CityWalkTalk

Blog Maverick

2010-08-19T07:02:00.001-05:00

Mark Cuban writes an interesting blog called blogmaverick. You can find it here: http://blogmaverick.com/. He’s often got interesting things to say and I’ve learned at least something about business from reading him.
Once and awhile, however, I read something that makes me realize just how different his world is from mine. His August 5 blog on his failed effort to buy the Texas Rangers has one of those passages:
It is not easy to get liquid to the point of $400mm dollars or more in just a few weeks.
Or, in my case, it would be easy in just a few lifetimes.

John P. Greenan

BlogMaverick

2010-08-19T06:53:00.002-05:00

Life

2010-08-15T14:58:00.002-05:00

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile.

Nick Sowell

Independence Day

2010-07-05T20:33:00.003-05:00

4th of July is the most memorable day in the history of United States of America. It is the day when America got independence and was free from British occupancy. The day is celebrated all around the country with patriotic sentiment.

"I like to see men proud of the place in which he lives. I like to see a man live so that his place will be proud of him."--Abraham Lincoln

"We on this continent should never forget that men first crossed the Atlantic not to find soil for their ploughs but to secure liberty for their souls."--Robert McCrackin

Nick Sowell

A Building

2010-07-02T15:16:00.001-05:00

Look at the cityscape. Now focus on one building. Squint if you need to. Fifteen stories. As large as the entire town you grew up in. Once it’s firmly in your mind, close your eyes.

Now see the building in memory. See it as Picasso would see it as a series of foms, of cubes, as an abstraction. See the building as a fractal, breaking into pieces. See it as a lawyer sees it, as a bundle of property rights that can be unbundled and rebundled in endless variations.

Ask yourself what the building can be—retail, office, homes. No, better yet, ask the building what it wants to be. Not the whole unified building but each constituent part.

Once each part speaks to you and tells you what it should be, then start the hard work of creating it. First as an abstraction but becoming more and more real with each thought.

See the building as Walt Whitman would. Pipes humming and wires like nerves carrying power and information to each part of it. See the building as activity. Like Whitman’s mind the building can encompass all of us within us.

Each thing has its place in the building. Here the mother with her child. There the intellectual at his papers. Merchant and lawyer; rich and poor; man, woman and child; every dog and every pigeon have their place.

The building is not office or retail or residential. Disregard the illusion of unity. You see a whole only by disregarding the parts. The building is a series of spaces, not a building. Each space has its proper use and each its proper resident. This is mine; that is yours; over there belongs to neither of us.

John P. Greenan

Forgiveness

2010-06-28T04:36:00.001-05:00

When we forgive evil we do not excuse it, we do not tolerate it, we do not smother it. We look the evil full in the face, call it what it is, let its horror shock and stun and enrage us, and only then do we forgive it.

Nick Sowell

Heard From Oak Cliff

2010-06-23T17:25:00.000-05:00

Last night I attended a hearing in Oak Cliff on the Dallas Housing Authority’s proposal to house one hundred formerly homeless people at its Cliff Manor property. I haven’t seen such a frightening crowd since 1972. Here are some comments to the Dallas Morning News’ story on the hearing to give you a little flavor of the discussion—and my take on some of the opinions expressed.

Sharon Boyd

7:27 AM on June 22, 2010

A community's first priority is to the people who are law-abiding and pay their taxes. The druggers/alcoholics stepped outside the lines, but want everyone to pay their way back into society. I sympathize with the mentals, but they should be in institutions where they can be safe, fed and treated. They can never live completely on their own because they are not equipped for life's anxieties.

All the do gooder programs have caused incredible damage to Lake Highlands, Vickery Meadow and Oak Cliff. The Cedars is just now crawling out of the pit that decades of dumping on them created. The Sec 8 apts in NW Dallas are a disaster for my area.

Senior housing is one thing -- but the DHA always screws up and winds up ruining entire communities to help a handful of losers.

Fight on, Oak Cliff. This is Councilman Neumann's finest hour. He has never been more right on any issue

1 reply

The funny thing is, I live in Lake Highlands and I think it is pretty nice. JG.

sharpartist

11:13 AM on June 22, 2010

"I sympathize with the mentals..."

The "mentals"? I guess this is your new shorthand for the homeless? Like Mexicans are now called "illegals".....wow, you folks are Apathetic Pigeonholers, or "A-holers" for short.

This brings to light one of the overriding themes of last night. The homeless aren’t really people.

bumrapper

7:46 AM on June 22, 2010

Sharon Boyd, where are the impoverished and people without homes suppose to live? Do we just leave them all on the streets?

I can't wait to hear your answer.

3 replies

This is the question that I’d like some of the people who oppose permanent supportive housing to answer some day. Do they think we are better off with people sleeping in the streets? JG.

downtownlady

8:36 AM on June 22, 2010

Anyone who doesn't have a job would be "impoverished" and "without homes." Me, you, everyone. Gosh...let's see....let me think....how about getting a job

No doubt a Bruce Hornsby fan. “Get a job!” JG.

WCW

9:08 AM on June 22, 2010

They should live with you

A helpful anwer—not. The person below actually has housed homeless people in his home. I’m moving into citywalk@akard where we are housing homeless people, but not everyone can do that sort of thing.

Karl Dennahan Tx

10:00 AM on June 22, 2010

bumrapper: TOUCHE!

John P. Greenan

Summer fun starts for CityWalk kids

2010-06-22T01:49:00.000-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

The Rainbow Days Kids' University camp started yesterday and several of our kids at CityWalk were able to attend. The camp will be held at the University of Texas at Dallas through this Thursday and our kids and their parents are super-excited about it.

The purpose of Kids’ University is "to promote literacy, higher education, develop social competency and build self-esteem." Some of the activities include courses in science and computers, as well as cooking, painting, arts and crafts and more. There will also be a graduation ceremony on the last day of camp where kids will walk across a stage and receive diplomas.

We're so happy that our kids at CityWalk are getting this opportunity to go to a free camp, where meals are provided at no cost to the parents.

Thanks so much to Rainbow Days and for all this organization is doing in the community.

Getting ready to go to camp

Discover-Dream-Explore

2010-06-19T19:21:00.002-05:00

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Nick Sowell

2010-06-17T04:00:00.002-05:00

I would rather walk with God in the dark than go alone in the light.

When life knocks you on your knees, your in the perfect position to pray

Nick Sowell

Funny Stuff

2010-06-16T17:51:00.003-05:00

Cross country skiing is great if you live in a small country.

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

Nick Sowell

Death for Watching Soccer

2010-06-15T15:48:00.000-05:00

Death for Watching Soccer

The following article caught my attention. Among other things, it shows just how differently some people see the world than I do:

World Cup 2010: Somali football fans executed for watching matches

Two Somali football fans have been killed by Islamic militants after being caught watching World Cup matches.

By Aislinn Laing, Southern Africa correspondent
Published: 5:59PM BST 14 Jun 2010

A Somali football fan adjusts the Television set for the group D game between Ghana and Serbia Photo: EPA

The deaths happened on Saturday near the capital Mogadishu when members of the Hizbul Islam group stormed a house where people were watching Nigeria play Argentina.

A further 10 people were arrested by the group, which has imposed a strict version of Islam in the areas they control in southern and central Somalia.

The following night, another 30 people including a 15-year-old boy were arrested as the watched the Germany-Australia game in two private homes in the town of Afgoye.

A spokesman for the group, Sheikh Mohamed Abdi Aros, said the rest of Somalia should respect their ban on the World Cup – the first to be hosted in Africa – and focus instead on "pursuing holy jihad".

"We are warning all the youth of Somalia not to dare watch these World Cup matches. It is a waste of money and time and they will not benefit anything or get any experience by watching mad men jumping up and down," he said.

The ban, which has seen radio stations around the city taken off air for playing music, has resulted in people flocking to public cinemas in the few Government-controlled areas of the country.

Ahmed Santos used to live in an area of Somalia run by militants, but now is in a government-controlled area.

"I can now freely watch the matches," he said. "I am so sorry that some of my friends who are now living where I was once don't have that chance to watch the World Cup. I really feel sorry for them."

Others are risking the wrath of the militants, such is their love of the beautiful game.

One man, who lives in the militant-controlled livestock market area of the city said he watched Algeria-Slovenia at home with his family.

"I have one eye on the TV and the other on the door, and the sound turned down," he said.

I know I shouldn’t joke about such tragedies. It is an unspeakable horror to put people to death for such an innocent action, but there is something quite surreal about all this. I just, very literally, cannot believe that this is happening in the same world in which I live.

John Greenan

Dallas's 500 Most Powerful People

2010-06-14T17:55:00.000-05:00

Dallas’s 500 Most Powerful People

Do you like lists? Here’s one of Dallas’s 500 most powerful people: http://www.dfwmostpowerful.com/index.htm. The highest names on the list I’ve met are numbers 14 and 15. I’ve met seven out of the top 100, and know two of that seven well enough so that they know my name and would probably take my calls—on a good day.

After that, I go rapidly downhill. I’ve only met 16 of the remaining 400 people, and I know only two more of those that I have met well enough to even call them acquaintances.

It isn’t too clear who prepared the list, and it has some errors—like at least dead person. There are also some puzzling omissions. Where is T.D. Jakes? So if you didn’t make it, then I think you’ve still got room to argue.

I have to admit I’m fascinated by lists. The top ten this or the fifty best that always get my attention, no matter whether I know anything about the topic or not. There is something about a list that seems to restore order to the world. I’d be happy enough as Dallas’s 3 millionth most powerful person, just to know my place in the world.

I also find it interesting that I’m almost twice as likely to have met someone in the top 100 as in the next 400. Perhaps the reason those first 100 people are so powerful is because they know everybody? Even me.

John Greenan

Dreams

2010-06-14T14:38:00.001-05:00

Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men.

Nick Sowell

Democracy or Disease?

2010-06-14T09:18:00.002-05:00

Democracy or Disease?

This is the title of an essay by Aaron Renn, the author of the Urbanophile blog (http://www.urbanophile.com/), although this essay appears instead on New Geography and you can find it here: http://www.newgeography.com/content/001611-the-vote-democracy-or-disease.

The essay is about how California-style government through referendum and initiative has spread to other states, especially in the Midwest. Mr. Renn sees this as a problem. For example, in California the combination of tax cuts and required spending passed by the voters has made it almost impossible for the state to pass a workable budget. One of the most amazing misuses of this system took place in Ohio:

The last and most incredible example is Ohio, where a group of developers wanted to open casinos. Led by Rock Ventures, the investment vehicle of Quicken Loans owner Dan Gilbert of Detroit, the group spent $47 million to draft, put on the ballot, and pass a constitutional amendment permitting casino gambling in Ohio. But this initiative did much, much more than that. It only permitted casinos on four specific properties — properties controlled by the referendum backers — and thus granted them exclusive rights to open casinos. It exempted their casinos from zoning or most other types of local control, authorized them to operate 24 hours a day, and specified a very low license fee of only $50 million per casino to the state. It also permitted them not only to run any game currently allowed by any surrounding state, but also any game those states might approve in the future. It's undoubtedly one of the most incredible constitutional amendments in the history of the United States.

This strikes me as a terrible idea for the State of Ohio (but a very good one for the people who sponsored the referendum). I’m sure of us all feel that voters should have the final say in how we are governed, but there seems to be a problem with a too convenient system of initiative and referendum.

I know we should all be educated on everything we vote on, but I can’t quit my job to study the candidates and issues full time. I normally know what’s going on in the big races (President, Governor, Senator, Mayor and congressional candidates), but it’s hard to keep up with all the amendments to the Texas constitution, the races for judge (here in Texas we vote on all judges—sometimes as many as thirty races in Dallas County), all the local contests (County Clerk, Constable, City Auditor, etc.). Then we have multiple elections, Federal, State, City and School Board. That’s made more complicated by the fact that while I live in the City of Dallas, I also reside in the Richardson School District—and my kids (who went to private schools anyway) are long since grown. When am I going to find time to keep up with Richardson Schools?

By the way, there is also a Dallas County School Board, which is entirely separate from the Dallas Independent School District School Board. I lived here for a decade before I finally figured out that the job of the Dallas County School Board was mostly to run the school buses.

I read the local newspaper every day; follow the national news; check out a half dozen blogs and most of the local commentary on the web. It’s not that I’m not trying, but there are too many issues and too many candidates for me to follow them all.

In short, I agree with the Urbanophile that we’ve got to find a way to restrict initiative and referendum (and probably all votes) to the kinds of things that are important enough for most of the voters to spend their time learning about. At the same time, I think the voters ought to have the right to step in directly to set things right when necessary. I wish we had initiative and referendum in Texas.

There has to be some middle ground between no right for voters to directly speak on important issues and the opportunity for every rich person with a cause or a scheme to make voters decide whether it’s a good idea.

Maybe initiatives and referenda ought to be limited—perhaps to the three or five issues that have the highest number of signatures on their petition. Maybe there is a better idea out there. I do know that while I want my vote to count, I don’t want to vote on what I don’t understand.

John Greenan

Donations are always appreciated at CityWalk

2010-06-12T01:00:00.005-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

I received an unexpected call this week from Ann Yindrick who works in Lincoln Plaza, which is located across the street from CityWalk at Akard. Ann and her office team compiled a heap of toiletry donations to be given to our residents. I dashed over to her office the next morning with our resident assistant Marcus Harris and a dolly to find loads of soap, shampoo, shower gel and other items.

These essentials will be put into our welcome bags that we give to new residents when they move in. A “welcome bag” also includes paper goods, a CityWalk t-shirt, coffee, a can opener and a list of things to do in Dallas.

You, too, can donate goods or even sponsor one or more of our activities at CityWalk by providing refreshments, lunch or dinner for our residents. Contact me at 214.573.2570 ext. 2133 with donations or for more information on how you can help.

To Ann Yindrick and her team – thanks so much!

Ann Yindrick

Oak Cliff

2010-06-10T20:12:00.000-05:00

North Oak Cliff: “We’ll Take a Few Homeless People if Preston Hollow Does.”

Part II

Here is the link to the Google Map I put together: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

I hope it works because this is the first time I’ve tried to make a Google Map.

Well, it sort of works. If you open the hyperlink, then click on My Maps, and then click on Dallas PSH, then you will get a map of the dozen existing or proposed projects that I am aware of. Out of the twelve projects, four are operating (blue placemarkers), five projects are still under some stage of development (red placemarkers) and three have been abandoned (yellow markers). I have been extremely generous in counting projects as still under development—if they haven’t been completely and irrevocably abandoned, then I’ve counted them.

I haven’t tried to locate projects smaller than 40 units on the map, even when I happen to know about them.

The locations are really pretty well spread around Dallas. One in Vickery Meadows, one in Lake Highlands, two in Oak Cliff, one in Expo Park, two downtown, one in East Dallas, one in the Cedars, one in the design district, and two in South Dallas. With the exception of three outliers, which we will discuss in a moment, every project is in or near to downtown.

That makes sense because permanent supportive housing usually works best in dense inner city areas. Most people coming out of homelessness have limited means and no automobile. People need to be in walkable areas if possible and conveniently located for mass transit. That usually means in or near downtown.

The three exceptions are all developments where a property was available at little or no cost. Two are properties already owned by the Dallas Housing Authority and the third is the Jules Muchert Army Reserve Base, which was supposed to be used for a homeless project under federal law (a long story, but it wasn’t).

But, sorry North Oak Cliff, nobody has proposed a project for Preston Hollow. The minute somebody donates five acres of land there to me, I’ll start work on it though.

John Greenan

North Oak Cliff

2010-06-10T20:10:00.000-05:00

North Oak Cliff: “We’ll Take a Few Homeless People if Preston Hollow Does.”

Part I

Once again another proposal to create permanent, supportive housing has run into a buzz saw of opposition from the local neighbors. Check out the comments to Roy Appleton’s blog for the Dallas Morning News here: http://oakcliffblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2010/06/homeless-housing-plan-foes-tak.html#slcgm_comments_anchor. The proposed location for permanent supportive housing this time is Cliff Manor, a property owned by the Dallas Housing Authority.

(appearing here in a photo taken for Channel 11)

Along with all the usual arguments (it’ll hurt land values; what about crime?; the children!; we’ve already done our share; etc.), a new favorite argument seems to be appearing: ”We’ll allow permanent supportive housing, but only if everyone else does as well.” It seems that no matter where someone proposes to locate a permanent supportive housing project that the neighborhood feels they are getting more than their share of projects.

I became curious whether that might not be true, there are several groups working on permanent supportive housing projects and we don’t really coordinate. Everybody develops their project independently for the most part. So I began putting together a Google Map of all the existing, proposed and abandoned permanent supportive housing projects that I knew about.

I hope to have it ready for tomorrow’s blog, and if it looks useful to other people, then perhaps it could be maintained as a tool for all of us to use.

John Greenan

A Proposed New Holiday

2010-06-10T19:00:00.000-05:00

A Proposed New Holiday

On March 28, 2010, Dan L. Duncan died at age 77. Mr. Duncan did many admirable things in his life. He was a self-made billionaire, raised a family, gave $100 million to Baylor to fund a cancer center in Houston and seems to have been well regarded in Houston where he lived and died.

So it is rather unfortunate that Mr. Duncan will probably be best remembered for an entirely accidental event—he was the first (and so far only) American Billionaire to die without incurring one single cent in estate taxes. We aren’t talking about someone who just scraped into the billionaire category. Mr. Duncan’s wealth was estimated at $9 billion by Forbes Magazine, making him the 74th wealthiest person in the world and the wealthiest in Houston.

That $9 billion dollars will pass intact to his heirs—four children and four grand children. This is a first in American history. When America’s first billionaire, John D. Rockefeller, died in the 1930s, his estate was taxed at a 70% rate. Since then the estate tax has gone up and down, different thresholds to be subject to the tax have existed, but no billionaire has ever escaped it entirely, and unless another billionaire dies this year, no other billionaire may ever again escape the estate tax.

This rare occasion was caused by the Bush Administration’s gradual repeal of the estate tax. Philosophically opposed to what was characterized as the “death tax”, the estate tax was repealed in full in 2010 after a series of gradual deductions, but in one of those amazing Washington budget deals, the entire Bush tax cuts expire at the end of this year. If Mr. Duncan has survived into 2011, then his estate would have been taxed at 55%, or $4.95 billion.

For the heirs of billionaires, this is a very good year to inherit. While there is no indication whatsoever that Mr. Duncan’s death was due to anything but natural causes, if I were a very rich person, especially one who didn’t get along very well with my relatives, then I would be careful as the end of the year approaches. There is an incredible financial incentive to die this year.

Finally, I think would only be appropriate to celebrate this unique event by some sort of holiday. Maybe Congress could make March 28 “No Death Tax Day” giving anybody who dies on that one day an exemption from Estate Taxes.

John Greenan

Words of Wisdom

2010-06-10T18:56:00.000-05:00

All who call on God in true faith; earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.

Nick Sowell

Living Below Your Means

2010-06-09T17:39:00.000-05:00

Living Below Your Means
I read an article today entitled 5 billionaires who live below their means. The five wealthy people who were briefly profiled (see http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveMoney/5-billionaires-living-below-their-means.aspx) included some of the people you might expect like Warren Buffet, along with some people that you probably haven’t heard of like Carlos Slim Helu who is the richest person in Mexico and possibly the richest person in the world.
The group shared some commonalities. They seem to have made their own money, rather than have inherited it. Many of them are old enough to remember tough economic times. Most strikingly to me, however, the common characteristic seemed to be that they lived modestly not because they were depriving themselves, but because they had all they wanted.
This attitude was exemplified by Warren Buffet:
“When asked why he doesn't own a yacht, he responded, "Most toys are just a pain in the neck."

These are serious people and their pursuits are serious (unlike the celebrities we see on television and the tabloids). Now that he’s reached his 80s, how is T. Boone Pickens having fun? He is trying to solve the energy crisis.

That’s an attitude I appreciate. The most satisfaction in life (outside of your family) is going to come from what you can achieve. Andrew Carnegie started as a factory worker, built U.S. Steel—and did own a yacht—but he spent much more money building over 2,500 libraries. You can’t do that if you are spending all your money on private jets and vacation.

Now I doubt any of you that are reading this are billionaires (and if you are, please send me a check!), but I think we can all learn a lesson and we should all think about the opportunities that living below our means could afford us. It would mean we could afford to help a relative who needed it; afford to take a lower paying but more satisfying job; afford to start a new business; take time off to travel, educate ourselves or volunteer.

If you spend all you can, buy all you can and borrow all that you can—like too many of us do—then you remove yourself from a world of possibilities. In many ways that means that no matter how much you have, you are poor.

John Greenan

Thoughts For The Day

2010-06-09T16:45:00.001-05:00

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
C.S. Lewis

To be satisfied with little, is the greatest wisdom; and he that increaseth his riches, inreaseth his cares; but a contended mind is a hidden treasure, and trouble findeth it not.
Akhenaton

Nick Sowell

The Weekend

2010-06-07T17:27:00.001-05:00

I was shocked with hot hot it was this past weekend! We just jumped right into summer with temps around 103% this past weekend, which is why I made this last weekend an in-door movie watching weekend. Was able to catch up on a lot of good movies, if you would like to know, the new "Robin Hood" and "Iron Man 2" movies are great action-packed films that really got my heart pumping. Also, I've been put in charge of posting all new blogs while Naquanna is out of the office for the week, a new and interesting job I have had to learn quickly as computers are not my friend.

Nick Sowell

Bill Maher on Global Warming

2010-06-07T17:24:00.000-05:00

Bill Maher on Global Warming

I’m usually pretty “meh” on Bill Maher. There is something about his “I’m smarter than you” style of satire that puts me off. But his recent essay on Global Warming hits one of my buttons:

That's the problem with our obsession with always seeing two sides of every issue equally -- especially when one side has a lot of money. It means we have to pretend there are always two truths, and the side that doesn't know anything has something to say. On this side of the debate: Every scientist in the world. On the other: Mr. Potato Head.

You can read the rest of the essay here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-maher/new-rule-al-gore-must-com_b_601381.html.

I think one of the reasons that progress comes so slowly is that we (and by “we” I mean all of us in the human race) can’t seem to give up on old arguments. As Maher puts it, “For progress to happen, certain things have to become not an issue anymore, so we can go on to the next issue.”

It isn’t that we don’t progress at all. The Flat Earth Society still exists (http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/), but I don’t think they’re serious. In 1992, the Catholic Church finally apologized to Galileo for his conviction in 1633 of heresy for holding that the Earth orbited the Sun, rather than the converse. Interestingly enough, the work that got Galileo into trouble, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, was actually approved for publication by the Inquisition. The book was supposed to present a balanced view of the arguments favoring a heliocentric and geocentric universe. Galileo got in trouble because his arguments for a heliocentric universe were so much stronger. See, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair.

So the problem began almost at the very beginnings of modern science. The whole basis of science is that all theories are not equally valid and, in fact, while always keeping in mind the possibility that new facts might alter our view, once a theory becomes generally accepted by the scientific community, then it is a fact on which we can base our life.

We can reach India either by traveling east or by traveling west because the Earth is round, not flat. We can send astronauts into orbit because the Earth orbits the Sun, not vice versa. These are facts, not debating points.

It’s important to remember that what is true isn’t determined by who can best argue the point. If you don’t believe me, get into an argument with one of the professional debaters at the Flat Earth Society. You’ll likely come away either believing the Earth is flat or with a new appreciation of the difference between facts and arguments.

Mantis

2010-06-07T17:22:00.000-05:00

Can you remember the last time you saw a praying mantis? Yesterday afternoon I was watching my kids play in the backyard when I discovered a baby praying mantis – such a fascinating creature! I snapped a couple of great shots of the kids observing this tiny, green, baby that seemed to love hanging out with us and running up and down are hands and arms. Below is a little information about the insect (http://garden.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Praying_Mantis_Facts).

What Is a Praying Mantis?

A praying mantis is a carnivorous insect. The mantis family includes about 2,000 different species, which range in size from about a centimeter to about 12 inches long. It's these bigger ones that most people think of when they think of praying mantises.

About 20 mantis species are native to the United States, but the European and Chinese versions of the insects have also been introduced in the states, mostly in an effort to control pests on farmlands.

The insects range in color, usually looking pea green or brown, but there are also mantises in various shades of green and even pink. They are named praying mantis because of the folding of their front legs, which looks like the posture of prayer. Some people mistakenly call them preying mantises, which is also somewhat accurate, given their skill as hunters.

Fun Praying Mantis Facts

Praying mantises have triangular-shaped heads and a compound eye on each side of their heads. They are the only insects that can turn their heads a full 180 degrees, and some species can turn almost 300 degrees without moving the rest of their bodies. They're also very sensitive to movement and can see something move up to 60 feet away.

The praying mantis is exclusively predatory – it only eats other animals, usually other insects such as flies. The larger members of the mantis species have been known to eat lizards, snakes, frogs, birds and even small rodents.

They tend to ambush their prey and are very fast when they attack. The forelegs are spiked, which helps the mantis hold on to its victims. They also have very powerful jaws, making it easy for them to kill their prey.

The praying mantis is considered diurnal, meaning that most of their activity takes place during the day, though sometimes you will see them flying around at night. They need the use of their keen eyesight to hunt, which is great news for us because we can often see them out and about in our gardens.

Downtown Dallas, Inc.

2010-06-07T17:19:00.000-05:00

Downtown Dallas, Inc.

A major part of the effort to revitalize Downtown Dallas is spearheaded by (if you can’t guess the name already), Downtown Dallas, Inc. Its website is certainly worth knowing: http://www.downtowndallas.org/. In addition, Kourtny Garrett writes a lively blog that appears here: http://downtowndallas.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/happenings/.

Today seems a good day to mention Downtown Dallas, Inc., because the blog has a mention of one of Dallas’s most interesting people, my friend Brent Brown. Here’s a sample:

BE BOLD! (or “Don’t be timid” to steal a quote from my urban hero, Brent Brown) In contrast to previous sessions when feedback was consistently based on setting “realistic” goals and prioritizing – the tone seemed to shift, stressing that the creation of 360 is our opportunity to aim high. Perhaps an indicator that the frugality of the last 24 months is shifting? Do I dare say we are becoming more hopeful? The specific reference in this case was discussion regarding potential deck parks over I-30, ala The Park (Woodall Rodgers Park). Can we fund and sustain another project like Woodall? Tell me what you think. (As a Cedars resident, personally, I say yes! The connection is critical…)

It’s also a good time to think of Downtown Dallas, Inc. because later this month we will be hosting one of Downtown Dallas’s monthly meetings. I’m hoping there will be time for me to show off what we’ve done here at CityWalk. Downtown Dallas’s support will be important for the creation of more affordable housing downtown.

2010-06-07T17:07:00.001-05:00

How Much Does Permanent Supportive Housing Save?

2010-06-03T01:00:00.000-05:00

I received some Dallas-specific numbers today on the savings that come from permanent supportive housing. The total ranges between $27,000 and $37,000 per year for each person moved from the street to permanent supportive housing.

Dallas has, according to the official count, about 650 chronically homeless persons (that’s someone who has been on the street at least one year or four times during the last three years). Let’s do some simple math:

$32,000 (the midpoint of the range of estimates) times 650 = $20,800,000

If it costs $100,000 to build a unit of permanent supportive housing, then that cost will pay for itself in slightly over three years.

Think about the return over thirty years! The savings come to $602,400,000 in savings—or an average of over 92% per year. Try to make that return in the stock market!

Think about the people! A total of 650 people would no longer sleep on the street, or in camps or in shelters but in their own safe and secure home.

Think about our city! How much safer and cleaner and more beautiful would Dallas be without long-term homeless people? How much better would the world think of us if we solved the problem of homelessness? How many corporations would move their headquarters to Dallas? How much more investment would pour into our downtown?

Permanent supportive housing is probably the most effective investment we can make in our city.

Lunch at Burger King

2010-06-02T01:00:00.000-05:00

Sometimes you have to experience something in order to begin to understand it. On my recent road trip to visit my Dad in Traverse City, Michigan that happened when my wife and I stopped at Burger King for lunch. We ordered a Whopper, onion rings and a soft drink. When I went and looked at the nutritional chart posted on the wall, I was horrified at what I had just eaten. The meal totaled 1330 calories and included copious amounts of fat, sugar and salt.

How bad was the meal nutritionally? Well, here’s a comparison of eating that meal as opposed to drinking your dinner:

Burger King Meal
Calories - 1330
Sugars(grams) - 73
Sodium(mg) - 1730
Saturated Fat - 15 grams
Carbs (grams) - 159
Protein (grams)- 35

Bottle of Red Wine
Calories - 711
Sugars(grams) - 0
Sodium(mg) - 0
Saturated Fat - 0
Carbs(grams) - 31
Protein(grams) - 1

6-pack of beer
Calories - 918
Sugars(grams) - 0
Sodium(mg) - 84
Saturated Fat - 0
Carbs(grams)- 76
Protein(grams)- 10

12-pack of light beer
Calories - 1224
Sugars(grams) - 0
Sodium(mg)- 156
Saturated Fat - 0
Carbs(grams)- 60
Protein(grams)- 8

I’m not trying to suggest that you ought to start drinking your meals—especially if you are going to be driving—but just to provide some kind of context of just how unhealthy fast food meals are.

First, look at calories. The generally accepted standard for weight maintenance is 13 calories per day for each pound that you weigh. So, if you weigh 102 lbs., then this one meal has used up all the calories you need for a day. It’s half the daily calorie allowance for a 200 lbs person. It also uses up more than 75% of your daily sodium (salt) intake and 75% of your intake of saturated fat.

In short, except for its protein content, the fast food meal is much less healthy, from a nutritional standpoint, than drinking a bottle of red wine, drinking a six-pack of beer, or even drinking an entire twelve-pack of light beer. Taking everything into consideration, the healthiest of these four meals is probably the six-pack of beer because it has a more appropriate carbohydrate and protein content for its number of calories than the wine or light beer and avoids the excessive fat and sodium of the fast food meal.

I suppose my surprise mainly shows how seldom I eat fast food. I know many people eat regularly at fast food places and I also know that it’s easy to put on weight and eat poorly even if you never eat out. But when fast food meals compare poorly in nutritional value even as opposed to the least healthy alternative I could think of—then it gives me pause.

And makes me want to sit down to a big plate of vegetables. It would take more than thirteen pounds of asparagus or eighteen heads of lettuce or 684 servings to make up as many calories—and you wouldn’t need to worry about the fat or sodium.

I don’t know about you, but if I ate 684 servings of salad, I wouldn’t have time to do anything else in a day.

A long, restful weekend

2010-06-01T12:27:00.003-05:00

by Nick Sowell

The long weekend was nice to have. I hope everyone did something fun and enjoyed themselves. I just watched movies with my little sister all weekend before she left for camp to be a counselor for the summer. Other than that, it was a very restful weekend.

CityWalk Community Spotlight - YMCA

2010-05-31T01:00:00.003-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

We started our Community Spotlight series with a visit from Paul Conklin, associate executive director of the T. Boone Pickens YMCA in downtown Dallas. The YMCA is offering membership discounts to CityWalk residents (the YMCA is located right next door to our building) so that they will be able to access all of the great resources at the Y.

Johnice Woods, our director of projects, made smoothies for attendees and gave away a blender.

Paul Conklin talks about the benefits of joining the YMCA.

Johnice Woods presents resident Synithia Page with a blender.

Healthy Eating Basics a hit

2010-05-30T01:00:00.013-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Jason's Deli hosted our first Healthy Eating Basics class for our residents at CityWalk. Renay Grubaugh of Jason's Deli talked to residents about the importance of eating "real" food and reading product labels.

The class also included an amazing buffet lunch by Jason's Deli that our residents are still talking about!

Thanks so much to Jason's Deli!

Renay Grubaugh of Jason's Deli

Resident Annie Brumfield

The food was so good, Miss Wanda broke out in a dance!

This Day in History

2010-05-27T01:00:00.003-05:00

May 27, 1937:
Golden Gate Bridge opens

Source: history.com

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a stunning technological and artistic achievement, opens to the public after five years of construction. On opening day--"Pedestrian Day"--some 200,000 bridge walkers marveled at the 4,200-foot-long suspension bridge, which spans the Golden Gate Strait at the entrance to San Francisco Bay and connects San Francisco and Marin County. On May 28, the Golden Gate Bridge opened to vehicular traffic.

The concept of bridging the nearly mile-wide Golden Gate Strait was proposed as early as 1872, but it was not until the early 1920s that public opinion in San Francisco began to favor such an undertaking. In 1921, Cincinnati-born bridge engineer Joseph Strauss submitted a preliminary proposal: a combination suspension-cantilever that could be built for $27 million. Although unsightly compared with the final result, his design was affordable, and Strauss became the recognized leader of the effort to bridge the Golden Gate Strait.

During the next few years, Strauss' design evolved rapidly, thanks to the contributions of consulting engineer Leon S. Moisseiff, architect Irving F. Morrow, and others. Moisseiff's concept of a simple suspension bridge was accepted by Strauss, and Morrow, along with his wife, Gertrude, developed the Golden Gate Bridge's elegant Art Deco design. Morrow would later help choose the bridge's trademark color: "international orange," a brilliant vermilion color that resists rust and fading and suits the natural beauty of San Francisco and its picturesque sunsets. In 1929, Strauss was selected as chief engineer.

To finance the bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District was formed in 1928, consisting of San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma, Del Norte, and parts of Mendocino and Napa counties. These counties agreed to collectively take out a large bond, which would then be paid back through bridge tolls. In November 1930, residents of the Golden Gate Bridge and Highway District voted 3-1 to put their homes, farms, and businesses up as collateral to support a $35 million bond to build Strauss' Golden Gate Bridge.

Construction began on January 5, 1933, at the height of the Great Depression. Strauss and his workers overcame many difficulties: strong tides, frequent storms and fogs, and the problem of blasting rock 65 feet below the water to plant earthquake-proof foundations. Eleven men died during construction. On May 27, 1937, the Golden Gate Bridge was opened to great acclaim, a symbol of progress in the Bay Area during a time of economic crisis. At 4,200 feet, it was the longest bridge in the world until the completion of New York City's Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in 1964. Today, the Golden Gate Bridge remains one of the world's most recognizable architectural structures.

Greener Pastures

2010-05-26T01:00:00.001-05:00

BY NICK SOWELL

If the grass is greener on the other side, then water your own.

This quote can be interpreted in many different ways according to your perspective. To me, this quote means work on yourself to better your life, which will make you happy with who you are and what you do. Once you are happy with your position in life then that will reflect onto others and in turn will make others happy and content. This may sound superficial, but you are only able to help others if you have first helped yourself.

Madame Butterfly

2010-05-25T01:00:00.001-05:00

The Dallas Opera performed one of the most beloved operas of all, Madame Butterfly, this May. The performances (with one exception) were exemplary, the singing glorious, and the sets and costumes very well done. I was impressed and enjoyed the opera.

I hope never to see it again.

The problem with Madame Butterfly is the story. An American naval officer named Pinkerton marries Madame Butterfly while he is stationed in Japan. To him, the marriage is a meaningless sham; it means no more to him than the house he rents. To her, it is everything. She changes her religion and is estranged from her family. When his ship goes to sea, Pinkerton largely forgets her and marries an American wife.

Madame Butterfly waits loyally for him with his son (born after he leaves for sea). Pinkerton returns to claim his son and, after much beautiful singing, she kills herself.

I think the problem is not only that Pinkerton acts so horribly but also that he is the character with whom it is easiest for us to identify. He is the American. I don’t know if Italian (the opera is by Puccini) or other audiences would face the same problem, but for me I can hardly stand to watch this dashing American naval officer act in so despicable a fashion.

I don’t know how the opera could be saved for me. I don’t see the opera as melodrama, where we know who the villain is and expect no more from him than evil. Melodrama makes the moral choices easy. Perhaps a different staging, where Pinkerton is less attractive—or more so—either simpler or more complex could make the opera appealing again to me.

For now, however, like The Merchant of Venice I think Madame Butterfly is a work that is now culturally inappropriate. Until someone works out a way of treating the characters differently, I really would rather not see it again. It doesn’t matter how beautifully it is presented.

Moby Dick at the Dallas Opera

2010-05-24T01:00:00.001-05:00

Earlier this month I saw the future of opera. It is Moby Dick at Dallas’s Winspear Opera House.

Moby Dick, which was commissioned by a group of opera houses that included Dallas, Calgary, San Francisco, and South Australia, was dramatic, compelling and, best of all, new.

If opera is to remain a living art form, then it needs to be dragged into the 21st century. Even opera buffs can’t be happy seeing the same operas like Don Giovanni (which I’ll see for the third time next year) or Madame Butterfly (which I’ll review soon). Audiences unfamiliar with opera are going to be even less excited about classic works in foreign languages. In its heyday, opera was contemporary art told in the vernacular. New operas were in great demand and the genre didn’t shy away from contemporary technology.

Moby Dick is the first 21st century opera. It is American and dares to turn one of the most heroic novels in American literature into a story for our time. The opera also embraces technology. The whaling ship is projected onto the stage as are the figures of the whaling boats and the sea.

Everything worked to stunning effect. It’s too late to see Moby Dick in Dallas now. It’s run is done. But if you happen to have a chance to see it during its tour, I couldn’t more strongly recommend it.

I’ll be looking forward to reviews from other venues to see if the technological advances used are dependent on the Winspear Opera House or work in other places as well. Maybe at some point one of you can let me know.

The Man in the Arena

2010-05-23T01:00:00.001-05:00

BY NICK SOWELL

It has always had a deep profound meaning for me.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

A Visit Home

2010-05-22T01:00:00.004-05:00

Next week I will be off to visit home—the Traverse City, Michigan area. I don’t get back very often. That is partly because I rarely take time off and partly because it’s a long way to drive from Dallas. It takes either three days or two very long days to drive. You can fly into Traverse City, but the airport is small and the flights are expensive.

Here’s an aerial picture of Traverse City:

The city nestles at the bottom of a long bay off of Lake Michigan. The Traverse Bay is divided into two parts (creatively called East Bay and West Bay) that are separated by a narrow band of land known as Old Mission. The views from the surrounding hills are tough to beat.

Old Mission has become a favorite location to establish vineyards over the past few decades. I don’t know if it is especially good for growing grapes, but the narrow band of land between the waters is certainly a great location to establish picturesque wineries.

This will be a pretty low key vacation. My wife and I are just going to drive there and spend time with my father and his wife and my brother and sister-in-law. We will do some sightseeing, maybe a little walking, at the most maybe we’ll find time to paddle a canoe.

I hope to decompress from an extremely busy winter and spring. There are some books that I’ve been wanting to read and I have some material for blogs that I just haven’t had time to write. I hope I’ll have time next week to do those simple things.

The 1970s Come Back Again

2010-05-21T01:00:00.000-05:00

On the way to work, I often listen to KERA and today I heard an opinion piece that made me wonder whether I’d fallen through a time warp and back to 1970. The topic was whether it was permissible for a woman to keep her original surname after she married. You can read or listen to the commentary here:
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kera/news.newsmain/article/0/1/1651504/North.Texas/Commentary.Surnames

When I get home, I guess I’ll check the date on today’s newspaper to make sure I didn’t misplace forty years, because I thought the right of a woman to keep her birth name if she wanted to was decided about that long ago—and if it is 1970, then I want to know why I’m not twenty-five years old again.

There comes a time when we need to put an issue behind ourselves as decided. We can’t keep fighting the same wars over and over again—not that I’ve run into anyone in years who says it’s wrong for a woman to keep her original surname after she marries. I don’t doubt that there are some people who believe that still around. There are people who believe the moon landing was faked; that they’ve been abducted by aliens; that the world is run by a secret society of Jewish Bankers, but not all opinions are equal and we don’t need to respond to everything.

Sometimes we just need to go forward and ignore some people’s opinions. We still have a lot of racist people, but I can’t see wasting time to argue with them whether racism is wrong or not. When you act as though an outdated opinion is worth arguing against, then you give it credence.

Not every issue has two sides. Not every question is open to argument.

This Day in History

2010-05-20T01:00:00.001-05:00

Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis receive patent for blue jeans
Source: history.com

On this day in 1873, San Francisco businessman Levi Strauss and Reno, Nevada, tailor Jacob Davis are given a patent to create work pants reinforced with metal rivets, marking the birth of one of the world's most famous garments: blue jeans.

Born Loeb Strauss in Buttenheim, Bavaria, in 1829, the young Strauss immigrated to New York with his family in 1847 after the death of his father. By 1850, Loeb had changed his name to Levi and was working in the family dry goods business, J. Strauss Brother & Co. In early 1853, Levi Strauss went west to seek his fortune during the heady days of the Gold Rush.

In San Francisco, Strauss established a wholesale dry goods business under his own name and worked as the West Coast representative of his family's firm. His new business imported clothing, fabric and other dry goods to sell in the small stores opening all over California and other Western states to supply the rapidly expanding communities of gold miners and other settlers. By 1866, Strauss had moved his company to expanded headquarters and was a well-known businessman and supporter of the Jewish community in San Francisco.

Jacob Davis, a tailor in Reno, Nevada, was one of Levi Strauss' regular customers. In 1872, he wrote a letter to Strauss about his method of making work pants with metal rivets on the stress points--at the corners of the pockets and the base of the button fly--to make them stronger. As Davis didn't have the money for the necessary paperwork, he suggested that Strauss provide the funds and that the two men get the patent together. Strauss agreed enthusiastically, and the patent for "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings"--the innovation that would produce blue jeans as we know them--was granted to both men on May 20, 1873.

Strauss brought Davis to San Francisco to oversee the first manufacturing facility for "waist overalls," as the original jeans were known. At first they employed seamstresses working out of their homes, but by the 1880s, Strauss had opened his own factory. The famous 501 brand jean--known until 1890 as "XX"--was soon a bestseller, and the company grew quickly. By the 1920s, Levi's denim waist overalls were the top-selling men's work pant in the United States. As decades passed, the craze only grew, and now blue jeans are worn by men and women, young and old, around the world.

Volunteer Appreciation Potluck

2010-05-19T01:00:00.006-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

CityWalk residents Leslie and her six-year-old daughter hosted an appreciation potluck this past Sunday for the volunteers of Dwell with Dignity, the nonprofit organization that designed their new apartment. http://citywalktalk.blogspot.com/2010/04/labor-of-love.html

It's wonderful to have a place like our beautiful 3rd floor community room and patio to offer to our residents for events. Just another reason why CityWalk is a great place to live.

Back to Nimbyism, Part II

2010-05-18T01:00:00.000-05:00

Another commentator in the Unfair Park discussion offered up this piece of satire:

As the owner of a luxury home here you can imagine how appalled I was when I saw a old Honda parked on the street, someone who clearly could not afford to live here was spending time in my neighborhood, likely getting intoxicated and using restroom facilities that were not their own. . . . Just the thought of sharing the street with people that have so little money compared to me makes me sick, who knows what kind of diseases and pests they are bringing with them. Many of them can't even afford a Lexus, even an used entry level model and instead assault my eyes with junk like 15 year old Hondas and Chevys. . . . . I want to be very clear, I don't "hate" poor people, I just wish they wouldn't be so, poor, it's so distasteful.

This is funny stuff, but it would be even funnier if it weren’t absolutely true.

One of my favorite recent issues was a dispute over whether a Frisco resident could park his new Ford 150 in his driveway. The homeowner’s association (“HOA”) said no:

Earlier this year, [Jim Greenwood] the Concentra Inc. CEO began getting notices from the Stonebriar HOA threatening to fine him for parking his truck in his driveway. They say pickup trucks are not allowed in the driveway – although other luxury vehicles, including the Cadillac Escalade and Lincoln Mark LT, pass muster.

Bill Osborn, a board member with the association, had explained that those vehicles are “fancier,” “plush with amenities” and do not look like pickups. Most domestic pickups are banned.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/081908dnmetfriscotrucks.ecbc1d7.html.

What could be worse than having to look out at your neighbor’s home and see a domestic pickup?

Seriously, though, if people are concerned enough to worry about the type of car your neighbor drives, I have to think that it will be a long uphill battle to convince a neighborhood to let us build homes for homeless people in their neighborhood. This isn’t work for the faint at heart or the easily discouraged.

It seems to bring out a primal fear in people. Perhaps it’s the fear that you won’t be able to keep your separate status. If people can see that your neighbor drives a domestic pickup, then maybe they will assume that you drive a domestic pickup as well.

The next thing you know everyone will be driving a 15 year old Honda or Chevy instead of a Cadillac Escalade or a Lincoln Mark LT.

Can you imagine anything more distasteful?

Back to Nimbyism, Part I

2010-05-17T01:00:00.003-05:00

Once again I’ve been thinking about Nimbyism (Not In My Backyard). Take the opposition to EVERgreen Residences, a proposed project to be located at 3800 Willow, near Exposition Park in Dallas. The neighborhood spoke out against this particular project:

This type of residential housing, we don't oppose," said Ken Maxwell of Exposition Park Association to the near-capacity crowd of approximately 175 people gathered in the Central Library auditorium. "We actually want this kind of housing, and think it should be a part of Dallas.

"However, this is not the neighborhood for that kind of housing," he continued. "Across the street from a gallery? Next door to 500X? Adjacent to the Santa Fe Trail? This is not where you put this type of housing."

Quoted in Unfair Park: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/04/strong_expo_park_showing_oppos.php.

There is a long discussion (69 Comments!) about this project at the link above that I got somewhat involved in. Here’s part of my comment:

If I hear one more person say I support this kind of project but it doesn't belong in my neighborhood because (we're too rich; we're too poor; we don't have any homeless people; we already have too many homeless people; etc.) I will vomit.

Man up and just say you don't care what happens to these people so long as they aren't allowed in your neighborhood. I can respect honesty.

I thought about this discussion recently when I read the following statement by a former resident of the Robert Taylor Homes, a massive former housing project in Chicago:

“They didn’t care about these people when they were in the buildings,” he said. “They don’t care about ‘em now.”

http://trueslant.com/megancottrell/2009/10/16/nimby-if-not-your-backyard-then-whose/.

I think we need to start with what is true and try to work out a solution from there. It sounds a lot nicer to say that you support permanent supportive housing in principal and then offer some rationalizations as to why your particular neighborhood just happens to be the wrong one in which to build it, but I don’t believe it. Most of us just don’t care very much about the down and out. That’s especially true when it might inconvenience us in any small way.

Almost Perfect Biscuits

2010-05-16T01:00:00.004-05:00

I’m still making biscuits and still trying for that elusive perfect biscuit recipe. I want a recipe that will make a fluffy, flakey, high-rising biscuit with a perfect “biscuit” taste every time. I’m getting pretty close, but I’m not there yet. Let me talk about what I’ve learned, and then I’ll offer my current best recipe.

First, you’ve got a trade off. The more baking powder that you use (within reason), the higher your biscuits will rise. There is a penalty. Too much baking powder will affect the taste of your biscuits—I found that out early on (http://citywalktalk.blogspot.com/2010/03/biscuits.html). But this trade off is different for every person. It depends on your taste buds. If I use more than two teaspoons of baking powder, then I can taste it in the biscuits. Some people can’t taste the baking powder if you use twice that amount. So a recipe might be perfect for you—and I won’t like it.

Second, even small variations in the ingredients make a big difference. I find that using pastry (cake) flour helps the biscuits rise. I also find that I get a better biscuit, flakier and more flavorful if I use lard as the fat. Lard is, after all, a southern tradition.

Third, if you want high biscuits, then it’s best to roll out the dough as thick as an inch, or even more. The biscuits only rise so much, but if they are bigger to begin with, then they will be taller when you are done.

Finally, you can’t get away from measuring. I love to cook by eye, but when I try to bake by approximating the quantities, the results are uneven at best. So here is my current recipe:

2 cups white pastry (cake) flour
1/3 cup lard
1 Tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Either sift the dry ingredients together or do what lazy people like me do: Pour all the dry ingredients together in a bowl and use a whisk to stir them together. Add the lard (if you insist on using butter or another fat, then you’ll need ½ cup rather than 1/3 cup). You need to mix the lard with the dry ingredients until they are thoroughly incorporated and the biscuit dough looks like pea gravel or large grains of sand. The only way to do that is with your fingers—don’t believe anyone that tells you a pastry cutter works as well.

But if you put the lard in the center of the bowl and toss some of the flour over it before you start squeezing then you won’t get as much lard stuck to your fingers. After you are done mixing the lard with the dry ingredients, pour the buttermilk in all at once. Use a wooden spoon to mix the buttermilk in until you get a dough that barely sticks together (if it won’t stick, then use a little more buttermilk—but only as a last resort). Put the dough on a floured board and knead it a couple of times before flatting it out so you can cut the biscuits.

Real experts use a biscuit cutter, but I don’t have one so I just use a glass.

Cut out as many biscuits as possible and put them on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Take the leftovers and gently form them together, either to cut out more biscuits or just sort of form them by hand. The less you work the dough, the more tender your biscuits will be.

Place the biscuits in the oven and bake for twenty minutes. Then eat them with butter, jam, honey, slivers of ham or whatever you like.

In Praise of Renting

2010-05-15T01:00:00.001-05:00

Homeownership has long been central to the American dream. At the very founding of our country, ownership of land and civic virtue were seen as intertwined:

"I think our governments will remain virtuous for many centuries; as long as they are chiefly agricultural."- Thomas Jefferson

Homeownership is often seen as the key to individual financial stability and strong communities.

I think it may be time to start thinking differently (of course Central Dallas CDC is mostly a developer of multifamily properties—a landlord—so you may want to take that into account in considering what I say). In the United States today, less than 3% of us work in agriculture. For most of us, our home is only a place to live, not to grow our food. In 1930, when we had less than half as many people as we do now, we had more than six times as many farmers.

The recent housing crisis has brought home the risks of homeownership. JPMorgan Chase issued a warning just yesterday that 29% of homeowners in the United States may owe more on their home than it is worth. (See here, for example, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/11/jpmorgan-chase-warns-inve_n_571103.html). There are a lot of cool calculators on the Internet that purport to show whether it’s better to buy or to rent a home. Here is one from The New York Times, with great graphics: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html.

The problem with all these calculators is that in order for them to work you have to tell them how much home prices and rents will increase or decrease over the number of years for which you want information. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a clue what will happen to the economy tomorrow, let alone in thirty years. In general home prices have risen over the long term—but not for the last couple of years. Government tax policy also generally supports homeownership, if you are in the right tax bracket, but government policy can always change.

There is something to be said for renting, however. Renting allows us to be mobile. We Americans tend to move a lot. One in six of us move every year, and as a group we average almost twelve moves in a lifetime. My wife and I have lived in the same house for twenty-three years now (but we are moving this year) and almost everybody else I know has moved once or more during that time.

Each move makes homeownership less financially attractive. We may be at the end of a time period in which housing prices always rose at more than the inflation rate. That doesn’t mean that people still won’t want to buy homes and live in them and, hopefully, pay them off. It might mean, however, that it won’t make sense to buy a house until you are done moving. Too many people now would like to move for a new opportunity and can’t because they can’t sell their house.

Two great American loves, owning our own place and the freedom to pick up and start again somewhere else, have always been in conflict. That conflict may be getting worse.

Eviction

2010-05-14T01:00:00.001-05:00

I’ve said it before, but I often need to repeat the fact: Central Dallas Community Development Corporation is a landlord. In many ways we aren’t like most nonprofits. We don’t give anything away. If you don’t pay the rent or you break the rules at one of our apartment complex, then we will evict you.

That doesn’t mean we aren’t trying to help people. All our efforts are to develop high quality sustainable and affordable housing. The way we help requires more severity than most programs directed towards low income people. If we can’t pay our bills, then we can’t help anybody. More than that even, affordable housing currently has a poor reputation in communities. The only way I think that reputation can be improved is by long-term, consistent excellence in the operation of our projects.

There may be times when we fall short of our goals, but those goals are always uppermost in our minds.

Because, however, we do evict people, we have a responsibility to think about the effect of our actions. A recent post on the Urbanophile (http://www.urbanophile.com/2010/05/11/megan-cottrell-eviction-is-to-black-women-what-incarceration-is-to-black-men/) reprinted from One Story Up (http://trueslant.com/megancottrell/), brings home how evictions effect people. Here’s an excerpt, but you should really go to the link above and read the entire essay:

“We know a lot about the consequences of incarceration. That doesn’t mean that no one should be locked up,” [Matt Desmond] says. “But it probably means that not so many people should. It may be the same for eviction.”

That means anti-poverty programs need to listen up. Free school lunches are nice. But no amount of school lunches make up for not having a home and not being able to get one. We’ve got to figure out what’s going on in our communities and what solutions can help.

We’ve still got a lot to learn. But to begin, I think we need to start seeing eviction – witnessing what’s happening in our city.

Imagine it’s you. You lost your job. The bills are piling up. The rent is three months late. You’ve borrowed money from everyone you can think of, and there’s nothing left. The notice comes, and you pray it won’t happen, but it does. Your stuff – in boxes. Your children don’t have a place to come home to after school. Where will you go? And how will you put your life back together?

In the same way that we need to think about the after effects of incarceration—because almost everyone in prison comes back to the community sooner or later—we need to think about the after effects of eviction. Just like sometimes we have to jail people, sometimes we have to evict them. It’s part of our responsibility to the larger community of people who live in our apartments.

Even though we’ve had to evict someone that doesn’t mean they disappear. They are here somewhere in our community; maybe on our streets.

Swimming with Canoes by John McPhee, Part II

2010-05-13T01:00:00.001-05:00

Last Thursday (May 6) I talked a little about an essay by John McPhee called Swimming with Canoes. I hope you’ve had a chance to read it, but if not here’s the link again: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201005/canoes.aspx.

In addition to being beautifully written, I think John McPhee embeds an idea in his work that we need to re-embrace—the value of play. When the canoe overturns and McPhee is trapped beneath it, he knows just what to do. Not because he’s trained for that particular event, but because he’s spent hours playing with the canoe. He’s stood up in it (surely someone has told you never to stand up in a canoe!), he’s fallen out of it, he’s spun it around and around and swam underneath it.

The canoe in all its capacities is familiar to him. That isn’t something you learn by formal training. Sure, if you want to go fast in a canoe, then you need to spend your time practicing and perfecting your stroke (right, brother?), but if you want to know everything a canoe can do, then you need to play with it; use it in unconventional ways; stretch the limits of the possible.

The same principle applies to most things. The best way to learn to use a computer or a cell phone is to play with it. You can find out all, or at many, of the things it can do by playing with it. You don’t need to worry about making mistakes, because in play there are no mistakes. You aren’t trying to go anywhere or do anything in particular. You are just playing.

When we become adults, we often lose the ability to play. When we do, we lose the ability to be creative. You can play with ideas, just as you can with things.

For me, many of my ideas—like the concepts that led to CityWalk@Akard--begin as play. In my mind I spin the building around; cut it into layers; combine uses; combine different funding mechanisms; draw sketches and trials of numbers. All this activity is usually dressed up with fancier terms—brainstorming or something—but it is just play.

Here’s a thing or an idea. What are all the things we can do with it? Most of those things turn out to be silly, like standing up in a canoe. Sometimes though, you discover a way to use an idea that opens new and different possibilities.

The more we open our minds to look at all the possibilities, the better is the chance that we will find something new.

Is It Still a Frivolous Lawsuit If You Win?

2010-05-12T01:00:00.002-05:00

One benefit of not actively practicing law for me is that I get told a lot fewer lawyer jokes. But here’s the story of a lawsuit that probably justifies all those lawyer jokes:

In 1996 an Israeli woman sued a TV station for predicting fair weather, prompting her to dress lightly and be rained upon later that day. She asked for $1000 for her resulting sickness which caused her to miss work. We don't know what's more strange: the fact that she actually sued over an act of nature, or the fact that she won (source).

Even I never thought seriously about suing the weatherman or weatherwoman. Looks like I missed a good bet.

This Day in History

2010-05-11T01:00:00.000-05:00

May 11, 1947:
B.F. Goodrich Co. announces development of tubeless tire

Source: history.com

On this day in 1947, the B.F. Goodrich Company of Akron, Ohio, announces it has developed a tubeless tire, a technological innovation that would make automobiles safer and more efficient.

Pneumatic tires--or tires filled with pressurized air--were used on motor vehicles beginning in the late 1800s, when the French rubber manufacturer Michelin & Cie became the first company to develop them. For the first 60 years of their use, pneumatic tires generally relied on an inner tube containing the compressed air and an outer casing that protected the tube and provided traction. The disadvantage of this design was that if the inner tube failed--which was always a risk due to excess heat generated by friction between the tube and the tire wall--the tire would blow out immediately, causing the driver to lose control of the vehicle.

The culmination of more than three years of engineering, Goodrich's tubeless tire effectively eliminated the inner tube, trapping the pressurized air within the tire walls themselves. By reinforcing those walls, the company claimed, they were able to combine the puncture-sealing features of inner tubes with an improved ease of riding, high resistance to bruising and superior retention of air pressure. While Goodrich awaited approval from the U.S. Patent Office, the tubeless tires underwent high-speed road testing, were put in service on a fleet of taxis and were used by Ohio state police cars and a number of privately owned passenger cars.

The testing proved successful, and in 1952, Goodrich won patents for the tire's various features. Within three years, the tubeless tire came standard on most new automobiles. According to an article published in The New York Times in December 1954, "If the results of tests…prove valid in general use, the owner of a 1955 automobile can count on at least 25 per cent more mileage, easier tire changing if he gets caught on a lonely road with a leaky tire, and almost no blowouts." The article quoted Howard N. Hawkes, vice president and general manager of the tire division of the United States Rubber Company, as calling the general adoption of the tubeless tire "one of the most far-reaching changes ever to take place in the tire industry." The radial-ply tire, a tubeless model with walls made of alternating layers--also called plies--of tough rubber cord, was created by Michelin later that decade and is now considered the standard for automobiles in all developed countries.

Another busy weekend

2010-05-10T11:21:00.003-05:00

BY NICK SOWELL

The past four days have been long days for me. I’ve had my best friend’s wedding that I was a part of, which of course as you know involves a lot of stuff. However, I am very happy for both he and his new wife.

Also, happy belated Mother’s Day to all those mothers out there who have worked so hard for their children. I love my mother very much, so I was very happy to have spent Mother’s Day with her, my father, and my brother and his girlfriend.

I’m also happy to be starting a new week.

This Day in History

2010-05-09T01:00:00.004-05:00

Source: history.com

On this day in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issues a presidential proclamation that officially establishes the first national Mother's Day holiday to celebrate America's mothers.

The idea for a "Mother's Day" is credited by some to Julia Ward Howe (1872) and by others to Anna Jarvis (1907), who both suggested a holiday dedicated to a day of peace. Many individual states celebrated Mother's Day by 1911, but it was not until Wilson lobbied Congress in 1914 that Mother's Day was officially set on the second Sunday of every May. In his first Mother's Day proclamation, Wilson stated that the holiday offered a chance to "[publicly express] our love and reverence for the mothers of our country."

In 2002, President George W. Bush echoed Wilson's sentiments by acknowledging mothers in his official statement on Mother's Day in 2002. He commended foster mothers as well as his own "fabulous mother" for their "love and sacrifice." He also mentioned past presidents' expressions of appreciation for their mothers. He quoted John Quincy Adams as having said "all that I am my mother made me" and Abraham Lincoln's sentiment that "all that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother...[my mother's prayers] have clung to me all my life." Bush's own mother, Barbara, was a popular first lady when the elder Bush served as president from 1989 to 1992.

TV Moms We Love

2010-05-08T01:00:00.008-05:00

From some of the most popular TV shows in history, here are some of the most memorable TV moms.

Source: biography.com

The Munsters, 1964-66
Character: "Lily Munster"
Family: Herman, Eddie, Marilyn

The Brady Bunch, 1969-74
Character: "Carol Brady"
Family: Mike, Greg, Peter, Bobby, Marcia, Jan, Cindy

Family Ties, 1982-89
Character: "Elyse Keaton"
Family: Michael, Alex, Mallory, Jennifer, Andy

The Cosby Show, 1984-92
Character: "Claire Huxtable"
Family: Cliff, Theo, Sandra, Denise, Vanessa, Rudy

Life Skills set to change lives

2010-05-07T12:23:00.008-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Our Life Skills sessions started yesterday evening with the Our Calling ministry,which is headed up by Wayne Walker. Several of our residents came out to meet Wayne and his team and to talk about some of the topics/personal issues that they want to address and work through during the sessions, which will now be offered at CityWalk on a regular basis.

Some of the topics to be addressed include:
Personal Dignity - Character - Relationships - Ethics
Health - Addictions - Life Purpose - Honesty
Money Management - Responsibilities - Tolerance
Communication - Forgiveness - Keeping a job
Accountability - Anger - Fear - Stress - Life Management

Our Calling also provides bible studies, 12 Step programs, mentoring and coaching. You can find out more about this organization here: http://www.ourcalling.org/.

Here's Wayne (right), Taylor Patterson and an Our Calling ministry volunteer.

We're excited and grateful to be working with them!

Swimming with Canoes by John McPhee, Part I

2010-05-06T09:59:00.004-05:00

First, let me say this, if you don’t already know John McPhee’s work, then you need to come to know it. McPhee is the winner of a Pulitzer Prize in 1999 and the author of thirty books, including such classics as Levels of the Game, The Survival of the Bark Canoe, and The Control of Nature.

But today I’d like to draw your attention to a short piece that’s posted on the Sierra Club website. Here’s an excerpt:

Now and again, Keewaydin let us take our canoes not so much onto the water as into it, during swim period. We went swimming with our canoes. We jounced. Jouncing is the art of propelling a canoe without a paddle. You stand up on the gunwales near the stern deck and repeatedly flex and unflex your knees. The canoe rocks, slaps the lake, moves forward. Sooner or later, you lose your balance and fall into the water, because the gunwales are slender rails and the stern deck is somewhat smaller than a pennant. From waters deeper than you were tall, you climbed back into your canoe. If you think that's easy, try it.

After three or four splats, and with a belly pink from hauling it over gunwales, you lost interest in jouncing. What next? You sat in your canoe and deliberately overturned it. You leaned hard to one side, grabbed the opposite gunwale, and pulled. Out you went and into the water. This was, after all, swim period. Now you rolled your canoe, an action it resists far less when it is loaded with water. You could make your canoe spiral like a football inside the lake.

You can read the whole essay here: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201005/canoes.aspx.

I hope you will read it, because there are some ideas buried in the essay that I think we could all benefit from thinking about.

Thank you Winstead!

2010-05-05T01:00:00.003-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Yesterday, Colleen Lujan of Winstead PC dropped off monies donated by Winstead employees that will help furnish two of our apartments here at CityWalk. The employees held a Jeans Day event to raise money for CityWalk and have also been donating household goods on a regular basis to assist our residents.

For information on how you can help, please contact me at 214.573.2570 ext. 2133.

This Day in History

2010-05-04T01:00:00.001-05:00

May 4, 1865:
Lincoln is buried in Springfield, Illinois

Source: history.com

On this day in 1865, Abraham Lincoln is laid to rest in his hometown of Springfield, Illinois.

His funeral train had traveled through 180 cities and seven states before reaching Springfield. At each stop, mourners paid their respects to Lincoln, who had been assassinated on April 14. Lincoln's son Willie, who died at age 11 from typhoid fever in 1862 and had originally been buried in Washington while Lincoln was serving as president, was interred next to his father in the family plot that same day.

This Day in History

2010-05-03T01:00:00.000-05:00

May 3, 1952:
Fletcher lands on the North Pole

Source: history.com

A ski-modified U.S. Air Force C-47 piloted by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph O. Fletcher of Oklahoma and Lieutenant Colonel William P. Benedict of California becomes the first aircraft to land on the North Pole. A moment later, Fletcher climbed out of the plane and walked to the exact geographic North Pole, probably the first person in history to do so.

In the early 20th century, American explorers Robert Peary and Dr. Frederick Cook, both claiming to have separately reached the North Pole by land, publicly disputed each other's claims. In 1911, Congress formally recognized Peary's claim. In recent years, further studies of the conflicting claims suggest that neither expedition reached the exact North Pole, but that Peary came far closer, falling perhaps 30 miles short. In 1952, Lieutenant Colonel Fletcher was the first person to undisputedly stand on the North Pole. Standing alongside Fletcher on the top of the world was Dr. Albert P. Crary, a scientist who in 1961 traveled to the South Pole by motorized vehicle, becoming the first person in history to have stood on both poles.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

2010-05-02T01:00:00.001-05:00

Source: emaxhealth.com

Mental health issues affect all of society in some way, shape, or form. It is estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year and that translates to about 57.7 million people.

Research shows that the number one obstacle in seeking treatment for mental illness is stigma. Negative stereotypes and a lack of understanding of mental illness keep people from actually getting help for treatable conditions.

Mental illnesses are medical conditions that disrupt a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished capacity for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Mental illnesses are serious medical illnesses. They cannot be overcome through "will power" and are not related to a person's "character" or intelligence. Mental illness falls along a continuum of severity.

Mental health issues are treatable and without treatment the consequences of mental illness for the individual and society can create unnecessary disability, unemployment, substance abuse, homelessness, inappropriate incarceration, and even suicide. The economic cost of untreated mental illness is more than 100 billion dollars each year in the United States.

During mental health awareness month professionals, organizations, schools, communities, hospitals and even media outlets will join together in an effort to raise the awareness about mental health and attempt to decrease the stigma that prevents people from getting the help they need.

This Day in History

2010-05-01T01:00:00.001-05:00

Source: history.com

On this day in 1931, President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City's Empire State Building, pressing a button from the White House that turns on the building's lights. Hoover's gesture, of course, was symbolic; while the president remained in Washington, D.C., someone else flicked the switches in New York.

The idea for the Empire State Building is said to have been born of a competition between Walter Chrysler of the Chrysler Corporation and John Jakob Raskob of General Motors, to see who could erect the taller building. Chrysler had already begun work on the famous Chrysler Building, the gleaming 1,046-foot skyscraper in midtown Manhattan. Not to be bested, Raskob assembled a group of well-known investors, including former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith. The group chose the architecture firm Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates to design the building. The Art-Deco plans, said to have been based in large part on the look of a pencil, were also builder-friendly: The entire building went up in just over a year, under budget (at $40 million) and well ahead of schedule. During certain periods of building, the frame grew an astonishing four-and-a-half stories a week.

At the time of its completion, the Empire State Building, at 102 stories and 1,250 feet high (1,454 feet to the top of the lightning rod), was the world's tallest skyscraper. The Depression-era construction employed as many as 3,400 workers on any single day, most of whom received an excellent pay rate, especially given the economic conditions of the time. The new building imbued New York City with a deep sense of pride, desperately needed in the depths of the Great Depression, when many city residents were unemployed and prospects looked bleak. The grip of the Depression on New York's economy was still evident a year later, however, when only 25 percent of the Empire State's offices had been rented.

In 1972, the Empire State Building lost its title as world's tallest building to New York's World Trade Center, which itself was the tallest skyscraper for but a year. Today the honor belongs to Taiwan's Taipei 101 building, which stretches 1,670 feet into the sky.

Sunlight

2010-04-30T01:00:00.004-05:00

In the sunlight I can see
No longer fingerprints that belong to me
Now only the smoothness of my skin
Like dreams long since vanished in the wind.

The sunlight reveals my dreams - so clear
It’s that moment I should not fear
To understand the trueness of my being
I must accept the sadness of my seeing.

What though is sadness, if not regrets
If only somehow I could pay back all of my debts
Then most assuredly I would see
What the sunlight is revealing to me.

C.N. Lemmon
January 2010

Affordability

2010-04-29T01:00:00.000-05:00

[This essay is based on part of an introductory talk that I gave at the U.S. Green Building Council’s Earthday program this year.]

In some sense anything that sells has to be affordable to someone, otherwise it wouldn’t sell. But when we talk of affordable housing, then we are usually talking about what is affordable to someone of lower or middle income. The rule of thumb is that housing is affordable if it costs no more than 30% of your yearly gross income, including utilities, upkeep, taxes, insurance and mortgage or rent payments.

That 30% number can change, especially as your income grows. If you have a little money, then you have more choices. You can choose to eat out (more), buy a fancier car, send your children to private school—or buy more house. The less income that you have, then the fewer choices are available to you.

In Dallas 63% of residents make less than $50,000 (All the statistics here are for time periods from 2006 to 2008, the latest I could find, but there isn’t much reason to think the numbers have changed significantly.). If your income is $50,000 per year, then the most expensive home you could normally afford would cost about $120,000.

Only 10% of the homes in Dallas sell for $120,000 or less.

The gap between what people can afford and what a home costs probably explains why only 42% of Dallas residents are homeowners, 25% less than the national average.

Those statistics only begin to tell the story. Another 35% of Dallas residents could not afford to buy a home that costs more than $75,000. Out of all of Dallas’s housing in the southern sector, 42% is substandard and most of those homes are the cheapest—no surprise there.

Building a new three bedroom, two bath house costs a minimum of about $120,000. Community development corporations like Central Dallas CDC knows that it takes a minimum amount of about $30,000 to make those homes affordable to most families. The City of Dallas has about 400,000 households. If we wanted to reach the national average for homeownership, then we would have to help another 100,000 Dallas families become homeowners. At 30,000 in subsidy per home that would cost roughly $3,000,000,000--$3 billion just to get to the national average.

You can probably guess that that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Even in their wildest dreams, community housing organizations have never thought about asking for more than $30 million in city funding, that isn’t likely to happen, and even if it did, and the population didn’t increase, then it would still take 100 years for Dallas to get to the national average for homeownership.

What do all these numbers mean? In the short term they mean that Dallas will remain a city with a very high proportion, probably a majority, of renters. That’s not such a bad thing and we’ll talk about why in another essay.

A Red, Red Rose

2010-04-28T01:00:00.000-05:00

by Robert Burns

O my Luve's like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June;
O my Luve's like the melodie
That's sweetly played in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry:

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve,
And fare thee weel awhile!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' it ware ten thousand mile.

My Weekend

2010-04-27T01:00:00.000-05:00

By Nick Sowell

This past weekend was a busy weekend. I spent a good deal of time moving the rest of my things into my new apartment in Uptown - really, people should only have to ever move once in their lives. Also, I had a dinner for my good friend’s wedding, and I house sat for my brother since he was trapped in Paris due to the volcano.

I got to see my sister this weekend; she is a freshman at the University of Texas. It was great seeing her. We all had dinner as a family, even though there were a few family members missing.

I am so happy there are Big Reds in the coke machine at work, seriously great.

Overall, rested and ready to battle another week.

When You Are Old

2010-04-26T01:00:00.001-05:00

by W. B. Yeats

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

CityWalk Movie Night a success!

2010-04-25T01:00:00.009-05:00

We had our first Movie Night on Friday, April 23 in the third floor community room at CityWalk. The featured film was Evan Almighty and the theme was family fun. Residents, along with their children, enjoyed nachos and popcorn and a really funny movie.

Here are some of the photos from the event:

Residents Sharon Tillis and Bobby Warren

William Ferguson and Joseph Gant

Sea Shell

2010-04-23T01:00:00.001-05:00

by Amy Lowell

Sea Shell, Sea Shell,
Sing me a song, O Please!
A song of ships, and sailor men,
And parrots, and tropical trees,
Of islands lost in the Spanish Main
Which no man ever may find again,
Of fishes and corals under the waves,
And seahorses stabled in great green caves.
Sea Shell, Sea Shell,
Sing of the things you know so well.

National Poetry Month - The Eagle

2010-04-22T01:00:00.000-05:00

by Lord Alfred Tennyson

He clasps the crag with crooked hands;
Close to the sun in lonely lands,
Ringed with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;
He watches from his mountain walls,
And like a thunderbolt he falls.

The Differences between CityWalk and EVERgreen

2010-04-21T01:00:00.001-05:00

Today’s blog began as an answer to a question on the Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum, but I thought it had enough general interest to post here. EVERgreen is a proposed permanent supportive project from First Presbyterian here in Dallas.

“How would you compare & contrast this proposal for Expo Park with Central Dallas Community Development Corp and 511 Akard?”

I have only glanced at the EVERgreen application, but I can talk a little bit about the differences between Evergreen and CityWalk.

First, the projects are based on different models. We copied from Common Ground in New York. Projects based on that model try to include a mixed population of people who have been homeless and people who haven't. To make that work, the housing has to be attractive enough so that market tenants aren't discouraged from renting there by the stigma that still attaches to a homeless building.

That's why CityWalk needed to be downtown. Affordable housing is so rare in Downtown Dallas that demand far exceeds supply.

The downside is that it's a very expensive choice. We raised a ton of philanthropic money for CityWalk, but that was because it was a first and caught the imagination of some people with money. In New York, Common Ground has managed to build 3,000 units on this model because a lot of state and local money is available. In Texas there is no state money, and there will only be local money if the City Council and the voters approve it in a bond issue--and that money would likely not be available until 2012 at best.

Evergreen looks to me like it is based on some of the models I saw in San Francisco (I don't know if they looked at those models or not). In the old Tenderloin district there are a number of former Merchant Marine hotels that have been converted to permanent supportive housing. They all have shared kitchens like the Evergreen project.

I have looked at projects that are 100% formerly in a number of cities and they work just fine, so I don't think that's a problem. I also think the location is fine. To properly run a permanent supportive housing program you need enough units (probably a minimum of 75 units) to do so efficiently. Otherwise the operating costs eat you up.

The need for that much density makes it difficult to locate in traditional single-family areas. You also need access to good mass transportation and land that isn't too expensive. In Dallas, the best locations are Downtown (if you can afford it), the Cedars, the near East Side, the Design District, and maybe some of the more commercial areas of Oak Cliff or near one of DART's light rail stops.

The more diverse and dense a place is, the better. Most of those locations are going to have to have 100% psh units. I know the people in the Cedars or Expo park don't want to hear it, but those areas are sketchy enough already for renters. There won't be a market for mixed projects any time soon, unless you do something really special with building.

Graham Greene is a good architect and the Evergreen building looks good, from what I've seen. I think Evergreen would actually raise property values--it's likely to be the best looking building in Exposition Park. The approach is very similar to what and where New Hope housing is doing in Houston. Their projects have been very successful.

The only thing I don't like about Evergreen is the shared kitchens. That won't affect people outside the building, but they tend to be a management problem. People don't clean up, take other people's food. The problem isn't any different from four guys sharing an apartment in college--but it's a problem there as well.

I would guess it was done as a cost saving measure, but it could also be an expression of their philosophy. Building community be eating together and all. I still wouldn't do it.

Either a mixed population or all psh works fine--if you get people a place and do a good job with management then there really aren't any other secrets, from what I've seen.

I don't see any reason it shouldn't be a successful project and an asset to the community.

A final note: It's just coincidence that both Evergreen and The Cottages are under development on the East Side of Downtown. We don't talk to each other about our projects, even though we all know each other. With only two or three viable choices, it's not so surprising. I have tried to develop projects in the Design District and the Cedars, but those didn't work out for one reason or another. First Presbyterian also had a proposal Downtown that didn't work out.

Anyway, that's all I know and more.

CityWalk—the poem

2010-04-20T01:00:00.000-05:00

Since it’s Poetry Month, and this is CityWalkTalk, here’s a poem about CityWalk that my wife, Rebecca Garza Greenan, wrote and performed at a Poetry Slam in San Antonio. You should think of it as a blues piece, sort of a la Langston Hughes.

City Walk

I walked around the city,
‘cause I’d no place to sleep.

I walked around the city,
‘cause I’d no place to eat.

I walked around the city,
‘cause I’d no place to be.

I once had a bed,
A roof over my head,

But something went wrong,
And I lost my home.

Then I heard about a place,
Being planned just for me.

A high rise downtown,
A safe haven for me,

A clean bed in a place,
To which I’d hold the key.

My home is now City Walk.
Now,
The city
Walks around me.

Book Club a blast for residents

2010-04-19T01:00:00.007-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Our calendar of activities for our residents at CityWalk is beginning to expand. We attended the monthly book club hosted by Central Dallas Ministries on April 15, where the featured book was Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America by Barbara Ehrenreich. It was great to see our residents engaged in and enlightened by the discussion.

We're looking forward to our first Movie Night this Friday and planning for an upcoming Karaoke Night. Fun times!

Wanda Bennett, Martesha Cox, Warren Lisenbee, Nick Sowell, and Johnice Woods walk over to First United Methodist Church for Book Club.

Residents listen intently during the Book Club event.

'Labor of Love'

2010-04-18T01:00:00.006-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

A few months ago, we told you about Dwell with Dignity, the non-profit interior design group that would be designing a two bedroom apartment at CityWalk for new residents Leslie and her six year old daughter. http://citywalktalk.blogspot.com/2010/01/dwell-with-dignity.html

The big reveal happened yesterday afternoon and it was amazing. The entire apartment was absolutely gorgeous and filled with so many beautiful pieces of furniture, all mostly donated or refurbished. Leslie was overwhelmed with emotion and her daughter was bouncing off the walls with excitement. This was their home and it was more than they had imagined it would be.

A huge thank you goes out to Dwell with Dignity Founder and President Lisa Robison, Executive Director Kim Turner, and their team of dedicated volunteers for making this much-anticipated move-in day a memorable one.

Here are some of the photos:

Leslie and Lisa in the living room. "It's a labor of love," Lisa said about the Dwell with Dignity project.

For more information about the work of Dwell with Dignity, go to http://dwellwithdignity.org/.

Toiletries are always needed

2010-04-17T01:00:00.003-05:00

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Move-ins at CityWalk are occurring more frequently now, so we are giving out tons of toiletry supplies to get our new residents started. If you've been wondering how you can help, you should consider hosting a donation drive for toiletries. This is an easy and inexpensive way to get involved because you can simply ask your friends or co-workers to bring a bag of toiletries to you and then you can drop them off at CityWalk at Akard, where they will be given to low-income and formerly homeless residents.

Just contact me at 214.573.2570 ext. 2133 or ncomeaux@centraldallascdc.org to let me know when you'll be stopping by.

CityWalk: A Good Example?

2010-04-16T01:00:00.005-05:00

Over at Unfair Park (http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/04/what.php#comments;) there is quite a discussion going on about the proposed EVERgreen Residences located at 3800 Willow near Exposition Park. I’m going to try to stay out of this discussion—for once it’s nice not to be on the firing line—but I do have to say that it’s both sad and hilarious that almost every speaker at the public hearing last night began with something like, “I’m in favor of affordable housing, but [fill in with reasons why it shouldn’t be in his or her neighborhood].

One encouraging comment is set forth below:

Billy MacLeod says:

These type of developments help to end the problems associated with homelessness, they are the final piece of a very complicated process. So, the idea of a 100 bed SRO (Single Room Occupancy) facility in an urban is a net positive not a net negative.

Ending homelessness at the individual level is a long process; that process called "The Continuum of Care". It includes getting people documentation, medical treatment, addiction treatment, psychological treatment, comprehensive life skills training, and much more help than I could mention here. My point is that it is only at the end of that long process when the success stories qualify for SRO's.

The people who enter SRO's are the champions of the system; by that time they are on their way up and off of the streets. More important to this story is at that point, these formerly homeless individuals, are eager to work and save and change their lives for the better. Dallas is short over 1300 SRO's today, and the end result of that shortage is the people who have completed their treatment, and their therapy, and who get on their meds...ultimately end up back on the streets going backwards.

I applaud the efforts of the neighborhood to defend their turf, and mind you these great people are leaders in the community, but with a little more research, they may end up be in favor of this badly needed resource. I would simply ask them to have a little faith, just look at the new City Walk@Akard (two blocks away from the new Arts District) in Downtown Dallas as a great example of how SRO's pose no problem to any community. Posted On: Wednesday, Apr. 14 2010 @ 6:52PM

This is just what we wanted to do—convince people that permanent supportive housing can be a plus, not a minus, for neighborhoods. Now we’ve just got to convince a lot more people.

As always, if you would like to see what we are doing, come visit me at CityWalk. My number is on our website and any of us would be happy to show you around.

Party on the patio!

2010-04-15T01:00:00.008-05:00

We had our first employee party at CityWalk yesterday afternoon to celebrate April birthdays. It was a potluck and we were able to enjoy a huge selection of delicious food on the third floor patio.

The gorgeous weather made it a perfect day for employees of both Central Dallas CDC and Central Dallas Ministries to fellowship and feast. So, as you can see from the photos, CityWalk is not only a great place to live, but also a great place to work!

Photos: Ken Koonce, Larry James, John Greenan and staff

Photos by Johnice Woods

CityWalk rocks!

2010-04-14T01:00:00.004-05:00

Here are more stories and photos on Jon Bon Jovi’s visit to CityWalk on Monday, April 12.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-bonjovi_13met.ART.State.Edition2.4c47313.html

http://www.wfaa.com/news/entertainment/Jon-Bon-Jovi--90715729.html

Jon Bon Jovi chats with Warren Lisenbee, a CityWalk resident.

Jon Bon Jovi Visits CityWalk!

2010-04-13T01:00:00.005-05:00

Photo by Steve Lee

Jon Bon Jovi closed out a brief visit to Dallas, which included two sold out concert performances, with a visit to CityWalk@Akard, yesterday, April 12, 2010. His entourage wasn’t what you might expect of a rock and roll star. Instead he had with him Mimi Box, the head of his foundation, the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation (http://www.jonbonjovisoulfoundation.org/), and Sister Mary Scullion and Joan Dawson McConnon, co-founders of Project H.O.M.E. in Philadelphia (http://www.projecthome.org/about/co-founders.php).

As part of his current concert tour, Mr. Bon Jovi is visiting innovative programs to help the homeless—and CityWalk made his list.

The Dallas Morning News sent a reporter and WFAA had both a reporter and videographer present, but this wasn’t a publicity event (it happened after his concerts, which were sold out anyway) but a working meeting. All over the country now organizations, like Central Dallas CDC and Central Dallas Ministries, are working hard to eliminate homelessness. We are beginning to find out what works and it’s important that we have the opportunity to exchange ideas.

Jon Bon Jovi was engaged in the conversation and clearly has a thorough understanding of the reality of homelessness and the solutions we are all beginning to find. He spent two hours talking with us, with some of the residents of CityWalk and touring the building. The discussion included detailed financial analysis, comparisons of various existing rent subsidies, the services we provide and the explanation of design choices. Jon and the people he brought with him know what they are doing, are doing great work in Philadelphia, and it was a pleasure to have a chance to compare notes.

His foundation concentrates on working in the areas of poverty and homelessness, so I shouldn’t be surprised that Jon Bon Jovi takes its work seriously and there have been enough examples of artists engaged in doing good work that I guess none of us should be surprised anymore. I think part of the change we are seeing has to do with people maturing. In your twenties being a rock and roll star may be enough, but after two decades in the business Jon Bon Jovi clearly wants to do more for the community.

Jon Bon Jovi rocking the American Airlines Center on Sunday, then working with homeless issues on Monday makes me think maybe rock and roll will save our souls after all.

Where the Sidewalk Ends

2010-04-12T01:00:00.001-05:00

by Shel Silverstein

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

Alone

2010-04-11T01:00:00.001-05:00

by Maya Angelou

Lying, thinking
Last night
How to find my soul a home
Where water is not thirsty
And bread loaf is not stone
I came up with one thing
And I don't believe I'm wrong
That nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

There are some millionaires
With money they can't use
Their wives run round like banshees
Their children sing the blues
They've got expensive doctors
To cure their hearts of stone.
But nobody
No, nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Now if you listen closely
I'll tell you what I know
Storm clouds are gathering
The wind is gonna blow
The race of man is suffering
And I can hear the moan,
'Cause nobody,
But nobody
Can make it out here alone.

Alone, all alone
Nobody, but nobody
Can make it out here alone.

It’s good to be back

2010-04-10T01:00:00.001-05:00

By Nick Sowell

Recently, I took a trip to Los Angeles for two days. Now I remember why I moved back to Dallas.

People can be a bit crazy there, that’s my take. But it was nice sunshiny weather and not a cloud in the sky, with an ocean breeze. Still, I’m very glad to be back in Dallas where the good people are.

I hope everyone on both the Central Dallas CDC and Central Dallas Ministries staff had a great belated happy Easter holiday. I will be working on the Center of Hope, which is the development for the 50 cottages for the homeless, which should keep me busy.

And, one day I intend to complete the revamped CDC web site, one day.

This Little Bag

2010-04-09T01:00:00.001-05:00

by Jane Austen

This little bag I hope will prove
To be not vainly made--
For, if you should a needle want
It will afford you aid.
And as we are about to part
T'will serve another end,
For when you look upon the Bag
You'll recollect your friend

Dreams

2010-04-08T01:00:00.000-05:00

by Langston Hughes

Hold fast to dreams
For if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.

To make a prairie

2010-04-07T01:00:00.001-05:00

by Emily Dickinson

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.

National Poetry Month - A Dream

2010-04-06T01:00:00.001-05:00

by Edgar Allan Poe

In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream - that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?

National Poetry Month FAQ

2010-04-05T01:00:00.002-05:00

Source: www.poets.org

What is National Poetry Month?

National Poetry Month is a month-long, national celebration of poetry established by the Academy of American Poets. The concept is to widen the attention of individuals and the media—to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our complex poetic heritage, and to poetry books and journals of wide aesthetic range and concern.

Who started it?

The Academy of American Poets has led this initiative from its inception in 1996 and along the way has enlisted a variety of government agencies and officials, educational leaders, publishers, sponsors, poets, and arts organizations to help.

Why was April chosen for National Poetry Month?

In coordination with poets, booksellers, librarians, and teachers, the Academy chose a month when poetry could be celebrated with the highest level of participation. Inspired by the successful celebrations of Black History Month (February) and Women's History Month (March), and on the advice of teachers and librarians, April seemed the best time within the year to turn attention toward the art of poetry—in an ultimate effort to encourage poetry readership year-round.

What are the goals of National Poetry Month?

• Highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets
• Introduce more Americans to the pleasures of reading poetry
• Bring poets and poetry to the public in immediate and innovative ways
• Make poetry a more important part of the school curriculum
• Increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media
• Encourage increased publication, distribution, and sales of poetry books
• Increase public and private philanthropic support for poets and poetry

It's National Poetry Month again!

2010-04-04T18:40:00.000-05:00

I'll be posting a fair amount of poetry this month, beginning with "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost:

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leafs a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Already, here in Dallas, gold is turning to green as spring comes on like gangbusters. This is a poem I've loved for years. It perfectly captures the unbelievable joy and inevitable sorrow of the human condition. It's that piquant combination that defines us. First beauty beyond all imagining and then it fades away like youth, like spring, like the dawn, and like the loss of Eden.

I'm writing this today on Easter, so I can't help but think as well of the promise of the return to Eden. A promise you can see prefigured in every spring, in every dawn and in every blooming flower.

The Last Homeless Man?

2010-04-03T01:00:00.003-05:00

Here’s a story that you don’t hear every day. In New York, New York, Times Square is down to its last homeless person: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/29/homeless-man-tells-new-yo_n_517904.html.

Now, I have to question whether there isn’t a little hyperbole going on in this story, but I’m sure that the homeless population in that area has greatly diminished. [Advertising warning—A good part of that work has been done by the organization Common Ground whose founder, Roseanne Haggerty, is speaking at this year’s Central Dallas Ministries Prayer Breakfast on April 6. Details can be found here: http://www.dallasprayerbreakfast.org/ where you can also buy tickets! Afterwards there will be a panel discussion where I will join Ms. Haggerty, along with other panelists.]

The interesting part of this story is that it is clearly unusual—newsworthy—that a homeless person doesn’t want a home. We haven’t yet run into someone who doesn’t want a home here in Dallas, but then we aren’t down to the last homeless person either. Maybe someday we will be!

Just for the record, here’s a picture of the person known as “Heavy”, who may just possibly be the last homeless person in Times Square.

Forever the Optimist

2010-04-02T01:00:00.003-05:00

BY JOHNICE WOODS

As the month of April begins, I am still trying to catch my breath from all of last month’s activities. Of course there were many meetings on top of meetings and deadlines. Then there was the weird weather. Who would have thought snow in March in Dallas?!!!

I did have a week of rest - Spring Break with my family. Not to my surprise, on my first day back from vacation I hit the ground running. Through it all, I have strived to remain optimistic.

March is Optimism Month. Optimism is defined as follows:

op•ti•mism [op-tuh-miz-uh m] –noun
1. a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome.
2. the belief that good ultimately predominates over evil in the world.
3. the belief that goodness pervades reality.
4. the doctrine that the existing world is the best of all possible worlds.

I love the first definition listed above - "a disposition or tendency to look on the more favorable side of events or conditions and to expect the most favorable outcome." As many of you know, CityWalk at Akard’s Open House and Ribbon Cutting Ceremony was last Thursday, March 25th. I must admit, I had a very pessimistic view leading up to that day. I was so focused on the things that were not complete and how the image of our “almost” complete project would be viewed by the public.

But on last Thursday, I awoke with an optimistic attitude. I said to myself, “Whatever happens today, will happen, and we will somehow survive.” To my surprise, everything came together in a very favorable way!!!

A couple things highlighted that day for me. One, people were amazed at the units. They were taken by surprise at how each unit was a warm environment despite the size. Second, our vendors, supporters, and partners were so proud of our organization for accomplishing such a difficult project with such great style.

Everyone’s excitement and well wishes was truly an optimistic moment …for me.

Photos by Eason Photography

Excited about CityWalk and the future

2010-04-01T01:00:00.001-05:00

BY NICK SOWELL

The much awaited grand opening of CityWalk@Akard went off without a hitch. There was a great turnout and people seemed to be very excited and interested. To be honest, earlier that same day I was not sure if we were going to have everything done on time - there was so much work to be done in such a short period of time. But, everyone pulled together to set up and prepare for the opening.

And to answer anyone’s question, yes, the Central Dallas CDC web site will be completed this week. It took forever to learn the new format...wow, like forever.

I am now starting to work on the new Center of Hope project that Central Dallas CDC is doing. I’m excited to be a part of a great team that will once again be developing housing for the homeless in the Downtown Dallas area. Central Dallas CDC has blossomed into probably one of the largest nonprofit developers in Texas with many projects, and I’m still amazed with the newly revamped building we are now in.

Celebration at CityWalk

2010-03-31T01:00:00.004-05:00

BY LORI BETH LEMMON

Can you say, “GRAND opening?” That is what last Thursday was for all of us at citywalk@akard, Central Dallas CDC, Central Dallas Ministries, our tenants, our partners, and our friends!

Thanks so much to all of our donors, supporters, community partners, and volunteers who made the night so incredibly special. Also, a big, “Thank you,” to Mayor Leppert and his continued leadership for The City of Dallas.

Women’s History Month – Adventurers

2010-03-30T01:00:00.002-05:00

Gertrude Ederle Conquers The English Channel

In 1926, on her second try, the 18 year old daughter of a delicatessen owner became the first woman to swim The English Channel, considered the world's most dangerous swim. In spite of rough weather, Ederle beat the record time of the five previous male swimmers by almost two hours. New York City came out in full force with a tumultuous ticker tape parade in celebration of an event hailed as "a vindication of women athletes." Ederle's record stood until Florence Chadwick broke it in 1950.

Louise Arner Boyd Pioneers The Antarctic

When she was only 13 years old Boyd inherited her family's fortune and began to travel. In 1924, she visited the Arctic on a cruise liner and was hooked. Thereafter, she financed, outfitted and led her own expeditions, beginning with a futile 1928 search for a missing Norwegian explorer that took her across 10,000 frozen miles. Her scientific explorations in Greenland brought revelations about glacial formations, plant life, and animal life and she helped prove the presence of a previously unknown underwater mountain range. In World War II she served as a technical expert in the War Department and in 1955, became the first woman to successfully fly over the North Pole.

Susan Butcher Faces Down Wolves and Moose

Boston-born Butcher came to detest city life and yearn for the outdoors. Her love of animals led her to study veterinary medicine, but dyslexia persuaded her to give up studying and take to "mushing." She won the Iditarod, the dog-sled race across Alaska's wilderness, three years in a row, starting in 1986, enduring snow blindness, blizzards, avalanches and the perils of the northern wilds each time.

Urban Ministries Prayer Breakfast

2010-03-29T01:00:00.004-05:00

Central Dallas Ministries is proud to announce our 15th Annual Urban Ministries Prayer Breakfast on Tuesday, April 6, 2010 at The Fairmont Dallas.

With the opening of citywalk@akard, a vertical neighborhood in the heart of Downtown Dallas, we have made our mark as a leader in the Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) movement. A first of its kind in Dallas, the 15-story building at 511 N. Akard is providing office and retail space, as well as a home to over 200 new residents, 50 of whom are formerly homeless.

In order to capitalize on the opening of this new project and give further life to the discussion of the need for more PSH options in the city, we have invited Rosanne Haggerty, Founder and President of Common Ground in New York City to be our guest speaker. Haggerty comes to the table with over 20 years of experience as an international leader in developing community strategies to end homelessness.

Central Dallas Ministries has been on the forefront of the issues and concerns of the community in which we live and work. We want you to be a part of this crucial and timely conversation which includes city officials, community leaders, homeless advocates, supportive citizens, financial backers and business leaders – all play a pivotal role in addressing the needs of the most vulnerable among us.

When
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
7:00 AM - 9:00 AM

Where
The Fairmont Dallas
Regency Ballroom
1717 N. Akard
Dallas, TX 75201

For more information, go to www.dallasprayerbreakfast.org.

In case you missed it...

2010-03-28T01:00:00.002-05:00

We had a very successful grand opening event for CityWalk at Akard on March 25. Click on the following links for news coverage and photos.

http://www.dallasobserver.com/slideshow/citywalk-akard-grand-opening-29537000/

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/03/a_grand_opening_for_citywalk_a.php

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-grandopening_26met.ART.State.Edition1.4c77bc2.html

Biscuits

2010-03-27T01:00:00.001-05:00

I made biscuits twice last weekend. But the one I made Saturday was almost inedible while Sunday’s batch tasted great.

The difference was on Saturday I used four tablespoons of baking powder, instead of four teaspoons. The excessive amount of baking powder resulted in biscuits that looked great, tasted good when you first bit into them, but had a terrible metallic aftertaste. Sunday I used the correct measurement and the biscuits came out fine.

There is an interesting lesson to be learned from my mistake—and it’s not just that even experienced cooks can make silly mistakes (mistaking teaspoons for tablespoons is a classic mistake of inexperienced cooks, probably only exceeded by using salt when you should have used sugar). The recipe I was using was one by Alton Brown on the Food Network website. There were dozens of comments about the recipe and most of them were extremely positive.

About the second or third comment down, however, was very negative. It gave the biscuits a terrible rating because they had an extremely unpleasant aftertaste. I don’t think it’s hard to understand what happened. The commenter made the same mistake that I did, but blamed the recipe rather than themselves.

This is a tendency we all have, to blame others rather than ourselves, and one we all need to resist if we want to make good biscuits.

The Lights Come Back On

2010-03-26T01:00:00.002-05:00

It’s been 20 years since the big 511s at CityWalk lit up. On March 24, 2010, the day before our open house, the lights came back on, as you can see from the pictures:

So far we only got the lights working on the south side of the building. Almost the entire crew of us who have been working to restore the building for the last two years went out to see the lights.

Soon the enormous 511s should be visible every night, bringing back one of the first of Dallas’s trademark building lights to its rightful place in the night skyline.

Today's the Day!

2010-03-25T01:00:00.001-05:00

Spring Day 2

2010-03-23T01:00:00.003-05:00

BY CONNIE TOLLE

I wrote last week about our $40 tomato and how we planted our garden plot for spring. Well, Dallas woke up Sunday morning to another 3 or 4 inches of snow. We staked and covered our little tomatoes hoping that it would not get cold enough for a frost. Imagine my surprise waking up to a bit more than a skiff of snow that the weatherman promised the night before.

They say in Texas if you don’t like the weather just wait. Or, as Mark Twain once said, “In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of four and twenty hours.”

Here is a picture of our little garden plot. Yes, somewhere under the snow are hopefully some very hardy tomatoes, broccoli, and strawberry transplants and some carrots, lettuce, and pea seeds waiting for better weather to sprout.

Women's History Month - Jackie Joyner-Kersee

2010-03-22T01:00:00.003-05:00

Track and field athlete. Born Jacqueline Joyner on March 3, 1962, in East St. Louis, Illinois.

Joyner-Kersee attended UCLA, where she starred in both track and basketball. One of the greatest female athletes in history, she won a silver medal in the heptathlon in the 1984 Olympics and gold medals in the 1988 and 1992 Games. She also won a gold medal in the long jump in 1988 and a bronze at the 1992 Olympics. Joyner-Kersee is the heptathlon world record-holder and American record-holder in the long jump.

Jackie married her controversial coach, Bob Kersee, in 1986. Joyner-Kersee's brother, Al Joyner, is also an Olympic gold medalist, having won the Olympic triple jump in 1984. Her sister-in-law is the late track star Florence Griffith Joyner.

A sufferer of exercise-induced asthma, Joyner-Kersee officially retired from track and field in 2001 at age 38. After her retirement, she started the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Youth Center Foundation to encourage kids in her underprivileged hometown to play sports.

Women's History Month - Inspiring Quotes

2010-03-21T01:00:00.001-05:00

Source: www.biography.com

I am prepared to sacrifice every so-called privilege I possess in order to have a few rights.
Inez Milholland, Suffragist 1909

Modern dance isn't anything except one thing in my mind: the freedom of women in America.
Martha Graham, choreographer, 1946

We are coming down from our pedestal and up from the laundry room.
Bella Abzug, lawyer

Women’s History Month – Famous Firsts

2010-03-20T01:00:00.001-05:00

Source: www.history.com

Edith Wharton is the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize, 1921

Wharton won the prize for her 1920 novel The Age of Innocence. Like many of Wharton’s books, The Age of Innocence was a critique of the insularity and hypocrisy of the upper class in turn-of-the-century New York. The book has inspired several stage and screen adaptations, and the writer Cecily Von Ziegesar has said that it was the model for her popular Gossip Girl series of books.

Frances Perkins becomes the first female member of a Presidential cabinet, 1933

Perkins, a sociologist and Progressive reformer in New York, served as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor. She kept her job until 1945.

President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first woman on the Supreme Court, 1981

O’Connor was confirmed that September. She did not have much judicial experience when she began her Supreme Court term—she had only been a judge for a few years and had never served on a federal court—but she soon made a name for herself as one of the Court’s most thoughtful centrists. O’Connor retired in 2006.

Women’s History Month – Famous Firsts

2010-03-19T01:00:00.000-05:00

Source: www.history.com

Joan Benoit wins the first women’s Olympic Marathon, 1984

At the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, Joan Benoit (today known as Joan Benoit Samuelson) finished the first-ever women’s marathon in 2:24.52. She finished 400 meters ahead of the silver medalist, Norway’s Grete Waitz.

Manon Rheaume is the first woman to play in an NHL game, 1992

Manon Rheaume, a goalie from Quebec City, Canada, was no stranger to firsts: She was well-known for being the first female player to take the ice in a major boys’ junior hockey game. In 1992, Rheaume was the starting goalie for the National Hockey League’s Tampa Bay Lighting in a preseason exhibition game, making her the first woman to play in any of the major men’s sports leagues in the U.S. In that game, she deflected seven of nine shots; however, she was taken out of the game early and never played in a regular-season game. Rheaume led the Canadian women’s national team to victory in the 1992 and 1994 World Hockey Championships. The team also won silver at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan.

Madeleine Albright becomes the first female Secretary of State, 1997

In January 1997, the international-relations expert Madeleine K. Albright was sworn in as the United States’ 64th Secretary of State. She was the first woman to hold that job, which made her the highest-ranking woman in the federal government’s history. Before President Bill Clinton asked her to be part of his Cabinet, Albright had served as the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. In 2004, Condoleezza Rice became the second woman--and first African-American woman to hold the job. Five years later, in January 2009, the former Senator (and First Lady) Hillary Rodham Clinton became the third female Secretary of State.