Back Talk Far North Dallas

Convention center petition drive led by courteous, knowledgeable carpetbaggers

How's the petition drive to bring the convention center hotel to a vote going? Well, I was filling up at a 7-Eleven Sunday when I was approached by someone holding a petition supporting the proposed referendum on the hotel. While signing, I noticed I was number 18 on the page of 20 possible signatures, and the guy soliciting the names picked up two more signatures on different petition sheets just while I was filling up and signing.

I asked the guy if he was a volunteer or being paid; he politely said he was being paid. I asked if there were a lot of people like him in Dallas right now: "Oh, man," he said. "A lot." He then threw out a few details about the hotel project, and everything he said was correct and delivered in a courteous, non-pushy manner. In fact, he approached one woman with a petition, she told him "no thanks", and he told her "thanks" and just kept moving. The guy told me this is what he does professionally, going from city to city soliciting signatures for various referendums: "We were just in Reno, Nevada, getting signatures for a school issue," he said.

It's too bad politics in Dallas has come to this: We can't depend on the people we elect to let us have a say in the big, expensive projects of the day. Instead, we have to depend on someone with a bunch of money to hire people from out of town to give voters a chance to have our say.

Texas House District Candidate Forum this week

The League of Women Voters of Richardson and Dallas are teaming up to host a public forum for the candidates of Texas House District 112. The public event is happening Wednesday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 inside the RISD Auditorium. Democrat candidate Sandra Phuong VuLe, Republican candidate Angie Chen Button and Libertarian candidate Philip M. White will all be there.
If you have any specific questions you would like the candidates to address, you can email them now to voterservice@lwrichardson.org.

Coupon Mommy: Free plays

Coupon Mommy here. My job is to let you know what the deal is. Here's a great one -- live theater for free. Quick, call the babysitter!

The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs is offering the first ever Free Night of Theater, to be held from Thursday, October 16 through November 10, 2008. Presented in conjunction with Theatre Communications Group (TCG), Free Night of Theater is offering over 3,000 free tickets to more than 26 Dallas-area theaters. Dallas is one of 120 communities across the country participating in the event.

How can you get FREE tickets? Reserve your tickets through their website, beginning Wednesday, October 1, 2008 at noon. Tickets can only be reserved online and reservations are handled on a first-come, first-served basis. Each participating theater will set a reservation ticket limit for their productions. Once tickets have been reserved through the website, patrons will be able to pick up their tickets at the will-call window of the individual theater's box office on the night of the show.

Participating Local Theaters: African American Repertory Theater, Charles W. Eisemann Center, The Company of Rowlett Performers (C.O.R.P.), Contemporary Theatre of Dallas, Dallas Children's Theater, Dallas Hub Theater, Dallas Theater Center, Echo Theatre, Garland Civic Theatre, ICT MainStage, Jubilee Theatre, Lyric Stage, MBS Productions, One Thirty Productions, Pocket Sandwich Theatre, Repertory Company Theatre, Shakespeare Dallas, Teatro Dallas, TeCo Theatrical Productions, The Black Academy of Arts and Letters, The MET Theatre, Theatre Britain, Theatre Three, Uptown Players, WaterTower Theatre, WingSpan Theatre Company.

LBJ Freeway construction meeting tonight

OK, sorry for the late notice, but I just got word of this: Tonight at 7:30 the Northwest Dallas Improvement League is hosting a public meeting about the new LBJ Freeway construction. The meeting will be at the Royal Haven Baptist Church, just behind the shopping center at Royal Lane and Webbs Chapel. TxDot Deputy Director Bob Brown and project engineer John Hudspeth will be there to talk about construction details, and how they'll affect neighbors. Spread the word, everyone's welcome.

Arapaho United Methodist Church pumpkin patch

It's going to be near 90 today,  but yes, it is technically fall in Dallas. I saw proof of that in our neighborhood this weekend. The annual pumpkin patch at Arapaho United Methodist Church is officially open for business.
Most neighbors know this as "the pumpkin church" because they've got a long-standing tradition of running the patch off Arapaho and Coit. What a lot of neighbors probably don't know, however, is that these pumpkins actually come from a Navajo farm in New Mexico. The farm produces 1,600 acres of pumpkins every year, which pumps about $2 million back into the Navajo community. The church buys pumpkins from the Navajo farm every year as part of its mission outreach.
If you'd like to pick up your pumpkin, you can swing by now through Friday, Oct. 31, between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m.

W.T. White Drug Awareness Forum

If you're a neighborhood parent with college-bound kids, you might want to consider attending a free forum this week at W.T. White High School. This Tuesday, Oct. 2, there will be a University & Drug Awareness Forum for parents at 4:30 p.m. If you're interested, plan on being there--and for more information, just call 972.502.6200.

Convention center hotel update: Even the 'Dallas Morning News' has its doubts

A negative word from an unexpected source: The Dallas Morning News editorialized that maybe having a referendum on the taxpayer-owned convention center hotel is a good idea, after all. Here's part of what was written: "The question is not whether the city needs a convention center hotel. It does. But many taxpayers rightly wonder if they're writing a blank check. The council's abrupt shift in plans from a public-private venture to a city-owned project came behind closed doors. City leaders scheduled a vote in record time, barely pausing to explain the details of the deal. Now several council members seem to be rolling their eyes and saying: Do we need to have a referendum on everything? Well, no. But when hundreds of millions of public dollars are in play, it's not a bad idea."

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers opening corporate office in North Dallas

If you want those good-and-think crispy chicken tenders with a side of the crinkle-cut fries and Texas toast, everyone knows you go to Raising Cane's off Coit and Campbell. Sorry, KFC.
Right now, we're pretty much the only neighbors in Dallas who even know about Raising Cane's. That's because the only other location in North Texas is way out in Lewisville.
All that's about to change, however. There will be 25 new Dallas locations within the next 5 years. To oversee all that growth, the Louisiana-based chain is opening a corporate office here in January. It'll most likely be in our neck of the woods off the Dallas North Tollway. About 50 corporate staffers will also be leaving headquarters in Louisiana to work here at the Dallas office, so looks like we'll have some new neighbors in the not-too-distant future.

Convention center hotel: Why there may not be any money for it, regardless of what happens

The Financial Times is reporting this morning that “financing for US states, cities and other municipalities has ground to a halt and borrowing costs have risen as the latest chapter of the credit crunch unfolds.” In other words, cities and school districts that need to sell bonds to raise money for schools, bridges and convention center hotels can’t do it.

The FT (as those of us who are savvy international investors call the paper) says “In the last two weeks, roughly $10bn in new municipal issuance has been shelved, including two issues from the state of New York.” In addition, interest rates for the highest quality municipal bonds were 5.24 percent on Wednesday, the highest in six years and up from 4.85 percent on Sept. 12.

The city plans to sell $550 million worth of debt from something called an LGC (a separate corporation established by the city). The LGC would issue tax-exempt bonds, and the bonds would be repaid from hotel revenue.

What does all this mean in English? It means it will be increasingly difficult to sell the bonds to finance the hotel, and that the interest rate that the city will pay will be much higher than anticipated. This means the hotel will have to be more profitable than first budgeted to pay the debt.

I don’t know that the argument has ever been whether we need the hotel or not. Wamre, who has been our point man on the hotel, has taken a lot of guff from visitors who think he is inalterably opposed to it. He isn’t. He just thinks there’s a better way, using the private sector. And the news from the financial markets seems to bear him out.

Technorati Tags: Dallas convention center hotel,municipal bonds,hotel financing

Afghan Grill closed for now

About a month ago on this blog, I told you about Afghan Grill--a great little place in our neighborhood. I tried going back recently and was sad to find it closed down. I tired following up with a phone call and was actually able to talk to the owner. She told me  the restaurant is just closed temporarily, she hopes. The rent was too high so they've shut down for now. They'd like to reopen in a new space about a mile down Preston Road. They'd like to be back in business in about a month. I'll keep you posted.