We've had a great new addition to Southern Dallas in recent weeks. Back in March, the first tenant of Wheatland Crossing (Target) opened their doors for business. Wheatland Crossing is a retail development just north or Interstate 20 and just west of Hampton Road. But as I drive around the "Red Bird" area, and especially Camp Wisdom Road, I wonder is Wheatland Crossing masking a significant net loss of businesses in the area. A number of tenants at Wheatland Crossing are simply packing up and moving down the street. The blame does not lie with the companies who are moving. The shopping experience at Target has been greatly enhanced since leaving the store that for years has been located at Cockrell Hill. But one has to wonder what will happen to the strip center that the store anchored - which is already only half to 2/3 occupied. The recruitment of new businesses to the area is key, but let's look at those who had invested in the area and are continuing that investment. Moving Over I remember a couple of years back when Chili's at Camp Wisdom and Highway 67 was open one day and closed ...

Thanks to Carmen D. for the heads up on the story of J.C. Watts and Comcast's plans to launch a Black News Network.  Check the story by R. Thomas Umstead of Multichannel News, here are some highlights. Washington D.C.-based Black Television News Channel (BTNC) announced Tuesday it has reached a multi-year carriage agreement with Comcast Cable for distribution in several of the MSO's urban-based systems beginning in 2009. The network, created by former U.S. congressman J.C. Watts Jr., will launch in 2009 and will provide original news programming with a distinctively African-American perspective, according to a network press release. The network would be the first cable service to offer 24-hour news targeted to African-Americans. Prior attempts to launch a full-time news channel have failed, mostly due to the high cost of developing news. ...

I wanted to share a couple of things that I came across at Electronic Village.  First, the 3rd Annual BlackWebAwards are now accepting nominations in over 100 categories.   You can click here to nominate your favorite blog (including this one) for a Black Web Award. Finalists will be announced July 14th. Villager also hipped me to Clutch Magazine's Summer Blog Academy.  This is from the Clutch site: The ladies behind Clutch are partnering with Black Web 2.0 and other social media experts to bring you the most current information on how to succeed online. Get ready for two months full of how-to’s and advice from the best. So vote to let us know what you want to learn more about. And…it’s free! It's going to be a hot summer for bloggers.

I wanted to get some opinions of what the Dallas South Family thinks about King LeBron James on the latest cover of Vogue magazine with model Gisele Bundchen. The assertion is that James is striking a King Kongesque pose and Gisele is Vogue's version of Fay Wray. It's more than an assertion, it's an artistic reality. Whoever was in charge of this photo shoot was OBVIOUSLY going for the King Kong reference. Photographers get paid to see things that no one else does. Even the irony of a pose like this would not have escaped mention. Everybody's favorite Jason Whitlock writes exactly what I would expect him to write. In his piece Am I supposed to be mad about LeBron?, Whitlock says the following: According to the allegations, King James looks like King Kong clutching Fay Wray on the latest cover of Vogue, and the image, according to potential handbook writers, "conjures up this idea of a dangerous black man." Hmm, to LeBron and his handlers, he looks like LeBron clutching a pretty white woman on the latest cover of Vogue, and the image conjures up the idea that LeBron can race up court with a basketball and a supermodel. Vogue ...

Before the bodies of Lynn and Rufus Shaw were even cold, Dallas Observer muckraker (I'm sure it's on his business card) Jim Schutze posted an article at Unfair Park regarding a series of e-mails sent by Mrs. Shaw. According to the article, Schutze attempted to contact Lynn regarding his findings, but hours before her death, she faxed him a statement declining to comment. The e-mails are between Mrs. Shaw, radio host Willis Johnson, and Mayor Tom Leppert. Schutze said he received the information from "a group of respected black residents and activists, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution." Interesting. He also calls Shaw "the enforcer in a tight-knit group called 'The Inner Circle'." There's no doubt both Johnson and Shaw were an integral part of Leppert's "Southern Sector Strategy" in both his mayoral campaign and the defeat of the Trinity referendum. But to intimate (Mrs. Shaw did, not Schutze) that Johnson is in someway the gatekeeper of Southern Dallas was wishful thinking at best. I don't think anyone one in the African-American community could imagine "John Price, Don Hill, Royce West, Ron Kirk, or anyone else," asking for Willis Johnson's permission to speak with ...

"We believe (the hotel) will be a huge benefit to South Dallas and will kick off a lot of development." Jack Matthews I've gotten a number of emails over the last couple of months regarding my writings on the Dallas Convention Center Hotel. Many of them we're thinking I'd pulled my thoughts on the subject out of thin air. Now there's another voice weighing in on the subject. Sheryl Jean of the Dallas Morning News writes an article regarding Matthew's plans for the property on the convention center's southern side. Here are some highlights from the article. Regardless of whether the city chooses Jack Matthews and his Matthews Southwest company in Lewisville, he'll be involved in development related to the hotel. Mr. Matthews is assembling a block of property to develop office, residential, retail and entertainment space and a potential hotel on South Lamar Street near Eddie Deen's Ranch – and possibly the Texas-themed banquet hall itself. "We do believe ... [a hotel] is the highest and best use for the site because of where it is in relation to the convention center and the DART line and the visibility from Interstate 30," Mr. Matthews said. ...

I'm glad to see more and more people weighing in on the idea of a convention center hotel. The latest are Harlan Crow (his family owns the Hilton Anatole) and Unfair Park. Unfair Park gives some of the highlights of Mr. Crow's latest letter to Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert on their website. In a previous letter to Mayor Leppert, Mr. Crow's feelings about the proposed convention center hotel are pretty straight forward. "The reason Dallas does not have a convention center hotel today is simple," Mr. Crow says, "IT IS NOT ECONOMICALLY VIABLE." When I read the letter that Mr. Crow's wrote the mayor last year, the first thing I thought about was his father, Trammell Crow. Mr. (Trammell) Crow was a real life J.R. Ewing in the 70's and early 80's, only nicer from what I can tell. I immediately went to my bookshelf and started thumbing through my copy of Trammell Crow: Master Builder, a book about how Mr. Crow basically redefined commercial real estate in the United States and the world. He is responsible for much of what we see and know as Dallas today. I turned to the chapter that talked about how the Anatole came ...

The thing that you need to know about where we are in the Convention Center Hotel process: it ain't over. The city has spent about $500,000 to "tie up" an 8.34-acre tract of land on Young Street between Market and Lamar that is a privately owned parking lot. This was the subject of a Dallas Morning News article last weekend (Did anyone else notice the WFAA sign that was prominently featured in the picture of that site?) Dave Levinthal and Rudolph Bush report that the city has until Sept. 30 to decide whether to purchase the land from Cincinnati-based CP-Dallas L & Y LP at a fixed price just under $40 million. If they don't, the $500,000 goes down the drain. Now let's revisit the South Side Convention Center option. First let me make something clear.  Unlike what has been reported and assumed, the south side option is not on the opposite side of I-30 from the center. The proposed site is where Eddie Deans Ranch is currently located, including the huge parking lot behind it. To be more specific, the hotel would be bordered by Memorial Drive, Griffin, Street, Canton Street, and South Lamar. The firm who owns this property is ...

This is a column that I wrote which appeared in the Dallas Morning News on Thursday.  Dallas South readers saw most of this last week.  There are however a couple of points that I didn't make in last week's post. Plans for a Dallas Convention Center hotel are moving forward, and Mayor Tom Leppert would like to see it built before the Super Bowl comes to town in 2011. While the city looks into financing the project, the discussion will soon move to where the hotel should be located. For those who have dared to dream of a hotel constructed near the convention center, the vision usually includes a structure on the "front," or downtown side, of the building. I've always thought the same thing. But over the weeks since I wrote my first Viewpoints column on the hotel, another potential site has emerged. Imagine, if you will, a hotel erected on the southern side of the convention center. Use Eddie Deen's Ranch as a reference point. In that initial Viewpoints column, I made the following argument: Convention visitors judge a host city by what goes on each day after the meetings are over. Where do we eat? Is there ...

According to Reuters , A federal judge on Thursday allowed Nevada Democrats to hold presidential voting in casino hotels on the Las Vegas Strip, potentially helping Sen. Barack Obama in the next round of the campaign on Saturday. "The Democrats can set up their own rules just as the Republicans can," the judge is quoted as saying by Reuters. "It is not up to some federal judge to come along and say,'I don't like that.'" Adam Tanner who authored the story figures that a large turnout of casino workers could boost Obama in his race against Hillary Clinton.  He is backed by by an endorsement from the Culinary Workers Union No. 226, the state's most influential labor group representing some 60,000 hotel service workers. The Clinton campaign expressed disappointment with the judge's ruling. Obama also gained the endorsement of the Service Employees International Union of Nevada.  The "overwhelming participation" of voters in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary showed that "Americans are ready for change," SEIU Executive Vice President Shauna Hamel told CNN.  These are the types of organizations that have supported the Clinton's in the past. Thanks to Elizabeth who left the following comment ...