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This is where you will find city related news. News is published with the latest first, so please scroll down to see older items. Propositions 1 & 2 lose, Big win for City to continue with Convention Center Hotel project and development projects across the city (05-09) Prop 1: We can now get back to the work of building the Omni Convention Center Hotel. This new asset for the city will be paid for with dollars spent by out of towners (not Dallas taxpayers) and will mean that Dallas can regain its' position in the top tier of convention cities. But what it really means is that additional sales tax dollars will flow into Dallas to help support and grow our economy. And those are sales tax dollars that won't have to come from our citizens. Those are additional dollars that we can spend on police, fire, libraries and parks to continue to make Dallas a great city to live in. It helps broaden out economy and positions us better to face the future. There will be 3000 new construction jobs and 800 continuing jobs created by this project, and those jobs equate to a growing economy for Dallas. This was not about a hotel, it was and is about our economy, jobs and the future of Dallas. Prop 2: Dallas can now continue on it's path to growing our economy and especially our commerical tax base. By growing the commercial sector and our economy as a whole we lessen the burden on the residential taxpay. We can continue to attract new businesses like AT&T, Comerica Bank and Nestle Waters. Dallas won't be forced into succumbing to government by public referendum like California. This would have dealt us a terrible blow economically. We will retain the flexibility to attract the businesses that we want and need in our city and do it in a fiscally responsible manner. I want to personally thank those that supported Dallas by voting NO and look forward to grand opening of the Omni Convention Center Hotel and many new commercial developments in Dallas. Propositions 1 and 2 (01-09) The election on May 9th includes two propositons to change the City Charter. Proposition 1 is commonly referred to as the Convention Center Hotel issue. Proposition 2 is what I would refer to as the stop development issue. As these are elections to change the City Charter you are being asked to vote either Yes or No. No means keep the City Charter the way it is. Yes would mean change the City Charter. I am not supporting either of these propositions so I am voting No. By voting No I am voting to keep the City Charter as it is and in support of the Convention Center Hotel and to keep development growning in Dallas. Please don't be confused and think that voting Yes means you are in support of the hotel and future development. Below I've updated information listing the real facts in these issues. There is a long list of those who are urging you to vote NO and support the future of Dallas: Every Chamber of Commerce, 27 hotels, 11 City Councilmembers, a long list of civic and community leaders along with thousands of individuals. For a current list of supporters. If you have any questions I'd be glad to answer them for you. This is not about a hotel, it's about jobs, the Dallas economy and the future of Dallas. The truth about the Convention Center Hotel (01-09) By now you've probably heard that Dallas is moving ahead with a Convention Center Hotel. You may have also heard that a group financed by Hilton Anatole owner Harlan Crow is leading an effort to derail this important project. He has started a campaign by paying $250,000 to gather 20,000 signatures to force an election to change the Dallas City Charter to prevent the building of the Convention Center Hotel. I and almost all of my collegues on the Council believe that we need the Convention Center Hotel and that this is a misguided effort by Mr. Crow and his group. In fact the Council vote was 11-2 to build the hotel. To put it simply, Mr. Crow does not want competition. Interestingly all major Dallas downtown hotels are in favor of the Convention Center Hotel project. They know that by bringing more visitors to Dallas they will gain more business. Your mailbox and TV set have been inundated with materials by the opposition with two very false messages. They say the hotel will be paid for by taxpayers and that it will impact the city services like police, fire and streets. This is not true. The hotel will be paid for with revenue bonds that will be paid back by those staying at the hotel. Out of towners will pay for the hotel, not taxpayers. The added spending by these out of towners will actually bring more sales tax revenue to Dallas giving us additional money to be spent on police, fire and streets. The opposition simply wants to kill the opportunity that Dallas has by bringing additional convention business to Dallas. They are simply trying to protect the Hilton Anatole. Harlan Crow has already spent almost $5 million of his own money to finance the oppostion, you have to ask yourself why? Here are 10 facts: 1. The City is only building the hotel building itself and is contracted with Omni Hotels to actually operate the hotel. 2. Taxpayer money is NOT being used to build the hotel. Revenue Bonds will be used to finance the project and will be paid back with the revenues generated by the hotel. This means that those that stay at the hotel will be the ones paying for it. Or another way of putting it is that out of towners will stay at the hotel and pay for it. 3. The City actually owns many other similar assets. It owns through DFW Airport the 2 hotels at DFW that are very profitable and were built with similar financing. 4. The City has a balanced budget this year: no cuts in services, increases in many areas and NO tax increase. Additionally we did not have to raise the tax rate connected to the Bond program by efficiently operating the City. 5. Revenue Bonds can not be used to pay for anything other than the facility to which they are offered for. They can not be used to pay for more police or to repair streets. The reality is that the out of towners will spend money and bring additional sales tax dollars that will enable us to spend more on police, fire and streets at no addional cost to Dallas taxpayers. 6. The financing plan includes a $50 million reserve fund to cover uncertainties. 7. Dallas needs the Convention Center Hotel to achieve the convention business that will return it to a top spot nationally. Booking have already doubled with only the announcement of the Convention Center Hotel. We were #3 and we are now #9, we can get back to #3 again. 8. The process to develop the hotel was done openly and in the public eye. There were dozens of public meetings. All of the information is available on the City website. 9. The original price was not $100 million as stated in opposition literature. This was the projected amount of subsidy that would be required to incentivize a private developer to build the hotel. This would be money that would not be paid back to Dallas. The taxpayers would have paid this $100 million and never received it back. That is why we did not choose this method. The plan that we're using has no subsidies and those staying in the hotel will pay for it, not the taxpayers. 10. There are many safeguards in the process: $50 million reserve fund, profits would be placed in another reserve fund bolstering the reserves, those buying the Revenue Bonds will only buy them if they believe that they are a good investment, many financial advisors have reviewed the operating and financial proformas and said the hotel will work, operating proformas for the hotel are based on an occupancy rate of 68% and would have to fall 10% lower before an operating loss would occur, the hotel developer and operator will have a financial investment in the project and would not be part of the project if they did not believe it was a good investment. Proposition 2 is aimed at telling developers to avoid Dallas. If this charter change passes it would only take 500 signatures to force an election to approve any development project that included retail, luxury condos or a hotel anywhere in the city if there was any city help on the project. No developer is going to work with City staff and then get City Council approval and then wait to have an election to get their project approved. They will just go to the suburbs like Arlington, Plano, Richardson or Irving before they put up with this type of foolishness. We might as well just shut down our economic development department. This will stop any efforts to grow our commercial tax base and will result in a higher burden being placed on the individual homeowner. We have been working to exactly the opposite, we want to reduce the burden on the homeowner and get more tax dollars from the commercial sector. This propostion was put forward by a disgruntled New York union and we do not need it in Dallas, Texas. I would urge you to vote NO to this proposition. For more information on propositions 1 and 2 please go to www.votenodallas.com Please vote NO on both propositions #1 and #2 to keep Dallas moving forward. The new Trinity River Audubon Center opened October 18-19, 2008 The hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. during the grand opening weekend. This is the first signature development opening along the Trinity River Corridor, and it will be the flagship location for Audubon Texas. The center is located eight miles from downtown Dallas on South Loop 12 Freeway. Admission is free during the opening days.
Vote No, Save the Trinity wins referendum. This means that the Trinity Project and the Balanced Vision Plan can move ahead. On a city-wide basis the vote was 53%-47%, defeating the referendum and letting the plan move forward as plannd. In District 12 the vote was 62% to 38% showing an especially strong support for moving the project ahead. The Council is committed to building the world's greatest uban park and meeting the goals of the Balanced Vision Plan. You'll soon see more exciting things happening now that we can move ahead at full speed. Trinity Referendum Vote on November 6th This is probably the most important vote that will take place in DAllas' history. On it hinges whether the Trinity Project moves ahead or not. The Balanced Vision Plan for the Trinity Project combines flood control, transportation and parks into what will probably be the largest economic engine for the City. At over 10,000 acres the Trinity project will be the largest urban park in the world. You must VOTE NO to make the Trinity Project become a reality. If you don't VOTE NO then the project will come to a halt. We simply can not afford to let the Trinity Project be stopped. You've heard the sound bites: Who would want a tollroad down the middle of a park? The answer is nobody, but that is not what is proposed. The truth is that the tollroad will be built near the top of the downtown side levee on what engineers call a shoulder. The tollroad will NOT be running down the middle of the park. In fact the levees are not even useable as park space. The tollroad will be about 20 feet above and to the side of the park. Since road is protected by a landscaped flood wall the road will actually not even be visible from the park. Another sound bite you've heard is that the tollroad will take up a large percentage of the park. The truth is that the park is about 10,000 acres and the road will take up about 160 acres, that's about 1.5%. To give some perspective, the width of the park at the narrowest part is about 6 football fields. The road is about 40 yards. And this is at the narrowest part. Six football fields is 1800 feet and 40 yards is 120 feet. The next sound bite is that nobody told the citizens it would be a tollroad. The truth is that it was clearly identified as a tollroad. As an example an article in the Dallas Morning News in March of 1998 stated in coverage of the 1998 Bond Program Campaign “$246 million – Trinity River Project, which would build levees, lakes, parks and toll roads…”. Even the ads that the opponents ran in the Dallas Morning News in April 1998 said "...proposed 8 lane tollroad inside the levee...". You will also hear about the cost of the tollroad being over $1 Billion. The truth is that it will cost $1.3 Billion, but only $84 Million (as per the 1998 Bond program) will be paid for by the citizens of Dallas. And what's great is that NTTA will return the $84 Million at the end of the project. The road will be paid for by those that drive on it and not with citizen's tax money. That sounds like a $1.3 Billion road for FREE. Another sound bite is that the tollroad will cause more pollution. The truth is that the Trinity Parkway will leave us with cleaner air. To start, vehicles idling in traffic congestion contribute the most to our bad air. The Trinity Parkway is designed as a reliever route for 100,000 cars and as such will help us have cleaner air. If we do not build the Trinity Parkway we will have more than 84 additional tons of nitrogen oxide and volatile organic emissions every year. That will be a 10% increase. We need cleaner air, not dirtier air as the naye sayers would have. Those that want to kill the project say that we can rebuild the Canyon/Mixmaster even if the Trinity Parkway is not built. The truth is that if the Trinity Parkway is not built, TxDot will NOT construct the Canyon/Mixmaster project. To quote a TxDot letter "...capacity improvemnts depend on constructing the Trinity Parkway....improvements to the Canyon/Mixmaster do not warrant the expenditure of State or Federal transportation dollars without the Trinity Parkway." The opponents to the Trinity Tollroad say there must be another solution but can't say what it is. They want us to just delay the project while they think about it. The only identifiable alternatives are along Industrial Blvd, one elevated and one at grade. The elevated version will cost $2 Billion and the at grade will cost $1.6 Billion. NTTA has said that both are financially not viable solutions so they would have to be paid for with Dallas taxpayer money. And if we don't VOTE NO and keep the project moving forward the delay will cost $10 Million per month or $120 Million per year. We have a solution that combines flood control, transportation, clean air and recreation into one package. It's called the Balanced Vision Plan and we can not risk killing it by votng for this referendum. The only way to keep the project intact is to VOTE NO! The ballot language is confusing. Those supporting the Trinity Balanced Vision Plan would much prefer to be asking you to vote yes. Instead we're asking you to VOTE NO. The confusing language came from those that want to kill the project. The language on the petitions contained an ordinance that was written as a prohibition and as such required the language you'll see. To save the Trinity Project you must vote NO. If you vote yes you will kill the project and subject Dallas to years of future traffic congestion and higher taxes. Those supporting the VOTE NO Save the Trinity campaign include 14 of the 15 City Councilmembers, Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, US Representatives Eddie Bernice Johnson and Pete Sessions, current Mayor Tom Leppert and previous Mayors Laura Miller and Ron Kirk, Texas State Senators John Carona and Royce West and many more. Every Chamber of Commerce and a long list of civic groups and organizations also support the VOTE NO effort. There are people that have never been on the same side of an issue all banding together because they know it's the right thing to do for Dallas' future. For a complete list of those supporting the VOTE NO Save the Trinity campaign please go to www.votenosavethetrinity.com/endorsements.htm To view a simulation video of the Trinity Project, please go to www.ntta.org/AboutUs/Projects/TrinityParkway.htm For more information, please go to www.votenosavethetrinity.com Early voting starts on Oct. 22nd and election day is Nov. 6th. For complete election information, locations and times please go to www.ci.dallas.tx.us/cso/elections.shtml City celebrates grand opening of new, state-of the-art Animal Shelter City officials and Dallas Animal Services staff will mark the occasion with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m.,followed by a day of celebration, featuring animal adoptions and family-friendly activities. Kids will enjoy games, crafts, coloring, face-painting and much more. Grownups will get to talk with local experts, including a top dog trainer, a cat behaviorist, and even an American Red Cross officer with first-aid advice for pet owners. All events are free and open to the public. Dallas Animal Services is consolidating all its shelter and field operations at the new facility, including animal adoptions, impoundments, redemptions, registrations and rescue functions. The new facility replaces both the Oak Cliff shelter, located adjacent to the Dallas Zoo; and the Forney Road shelter, located at 8414 Forney Rd. The new building has a total capacity of almost 800 cats and dogs, including the adoption area and all holding areas; compared with a combined capacity of about 400 provided by the two shelters it replaces. The increased adoption capacity is a reflection of the City’s goal to improve Dallas’s adoption rate, which has hovered at about 3 per cent for Additionally, 12 “get acquainted” rooms will allow families to interact with prospective pets in a relaxed, “visitor-friendly atmosphere. “We believe we’ll see a lot more adoptions, especially now that we have the separate entrances,” said Willie “Mac” McDaniel, Animal Services Division manager. “Visitors to our shelter will have a positive experience, and that will encourage more visitors.” Fittingly, a portion of the adoption area will be named for Ivor O’Connor Morgan, the benefactor who funded the Ivor O’Connor Morgan Trust. It was the commitment of Dan Kelly, the bank official who administers the trust, to provide $1 million for the dog-adoption area that helped persuade City Council members to include the animal shelter in the 2003 bond program. 2007-2008 Budget Passes: The budget passed with even better results than expected. When the 2006 Bond program was marketed this last November voters were told that it would cause a 4.55 cent tax increase due to debt service on the bonds. The voters agreed that they wanted to move Dallas forward and overwhelmingly passed the Bond package. Earlier this year the City Manager proposed a budget that reduced that increase to 2.19 cents. During budget negotiations the Council further reduced the increase to 1.92 cents. We did not stop there, we continued to scour the budget and when it finally came to a vote we managed to reduce the rate increase to only 1.87 cents. While nobody likes a tax increase the only reason for the increase was the debt service on the bond program. We managed to be more efficient and effective in running the city and did not reduce the level of services. Now that this budget is put to bed we will begin working on next year's budget. Our goal is to be as efficient and effective as we can while providing the best customer service to the citizens. If you have any thoughts or ideas regarding how we can improve please let me know. 2007-08 Budget process begins: The City Manager will present her recommended budget in mid-August. I have already scheduled 3 town hall meetings to present the budget and gather citizen input. City staff will present the budget and be available to answer questions. The detailed budget will be available on the City's website at www.dallascityhall.com. The meetings start at 7pm and will be over by 9. You can choose from any of the following locations: Tuesday August 14, Fretz Park Rec Center, Hillcrest and Belt Line, this is a joint meeting with District 11 and 12 Tuesday August 28, Campell Green Rec Center, Campbell and Parkhill Tuesday Sept 4, Timberglen Rec Center, Timberglen and Midway New sign ordinance: The many signs illegally posted on telephone poles and in the public right of way in our city keep us from having the clean city we want. I began talking to the City Attorney earlier this year to figure out a way to put more teeth in the existing ordinance. It took some creative thinking and work, but finally on Nov. 8, 2006 we finally passed the amendments to put the teeth in the ordinance so that we can make this a cleaner city. The new law makes it prima facia evidence that the person posting the sign is the one connected with the phone number and/or name on the sign. This will make it much simpler to prosecute those that posted the signs when code enforcement issues citations for this type of sign. This new tool will help us make Dallas a cleaner and nicer looking city. So if you see a sign illegally posted, please call 311 and report it. 2006 Bond Election: The City Council has set the 2006 Bond election for Nov. 7th. The total value of all of the 12 bond propositions is $1.35 Billion. Here is a listing of the 12 propositions with a general description and the dollar value: 1 Street and Transportation - $390,420,000 Passed - 87.44% in favor 2 Flood Protection and Drainage Facilities - $334,315,000 Passed - 82.62% in favor 3 Park and Recreation Facilities - $343,230,000 Passed - 80.83% in favor 4 Library Facilities - $46,200,000 Passed - 82.02% in favor 5 Cultural Arts Facilites - $60,855,000 Passed - 69.35% in favor 6 City Hall & City Service Facilities - $34,750,000 Passed - 67.71% in favor 7 Economic Development & Housing - $1,500,000 Passed- 70.02% in favor 8 Economic Development in Southern Dallas - $41,495,000 Passed 72.41% in favor 9 Farmers Market - $6,635,000 Passed 70.09% in favor 10 Land Acquisition in Cadillac Heights - $22,550,000 Passed 57.39% in favor 11 Court Facilities - $7,945,000 Passed 63.04% in favor 12 Public Safety Facilities - $63,625,000 Passed 87.44% in favor A complete listing of the items can be found on the City website at http://www.dallascityhall.com/html/2006_bond_program.html. You will be able to view and print various types of reports by Council District, project type and more. There is also a complete listing of the needs inventory for the entire City. You can even view a graphical map of the City and zoom in on a particular project. The bond proposals meet the basic needs of city infrastructure, parks, public safety, streets and transportation, flood and drainage, cultural, libraries and more. If you need any information regarding the 2006 Bond Election, please send me an e-mail or call my office. The Dallas Bond Election propositions will be the last thing on the ballot and you wouldn't want to miss these important items, so first please go to the end of the ballot and vote on the 12 propositions and then go back to the begining of the ballot and vote on the other important items such as Governor, DA, Judges and more. You can vote early or on election day, but please remember to vote. Forward Dallas: The City of Dallas is undertaking instituting a comprehensive plan for development in the City. Currently there is no such plan, so this is a very important milestone for the City.The comprehensive plan for the future development of the City of Dallas is called Forward Dallas. Started in late 2004 the plan has worked it's way from a concept, through neighborhood meetings, to where it is now nearing completion at the start of 2006. It still needs to go through some final tuning and then it will be presented to the Plan Commission for recommendation and finally to the City for approval. It is anticipated that final approval will happen by the end of June. Details of the up-coming schedule can be found by clicking on the Forward Dallas link on the Handy Links page. This plan is not a new zoning map, but a plan for the development of the city. It will determine the pattern of growth and future development of the City. Individual parcels of land will still face the same proceedures for zoning changes. The City Council adopted Forward Dallas and it is now being implemented by City staff. Port of Dallas: The Port of Dallas is an great step in not only the future growth of the City of Dallas, but especially as it affects the Southern Sector of the City. Located near the intersection of Interstate 20 and 45, this area will develop into a logistics center for this part of the country. Dallas is the only location in the US where 5 Interstate highways converge (20, 30, 35, 45 and 635), which make it a logical choice as an entry point for imported goods from Asia. China is currently the US's 3rd largest trading partner and is on the way to being number 2. Currently most goods from China enter the US through the Port of Long Beach in California. This port has a history of being back-logged and delays for unloading and US Customs clearance are the norm. Where the new Port of Dallas fits in is that the Dallas will have several choices as to where shipments can actually enter the US, through Long Beach, Houston or new deep water ports on the West coast of Mexico. How this will work is that the ships will unload at the port and the containers will be shipped in bond to Dallas where they will be cleared by US Customs and be routed onward to final destinations. This could be as close as right here in Dallas or as far as the Eastern parts of Canada. From Dallas, almost 70% of the US and 80% of Canada are considered final destinations. This system not only speeds up the delivery of the shipments but also saves the shipper money. The shipments are not only cleared quicker in Dallas, but all paperwork and fees to get the shipment to it's final destination are completed electronically right here in Dallas also. This means the shipments can move without delay to it's final destination. To both the receipient and the shipper time is money, getting the shipment to it's destination quicker means everyone benefits. To give you some perspective to the size of this projects impact on the City of Dallas you have to consider that one container ship can hold about 8000 containers. Each container can have over $400 in economic impact on the local economy. So one ship can feed more than $3.2 million into the Dallas economy. On an annual basis, that one ship a day would feed almost $1.2 billion into our economy. I'll stop the example at one ship a day, but it's easy to see that we could handle many more ships and reap even more in benefits. This will be not only good paying jobs at the intermodal yards, but also at logistic companies, warehouses, assembly operations, and distribution centers. All good paying jobs that will enable workers to afford nice homes in the Southern Sector, which will lead to retail shopping which leads to a good well-rounded economy. |
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| © Copyright 2005, Friends of Ron Natinsky; 5501 Prestwick Lane, Dallas, TX 75252; E-Mail |
