-for-those Christmas cookies but to talk crime. Margolin, though, spent much of her time talking about ethics reform at Dallas City Hall -- "a big issue," she said, "hot and controversial." Well, maybe a few weeks ago, sure, but most of those in attendance wanted to know about mutilated kitties and busted-down doors, not Don Hill, zoning cases, campaign contributions and lobbyist registration.

Not that there wasn't some interest in City Hall doings: Somebody asked the District 13 rep if she thinks the Trinity River Corridor Project will ever get finished, which got big laughs from the audience.

"I think pieces of it will," Margolin said, before promising to spend the holiday break getting up to speed on the entirety of the thing. "In six months come back to me." (Schutze will be up shortly with some Trinity news, speaking of.)

With regards to the rise in crime in the NW -- some stats show an 18-percent increase, as opposed to an overall decline of 30-some-odd percent citywide -- Margolin did mention that she's also going to spend the next six months trying to clean up Royal Lane and Dennis Road, where, recently, a homeless camp was broken up behind a convenience store and smoke shop in front of which day-laborers spend much of their day. Matter of fact, she said, tomorrow she's got a meeting with first assistant city manager Ryan Evans and members of the Dallas Police Department, the City Attorney's Office and Code Compliance involving that very intersection. "It's gotten very bad," she said, "and we're going to crack down on some of those areas."

And another item of note: Margolin said the city's about to look into drafting an ordinance that prohibits the number of cars that can be parked at one house. (Farmers Branch and Arlington already have one.) And: Did you know Dallas has a law that says your car can't be parked in front of your house for more than 24 hours? Sure does, but Kunkle says it "can be defeated if you move it a few inches."

What else did the chief say? Lots. Jump for it.

Patrick spent the better part of the morning watching A&R Demolition crews claw at the "legs" of Reunion Arena's roof in the anticipation that the sucker would lean into a controlled drop rather than just, ya know, collapse. But, as evidenced by this video from Friend of Unfair Park "Human Being," that's not exactly how things worked out.

Update: I originally posted the KXAS-Channel 5 video, which is available here. This one's better.

​It's been a year since the city council's Transportation and Environment Committee got word that Dallas had plans -- and $300,000 courtesy the Regional Transportation Council -- to update The Greater Dallas Bike Plan, created in 1985 and updated, barely, only a few times since. According to a memo sent to the council on December 5, 2008, by then-assistant city attorney Ramon Miguez, "The Bicycle Plan Update will consider a full range of bicycle facility types (e.g., shared lanes, striped bike lanes, off-street trails) to accommodate and encourage bicycle use as a mode of transportation." And during the briefing itself, John Brunk, assistant director of Public Works, told the council work on the new plan would begin in May 2009.

The plan redo's a little behind schedule, as Bike Friendly Oak Cliff reminds us this morning: "Dallas is set to announce a bid to bring in a consultant to create our area's comprehensive plan." That search should commence next month, in the hopes of putting a new plan in front of the city council by no later than the spring of 2010. Kim, who's wrapping a cover story on this very subject for the paper version of Unfair Park, is actually set to speak with Max Kalhammer, Dallas's new bike coordinator, this morning; she'll post a separate item with a few more details later today.

But till then, here's what BFOC is looking for in a consultant: "We hope the search goes well beyond the national level, as very few planners in the US have the amount of experience agencies in Europe and elsewhere have in implementing successful citywide programs. ... It's imperative that whoever we hire has experience well beyond the conceptual, and is willing to think far beyond the status quo."

​Speaking of local landmarks getting adiosed ...

Reunion Arena!

Finally!

After the jump, the release from Dallas City Hall regarding the beginning of the end of the beginning of the end for the arena, which has cost a little more and taken a little longer than A&R Demolition and the city expected. But the short version: A so-called "controlled drop" of the Reunion Arena roof will begin tomorrow morning at 7; it'll be done using a process called tripping, during which, the release says, "the roof structure is weakened and pulled down on itself without the use of explosives." One more interesting item from City Hall:

The Learning Channel (TLC) will film the process for an upcoming series, The Imploders, which documents the activities of AED and in particular owners Eric and Lisa Kelly. The pilot will premiere on TLC Dec. 17 and showcases AED. Each episode follows Eric and Lisa managing family life on the road as they travel to a different city in order to bring down a building, bridge or other large structure. Many episodes will include an implosion where others showcase the 'Tripping' process being used in the Reunion Arena project.

Patrick Michels is waking up early so you don't have to. Now jump for the details on how you can witness the demise of greatness your own self, should you feel the need to say your final farewells whilst pouring one out.

Photos by Patrick Michels

After dishing out 19 years of memories and spinal trauma, the Texas Giant finally got what's coming to it this morning.

​Nearly every day for 12 years, Dannie Lancaster has climbed the Texas Giant to help keep Six Flags' wooden flagship roller coaster running as safely, if not as smoothly, as possible. On days when the heat was most intense, Lancaster says, he and the inspection crew might replace 50 heavy track bolts that had broken under the strain.

Six Flags maintenance man Dannie Lancaster

​This morning he was part of a small crew that pulled three support legs down from high up on the 143-foot ride.

"It's something we're gonna miss," Lancaster says, though after a dozen years of sweltering climbs weighed down by a heavy homemade leather tool belt, he's thankful the replacement ride -- a wood and metal hybrid -- should need less work.

Brandon Thibodeaux

Brent Brown

​Ran into bcWORKSHOP and Re:Vision Dallas's Brent Brown Friday night at the opening of Main Street Garden, and during a lengthy chat that spilled over into a downtown dinner with our families, not once did he mention a pending trip to Washington, D.C. But the Dallas Institute this morning sent word that a lecture scheduled for Thursday night -- titled "Beauty in Modern Architecture" -- has been canceled, since Brown, who's now running the Dallas CityDesign Studio in City Hall, "has received an invitation to participate in a meeting at the White House the morning after."

As it turns out, Brown won't be at the White House, not exactly -- more like the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where Brown's been invited by Greg Nelson, associate director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, to speak about "clean energy, public health and creating healthy communities," as Brown puts it.

"I thought it was spam at first," Brown tells Unfair Park concerning the invite. "Then I got another e-mail and realized, nope, it was for real. And I assume they found me through the EPA -- I'm speaking at the Brownfields conference in New Orleans tomorrow, and the White House said they wanted a diverse array of speakers for Friday. I was one of those things where I thought I should probably attend, even though I hate canceling the lecture." Brown says a few of President Obama's cabinet secretaries are scheduled to attend as well, among them, most likely, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and, most likely, Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan.

For years the city's been trying to find a way to convert the Santa Fe Trestle into part of a trail that would include a Trinity River overlook.

​The city of Dallas has till December 11 to submit to the Texas Department of Transportation a list of projects it thinks worthy of the Transportation Enhancement Program, through which TxDOT doles out federal funds for so-called "non-traditional transportation related activities." Which would be what, exactly? Well, bicycle and pedestrian trails, for starters; or, the restoration of old trolley-car lines, always a trendy move; or, landscape beautification. According to the state's guidelines, "Projects should go above and beyond standard transportation activities and be integrated into the surrounding environment in a sensitive and creative manner that contributes to the livelihood of the communities, promotes the quality of our environment, and enhances the aesthetics of our roadways."

With less than a month till the due date, the city council's Transportation and Environment Committee will discuss and debate a wish list of projects this morning in the hopes of snagging a small piece (around $5.5 million) of the relatively modest pie ($67.5 million available statewide). Among the projects being considered: construction of Five Mile Creek Trail (which would be a 1.75-mile long trail from Glendale Park to College Park, with a connection to the DART Ledbetter light-rail station); Northaven Trail (almost three miles' worth of trail from from the White Rock Greenbelt Trail to Preston Road, "including a new bicycle/pedestrian bridge across White Rock Creek south of Forest Lane") and the Santa Fe Trestle Trail over the Trinity River, best known for its inclusion in Standing Wave conceptual renderings. And, for those wanting to link downtown with Oak Cliff, there's always the Houston Street Viaduct Bicycle/Pedestrian Link.

Update: Speaking of Five Mile Creek Trail ... I see that at its Thursday meeting, the Park and Recreation Board will actually accept a $1 million grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to go toward the trail's construction, as well as other updates in College Park. The city, though, only gets the grant if it matches the funds, which it intends to do using $200,000 in 2003 bond money and $800,000 in '06 bond dough.

Photos by Patrick Michels

No need to share scissors this time. Mayor Tom Leppert, DowntownDallas President John Crawford, effects engineer Kelly Sticksel and City Council member Angela Hunt ceremonially slice the fiberoptics Friday night. We've got more photos in this slide show.

​Under a dusky purple sky, with a well-dressed public milling around Main Street Garden's fresh-laid lawn, local lights-and-pyro man Kelly Sticksel had some words for Mayor Tom Leppert -- advice you rarely hear before city ribbon-cuttings and photo ops: "Don't look directly into the laser."

Half an hour later, with the sun set and the first few speeches out of the way, park supporters spread out a fiber-optic cable "ribbon" onstage and a beam of green light shot up, bisecting the cable on its way into the night. A fountain of sparks erupted around the laser, followed by fireworks launched from Ervay Street, exploding bright red above the crowd.

After all that, there wasn't much room to doubt that Dallas hasn't seen a park like this before.

​That headline, though, isn't the real takeaway from this Transportation and Environment Committee briefing prepped for next week's meeting, during which assistant city manager Jill Jordan will suggest how to make $12,000 this year and $20,000 annually after that by going after delinquent cemetery owners who owe stormwater fees. Nope. The real story here is that local historian Frances James, who knows this city's cemeteries better than the ghosts who populate 'em, has determined that out of Dallas's "63 unique cemetery locations," almost half of them (30) are considered abandoned. Those are just a few of them above; the city can't track down their owners. Which isn't so much spooky as it is, well, sad. I feel a cover story coming on.

​Just drove by Main Street Garden to see how it was shaping up in advance of tonight's Official Grand Opening (promises the media release, there will be "a pyrotechnic ribbon cutting," which I think has something to do with the mayor, laser beams and his eyes ... not sure). And I noticed workers plastering the windows of the Statler Hilton with, well, what you see above -- in other words, the so-called "veil" we've been dying to see since July. If nothing else, it certainly matches the color scheme of the park, which, at present, smells a bit like ... fresh fertilizer. Another photo of the shroud after the jump, as well as one of the old PARK sign that used to adorn the garage that once stood on that very spot.

Update: As is mentioned in the comments, "DFWCRE8TIVE" took some photos of the park, the old Municipal Building (especially nice) and the Statler last night. They're posted here, on the Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum.

​Speaking of old Observer stories ...

Back in 2000, now-editor Mark Donald wrote about "The Resurrection of Sandy Kress: Or, how a Democrat and reviled former DISD board president found a happy home pushing 'educational acoountability' for the GOP." Which seems worth a read this morning given yesterday's announcement that Kress has been tapped to serve as education fellow at the George W. Bush Institute; says here he will be charged with "directing education policy development and outreach." I also see that the folks at the George W. Bush Presidential Center have posted the entirety of George and Laura's speech at McFarlin Auditorium yesterday; after the jump, you'll find the glossy 30-page booklet handed out to the 1,500 who attended the former president and First Lady's talk outlining "their vision" for the joint.

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The owners of 2525 McKinnon Street, home of The Retail Connection, and Gateway Tower on LBJ Freeway claim in court documents that they're being harassed by picketers -- and by picketers, they mean "homeless persons being paid to protest" by Alex Ornelas of Arlington, who's listed in court docs as the exec director of the Texas Carpenters and Millwrights union's regional council.

The suit, filed in Tarrant County District Court and found on Courthouse News, depicts an unruly and ugly situation: The plaintiffs say the union claims it's protesting due to the use of a subcontractor who doesn't pay "area standard wages," but allege that the picketing, which began Uptown last month, amounts to little more than extortion and often endangers people trying to get in and out of the building's driveway.

Justin Terveen

​On Thursday, the owners of 508 Park Avenue will ask the City Plan Commission for permission to demolish the building in which Robert Johnson, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, and Charlie Parker once recorded. Two months ago, the Landmark Commission denied the application, upholding the Central Business District Task Force's earlier no-how-no-way, but Colby Properties is determined to raze that building along with the adjacent 1900 Young Street -- despite its own engineer's determination that, no, the former Warner Bros. Pictures storage facility isn't anywhere near falling down.

On an entirely related note, the Associated Press this morning reports that officials in Copiah County, Mississippi, are going to spend $250,000 to restore the bluesman's childhood home in the hopes of turning it into a tourist destination: "A restored Johnson birthplace would offer his latter-day fans something rare: a tangible relic linked to the long-dead musician." Unlike, say, the building in which he actually recorded half of his incalculably influential body of work, including one of the most immortal pieces of American music, "Hellhound on My Trail."

Photos by Patrick Michels

Check out our slide show for more photos from the parade.

​Jesse Luna, a welder whose father Miguel served in World War II and Korea, has wanted to stand along the parade route and wave for veterans like his dad, but could never get away from work on weekday mornings. Now that he's out of work, he said told Unfair Park it occurred to him that Wednesday morning would finally be his chance. He rounded up his brother, Miguel Jr., and a large American flag, and took a spot along Main Street to cheer on the passing veterans.

Along with veterans in vintage race cars and active duty troops in Humvees, other beneficiaries of the adoring sidewalk crowd included high school marching bands and ROTC formations, cheerleaders and Captain, the Texas Rangers horse-headed mascot.

As in past years, the parade, organized by the Dallas Veterans Day Parade Committee, began at Reunion Arena, wound around to Main Street up to Ervay Street, and back to City Hall for a presentation of colors. Dedicated parade-watchers and cotton candy vendors began filling in a little before 11 a.m. yesterday, half an hour before the first troops marched past, and as the hours rolled on the ranks swelled along the sidewalks with downtown workers ducking out of offices to watch the parade.

Jump for more shots of the parade, from the truck carrying Battle of the Bulge veterans to the high school ROTC corps and -- why not -- a few Dallas Stars cheerleaders on roller blades, who did their service passing out plastic hockey sticks.

University of North Texas Libraries/Dallas Municipal Archives

If you ever wondered what it looked like during a night in Jack Ruby's Carousel Club, wonder no longer.

​Dallas's official John F. Kennedy Collection has always been on the city's Web site -- a little hidden on the City Secretary's Office home page, but right here nonetheless. I've used it in the past, despite the fact it's a bit of a mess -- photos and files kept in virtual boxes, searchable only by using this massive inventory list. But, right on time (November 22, after all, is but days away), the University of North Texas Libraries debuts its version of the John F. Kennedy Dallas Police Department Collection, which cleans up the stacks and will eat up an afternoon if you let it.

"They wanted to build a Web site from their vantage point, and we allowed them to do that," City Secretary Deborah Watkins tells Unfair Park. "But it's the same collection as the city's."

Chief Kunkle and Angela Hunt at the Katy Trail lighting ceremony last year

​Several members of the Dallas City Council are in San Antonio at a National League of Cities conference. Angela Hunt is not, which is why, like most of the city, she found out that DPD Chief David Kunkle was retiring by turning on the local news at 10 last night. Was she pleased? Not really: "I am disappointed that our city manager didn't apprise the council of this and that we learned about this from the media first," she tells Unfair Park. "I do think it's important to apprise the council of important matters before it's disclosed to the media."

But is she as furious as Tennell Atkins? Not really -- maybe because she's been bed-ridden with a severe cold the past several days. But Unfair Park asked Hunt if she, like Atkins, a member of the council's Public Safety Committee, believes Mary Suhm should call off the national search for a new chief and hire from within. No, she says: She wants the city manager to scour the country for the best candidate.

"And it's not because we don't have great people here," she says. "We do.. But as the eighh largest city in the country, we have to get the absolute best person in the country to run the plice foce. When we look for a city manager, I dont think it's smart to just look internally. You have to look externally for the best candidate, and at the end of the day it might be somebody from DPD. But if that's our belief, I don't think we should be afraid to look outside the DPD."

After the jump, her reaction to Kunkle's departure and thoughts about a replacement.

Update at 12:26 p.m.: Also after the jump, Ann Margolin's thoughts on the chief's resignation and a national search for his replacement.

Jack Hammack

​Sam sends news that moments ago, in the middle of Police Chief David Kunkle's farewell press conference, Jack Hammack, who was standing behind Kunkle, collapsed. Those standing around him, including former Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, tried to help him up, while officers called for a defibrillator and an ambulance before administering CPR. Hammack is a former Highland Park mayor and co-founder of Safer Dallas Better Dallas with Charles Terrell. Paramedics just arrived and said he'll be fine; Sam says that amidst all the chaos at the scene, "he even cracked a joke." Laura Miller is at the podium now, wrapping up the press conference.

​Dallas Area Rapid Transit said yesterday that "for the third consecutive year more than nine out of ten Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) customers report overall satisfaction with the agency." Most riders surveyed believe the trains and buses run on time and as scheduled, are plenty safe and better than what was up and running this time last year; they also would recommend DART to their friends. One note: The survey was conducted in August. Which means, before Texas-OU...

Editor & Publisher has News managing editor George Rodrigue's memo to the paper's staff announcing the adios of Anthony Moor, deputy managing editor for interactive news. He's going to Yahoo's local news operation, which I'd never seen till just now. How aggregaty! ...

And Advertising Age has a lengthy video profile of Lincoln Stephens, who quit his ad-agency gig in Chicago to return to his hometown of Dallas to begin The Marcus Graham Project. The project, the intention of which is to diversify ad agencies, is so named for Eddie Murphy's character in Boomerang, which serves as an inspiration, as evidenced by the video after the jump. (Good Lord, I forgot Chris Rock was in that.) I've always been more of a Bowfinger man myself.

George W. Bush has been seen this week trying out his Thursday afternoon speech on anyone he can find at SMU.

​George W. Bush has been spotted quite frequently hanging around the SMU campus since his retirement -- grabbin' a Goff's No. 2, playin' a little Frisbee golf in front of Dallas Hall, doin' a little 2 a.m. backstroke at Perkins Natatorium, the usual. But today, he makes it for reals with an afternoon speech at McFarlin Auditorium, where he'll talk about his George W. Bush Institute -- his first real sneak preview of the so-called "action-oriented think tank" attached to the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the SMU campus. James Glassman, executive director of the institute, gives The New York Times a hint of what George and Laura will talk about:

Mr. Bush will announce the appointment of the first five of two dozen scholars to be affiliated with the institute, which has already scheduled a half-dozen conferences for next year, according to organizers. The former first lady, Laura Bush, will also speak at Thursday's event to discuss how women's issues will be injected into all the institute's program areas, including sponsorship of a conference on the education of women in Afghanistan.

"The president has been working with these ideas for a long time now," said James K. Glassman, a former top State Department official now serving as the institute's founding executive director. "He wanted to do something very different from other former presidents, and that is to create a research institute that's independent, nonpartisan and scholarly and that will have an impact on the real world."

Update at 12:36 p.m.: More Dubya news today: He's chosen the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia to conduct a "comprehensive oral history of his presidency." Says Bush, "This oral history project will offer future generations a comprehensive look at what it was like to lead the country during some extraordinary challenges."

Update at 3 p.m.: The Washington Times provides the initial coverage of Bush's speech, during which he said, "As the world recovers, we will face a temptation to replace the risk-and-reward model of the private sector with the blunt instruments of government spending and control. History shows that the greater threat to prosperity is not too little government involvement, but too much."

​Early on during the FY2009-2010 budget process, City Manager Mary Suhm made it clear: She was going to close most of Dallas's neighborhood pools -- which she did, shuttering next summer all but seven of the 21 operated by the city. There was also much talk of cutting in half the operating budget for the Bachman Therapeutic Recreation Center -- from $997,967 to $593,440. Anything to reduce the water bill.

As it turns out, one of the benefits of both budget cuts is that Dallas now has its first city-operated indoor pool: On November 21, the 42,000-square foot therapeutic center originally built to serve the disabled makes its debut as the Bachman Indoor Swimming Facility, which will be open year-round and feature a full slate of water aerobics classes (including, um, Salsa Splash, which just sounds messy). It'll also be available for party rentals.

"We're introducing it to the general public," says Robin Steinshnider, manager of the city's Aquatic Services department, which is under Park and Rec. "And, yes, we're also looking for more revenue-generating opportunities, but it's good service-wise because Dallas citizens didn't have a way to take swimming lessons in the winter or get water exercise year-round. This is a way to maximize the use of the pool." Steinshnider says the hope is to make the pool self-sustaining so that if and when it comes to chopping-block time again, there won't be such a fight just to keep the doors open.

"There was a lot of support for it from the community" during the myriad rounds of budget cuts, she says. "And there was somewhat of a reduction in the operating expenditures and cuts in the staff, but we'll make the most out of what we have left. ... We hope it becomes our busiest pool year-round. People never knew it was here -- and if they did, they didn't think it was for then. Well, yes, it's here, and, yes, you can use it." Every day. Jump for the brochure Steinshnider sent touting the pros of your latest swimmin' hole.

​I've learned quite a bit about Ed Malouf this morning -- like the fact that all nine of his children with wife Marie, and three of their 23 grandchildren, went to Bishop Lynch, where Ed is said to have literally built the field house with his bare hands while Marie taught theology and worked as a school counselor. (Their children established a trust fund in their folks' names at the school, as well.) And I've discovered that Ed, now 84, spends much of his free time trying to get members of Congress to give soldiers their just due long after they fought for their country.

One such example makes news in this morning's Washington Post, which chronicles Malouf's efforts to get Congress to award 87-year-old John Robinson -- his former commanding officer during World War II, when they served in the Army's 78th Infantry Division -- both a Purple Heart and Silver Star. But according to someone to whom I spoke this morning, someone who knows Ed well, this is but one tale among many; it has become, in recent years, his life's work. I hope to speak to him today. Till then, then, this excerpt from The Post with which to begin your Veterans Day:

It had been more than 50 years since Ed Malouf had seen his former lieutenant. But here was a letter to the editor in the Army's 78th Infantry Division magazine signed by Robinson.

Malouf suddenly had a chance to get back in touch -- not only to reminisce about World War II, the Battle of the Bulge and that terrible freezing, deadly winter in the forest, but also to tell Robinson at long last how his heroism continued to inspire him.

When they reconnected in 1999, Malouf, of Dallas, was thrilled to be back in touch with Robinson, of Severna Park, but disheartened to hear that the man he considered a selfless hero had not been more highly decorated. And so with the help of others, Malouf launched a years-long crusade to get Robinson a Silver Star and a Purple Heart he thinks he deserves. It was an odyssey that would involve members of Congress, countless letters and e-mails and culminate with a quiet surprise last spring.