Dallas is a city that struggles to get it together and 2007 was not different from the previous years. There have been some interesting factors in Dallas this year and they will truly be something to watch in 2008.
1. Downtown: While millions of TIF (Tax Increment Financing) dollars have been poured into downtown, there is still little life in the heart of the city (Main Street,Commerce St. and Elm Street). All you find are non-affordable apartments and townhouses being constructed and virtually no retail. There are restaurants, but as soon as the TIF money goes, they go out of business or move. It will be interesting to see how Mayor Leppert will make a difference in Retail Downtown.
2. DART: The fact that DART is 1 billion over budget on the Orange Line and nobody understands why DART is in this mess is amazing. Let's see if Mayor Leppert,Dwaine (Dwayne,Dewayne) Caraway, Tennell Adkins and Jerry Allen will make a public statement since there is the possibility of rail lines in Dallas being delayed to keep Irving quiet.
3. DISD: As I wrote a month ago, DISD is not deserving of the publics trust for a new bond program. There are too many holes in the system and they are not being plugged. Where is Mayor Leppert on this? Do you suggest that we have a new superintendent?
4. Trinity: Mayor Leppert made the public many promises on the Trinity vote and we are going to hold him accountable along with all of the council members who supported the Trinity Toll Road.
5. Southern Dallas Development: I have noticed that some people are not using southern sector as much as they have in the past and are now talking about southern Dallas development, and that is where I have an interest. I want to see southern Dallas developed so that jobs will be in the are and so that Dallas can grow its tax base.
6. Dallas Housing Authority: Mayor Leppert made it public that his intent was to do something different with Ann Lott if she could not fix the accounting problems at Dallas Housing Authority. Why? His pension for the camera showed itself during this time.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
My Dear Aunt Freda
The old saying. "You have to get it right everyday" is most prevalent in my mind today. Yesterday was as usual as it could be for Christmas, I was about the business of sharing in the joy of the birth of Jesus with my family and friends and started the day out with a friend of over 30 years who has found himself in a state of depression and can not seem to work his way out. We talked for over two hours, which delayed me from my Christmas ritual,about his current state of mind and how I wanted to assure him that I am here for him. We ended the conversation with a God bless you and keep you and I will talk with you later.
I loaded my car with the presents that I would be delivering from house to house and started on my journey of celebration. My first stop was at Aunt Freda's house where she and her daughter had prepared the meal. This was unusual because for the last few years, I have been the one who cooked for Aunt Freda. Her daughter was here visiting from Kansas City for the holidays and wanted to help her mother prepare a meal. All went very well, the meal was good and God knows there was a lot of laughter and fellowship.
It was time to open the presents, and I had purchased a pair of Christmas Pajamas for Aunt Freda. She could not wait to put them on. After she put the Pajamas on, we starting taking pictures for our memories and that was a hoot because Aunt Freda was styling and posing for the camera. Then I had to leave to continue on my journey, Aunt Freda was not happy because she wanted me to stay longer. I hugged and kissed her and went on my way.
This morning around 10:00 a.m. Aunt Freda's daughter called to tell me that the paramedics were there and could not revive Aunt Freda and they were headed to Methodist Hospital. I left in a flash to meet them , and when I got there the family was in a room and she could not be revived. She is now at peace.
"YOU HAVE TO GET IT RIGHT EVERYDAY!"
I loaded my car with the presents that I would be delivering from house to house and started on my journey of celebration. My first stop was at Aunt Freda's house where she and her daughter had prepared the meal. This was unusual because for the last few years, I have been the one who cooked for Aunt Freda. Her daughter was here visiting from Kansas City for the holidays and wanted to help her mother prepare a meal. All went very well, the meal was good and God knows there was a lot of laughter and fellowship.
It was time to open the presents, and I had purchased a pair of Christmas Pajamas for Aunt Freda. She could not wait to put them on. After she put the Pajamas on, we starting taking pictures for our memories and that was a hoot because Aunt Freda was styling and posing for the camera. Then I had to leave to continue on my journey, Aunt Freda was not happy because she wanted me to stay longer. I hugged and kissed her and went on my way.
This morning around 10:00 a.m. Aunt Freda's daughter called to tell me that the paramedics were there and could not revive Aunt Freda and they were headed to Methodist Hospital. I left in a flash to meet them , and when I got there the family was in a room and she could not be revived. She is now at peace.
"YOU HAVE TO GET IT RIGHT EVERYDAY!"
Friday, December 21, 2007
Black Santa Claus wishes you a MERRY CHRISTMAS
I would like to wish everyone a MERRY CHRISTMAN and a HAPPY NEW YEAR
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH
The Montgomery Bus Boycott worked because Blacks were unified, organized and they kept their hard earned wages in the black community. It worked because the whites took a hard hit when blacks took their dollars away from them. It worked then and it can work today. Just like back then, you had a few scary, uncle Tom Negroes, who tried to discouraged it, but, the overwhelming majority of brave, strong, God-fearing, intelligent Blacks, said, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!” When will the divided, scary Negroes of today declare the same thing? As you can see, every generation has their token Negro that the whites use to discourage progress. It did not work then, and we should not allow a few Uncle Toms who are trying to line their own pockets in the name of the Black community (Southern Dallas)to deter us from doing what is right. We should stand up and move aside brainwashed, ignorant Negroes like them,and keep on pushing forward for the ultimate goal of helping our people and getting respect BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY!!!!!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Mayor Tom Leppert's Begging Ban
My business has been located in downtown Dallas since 1981 and I personally know some of the homeless people who have been on and off the streets for years. As most people know, there are many different reasons that people are homeless. Some of the reasons can be drug addiction, alcoholics, working poor, mental illness and recently moved to town. All of the people that are homeless do not panhandle.
While I do not believe in being an enabler for bad behavior,I will continue to do what I have been doing over the past 25 years to help where I want to help. I want to directly help the people that I choose to help by buying them meals, bottle water, soda and personal hygiene items. I have no interest in giving an organization money to go to administrative staff and other operational cost. No one, that includes Mayor Leppert, can tell me that I can not spend my money on who I want to spend it on. This is America.
While I do not believe in being an enabler for bad behavior,I will continue to do what I have been doing over the past 25 years to help where I want to help. I want to directly help the people that I choose to help by buying them meals, bottle water, soda and personal hygiene items. I have no interest in giving an organization money to go to administrative staff and other operational cost. No one, that includes Mayor Leppert, can tell me that I can not spend my money on who I want to spend it on. This is America.
Mayor Leppert/DART 900 Million Dollar Fiasco
Mayor Leppert is a person who seems to be out looking for the camera for any photo opportunity that he can find and it strikes me as curious that we have not heard a word from him on the DART situation. He was all over the camera's making sure that Ann Lott, President of DHA, understood his position about management of the public's money, and if she did not get her act together, she would be history. DHA, after being audited, was found to have not adequately accounted for about 3.5 million dollars.
We now have a situation where DART is trying to figure out how the current buildout schedule can be meet with the cost that have been allocated to projects. DART has declared that the agency will not have all of the funds that will be needed to stay on current schedule with the Orange Line (Irving) and the extension to Rowlett. DART says that the projections for construction has gone up and that is why the 900 million dollar shortage is shown. Remember the Orange Line is only 20% designed and therefore you can not have a true cost.
I say baloney. If you really want to see where the problem started, look at the contracts that were let in the last 2 years in Project Management. Consider the fact that one contractor has over 1 billion dollars in contacts for construction with little competition. Consider that the chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee was Councilman Jerry Allen and there were numerous changes to the financial plan under his leadership and those adjustment affect the the 20 year financial plan. The 20 year Financial Plan was not sent out to the member cities this year with the Budget as has been done in previous years. There are many 3rd tier relationships that are not being bid by DART. A million hear and a million there, and you soon will have some real money in question.
The public has not heard a peep out of Mayor Leppert, Dwaine(Dwayne,Dewayne) Caraway or Tennell Adkins about this matter which could ultimately affect downtown Dallas,West Dallas,The Cotton Belt, and all of the southern sector extensions that were worked on to ensure that DART did not only relegate Buses to our neighborhoods (Southern Dallas). Mayor Leppert, Dwaine(Dwayne,Dewayne)Caraway and Tennell Adkins seem to be calling the shots with the Dallas appointees on the DART board and I would expect them to be the first on the Dallas City Council to ensure that Dallas will get all that has been promised to Dallas in the same timeframe that was projected by DART. Dallas pays in 55% of all the sales tax revenue to DART and that means if you put the other 12 member cities sales tax revenue together, they do not equal what Dallas is paying to DART. Where are the mayors Negroes on this issue? I can't hear you!!!!!!
We now have a situation where DART is trying to figure out how the current buildout schedule can be meet with the cost that have been allocated to projects. DART has declared that the agency will not have all of the funds that will be needed to stay on current schedule with the Orange Line (Irving) and the extension to Rowlett. DART says that the projections for construction has gone up and that is why the 900 million dollar shortage is shown. Remember the Orange Line is only 20% designed and therefore you can not have a true cost.
I say baloney. If you really want to see where the problem started, look at the contracts that were let in the last 2 years in Project Management. Consider the fact that one contractor has over 1 billion dollars in contacts for construction with little competition. Consider that the chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee was Councilman Jerry Allen and there were numerous changes to the financial plan under his leadership and those adjustment affect the the 20 year financial plan. The 20 year Financial Plan was not sent out to the member cities this year with the Budget as has been done in previous years. There are many 3rd tier relationships that are not being bid by DART. A million hear and a million there, and you soon will have some real money in question.
The public has not heard a peep out of Mayor Leppert, Dwaine(Dwayne,Dewayne) Caraway or Tennell Adkins about this matter which could ultimately affect downtown Dallas,West Dallas,The Cotton Belt, and all of the southern sector extensions that were worked on to ensure that DART did not only relegate Buses to our neighborhoods (Southern Dallas). Mayor Leppert, Dwaine(Dwayne,Dewayne)Caraway and Tennell Adkins seem to be calling the shots with the Dallas appointees on the DART board and I would expect them to be the first on the Dallas City Council to ensure that Dallas will get all that has been promised to Dallas in the same timeframe that was projected by DART. Dallas pays in 55% of all the sales tax revenue to DART and that means if you put the other 12 member cities sales tax revenue together, they do not equal what Dallas is paying to DART. Where are the mayors Negroes on this issue? I can't hear you!!!!!!
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