Land Development, Homeownership, Juvenile Justice System, Substance Abuse and the Return of New Orleanians on Summit Platform

Dallas, TX – April 18, 2008 – Faith Formula Human Services is poised to keep the focus on poverty conditions in America. To this end, United States Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Dr. Frederick Douglas Haynes III, Senior Pastor of the Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas will join forces again to host the 3rd Annual Faith Summit on Poverty, April 25^th and 26^th , 2008 at the Friendship-West Worship and Conference Center, 2020 W. Wheatland Road; Dallas. The central theme and goal is to engage, enlighten and equip citizens to mobilize their city, state, county and federal elected officials, and community stakeholders to promote positive public policies geared to fight the War on Poverty!

Opening political forum and workshops set a three fold agenda: (1) to take a microscopic look at America’s “Cradle to Prison Pipeline”; (2) to discuss openly and directly the causes of substance abuse and lack of treatment and recovery centers in the southern sector; and (3) to investigate the realities of land development in distressed communities.

On Friday, a community job fair with over thirty-five employers will be on site to offer employment opportunites for job seekers including the formerly incarcerated. In addition , a special focus will be on foreclosures, first time buyers and New Orleanians who wish to return home at the Town Hall Meeting and Homeowner Workshop set for Saturday.

DA Craig Watkins, Senator Royce West, Judge Cheryl Shannon, Father Michael Pfleger – Chicago: St. Sabina, and Wendell Pierce – HBO hit series The Wire are among the local and national guests who will participate in this year’s summit.

Register, get involved and be a part of the solution today. Go to www.friendshipwest.org.

Cost: Free

Time: Friday, April 25^th –

                        Registration 9:15 a.m.

                        Opening Political Forum 10:00 a.m.

Luncheon 12:00noon

Workshops 2:00p.m.

Community Job Fair 10:00am – 2:00pm

Saturday, April 26^th

Town Hall Meeting 9:00am

                        Homeowner Workshop 10:30

                        Community Resource Center 10:00am – 1:00pm

We invite you to be a part of progressive dialogue and action!

IRS Targeting Americans Eligible for Economic Stimulus Payment Who Are Not Required to File Income Taxes

Washington, D.C. - (March 26, 2008)  Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson today encouraged residents of the Greater Metroplex to participate in Super Saturday, to be held this Saturday, March 29, across the country.

On Super Saturday, the Internal Revenue Service and its partner organizations will provide tax preparation assistance to Americans in hundreds of offices nationwide, targeting those who are eligible for the upcoming economic stimulus payment, but who are not required to file an income tax return.

The Recovery Rebates and Economic Stimulus for the American People Act, which Congresswoman Johnson supported, will provide tax rebates to 117 million households in the U.S., including 8.6 million Texans.  Payments will range from $300 to $600 for individuals and $600 to $1200 for joint filers, and many of those eligible will receive an additional $300 for each qualifying child.  Many Americans who are not required to file an income tax return will be eligible for the stimulus payment; however, they must file a return this year in order to receive it. 

“I encourage all residents of North Texas to consider filing an income tax return this Saturday, when they can get any additional help they might need,” Congresswoman Johnson said.  “The stimulus payments will be a financial bonus for many people in our district, and it is important that everyone eligible to receive one does so.  I particularly encourage military personnel with nontaxable combat pay, low-income individuals, older Americans and recipients of Railroad Retirement benefits to participate in Super Saturday.”

The Dallas Internal Revenue Service office, located in the Cabell Federal Building at 1100 Commerce St., will be open 9:00 AM-3:00 PM local time on Super Saturday.

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. “We believe it will be a huge benefit to South Dallas and will kick off a lot of development.”

• In the selection process of a developer, they may identify a location that the City Council and city staff might find works better,” said Frank Poe, the city’s director of convention and event services. “We’ve said the land could be used for a convention center hotel or used for expansion of the convention center,” he said.

• Some city and real estate leaders have called the publicly subsidized hotel plan risky and question whether the market can support more rooms. Others think a convention center hotel is crucial. Mr. Matthews has big plans for the South Side. He has hired Foster & Partners, a London-based architecture and planning firm, to create a master plan for the area.

Read Ms. Jean’s article from yesterday’s business section by clicking here.  I still support the Matthews Southwest plan.  You can read my thoughts on the subject here, here, and here.  And remember, you heard it here first.

In honor of Erykah Badu’s album release, I thought I would repost something I had on the site a few months back. It’s a list of my five favorite Badu songs to date.  In stores today is Ms. Badu’s latest, New Amerykah Part One (4th World War). It’s her first album in 5 years.  

It’s rare that an artist comes along and totally changes the music scene the way Erykah Badu did in the late 90’s. Though Mary J. Blige remains my favorite female artist, her contributions to the Black Music experience are not as significant as those made by Dallas’ own E. Badu.

As my college days progressed, female R&B was dominated by groups like SWV, Total, and Xscape while the aforementioned M.J.B. was just beginning to gain her footing as the queen of hip hop soul. Many of the songs when revisited today have suspect vocals and cookie cutter beats but still jam, if for no other reason than taking you back to where you were when the songs were hot.

If there was a precursor to Ms. Badu’s brand of “Neo Soul” it would have to be Zhane. The duo’s sultry vocals backed by live instruments were unique for the time, and their music still sounds good today.

Enter 1997’s Baduizm and its first single On and On. Videos were still a big deal back then, and the image of Badu on screen is still impressed upon my brain: her eyes, her hair, the ways she moved. It was apparent from the start that she was destined for stardom. What wasn’t apparent was that someone with so much soul was from (Sunny South) Dallas, Texas.

The CD was outstanding and her stellar studio work was surpassed only by her skills as a live performer. The Booker T. Washington High School alum is a trained dancer and often plays instruments during her concerts. The songs haven’t changed much in the last 5 or 6 years, but her interpretation is always fresh.

It’s amazing that someone with so much talent and such a loyal following has released so little material. She teases us with singles and collaborations here and there but no albums since 2003’s Worldwide Underground. With 10 cuts including an intro, outro, interlude, and remix (Love of My Life) it’s hard to really count that one as an album. But Badu fans have to take what we can get.

Here are my 5 favorite Erykah Badu songs to date. Feel free to let me know what you think.

5. Other Side of the Game (Baduizm)

Smooth and soulful, the song evokes memories of the great female jazz vocalists of a bygone era. As in so many of her songs, Ms. Badu does so much with so little; smooth bass line, simple drum beat, and honest lyrics. “Whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Work ain’t honest but it pays the bills.”

4. Danger (Worldwide Underground)

The track actually starts with Other Side of the Game playing in the background and serves as a bit of a companion song. While on OSTG she sounds like a young girl reasoning with her man to get out of the drug game, on Danger she’s grown into a woman who’s in it knee deep. The music is bumping and vocals are coming at you from all over the place.

3. Love of My Life (Brown Sugar Soundtrack)

One of a number of collaboration projects, Love of My Life -Erykah Badu’s Ode to Hip Hop- teams here with rapper Common. Of course the first few times that you hear the song it sounds like a garden variety relationship joint. That’s all good, but listening to the song in its true context gives it a whole different feel. And for fans of the genre, many can relate to highs and lows Common and Badu attribute to hip hop.

2. On and On (Baduizm)

On and On immediately put Erykah Badu on the map. At the time I compared her music to Arrested Development of Tennessee fame, but her lyrics were more complex. Ms. Badu’s star continues to shine while Development flamed out long ago.

“I was born under water, With 3 dollar$ & 6 dimes. Yeah, U may laugh ‘Cuz U did not do yo math.” On and On along with Baduizm in its entirety gave way to a whole new expression of Black Music.

1. Green Eyes (Mama’s Gun)

I was hooked from the moment I heard the familiar (for the older set) crackling sound of a needle placed on an old record followed by “My Eyes are green, cause I eats a lot of vegetables. It don’t have nothing to do with your new friend.” The first movement, a throwback with only a horn and piano is a playful attempt to hide the pain caused by a lover who has found comfort in someone else.

The lyrics of the second movement are a haunting introspective of insecurity with which many of us can relate. This part is backed by a simple jazz grouping of drums, bass, piano, and the trademark flute that is present throughout her career.

The songs final movement brings the horns back. The naive anxiety of the first two acts are replaced by hopeful desperation. The song conveys the downs and downs of love with barely hint of optimism. Green Eyes is an exceptional example of Badu’s musical genius.

Honorable Mentions

Bag Lady (Mama’s Gun), Tyrone (Erykah Badu Live), Apple Tree (Baduizm), Bump It (Worldwide Underground), Southern Girl

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 about. My memory was that The Anatole was the senior Mr. Crow’s favorite project, out of hundreds and hundreds that he built. Page 198 yields the following information:

The same forces that impelled Crow to create new marts, also mandated the development of a major new hotel…At the time Dallas lacked a truly distinguished modern hotel like the 1,000-room giants that helped draw conventions to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and other major hubs.

If Dallas were to be competitive it too would have to have them. The Hilton interests…were already considering a site near the Market Center, and Crow wanted to beat them to it.

Later in the chapter Trammell Crow comments on the risk of such a project. “A hotel has most of the dangerous aspects of real estate and of an operating business,” Crow reflects, “and few of the good aspects.”

What Crow saw as an opportunity 30 years ago many see with the convention center hotel today. With the added caveat of that old real estate adage, location, location, location. And there are lots more cities vying for convention business than the days when Trammell Crow helped put Dallas in the trade show rotation.

There is no doubt that the prospect of a convention center hotel in Dallas makes for a tough business decision. For some of the reasons the Harlan Crow mentions in his letter to mayor Leppert.

Unfair Park points to a January 2005 Brooking’s Institute Study by Dr. Heywood Sanders that discusses just how difficult the convention center business has become. Part of the reason driven home by Dr. Sanders is an excess of convention center space - which we have here in Dallas.

That’s where most of Dr. Sanders’ 36 pages focuses, on the convention center itself. He looks at all the cities that are adding convention spaces through renovation or new facilities. Dr. Sanders explores the trend of declining convention bookings nationwide and emerging convention giants (as mentioned by me here) Orlando and Las Vegas.

If there were five 1960’s model cars in my driveway that I used to get to work, should I not buy a new one because I already have too many?

He also talks about declining hotel bookings in cities as well. And while he gives a number of examples of cities that are struggling, I did not see factors such as airports, infrastructure, visitor satisfaction, entertainment and others used to contrast the cities. What are all the factors that made St. Louis tank so bad despite investing in a convention center and hotel?

In the analysis of hotel occupancy in Dallas, it is rarely mentioned how disjointed and dysfunctional the current inventory of rooms are. If there were five 1960’s model cars in my driveway that I used to get to work, should I not buy a new one because I already have too many?

That is one of the reasons why I support constructing the Dallas Convention Center hotel on the southern side of the building. It presents less risk. Less risk because the up front costs will be less, and because the “entertainment options” will not have to be built from scratch.

Look, in the end my opinion counts for very little and I gladly defer to the expertise of Mr. Crow and Dr. Sanders. But I know that Dallas can be great, and the city took bigger steps towards greatness under the leadership of a visionary Mayor Kirk than the pothole filling Laura Miller.

Mayor Tom Leppert has done everything thus far to make me believe he’s on the side of the citizens of Dallas. Leppert is trying to walk the line between visionary and pragmatist. Thus far I think he is doing a fine job. His leadership on the convention center hotel is on point.

It will also take visionary business leaders, like I believe Jack Matthews to be. With all due respect to Mockingbird Station and the West Village, what bigger risk has their been in the last decade than the Southside on Lamar (which is actually making money)? The city should give him a shot with the hotel.