Dallas City Council Member Tennell Atkins reports the Shingle Mountain fix is starting. Per a statement by Atkins issued regarding removal of shingles at 9505 S. Central Expressway: “The removal of shingle material at 9505 S. Central Expressway today marks a new era in Southern Dallas.”
The City’s contractor, Roberts Trucking, will move the shingle material to McCommas Bluff Landfill. The landfill is prepared to receive this type of material, and plans to recycle it. The contractor anticipates the removal process will be complete by the end of March 2021.
The removal process is being supervised by Modern Geosciences to address environmental concerns associated with the removal. Air monitoring will occur on and off site to ensure air quality meets appropriate standards to protect human health.
Shingle Mountain Fix Is Still A Legal Issue
The city statement goes on saying,“While the City has settled with one of the property owners, the City remains in litigation with the remaining defendants.
“We are nearly at the end of a two year journey, involving the tireless work of the City’s legal team and various City departments. We are hopeful this process will alleviate concerns from surrounding community members and emphasizes the City’s commitment to a clean environment.”
24 Hour Dallas is holding a Drinks On Brink Zoominar this Tuesday, December 15, 2020.
Join 24HourDallas as they host Drinks On The Brink, a free Zoominar that explores Dallas’ independent bars and how they might navigate the coming months. Guest panelists include Dr. Eric Anthony Johnson of Dallas’ Economic Development office, Stephanie Keller Hudiburg, the Executive Director of the Deep Ellum Foundation, and Jeff Brightwell, a partner at Dot’s Hop House.
You can register for this event at no cost to you here.
Neighborhood pubs, taverns, bars, and saloons have played pivotal roles in United States history. Paul Revere was known to frequent Boston’s Bell In Hand while first President George Washington favored Williamsburg’s Christiana Campbell tavern. The ideas, treaties, and revolutions that have shaped our nation have often been crafted and confirmed with a tip of a glass.
COVID19 and public health issues are concerns, but independent bars, pubs, and restaurants need financial relief they need to weather the pandemic. A major concern is what ideas, treaties, and revolutions are being lost with independent bars being lost to a pandemic.
24 Hour Dallas: Drinks On Brink
This is just the latest effort by the 24 Hour Dallas coalition to bring attention to issues hitting the Dallas service industry the hardest. 24 Hour Dallas had Seize The Night – Carpe Noctem – and race consciousness events in the summer and has existed to assist the Dallas service industry since 2015.
Dallas ISD failing to educate black and brown students is the headline in new reports showing students can not read on grade level. At the upcoming Dallas ISD Board of Trustees meeting staff plans to ask trustees to lower goal standards for students in the district.
Administrators recommended that trustees reduce goals to be “more realistic” for the current academic year after new testing data showed significant drops.
Tests results from Dallas ISD’s Measurement of Academic Progress, or MAP, test, have had all the hallmarks of a district failing its students.
Current goals for the 2020-2021 school year expected four out of every nine third grade students would meet standards for third grade math. That is less than fifty percent of third graders would meet third grade math standards.
Currently just over ten percent of third graders could meet standards for third grade math. The staff requested goal is to double that number by end of year to roughly one in four students meeting minimum math standards.
On the reading side, the benchmark was for 42% of third grade students to be able to read at level. Only one third of students are able to hit this goal currently.
Dallas ISD Administration wants to revise both of these goal numbers down while simultaneously talking about the need for an educated workforce to attact international companies ot bring jobs to Dallas.
Additionally, it is unclear what the real assessment is as several students never returned to campus so it is unclear what the level would be if full attendance had been achieved.
Students in Dallas ISD Failing…Again
The board also discussed goals for Superintendent Michael Hinojosa at Thursday’s board briefing. Part of the superintendent’s contract allows trustees to set seven performance incentive goals, with a potential reward of $20,000 for meeting each goal.
Since Hinojosa rejoined the district as its leader in 2015, he has not achieved his incentive goals, Micciche said. The board has until Nov. 30 to set these incentives, but Hinojosa said he’d be willing to waive that timeline if trustees wanted more time to deliberate on the matter.
The November COVID19 numbers continue to be a headache for both local politicians, businesses, and residents as cases are rising quicker than expected. On Tuesday Dallas County health officials reported 1400 more COVID19 cases — all presumed new and the highest single-day total of the pandemic.
In July, Dallas was considered a “hot zone” because we were averaging more than two hundred cases per day. Dallas is now running between five and seven times that number. This may cause local hospitals to move to a surge capacity model.
Currently, the county is running out of available hospital beds. Per county data, the inventory of adult ICU beds was 52 as of Tuesday — one of its lowest points since the virus’s peak in July. The figure does not include beds that hospitals can add if needed. Each hospital has its own surge plan, which could include doubling up beds in rooms and converting surgical centers, but COVID19 is not the only user of bed space.
Every fall and winter elderly patients suffering from influenza use ICU space. Additionally, victims of car wrecks, heart attacks, and strokes all need these beds also.
“We are 7-10 days away from reaching our highest COVID hospitalization census to date if we do not immediately renew our resolve and change our behaviors,” County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement.
According to Jenkins’ chief of staff, Lauren Trimble, Dallas County epidemiologists have recently spent less time sorting through which cases came from the state’s reporting system, since there have been so few older or backlogged cases.
Health officials use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and emergency room visits as COVID19 tracking metrics to evaluate impact in Dallas. In the 24-hour period that ended Monday, 479 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 431 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.
Dallas ISD November COVID19 Numbers
The cases in Dallas ISD are no better.
Between the first day back, October 5, 2020, and November 9, 2020, Dallas ISD is reporting an eighteen fold increase in COVID19 cases. This rise is occuring in all areas: central staff, school staff, and students. These numbers seem to match Dallas County at large which recently reported 1500 cases in a single day.
The Lorenzo Hotel almost got $1.9M in CARES Act funding through a provision City Manager’s staff tried to push through this week.
Cara Mendelsohn, Dallas City Council member for District 12, on Thursday called out the city manager’s office for seemingly trying to hide the proposed $1.9M in COVID19 relief money to a prominent hotel developer.
The agenda item was described in a presentation as a $1.8 million debt payment, with no mention the money would be for the Lorenzo Hotel in the Cedars.
A deal the city council reached in 2013 used federal HUD money to turn a blighted abandoned building into the boutique Lorenzo Hotel. Visit Dallas has been unable to help and like many hotels is struggling. If the owner does not make the payments to HUD that is owes, the city is the guarantor.
Lorenzo Hotel or Rental Assistance
Months ago we did a story about rental assistance going to richer landlords and not South or West Dallas tenants in need. $1.9M would be almost 20% of the budget alloted for rental assistance. Instead of dollars going into an upscale private entity it is worth asking if those dollars would be better spent towards many with rental assistance needs.
Additionally, this is another example of city economic development not creating trust between itself and the citizens it serves. The current Economic Development Director Courtney Pogue has been rumored to be leaving for some time now.
The City of Dallas is launching Stay On Guard – a public awareness campaign – designed to slow spread of COVID19 through personal testimonials from residents, community leaders and organizations.
“We know this year has been very difficult for many of us and we’re all tired of staying at home, wearing masks, and seeing our friends and loved ones through screens; but now is not the time to let our guard down,” said Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson. “We must continue to encourage each resident to stay on guard as businesses reopen, students return to school, and families participate in fall sporting events and holiday celebrations.”
Stay On Guard
The Stay On Guard campaign focuses on four priorities: home, work, school and health — shining a light on essential workers who live in high density, multigenerational households, those who can’t work from home or may not have the option to maintain social distance from co-workers; children and college students returning to in-person learning and the school staff who are supporting them. The campaign encourages all Dallas residents to Stay on Guard by keeping their health a priority and get a free test when in doubt of their COVID19 status.
“Some of us are already planning holiday celebrations and visits with family and friends, but I want to remind everyone that our fight against the deadly coronavirus is far from over,” said Council Member Thomas. “As a nation we have surpassed a grim milestone of 200,000 thousand deaths due to COVID19 and here in Dallas County, we’ve lost more than 1,000 residents.”
Stay On Guard Dallas is a bilingual campaign that engages residents to become advocates within their communities to slow the spread of COVID19. Dallas residents may creating PSAs and promote them on social media with the tags #StayOnGuard or #EnGuardiaDallas.
Residents and business leaders can find a complete social media strategy in English and Spanish, including sample posts, downloadable logos, social media graphics and more to promote the campaign at DallasCityHall.com/StayOnGuard. Dallas has been described as a hot zone for COVID19 this summer.
“These months will be a very critical for our City, so we ask all Dallas residents to stay safe at home, work, school and take every precaution to stay healthy as we approach cold and flu season,” said Dr. Baggett. “Get tested before you go back to school and work, wear a mask, wash your hands and avoid large crowds.”
The Stay On Guard campaign kicks off at noon Sept. 30 with a virtual proclamation featuring Mayor Johnson, Council Member Thomas, and Dr. Baggett. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube, City of Dallas Cable Channel and Spectrum Ch. 95.
The Dallas City Council budget choices appear to have everyone mad after a 9-6 vote which cuts $7M from the police overtime budget, but adds another $8M in year over year spending.
The council passed the new budget late Wednesday that increases overall police funding despite promises from progressive members of the council to to slash it. In the backdrop were a crowd of marchers who assembled outside City Hall to protest police violence.
Budget Choices
The budget places an emphasis on ending historical inequities by injecting more money into disadvantaged southern Dallas neighborhoods. There are millions of dollars in federal coronavirus relief for programs like rental assistance filling some of those gaps, but Dallas’ own program ended up sending money to North Dallas.
Local activists did try to cut nearly forty percent from the Dallas Police Department budget – but their proposal for a $200M cut – won no votes. The $200M cut is well over the $77M cut previously rumored for Defund DPD 2.0.
An exit may be coming for Courtney Pogue, Director for the City of Dallas Office of Economic Development. Anonymous city hall staff say Mr. Pogue is leaving his post by end of year.
Pogue has served in his current capacity for nearly three years. Prior to that he was in positions for just over two years in Clayton County (Atlanta area) and Cook County (Chicago area).
Per a social media profile, Mr. Pogue led the City of Dallas Office of Economic Development with an operating budget of approximately $8.5MM and a capital budget of $100MM annually via 19 Tax Increment Financing Districts and 14 Public Improvement Districts. Managed a staff of 35 within four (4) divisions: area redevelopment, business development, community development, and finance/administration. Initiated the 1st economic development plan in 15 years for the City of Dallas.
Secured approximately $3.0 billion in private investment and approximately 16,000 job commitments since November 2017.
