On Thursday January 31, State Senator Royce West will host the Grand Opening of his 2nd District Office.  The Deep Ellum office is located at 2612 Main Street in Dallas. The public is invited to come out an meet Sen. West and his staff, share in food and fun, as well as discuss ideas and concerns regarding the district.  The grand opening is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m.  For more information call 214-741-0123.

I finally have an accurate tenant list for Wheatland Town Crossing that's going up just north of I-20 in Southern Dallas.  Here are the current tenants scheduled to open in the shopping center.                               In addition to these businesses, there are 12 retail sites still available for more tenants.  This is positive news in the way of economic development for Southern Dallas.  Target is scheduled to open this March.

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. In my mind, I've always thought the same thing. But over the weeks that have passed since I wrote a Dallas Morning News article on this subject, another potential site has emerged. Imagine if you will a hotel erected on the southern side of the convention center. For the sake of this post, use Eddie Deen's Ranch as a reference point. In the Viewpoints column that I wrote for The News, 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 anywhere to shop? How long does it take to get to the hottest night spot? ...consider (San Diego's) Gaslamp Quarter, within ...

Due to the fact that Dallas Cowboys news will dominate everything else on Monday, I'm going to hold off on my convention center hotel post until Tuesday.

Since my Dallas Morning News Viewpoints article advocating a convention center hotel, I've had the chance to examine the issue a little closer.  On Monday, I will launch a campaign regarding the proposed hotel that is consistent with the mission of this site.   Please check back Monday morning (or Sunday night) for the news.

All accounts say that grocery chain Aldi is locating a store in Dallas - Oak Cliff to be exact.  The new store is said to be part of a shopping center that is coming up off I-20 near Wheatland and Hampton.  The retail center is anchored by a Target store that is expected to open in March. Whenever I talk to people about this, the first thing they say is "what is Aldi?"  I never have a good answer, so I went to the company website and here's what I found. (From the Aldi Website)  ALDI entered the U.S. market in 1976, with a handful of stores in southeastern Iowa. Now, more than 850 U.S. ALDI stores are spreading the savings from Kansas to the East Coast. In its 2007 report, Supermarket News ranked ALDI 24th in U.S. grocery chains in terms of gross sales—a considerable accomplishment given our limited assortment and low prices. We concentrate purchasing power, carrying only 1,300 or so of your most frequently purchased grocery and household items, nearly all under our own private labels. As a result, we get the lowest prices from our suppliers—and pass the savings on to ...

Here's an Op/Ed piece that I wrote which ran in the Dallas Morning News on Monday.  Since then I have heard from a number of people, mostly telling me why they feel the hotel hasn't been built.  Momentum seems to be building from all sorts of places, but there also seems to be some of the power players who don't want to see this thing built.  I'll keep you posted. The only thing to debate about a proposed convention center hotel is why it has taken so long for the city to formulate a plan. A hotel built near the Dallas Convention Center is essential in helping Dallas gain ground on other cities when vying for convention business. Some have argued against the proposed hotel, citing the high number of unoccupied rooms that often exist in or around downtown Dallas. While it's true that the "vacant" sign is out at many of our city's hotels, too often this is because the buildings are outdated, poorly located or no longer meet the needs of today's hotel patrons. New hotels are sprouting up all over the place. Spots like the W, Hotel Palomar, The Belmont and Hotel ZaZa have ...

FYI from Mike Davis On Monday, there will be a press conference with Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway, District 4 City Plan Commissioner Michael Davis, the owners of Big T, and other high-ranking city officials. As you know, inside the Bazaar there was a violent shooting last month which resulted in the death of Mr. Jonathon Hopkins. Since then, Mr. Caraway and others have worked to reduce the chance of such crimes taking place at this shopping center.  The focus will be safety at the Big T Bazaar, and steps taken since the murder. Time:  Monday 12/17 at 9AM Location: Big T Bazaar; 4515 Village Fair (just west of NWC I-35 & Ledbetter), front entrance.

A few weeks ago, Henry Louis Gates authored a column that ran on Opinion Pages -including the New York Times and Dallas Morning News- and websites across the country.  In the column Gates responds to recent survey published by the Pew Research Center.  Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a professor at Harvard University and author of the forthcoming book "In Search of Our Roots." Here are some of the key findings from the Pew report.        ...fewer than half of all blacks (44%) say they think life for blacks will get better in the future, down from the 57% who said so in a 1986 survey... a majority of whites (56%) say life for blacks in this country will get better in the future. Asked whether blacks can still be thought of as a single race, given the increasing diversity within the black community, 53% of blacks say they can, but 37% of blacks say they cannot. "By a ratio of 2 to 1," the report says, "blacks say that the values of poor and middle-class blacks have grown more dissimilar over the past ...

Thursday's editorial section of the Dallas Morning News contained a Viewpoints column by the paper's Deputy Editorial Page Editor Sharon Grigsby.  Sharon is  leading the Editorial Department's "Closing Dallas' north-south gap" project. As mentioned in her column, we had lunch one afternoon (at Brooklyn) to discuss Southern Dallas.  Sharon listened to my thoughts on how I felt Dallas could provide better services and equal investment to those of us in the south. You will find Sharon's article by clicking here.  I'm not the only person she has spoken with in her quest to learn how stakeholders feel about the city, her employer, and other hot topics.  Michael Davis of Dallas Progress, Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III from Friendship-West Baptist Church, DART chair Lynn Flint Shaw, and many others were part of the project team's listening tour. Sharon's column lists three things that her team feels Southern Dallas needs in order to succeed: Over investment – in development dollars, infrastructure, code compliance and extra care – to make up for decades of neglect. Political accountability, particularly from our new City Council. A reprogramming campaign ...