The state says foster kids in North Texas are in "imminent danger" because third-party case managers are failing. A judge today appointed a receiver to oversee the program. Before the order, @sharongrigsby.bsky.social spent weeks in court watching things go wrong: labreportdallas.com/p/the-presen...
A decade ago, when tax bills suddenly doubled for West Dallas homeowners, those without homestead exemptions were at the mercy of the market. Since then, advocates have stood up infrastructure to get ahead of these spikes and help people stay in their homes. labreportdallas.com/p/how-a-humb...
nobody wants to work anymore
THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!
One site is The Epic, in Deep Ellum, whose owners built a tower for Uber, which reneged on plans to relocate thousands of workers. When I wrote this in 2024, three of its 23 floors were occupied. One of many buildings that would love to have City Hall as a tenant. www.dmagazine.com/publications...
"...the emails revealed that there have been secret site visits underway for a while, with a quorum-avoiding number of hand-picked council members touring potential new sites for City Hall." @txnewsprincess.bsky.social on City Hall's latest mess: www.dmagazine.com/micropost/ai...
"A 'priority two,' which is considered the second-most serious and can include domestic violence incidents, took officers an average of 32 minutes to get to in 2020. In 2025, that average was about 179 minutes."
Kelli investigates officer staffing decisions and their impact on response times.
Still one of my favorite things we published on the @dmagazine.bsky.social site.
Read @timmytyper.bsky.social on Tommy Lee Walker, the innocent man who Dallas County yesterday admitted was executed for a crime he didn't commit in 1953. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...
In Dallas, churches are exploring transforming excess land and old buildings into affordable housing. The movement is part of a national trend, but Charlotte is the model for how to get it done. @sharongrigsby.bsky.social took a trip to teach us a thing or three. labreportdallas.com/p/faith-base...
New from @stevanzetti.bsky.social: A Dallas megadonor, a new nonprofit, and a scheme to relocate the homeless out of downtown shed light on a larger right-wing triumph over “housing first.” www.texasobserver.org/dallas-texas...
It's generally good news when your appraisal district adds nearly $3 billion to the tax rolls, like Dallas did this month. But what if that precedes a wave of defaults and foreclosures of affordable apartment buildings? Let's take a drive through Lake Highlands. labreportdallas.com/p/the-housin...
twisted tea
If you want to understand the suburban war on DART—there's some absurd stuff in here, and elected officials seemingly ignore evidence showing the public actually wants the transit service—you won't find anything better than this @thetexanrhino.bsky.social piece. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...
Dallas will likely end 2025 with its fifth straight decline in violent crime, in part by focusing on tiny geographies that account for most of it. What's that look like in practice? And what can't the cops solve? @kellixsmith.bsky.social on Volara in Oak Cliff: labreportdallas.com/p/the-stubbo...
Yesterday's City Hall vote remains weird. Why is Councilman Ridley's idea not the first thing done? "One stipulation called for city officials to focus primarily on getting an independent facility condition assessment of City Hall before considering relocation." www.dallasnews.com/news/politic...
Mayor Eric Johnson finally whipped some votes. (And Bethany's story is a must-read on how the Dallas City Council and its police department rebuffed ICE.)
The mayor of Just Asking Questions.
AND the mayor is missing from the meeting he called.
Starbucks is coming to South Dallas. But the real story is why the nonprofit leading the overhaul of the Forest Theater believed the national brand to be its best neighbor. @sharongrigsby.bsky.social on a new approach for economic development in the Sunny South: labreportdallas.com/p/why-starbu...
IDK guys, I kind of feel like we're operating on someone else's timeline on this. Yes, it's true the discussion about deferred maintenance of 1500 Marilla has been going on for years, but the suddeness of the "we could just tear it down" talk seems basketball shaped.
From Councilman Chad West's email newsletter, about Dallas' efforts to keep the Mavericks and Stars in town. I thought we literally had The Sports Mayor?
A DART board member tells me Farmers Branch and Highland Park will also discuss holding withdrawal elections from the agency. Much of the broader coverage has focused on the suburbs itching to bail. Here's a profile of a group fighting to keep—and improve—DART. labreportdallas.com/p/dart-s-big...
Of all the things going on at City Hall, I'll never understand Dallas' seemingly random insistence on enforcing ticky tack rules that make it harder to run small businesses. www.dmagazine.com/micropost/th...
"The city, it should be noted, had no problem spending $140 million to restore the Cotton Bowl, a building that essentially hosts one marquee event per year."
And @joshuafechter.bsky.social's analysis of how the suburbs are fighting the bill is a must-read for you housing heads. www.texastribune.org/2025/09/03/t...
I wrote about the bill for @labreportdallas.bsky.social
(Social accounts will come to life soon!) About how Dallas planners are embracing the new reality while suburbs seek to limit the developments. And, of course, how it quiets public opposition to multifamily. labreportdallas.com/p/senate-bil...
The bill, SB 840, has no requirements for affordability. There is also no designation for rental or ownership, which means condos and townhomes are fair game. Developers can now build housing on about 43 percent of land in Dallas that previously required a zoning change.
ForwardDallas, the city’s updated land use plan that Council approved last year, envisioned density along transit corridors. And transit corridors have a lot of commercial zoning. Here’s a heat map from our data scientists showing commercial properties near job centers.
