Dallas, TX

Dallas City Hall let its own property be occupied and destroyed

Published

6 months ago

June 5, 2024

Dallas City Hall let its own property be occupied and destroyed

If you want to understand how bad things have gotten in certain parts of Dallas City Hall, look no further than a memo filed last week by council member Jesse Moreno on the condition of a city-owned building just steps from City Hall.

What’s known as the old Family Gateway Building at 711 S. St. Paul St. has been vacant for some time and under the care of the city’s real estate team.

What no one at City Hall seemed to know, or if they knew didn’t care enough to act, was that the building was being occupied by unhoused people. The interior was gutted of its water pipes and electrical wires. Unsanitary conditions had taken hold, with human feces and urine throughout.

The building, inside and out, was strewn with trash. The exterior was pocked with graffiti. A door that should have been locked was plainly propped open. The alarm was disarmed. Police found more than 20 people, and animals, living inside.

Moreno, who represents the area, discovered this while he and his small team were trying to do what the city has been too slow to — address an entrenched outdoor encampment along Canton Street and St. Paul that fronted this building.

Here’s a look inside the Old Family Gateway Building

Any city staffer, from the homeless team to real estate to police to code compliance, should have been able to see what Moreno did — that a city-owned building had become an extension of the outdoor camp.

Moreno was measured in his memo to interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert. But in an interview with us, he was exasperated at what he saw as a failure of the city to secure the building and protect the safety of area residents and business owners.

It had been a valuable asset, he said. “Instead, now we are dealing with a building that probably needs to be condemned.”

Moreno, who chairs the council’s Housing and Homelessness Solutions committee, has become disenchanted with what he sees as City Hall’s commitment to a “housing first” policy for the homeless. The persistence of the Canton Street encampment likely led to the occupation of the old Family Gateway building, he believes.

But he is also concerned with the way the city is managing its real estate. City officials are considering selling excess property to help manage ballooning pension debt. But if its buildings are destroyed, what is there to sell? Recall that this is a city that moved its building inspectors into a $21 million building that couldn’t pass inspection.

Moreno also wondered what to make of the fact that city staff members told him he couldn’t join in a perimeter review of the building. If it was unsafe for a council member to walk around in daylight, how unsafe was it for people who live and work downtown?

No resident or business owner would be allowed to maintain a building in the condition that the old Family Gateway building is in. They would be slapped with fines.

But for Dallas City Hall, this is the way business is done. It has to stop.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com

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Dallas, TX

CeeDee Lamb made NFL history on Sunday

Published

1 hour ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

During the first quarter on Sunday afternoon against the Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb set an impressive bit of NFL history.

By recording his fourth reception in the game (CeeDee got a lot of work early if that is not obvious) Lamb recorded four receptions for the 44th consecutive game. That is the longest streak in NFL history, according to the Cowboys’ public relations team.

CeeDee Lamb (@_CeeDeeThree) has recorded four receptions in the first quarter. Lamb has recorded at least four receptions in 44 consecutive games, surpassing Michael Thomas for the longest such streak in NFL history.
— Dallas Cowboys Public Relations (@DallasCowboysPR) November 24, 2024

Lamb surpassed former New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas to set the record all to himself. The impressive thing about a streak like this is that it crosses over multiple seasons and in CeeDee’s case even multiple quarterbacks.

Obviously this season has been a bit tough for the Cowboys, but seeing CeeDee continually perform is a bright spot throughout it all. Kudos and congratulations to him, hopefully there is a lot more history on the way for him and the team in sunnier days.

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Dallas, TX

Dallas police pension won big against the city, but there is still room for agreement

Published

10 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Press Room

Dallas police pension won big against the city, but there is still room for agreement

In August, when the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System filed a lawsuit against City Hall, we winced in concern.

The difference boiled down to which entity, the city or the pension board, had the authority to send a plan to the Texas Legislature to get the badly underfunded system back on track.

Well, the pension system won that fight in district court in Travis County. The plan it has crafted would offer substantially more funding to the pension system, with cost-of-living increases and a reduction in employee contributions in later years.

The city could drag this through an appeal, but as things stand, the pension system’s plan would become the required funding formula.

Most readers know the pension system is underfunded by more than $3 billion. The difference here boils down to how much additional money the city will contribute per year to get us back on track. Under the pension system’s plan, it would be millions more per year.

But this is a wholly negotiable matter. Two sides have different figures in mind. The sides need to hash out those differences in a way that ensures the city is aligned with a 2017 state law that was passed for the express purpose of getting this pension funded.

There are serious people on both sides. What we need now is a leader at City Hall who has the standing to get this done. Normally, that would be the mayor, but our mayor hasn’t been doing the hard work at City Hall for a long time and we don’t expect him to start now. It could be the city manager, but that job is in the hands of an interim manager now.

Mayor Pro Tem Tennell Atkins has been doing the heavy lifting for the city, but whether he can lead the city’s side in negotiations is unclear.

All we know is that there is an opportunity for a solution that gets this thing out of court and a solid plan to the Legislature that, yes, includes sacrifices but that also stops the drumbeat about this important public benefit.

Someone needs to get on the phone, book a conference room, order some takeout and work the spreadsheets. There is time, but the clock is ticking.

We welcome your thoughts in a letter to the editor. See the guidelines and submit your letter here. If you have problems with the form, you can submit via email at letters@dallasnews.com

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Dallas, TX

Victor Cruz agrees that playing the Cowboys comes with a bit of extra motiviation

Published

18 hours ago

November 23, 2024

Press Room

Victor Cruz agrees that playing the Cowboys comes with a bit of extra motiviation

Something I have come to realize is that if you are a Dallas Cowboys fan around the age of 40 (a little room for flexibility at the top) or younger, you have only gotten the bad in this. Your friends, family, co-workers, etc. all tease you and mock you when your team loses and for the majority of your life, for all of your adult life, that has been the case.

You get the treatment that fans of the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Yankees get in terms of meme-ability but without any sort of hardware to make crawling through the mud worth it. Consider that each of those teams are dealing with droughts of their own, the youngest of which was born when Dallas’ was already 14 years old.

It is for this reason that when CeeDee Lamb said following Monday night’s loss that teams are looking to “embarrass” the Cowboys that I found it interesting. I’m not here to act like playing the Cowboys “is so and so’s Super Bowl”, but I do put some stock into the idea that opposing teams smell blood in the water so to speak and know that a domination against America’s Team lives a little bit louder than most. Consider all the fanfare that the New Orleans Saints picked up earlier this season as a recent example.

These are just my two cents though so I was curious how someone who has actually been in those shoes/cleats feels about the whole thing. Thankfully I had an opportunity to talk to former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz earlier this week and asked him about the idea among other things.

You can watch our conversation here:

Cruz’s Giants team won the Super Bowl 13 years ago when Dallas’ drought was already 16 years old (I’d imagine Jerry Jones bought them a brand new Mercedes for the occasion). They famously defeated the Cowboys in an NFC East title game in Week 17 at MetLife Stadium, the first of three in a row that Dallas would lose to each of their division rivals. I lived those three years like every one of you and still cannot believe that they actually happened in that exact way.

The Murphy’s Law of who the Cowboys are speaks for itself in that what can go wrong will and while Cruz didn’t exactly agree with that particular sentiment, he did note that playing the Cowboys comes with a little bit of extra motivation. He added that playing for the Giants brings with it a big stage in and of itself, an objectively true statement, and said the right things about how you want to embarrass anybody you play because it’s the NFL.

Whatever the case you can add Cruz to people who at least partially share the sentiment that CeeDee Lamb offered on Monday night. The whole thing is depressing and it is hard to know when it will end.

Cruz and I discussed a variety of things, including his recent partnership with Captain Morgan and a particularly sweet new crewneck.

Starting November 22, limited quantities of the Captain Morgan Crewneck will drop on KidSuper.com. Miss the drop? You’re in luck – Captain Morgan is unlocking access for fans 21+ to score the coolest merch of the season. Head over to FollowTheCaptain.com, and while you’re there, dive into a world of hidden clues and surprises, because you never know what Captain Morgan has in store as we gear up for Super Bowl LIX.

Our thanks to Victor Cruz and Captain Morgan for the time.

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