Here's a message that I received from the Dallas Business Journal regarding yesterday's post on their 40 under Forty Awards. Dear Shawn, We couldn’t agree with you more about the need to highlight talent in our community that’s often overlooked by the general media, and we’re glad that Dallas South is doing just that. We share in your vision, and that’s why last year the Dallas Business Journal launched two programs – the Minority Business Leader Awards and the Women in Business Awards – both of which recognize outstanding achievements by entrepreneurs and corporate executives. But our commitment to covering the diverse talent that makes up our business community would be disingenuous if it were limited to these award programs. It’s not: We want to cover news about successful and innovative business leaders — no matter their ethnicity or gender — daily online at dallasbusinessjournal.com, weekly in our Friday print edition — all year long. That’s why we’ve reached out to many minority and women organizations like the Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, the African Chamber of Commerce, DFW Minority Business Council , Women’s Business Council-Southwest and others to build partnerships. Thank you for highlighting this issue. We encourage your readers to ...

I find it odd that the Dallas Business Journal has compiled a list for their 40 under Forty Award that has zero African-American Males and zero African-American Females. I wasn't able to get my hands on a physical copy of the journal which dropped yesterday (sold out), but I did click on all 40 names listed which included pictures, and there was no (visible) African-American representation on the list. I find it interesting that D CEO has executive Gail Warrior-Lawrence (Warrior Group) on this month's cover for their Super Entrepreneurs issue. Warrior doesn't look a day over 30, but I'm not revealing her age. The point is there are black business people out there to highlight in such a way. Maybe DBJ is holding out some of their good young candidates for the Minority Business Leader Awards. I can't tell you, I'm just reporting what I saw when I clicked on the award winners. According to the Dallas Biz Journal Website, they are already looking for solicitations for next year's list. Here's the call as it appears on the site: In 2010, the Dallas Business Journal will once again seek highly accomplished executives and entrepreneurs under the age ...

On Tuesday, Save-A-Lot held a "Dollar Cutting" ceremony for their newest store at Crest Shopping Center in the Lancaster-Kiest Corridor. The store is completely new construction and replaces an abandoned theater, located at 2611 South Lancaster. Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway were both on hand to participate in a "breakthrough shopping cart event" where they competed in a time race to grab groceries to benefit a family in need. Leppert was competitive as usual, racing around the store grabbing oatmeal and spaghetti, throwing them into the basket while Caraway pushed a neighborhood girl holding their item list. View Map of Sava-A-Lot Location Tenants at Crest Plaza are pleased with the progress. "This is of vital importanance," says Vincent Hall, owner of Mickey's Catfish." We want business from all over the city and for people to feel comfortable spending their money in the area." Hall also praised Caraway's efforts working with the Crest Plaza owners to update the center. Save-A-Lot donated 5,000 lbs. of food to the North Texas Food Bank on Tuesday, but Councilman Caraway challenged the community to do their part now that the new Save-A-Lot has come on board. "It ...

It may be hard to tell by some media reports, but there are lots of complaints floating around about Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.  Traffic seemed to be better than expected, but concessions and sound quality were not. Just from reading through comments on websites and reports, it looks like one of my concerns early was the real issue: the deadline of June 6th was too short.  If you looked at the stadium 6 weeks ago, in no way did it look like it would be ready for prime time. Concessions were apparently a problem, as some reports had lines at an hour long.  Price.....well that's to be expected ($7.50 Hot Dog, $14 Margarita). And when you go to a concert at a venue as grand as Cowboys Stadium, you can't expect the acoustics to be the same as your local black box theater.  We attended the Essence Festival when it was held at Houston's Reliant Stadium in few years back, and the sound was far from perfect.  The Superdome is a much better place to watch a concert, but it's not as big either. Many of the problems, like the fact that there weren't enough concession items on hand, should be worked out before ...

I can taste the Chicken Biscuits already. Progress is coming along nicely with the new Chick-Fil-A going up on Wheatland just off Hampton (near I-20). I'm told that the waffle fries should be ready sometime in August. This location means that the Chick-Fil-A shop at Southwest Center Mall will most likely close down. I often forget about the Red Bird location when I'm craving a chocolate brownie with walnuts, and usually wait until I'm in the area of Southwestern and Central to cure my fix. But it's really not that bad parking up close to the food court and running in and out at the mall. Still, the area deserves a better location and it will be great for the kids to have a playground as well. So often in our area fast food chains won't even provide patrons with indoor seating (hello Wendy's), but I know that Store Operator Stacey McGee and his staff will do an excellent job in for the community. Stacey McGee I have no doubt that their store will be one of the best in town (no offense Morgan). So I'm putting in an early order for a Chicken Salad Sandwich combo with a ...

In this month's D Magazine, there's an article written by yours truly where I talk about the plight of Southwest Center/Red Bird Mall.  You can read Saving Old Red Bird Mall at the D Magazine site (MAKE SURE TO GO PICK UP A FEW COPIES).  Thanks to Tim Rogers at D for the opportunity, and Trey Garrison for helping me with the edit.  Here are a few excerpts from the article. My son and I recently found ourselves in the mall formerly known as Red Bird because I had forgotten Dillard’s had packed up last year and moved to the new Uptown Village at Cedar Hill. We tried to find something else to occupy our time since we had already made the trip. “Does this mall have a Build-A-Bear Workshop?” my first-grader asked. “No, son,” I said, halfway shamed by his question and my answer. “They don’t have that store here.” Dr. Frederick D. Haynes of Friendship-West Baptist Church and a group of Southern Dallas pastors unsuccessfully pursued a joint venture with an investment group to purchase the mall in 2001. (“The owners of Red Bird got complacent and didn’t keep up with what other malls were doing,” Haynes says. “They lost ...

I was responding to a message from a friend this morning and figured I'd post what I typed on the blog. Shawn, Just read your latest post. Why is the hotel so important? I don't live in Dallas and I don't have a say but what is it expected to bring. I have heard of conferences but with so little entertainment to offer I don't see that being a big pull. I think it is great that this mayor wants to build up Dallas but I am not sure what or why you all think a hotel is the way to go about it. Friend ### Friend, That's a good question and a question I plan to answer in the next few days. The hotel is important to a city like Dallas because convention and tourism is the lifeblood of major cities. New Orleans is taking their time to rebuild living space, but they wasted no time making sure that tourism was protected and back up as soon as possible. Dallas is the only city in the top 20 convention markets that does not have a convention hotel. Even most opponents agree that the city will benefit from such a venue, they just don't ...

Who in the hell left the gate open? That's the kicker from the above sermon by Rev. B.W. Smith (about 2:00 in) when describing a little dog that always yapped at a big dog from behind the safety of a fence. Now I'm not really drawing a parallel with the dogs in this post, but I am wondering, who in the hell left the gate open for a cash loan store to moves in next door to a check cashing place. When Magic Johnson brought Starbucks into Southern Dallas it was a proud moment. When I moved to this part of town I often stopped by the coffee house, even though it wasn't as cozy as most. I hated to them close, but it was never packed so I could understand. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the building was getting a paint job, loud red and yellow to be exact. I figured it was either going to be repurposed as an El Pollo Chicken or Williams Chicken. Not what I would have chosen, but they pay taxes so I could let that ride. But when I was told last week that another check cashing place ...

PUT ON FOR YOUR CITY! – VOTE NO! Here’s what’s going on: Many of you moved to Dallas and live here because of the opportunities available to you. You moved here because Dallas is a growing city. Dallas has been losing everything of value to the suburbs. We lost the Cowboys to Arlington. Nokia Theatre is in Grand Prairie. The Texas Motor Speedway is in Fort Worth instead of on I-20 in Oak Cliff. Don’t you want to do things in Dallas? More than $2.5 billion dollars of economic impact and $800 million in direct spending is waiting for us if we VOTE NO! One group is trying to prevent that from getting to Dallas. If Dallas becomes less business-friendly, we lose. The economic future and opportunities of our generation depends on whether or not we VOTE NO! We didn’t like the last Mayor because she shot down every project and now we have a Mayor with great ideas for a great city. We need to have his back! How it affects you Dallas will be become a ghost town. We won’t be able to bring back and build up South Dallas, Oak Cliff, Pleasant Grove, and West Dallas unless we VOTE NO! No more places ...

Hat Tip to Mike Davis of Dallas Progress for turning me on to this R.I.P Dallas produced video in the spirit of "Yes We Can." I saw a few friends of Dallas South in the video, including Ms. Jan Gore and District 5 City Council Candidate Tiffinni Young. The refrain is "This Is Our City," and it is. This is our city, and now is our time. Let's Vote No on Propositions 1 and 2.