Dallas, TX

Dallas sidewalks are by the people, for the people

Published

4 weeks ago

December 5, 2025

Dallas sidewalks are by the people, for the people

A couple of summers ago, Dallas resident Melody Townsel swerved around a sign left in the middle of a sidewalk in her neighborhood of the Cedars.

“My wheels went off the wheelchair. I fell into the fence, and ended up badly injured — broke a pair of glasses, I separated my shoulder, and I’m still feeling the aftereffects of that,” Townsel said. “And there’s no one to blame, nothing to do.”

In Dallas, it can take people stumbling upon unsafe and hazardous conditions to alert the city to its sidewalk problems. Since October 2020, residents have reported more than 5,000 hazardous sidewalk conditions citywide to Dallas’ 311 system.

“I think unless you walk with me on a sidewalk, you don’t realize how completely impassable they are,” Townsel said. “It’s everywhere, all the time.”

Sidewalk obstructions like overgrown bushes and utility poles often block Townsel’s path as she makes her way through the city, sometimes forcing her to use her wheelchair in the street. Dallas relies on residents to report obstructions like these through its 311 program.

“Dallas is not a proactive city,” said Uptown resident Alex Stine. “It is a reactive city, and a poorly reactive city at that.”

As a business-to-business salesperson and Uber driver, Richardson resident Adam Sharkey spends hours on Dallas roads each week. He’s filed more than 1,000 311 requests in the last six months, ranging from pothole repairs to reports of unsafe sidewalk conditions.

Once he sends in a request, Sharkey said, he receives email updates from various city agencies as they work to solve the problem. The updates have given him insight into the way the city operates.

Replacement is residents’ responsibility

“What a lot of people don’t realize,” Sharkey said, “is that in Dallas, the responsibility of the sidewalk falls to the property owner, not the city.”

City ordinance states that property owners are responsible for repairing hazardous conditions or replacing damaged sidewalks on their property. Recently, Sharkey reported a section of the sidewalk by Greenville Avenue and SMU Boulevard that had completely caved in, in the hope that the Code Compliance department would reach out to the adjacent apartment complex and have them fix it.

Instead, what followed was a chain of emails from the Code Compliance and Transportation and Public Works departments debating who was responsible for the sidewalk. Code Compliance had determined that the sidewalk was beyond the apartment’s property line, Sharkey said, which placed the sidewalk under the care of Transportation and Public Works.

“But then public works kicked it back to code enforcement and said, ‘Well, even if it’s not on their property, they’re still the benefiting party because they’re the closest property, and therefore it’s still their legal responsibility.’” Sharkey explained. “They’ve actually been kicking that back and forth for weeks.”

One reason damaged sidewalks might go unrepaired, Sharkey said, is because people don’t want to pay to fix something they are not sure they are required to. And even if code enforcement wanted to proactively make all property owners fix their sidewalks, he added, they don’t have the resources for the required enforcement and follow-up. This can get expensive, depending on the scale of the project.

“If somebody’s got a home that’s worth, you know, $220,000 and you ask them to spend eight grand to fix the sidewalk in front of their house, that’s 4% of the value of their home,” Sharkey said. “Now, that same size lot in Lower Greenville, the house is probably worth $1.7 million. To ask somebody with a home worth $1.7 million to go find eight grand to fix the sidewalk — they might be able to get that cash by refinancing their mortgage if they don’t have it.”

Owners of single-family homes, including condos, townhomes and single-family rentals, can split the cost of replacing their sidewalks with the city through Dallas’ Sidewalk Replacement Program.

City programs relieve some financial pressure

For program participants, the city secures all necessary permits for replacement, with all workmanship guaranteed for one year, according to the Transportation and Public Works department. Assessment and cost estimation can take up to three months. After payment is received, it can take another three to nine months for the replacement to be completed, according to the city.

Not all residents who apply to the Sidewalk Replacement Program end up moving forward, which contributes to the program’s low completion rates. Residents may end up declining participation in the program, the city said, or choose to use a private contractor to complete their work. One reason for this may be that, even with the cost sharing program, sidewalk replacements can still be prohibitively expensive.

In 2021, the city completed the Sidewalk Master Plan, a comprehensive proposal to improve Dallas’ sidewalks. After attending the council briefing on the plan, City Council member Jesse Moreno posted on Facebook that “the biggest takeaway from everyone is we can’t keep the 50%-50% responsibility on sidewalks,” referencing the city’s Sidewalk Replacement Program. “That has to change if we want our city to be more equitable.”

“Realistically,” said mobility advocate Heather McNair, president of BikeDFW, “the people that can afford to do the 50-50 split, generally speaking, are not the people that are the most impacted when the sidewalks are not traversable.”

These kinds of projects, McNair said, are most needed in areas with higher concentrations of seniors or people with disabilities. These are often people on fixed incomes that might not be able to shoulder the cost of a replacement. Dallas has worked toward a solution: about a third of all sidewalk replacements completed last year were funded by the city through a program specifically for low-income senior citizens.

Still, what has puzzled McNair about the city’s approach to sidewalk maintenance is asking individual residents to cover half the price of something that is “really public property.”

“I would argue — I can’t go out and block a sidewalk with my car or with a piece of furniture,” she said. “I can’t fence in a sidewalk. So if I can’t do these things, then is it really a part of my private property?”

Ideally, McNair said, sidewalks would be treated like streets, with the financial responsibility for taking care of them borne by the city and distributed among all residents who benefit from them.

“When we have areas that are public access,” she said, “that’s generally something that we anticipate is going to be maintained by those that are putting it in.”

But this approach would require billions of dollars in funding that the city doesn’t have. Finding the budget for this, McNair said, is likely where the city will hit a wall.

In the meantime, she said, increasing transparency can help show residents that the city is making progress despite bumps in the road.

A sidewalk ‘pizza tracker’?

Daisy Fast, the director of 311, said the main complaint she gets from residents is that the city doesn’t seem to be taking any action on their requests. One of her main goals has been to build what she calls a “pizza tracker” for 311 users.

Whether they submit requests over the phone, the app or online, 311 users can opt in to receive updates at every step of the way — like Domino’s does with its pizza tracking system. Right now, the system requires that users register to receive these updates, which can pose a problem to residents who may prefer to remain anonymous.

“Fear of retaliation is a reality, you know. Especially here in the Hispanic population,” Fast said, “there’s fear that, you know, if I submit a service request that, like, somehow the city’s going to, you know, find out my identity, or whoever I’m complaining on is going to, you know, find out.”

Another issue Fast noted is that 311 fields complaints that are immediately solvable by city employees, such as requests for temporary repairs, right alongside requests that take more time, like sidewalk replacements.

Fast considered only allowing residents to submit requests that city officials were confident would be completed within, for example, a two-week span. This would mean residents would no longer be able to submit long-term requests, but would gain confidence in the city’s ability to complete requests quickly.

“The negative side of that,” Fast said, “is, well, then we’re not going to have the data that [the Transportation and Public Works department] needs to build out their bond program.”

Data is what allows the city to understand where to funnel its resources, showing it what’s succeeding and what’s not.

In June 2025, the city exhausted available funds for the Sidewalk Replacement Program due to higher demand than anticipated. The city said it anticipates council action early next year to resume the program. In the meantime, property owners can still submit 311 requests to have temporary repairs made to their sidewalks.

Since the program went on pause, about 270 residents have asked to be added to the waitlist.

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Dallas, TX

‘No War With Venezuela’ protest held in downtown Dallas after U.S. seizes Maduro

Published

8 hours ago

January 3, 2026

Press Room

‘No War With Venezuela’ protest held in downtown Dallas after U.S. seizes Maduro

Nearly 200 people gathered Saturday evening for a “No War With Venezuela” protest in downtown Dallas, mere hours after U.S. President Donald Trump carried out the most assertive American action for regime change since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Following months of secret planning, Trump said Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, were captured early Saturday at their home on a military base.

During a news conference, Trump revealed his plans to exploit the leadership void to “fix” the country’s oil infrastructure and sell “large amounts” of oil to other countries.

Trump said the U.S. would run Venezuela until a transition of power takes place, though it remains unclear how the U.S. would assume control.

In Dallas’ Main Street Garden Park, signs reading “U.S. hands off Venezuela” were met with honks by passing vehicles as participants chanted: “Venezuela isn’t yours, no more coups, no more wars. We know what we’re fighting for, not another endless war.”

“We are gathered here today because injustice has crossed another line,” Zeeshan Hafeez, a Democratic primary candidate for Texas’ Congressional District 33, said as he addressed the crowd. “This is not just about Venezuela. This is not just about Gaza.

“This is about whether America will be ruled by law or force.”

Demonstrators gather at the corner of Commerce and Harwood Streets during a ‘No War with Venezuela’ protest at Main Street Garden in downtown Dallas, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026.

Elías Valverde II / Staff Photographer

Rick Majumdar, a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization Dallas, told The Dallas Morning News that the message of Saturday’s collective action was simple: “We don’t want the United States to go to another war for oil.”

“The people of the United States should stand in solidarity with the people of Venezuela, as well as stand against the oppression that is happening to immigrants in this country,” Majumdar said. “Stand in solidarity with both Venezuelans in the United States and those in Venezuela.”

Maduro and his wife landed Saturday afternoon in New York to face prosecution for a Justice Department indictment accusing them of participating in a narco-terrorism conspiracy. The indictment painted the regime as a “corrupt, illegitimate government” fueled by a drug trafficking operation that flooded the U.S with cocaine.

Lawmakers from both political parties have previously raised both profound reservations and flat-out objections to U.S. attacks on boats suspected of drug smuggling near the Venezuelan coast.

Congress has not specifically authorized the use of military force for such operations in the region, and leaders said they were not notified of the plan to seize Maduro until it was already underway.

“I’m appalled that we broke a law and decided that we can invade a country and capture their leader,” said Cynthia Ball, of Amarillo, at the Dallas protest. “Normal citizens like ourselves can’t do a lot at a governmental level, but if we band together and stay informed, hopefully we can get our city to see what’s happening.”

Other officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, supported the move, explaining the secretive nature was necessary to preserve the operation’s integrity. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, called it a “decisive and justified operation that will protect American lives”

Venezuela’s vice president has demanded the U.S. free Maduro and called him the country’s rightful leader.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Dallas, TX

Carla Rockmore went from Dallas carpool mom to fashion force

Published

6 days ago

December 29, 2025

Press Room

Carla Rockmore went from Dallas carpool mom to fashion force

Carla Rockmore has 1.3 million followers on TikTok and her own fashion line, but there was a time when she was just another carpool mom in North Dallas, wondering what happened to her dreams. “It was challenging,” she says. “The guard at school would tell me I couldn’t idle the car in line while waiting to pick up my kids. What are you talking about? It’s 110 degrees!”

A Montreal native, Rockmore enjoyed a globe-trotting early career, leaving fashion school in Toronto for a couture house in Amsterdam. After returning to Canada, she toggled between corporate and boutique gigs, but motherhood meant slowing down. In 2012, her family moved to Dallas so her husband, Michael Stitt, could become CEO of the menswear brand Haggar Clothing, but Rockmore struggled to find industry work in Texas.

Fashion is about transformation, though, and Rockmore underwent a dramatic one. In March 2020, she was in India working to launch her own jewelry line when the pandemic hit, and she had to come home. Frustrated and looking for escape under quarantine, she started making videos in her closet, part practical stylist advice, part creative riff. She was a natural on camera, with her dark spiraling hair and outsize personality, trying on outfits that ranged from classy to wacky. “It was a convergence of my education and talent, my need to be in front of a stage and a void in the market,” she says. She became a social media phenomenon.

Architectural Digest has featured the closet in her Preston Hollow home, a two-story Narnia of color, spangle and swish so expansive it includes a spiral staircase and fireplace. But the real lure of her videos is a 50-something woman taking delight in the art of dressing up. “Our media don’t show us so many examples of women this age who know who they are and clearly like it,” New York Times Magazine said about Rockmore.

Now 58, Rockmore has a line of clothes on her website as well as through QVC. Many of her videos these days feature Ivy, the 21-year-old daughter whose gender transition became part of the tale, bringing new meaning to Rockmore’s TikTok slogan of self-expression through fashion. (Her 24-year-old son, Eli, helps behind the scenes.) I spoke with Rockmore over the phone, where she was as charming as she is in her videos.

“Fashion matters, because it’s a declaration of how you’re feeling without words,” says Carla Rockmore, who has a clothing line on QVC and her own website.

Stewart Cohen

This is a first for me. In researching the clothes on your website, I actually bought the wrap shirt dress in marigold. I haven’t even started this interview, and I’m already out $55.

Ooh, you did? I love it! That dress is sort of the ethos of my design, where clothing is your canvas, and jewelry and accessories are your paint. You can dress it up however you want. I think color is one of my fortes, because my mom was a painter. Proportion, color and shape were dinner conversation.

I’m not much of a trend person. I’m more like, “I love it, now I’m going to wear versions of it for the rest of my life.”

How do you describe Dallas to people who have never been here?

Dallas is a strange juxtaposition. On the good side, you have some of the nicest people in the world. Being a Northeastern girl, I was completely floored when I moved to a place where people strike up conversations in line at the coffee shop. I kept looking over my shoulder thinking, What’s happening? What’s the ulterior motive? But it never came. They’re just genuinely nice.

The downside is that every strip mall looks exactly the same. I once got lost driving around a strip mall in Plano because I thought I was in Preston Hollow. Same Chico’s, same Starbucks. And everyone drives everywhere. I once tried to walk a single block, from Elements on Lovers near the Tollway to my chiropractor across the street, and while I was walking along the underpass, a woman pulled over and asked, “Are you OK, dear?” I said, “I’m just walking,” and she looked at me like I’d completely lost my mind.

How do you describe Dallas fashion?

Hidden. There’s incredible fashion here, but it doesn’t announce itself. It’s not going to smack you in the face, and I think that’s because Dallas isn’t a walking city. I’m always floored when I go to Forty Five Ten or to the downtown Neiman’s. Fashion here is a destination. You have to go to the restaurant, the party, the bar, and when you do — you will see it.

And no matter where I am, I could be going to the doctor for a physical, if I’m wearing a great pair of shoes, another woman will inevitably stop me and say, “Those shoes! Where did you get them?” That’s a kind of sisterhood. In New York, nobody ever asks about your shoes.

You went viral for putting outfits together, something others might find frivolous. Can you make the pitch that fashion matters?

Fashion matters, because it’s a declaration of how you’re feeling without words. It’s also a barometer of what’s going on in the world. I find fashion history so fascinating, why certain pieces of clothing were adopted at certain times.

In the 1910s, hobble skirts restricted women’s movement so completely that in cities like New York and Vancouver, they lowered the streetcars to allow women to get in and out. By mid-century, the story had flipped: Cars and fenders echoed the streamlined silhouette of the pencil skirt popularized by Christian Dior. From hoop skirts to hobble hems to pencil skirts, fashion has always shaped how we move, what we build and how the world makes room for us.

The closet gets used as a metaphor for repression, staying “in the closet,” but your closet has been an engine of self-discovery. Eventually, this became true in your own family, too. Can you talk about how Ivy started joining you in the videos?

Ivy was there from the beginning, because I was doing 10-minute videos on YouTube for my girlfriends up in Canada. I had 91 followers, and I was happy about that! The only reason I blew up was because Ivy said, let’s take it down to a minute and put this on TikTok.

Then Ivy came to me crying one day. Actually, we were in the closet. She said, “I don’t think I’m gay. I think I’m trans.” I felt so bad for her, because she said, “I’m so tired of coming out, Mom. I’m so tired of not being who I am.” At that point, I still naively thought it was a choice, and I was so afraid she was choosing a harder path. But I quickly decided, we’re going to support, full-force. About a week later, she and I did our first video together, because I wanted her to feel not only accepted by her family but also pretty, feminine — all those qualities she’d been craving for the first 17 years of her life. I wanted her to catch up to herself.

I thought, I don’t know if there are a lot of other parents in this situation, but maybe the benefit of my platform is we can show a “normal” family — then again, what’s normal? — modeling what it’s like to accept your child no matter who they are. Sometimes I feel like that’s the whole reason I went viral. Not for my fashion, not for my self-expression. For hers.

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Dallas, TX

1 person fatally shot at West Dallas convenience store, police say

Published

6 days ago

December 28, 2025

Press Room

1 person fatally shot at West Dallas convenience store, police say

Updated on: December 28, 2025 / 5:45 PM CST
/ CBS Texas

One person was fatally shot at a West Dallas convenience store Sunday morning, police said.

The Dallas Police Department said just before 2:50 a.m., officers responded to a shooting call at a 7-Eleven, located in the 1800 block of Sylvan Avenue. When they arrived, officers found one person had been shot.

Dallas Fire-Rescue arrived and transported the victim to the hospital, where they died of their injuries.

DPD said the investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made at this time. The name of the victim has not been released.