I will periodically update the site with additions (or subtractions) to the field for the City of Dallas May 2007 General Election.  The full list of candidates can be found HERE. Mayor Edward E. Okpa has entered the mayor's race, bringing the number of mayoral candidates to a cool 20.  Also note that I have corrected the spelling of the name of candidate John C. CAPPELLO.  Mr. Cappello was nice enough to alert me to my mistake. City Council Here are the candidates who have registered with the City Secretary (in the races Dallas South is covering) since January 16. District 3 Linda Wise Districts 4 & 5 unchanged District 7 Kevin Felder     Derik W. Gilpin District 8 Theressa G. Washington

For those who may have missed it Nanette Lee was interviewed by Debbie Denmon, where she talked about her departure from K104.  Click HERE to see the interview at the Channel 8 website.

On Saturday night, I served as a judge for the Miss Black and Gold Pageant hosted by the Texas A&M Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha (Pi Omicron).  The entertainment for the evening was provided by June Starr.  When the curtain opened for her performance, Ms. Starr was sitting at a piano accompanied by drums, a trumpet and bass guitar. June Starr performed a couple of songs that would probably be best described as neo soul.  What was so cool about the Ms. Starr's performance was how it was simultaneously familiar and original. Her music has an R&B/Soul feel, but her lyrics are distinctly Christian and Spiritual.  Heads were bobbing, hands were clapping, and toes were tapping at Texas A&M's Rudder Theater. I made it a point to meet June (a.k.a. Shayna Fuller) after the pageant, and found out that she is a graduate of Yvonne Ewell Townview Center in Dallas. Ms. Starr is currently a junior at Texas A&M and is pursing a B.A. in Music. Visit June Starr's MySpace Page where you can listen to a couple of her songs.  Stay tuned for more on June Starr here at Dallas South.

The Return Home - Part 4 By John Spriggins  John Spriggins and his daughter Kendall I built my first house in 2002; it is two doors down from my grandmother's house on the same street where I grew up, Holmes Street. South Dallas is much better today than it was when I was growing up. St. Phillips School and Community Center has had a huge impact in changes that have come about in the area. They created the St Phillips Neighborhood Development Corporation. Through their efforts, they have been able to help several families build homes on otherwise unused property. This has changed the make-up of the area. We have a pretty good mix of ethnicities in Forest Heights (the name that has been given to our section of South Dallas). While still a predominantly African-American neighborhood, Forest Heights now has several Hispanic and Anglo residents. I do not know all of my neighbors by name but I do know them by face. The people in my neighborhood are extremely nice. Everyone pretty much keeps to themselves but everyone is also cordial.  We don’t necessarily have an organized neighborhood watch, but everyone is watchful of one another's property. We do ...

Steve Brown of the Dallas Morning News had an article in Thursday's Business Section hailing the start of construction on The Beat condominium project in the Cedars Area of town.  If you aren't familiar with the Cedars, think Southside on Lamar.  The Beat will be 10-stories high, and across the street from the Cedars Dart Rail Station. Also in Thursday's paper was a blurb from Dave Levinthal that a minor-league baseball stadium that was being proposed for the southern side of downtown may end up somewhere else.  This confirmed an email I got from my man Jason on Tuesday that said as much.  This is a very troubling development.  The bone of contention seems to be the proposed homeless center scheduled to be built in the part of downtown.  Leventhal quotes Scott Berry, president of Southern Independent Baseball as saying “The general feeling is that from a baseball standpoint, you’re giving people a reason not to come to that area by putting [the homeless assistance center] there.” I've really been looking forward to minor-league baseball in downtown Dallas, especially on the southern side.  This would further balance Victory Park and the Woodall Rodgers construction.  The Southside on Lamar, Farmer's Market, Gilley's (who just completed ...

As time moved, on I graduated from high school. The lessons I learned in school could not match any of the life lessons I learned growing up in South Dallas. Fortunately there was a great counselor at our school, Mr. Stevens, who helped me get into college and got me a small scholarship. That was one of the best things that had ever happened to me.  Now I had a chance at a better life. I promised myself that I would make good of the opportunity, and I did.  My cousin and I talked quite often back then about what we would do once we finished college. We had developed our own philosophy about how we would impact our community. Over the four and a half years I spent at East Texas State University, I would tell everyone I knew that I would one day move back to my old neighborhood. When they learned where I was from they would ask "why?" My answered was simple, “I want to make a difference”. College afforded me the opportunity to collect myself. Every time I would go home to visit I would see the pride in my grandmother’s eyes. ...

Today we continue our look at John's Spriggns essay The Return Home.  Make sure you visit John's website to see some of his art work.  Also find out more about John by viewing his C.V.  This thumbnail is a Spriggins original work that hangs on my living room wall titled "Music Makes Me High." The Return Home - Part 2 By John Spriggins As I said, Troy Street would be our last residence in the projects. At the age of twelve, my family and I  moved to Holmes Street. Fortunately my uncle had the foresight to buy a home in the heart of South Dallas a couple of years earlier. It was in poor condition, but he saw its potential. My uncle decided to move his wife and two little boys out to Phoenix, Arizona, so he asked my grandmother to take the house for him. She immediately said yes and we were moving once again. This time was different; it was permanent. I must say I was scared as Hell. I had been to visit my uncle’s house several times, but the idea of moving to this unfamiliar part of town -still in South Dallas- made me a little uneasy. ...

John Spriggins is one of the brightest young artists in the country, and he was raised right here, in Sunny South Dallas.  When you visit his website, it will not take long to realize that this man is working with a gift from God.  And yet the widest computer screen could not capture the size and depth of John's work.  As I mentioned, John is from South Dallas and is one of the few people that I know who grew up in Oak Cliff or South Dallas, graduated from college, and moved back to Oak Cliff or South Dallas.  I went to visit John's house once and when he gave me directions, I made the assumption that he and his wife lived at South Side on Lamar - he being an artist and all. But my wife and I passed up South Side, and kept driving to his nice home on a huge lot in South Dallas.  At the time, I didn't realize that John was actually from South Dallas, and once he told me I asked him to share with me what it was like to be back in the neighborhood where he grew up. Over the rest of the week, I will share with you an essay John wrote to express himself entitled The Return Home. John ...

I've been getting a lot of questions about who I think will be Dallas' next mayor.  My answer was usually, "isn't there like 47 people running?"  I had a general idea who would be the major players, but I knew I needed to bone up on the candidates.  So I did a little homework over the weekend.  Below is a list of candidates for the May 12, 2007, Dallas General Election.  This information is available as a PDF document on the City of Dallas Website.  The document lists the treasurer for each campaign, as well as the candidate's contact information. Dallas Mayor (Place 15)  John C. Cappello        David Samuel "Sam" Coats       Zachry L. Crain         Jennifer Lauren Gale    Joseph M. McNulty Glogowski    Gary E. Griffith         Kim Wilcott Harris      Roger Herrera           Donald W. Hill          Jurline Hollins          Herbert Ray "Tex" Hughes        Darrell E. Jordan       Thomas C. Leppert     William F. "Billy" MacLeod        Yolanda G. Malvern    Ed Oakley                    Gary W. Prichett         Edward E. Okpa Richard P. Sheridan    Max Wells     Gwain Gene Wooten City Council Here are the races for seats open on the Dallas City Council in Southern Dallas as of January 19. Click on the map to see all of the Dallas council districts, or on each district below to ...

                                              Last week I posted The Dream Is Still Alive, where I imagined the possibility that two black coaches would meet in Super Bowl XLI.  I knew it would be hard rooting against the Saints today, gina's comment to my post was compelling.  But at the start of the day my mind was made up, it was Colts v. Bears or bust. The Bears looked like they would make quick work of the Saints, but their settling for field goals instead of scoring touchdowns worried me.  After Reggie Bush's 88-yard touchdown reception, the dream was turning into a nightmare.  But something got into Rex Grossman when he went 5 for 5 on the touchdown drive after the safety.  Lovie and the Bears made it happen, and my dream was still intact. Then it was Tony and Peyton's turn to exorcise their demons vs. the hated Patriots.  I won't lie to you, when New England went up 21-3, I thought it was going to be a dream deferred.  But all credit goes to Peyton Manning for hanging in there (literally a few times in the pocket) and leading his team up and down the field in the second half.   For a minute it seemed like Brady magic would prevail once again, but on the ...