Back Talk Preston Hollow

Council subcommittee considers a smoking ban in bars, billiard halls

A city council subcommittee is considering expanding the city's current smoking ban from restaurants and workplaces to bars, billiard halls and within 15 feet of entrances to publicly accessible villages, according to the DMN. A majority of the six councilmen on the subcommittee seem to be leaning in favor of the proposal, according to the News story and more comments on its blog.

I have to admit that when the city council first decided to restrict smoking in restaurants and other public places a few years ago, I had my doubts: It seemed like a draconian measure, and it seemed likely to drive business out of Dallas. Today, though, I haven't seen a single study indicating that significant business was lost to the more smoking-friendly suburbs, and the air in most places I go these days is cleaner and clearer.

Easing credit crunch puts the convention center hotel back on track

Good news for fans of the taxpayer-owned downtown convention center hotel, as well as for the pending DISD bond issue: The credit market, at least for public works projects, appears to be easing enough to allow AA-rated and above public entities to obtain financing. A DMN story indicates the city of Dallas intends to close on $253.3 million in water improvement project bonds this week; a few weeks ago, this and just about every other bond project in the country were frozen due to lack of capital or political will or lenders — take your pick. The $550 million convention center hotel, which Mayor Tom Leppert and many city councilmen have vowed to fund in January, requires issuance of municipal revenue bonds to generate the cash, so now that the market is coming back, lack of available funding shouldn't hold back Leppert or the council. I guess we'll see if the May referendum on the project causes the council members any heartburn when it comes time to approve the bonds in January.

Four Season Hotel slated to open at NorthPark?

The DMN reports that a Four Seasons hotel — this one a 250-room building at the northeast corner of NorthPark Center's property, presumably at Park Lane and Central Expressway — could be open as early as 2012. If built, it would join the Las Colinas Four Seasons as the second in the area. The hotel study group reporting the news said that if the hotel isn't already financed — and it probably isn't, according to the group — it might not open until 2013 or later, given the current credit situation nationwide.

Central Market: The makeover

The folks at Central Market were kind enough to host a recent preview of the new cafe and other special features of the store, a result of the ongoing construction over the last few months. The cafe received a complete overhaul, and other minor improvements throughout the store only enhance Central Market's reputation as the go-to place for gourmet to-go.

For starters, there's the new and improved cafe menu. My husband was eyeing the hangar steak and pommes frites, and I went crazy over the Kobe sliders, topped with caramelized onions, gouda and chipotle barbecue sauce. Don't worry if you're not a beef fan — there's something for every taste. Just imagine if you're a grocery store that stocks gourmet ingredients, and has all of these ingredients available to you when you're creating dishes, and that gives you an idea of the menu. Yum.

Here's a sampling of the other store changes you can expect:

It's holiday time at Krispy Kreme

I was buying donuts at a Krispy Kreme store Saturday, and while waiting for the box to be filled, what did I hear but holiday music wafting from the overhead speakers. They must have cranked up the holiday theme the second the clock struck Nov. 1; at least the sign on the door hyping the "holiday" collection of donuts indicated they wouldn't unveiled until Nov. 28. On one hand, it was pretty disconcerting to be already listening to holiday music, but on the other hand, given all of the bad news we've been absorbing for the past few months, maybe it's time to start thinking of something happier?

Leppert says our votes count. Except for the convention center hotel?

Here's an interesting juxtaposition: Mayor Tom Leppert is circulating an email with the top headline saying "Convention Center Hotel Critical to Dallas' Future", while the second item is headlined "Vote! It's Your Voice!" (Click here to download tom_leppert_email.pdf and see the email.)

The irony: At least one Leppert spokespuppet on the council already has chortled out loud that even if Dallas residents vote in favor of a potential referendum scuttling the $550 million taxpayer-owned convention center hotel downtown, those votes won't stop the council from moving forward to build the hotel.

So whose voice is Leppert talking about?

A credit card solicitation every week — what's up with that?

Not surprising news from credit card firms is that they're tightening credit, raising interest rates and taking cards away from some people. But buried in the story about the credit crunch is this interesting tidbit: "Mail offers to new and existing customers are on pace to drop below 8.4 billion pieces, the lowest level since 2004." A little quick math shows that 8.4 billion credit card solicitations divided by 300 million U.S. residents means that each of us, on average, received 28 mail solicitations this year. And if you further parse the numbers, eliminating about half of the population that is (or at least should be) too young to receive a credit card and people who don't have any income, that means that the rest of us receive about one credit card solicitation per week. No wonder so many people have more credit than they need or can handle.

Dallas home resale price drop is minimal compared with other U.S. cities

Another of the many stories in the good news/bad news vein these days: The DMN headlines its latest residential real estate story "U.S. home resale prices dive 16.6% as Dallas' dip 2.7%." Further good news for our area from the story: Among the 20 major U.S. cities tracked in this particular study, our area had the smallest decline in home prices compared with sales in August 2007, while Phoenix and Las Vegas both reported drops exceeding 30%. More bad news nationally was that the results from 13 of the 20 markets surveyed had worsened from the month before, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area (but by a pretty negligible 0.2%). Bottom line: Things aren't great in the rest of the country, but we're doing pretty well here on a relative basis. I couldn't find the DMN link for its story, but if you want to look at the actual study, click here and then download the August study pdf.

Now what's going to happen to all of those retail banks on every corner?

Quick quiz: You see construction at a key neighborhood retail corner, and you wonder what's being built.

For the past few years, the answer would have simple: Another bank! But those days are over now, thanks to the multi-billion-dollar bailout of the banking industry, which has been leading to mergers galore the past few weeks.

Good news from DISD: 57 RIFed teachers have been rehired

You might recall the recent news that right after DISD laid off 350 or so teachers, about 60 jobs were posted online, causing a mini-furor among some of those who were laid off. Well, good news: DISD just reported that 57 of the released teachers have been rehired, and the district's Human Development office "will continue to contct teachers who were released to notify them of additional positions as they become available." Here's the DMN's take on the issue.