The North Central Texas Council of Governments Transportation Department has released a Master Plan Initiative regarding development in Southern Dallas County.  This is not the same thing as the Master Plan that Dallas County Commissioners were attempting to institute some months back.  Below is a statement by The Allen Group, one of the main developers in Southern Dallas' Inland Port.   The Allen Group has been asked to provide its position statement concerning the NCTCOG’S CONCEPT of a new S. Dallas County Master Planning Initiative as set forth in the NCTCOG’s PowerPoint Presentation below.   North Central Texas Council of Governments PowerPoint Presentation. The Allen Group SUPPORTS THE NCTCOG’S CONCEPT of the new S. Dallas County Master Planning Initiative as follows:       Consistent with the NCTCOG’s PowerPoint Presentation below, TAG’s position is that the Planning Initiative should: focus solely upon roads, water, sewer, and storm water;   be coordinated and directed by  representatives of ALL of the entities with land use development authority, and who have land impacted by the Plan, on all oversight committees or similar bodies that will make decisions that will impact the cities and/or land within their jurisdictions;   include, without change, previously adopted comprehensive plans whether initiated by Cities or landowners, developers, business owners, etc. ...

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 ...

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 ...

Here are the sights from the Belmont Hotel Dallas and "Get Into the City" last week.  Plenty of food, plenty of fun, and congrats to Starsky and Kristin Hall who won a free night stay in a Garden Suite.  They are celebrating an anniversary this week.

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 ...

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.

On Thursday, tenants at Southwest Center Mall were briefed about the Urban Land Institute Use Study commissioned by the Dallas City Council last week. The city will pay $120,000 to try to figure out what to do with the struggling retail outlet. Edna Pemberton lead the meeting of current and future tenants. Some of those in attendance were getting nervous about rumors circulating that the mall was about to shut down. Many of them, like African-Imports and Mr. Pretzels, have been at the mall for years. Pemberton did open up about some of the malls more tedious moments: pleading with an Oncor worker at the meter with his hand on the switch about to shut the mall’s power off. And a similar episode when the waters was about to be turned off. But it’s been the City of Dallas and Councilman Tennell Atkins who’ve thrown lifelines out to the mall to help keep it afloat. Mr. Atkins recounted some of the history that landed the trouble mall in the hands of a bankruptcy court. Councilman Tennell Atkins Both Pemberton and Atkins were hopeful about the mall's future, though the councilman curbed Ms. Pemberton's enthusiasm on at least two occasion when she seemed ...

It looks like "Vote No Dallas" has come out of it's shell and is going on the offensive against the attack ads launched by Vote Yes. Here's their first television ad and content from a Question and Answer document that accompanied the letter from Mayor Leppert that was posted here yesterday. For more information visit voteNOdallas.com Q.What is the convention center hotel project? A. On May 14, 2008, the Dallas City Council approved plans to build an attached convention center hotel on a portion of an 8.4-acre site at the southwest corner of Young St. and Lamar Blvd. Plans are to build a four-star convention headquarters hotel with 1,000 guestrooms; food and beverage facilities including restaurants, lounges and coffee kiosks; 80,000 square feet of meeting space including grand and junior ballrooms; and 720 parking spaces. Q.Why is the convention center hotel needed? A. In today's competitive market, a city must have an attached convention center hotel to compete nationally and draw the largest U.S. conventions, which attract 20,000 to 50,000 visitors at one time. Until the Council's recent approval, Dallas was the only city of the top 22 U.S. convention markets without a convention center hotel announced, under construction or completed. With a $2.6 billion annual ...

I received the above DNC commercial yesterday regarding Republicans recently released alternative budget plan. In the commercial, Democrats borrow from the Sesame Street theme by saying that it is brought to us by the number "zero." They hit the zero theme over and over, asserting the Republican budget is without numbers. So I went to the 19 page Republican Road To Recovery document to see if the Democrats were exaggerating their claims against their rivals. With all the noise the GOP has made regarding the Obama budget, surely they offered a concrete plan in helping to dig America out of what their plan calls "the worst (economic) storm since the 1970's" (no doubt a dig at President Jimmy Carter). ZERO actually sums up the Republican Road To Recovery. I went through their proposal line by line, and it offers nothing new by way of ideas or proposals. They simply wrote down the rhetoric and complaints levied against the President and his party over the last few weeks. All this time they been telling us they were working on an alternative budget, and this is what they came up with? In the Road to Recovery document, Republicans say they will ...