Richardson is in a Back-Alley Fight

If you are not in the habit of reading Jim Schutze in the Dallas Observer, you are missing the one must-read columnist in Dallas journalism. Not that he's always right (although he's right more than he's wrong), but he avoids the false equivalence that is standard in most journalism today (in the name of "balance"). Schutze always has a point of view and he's not afraid to let you know what it is, no matter whose feathers he ruffles while making it. No, that's not quite it. Making a point seems to be only a means to an end for Schutze. It's more like ruffling feathers itself is his main purpose. No, that's not it, either. Schutze aims at more than ruffling feathers. He wants to de-feather, de-skin, and de-bone his target altogether. You get the point. It's no accident that Schutze's column in Unfair Park is accompanied by a photo of Schutze pointing the barrel of a gun at the reader. Anyway, let me allow Schutze to speak for himself, to show you what I mean.

It's a simple challenge. Jefferey Muhammad, I call you a chicken-shit liar. Prove me wrong.

Source: Unfair Park.

After the jump, what Schutze thinks of Richardson (and every other suburb of Dallas).

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I'm a go-along, get-along kind of guy. Cooperate. Compromise. Consensus. Win-win. It's the way I was raised. When I was young, I used to think it was the American way. One nation. E Pluribus Unum. Melting pot. I'm learning not to be so naive, but I'm still caught off guard when I run across people to whom a preference for compromise or tolerance is considered a character flaw. Or when an effort to promote regional cooperation is considered to be "a bunch of feel-good lah-lah-lah" only meant to distract the other party long enough to stab him. Here's Schutze again:

[H]ere's the important thing for you and me. If we really believe in urban life, if we love the city, then the dumbest thing we can do is get lulled into all this crap about regionalism and cooperation. This is a back-alley fight where the quickest knife wins.

Source: Unfair Park.

You really have to read the rest of his article, especially if you think that all of us in North Texas (urban, suburban, exurban) are in this together, that we need to find ways to work together to solve our problems, because in the end, we all share the same air, water, and other natural resources. If even a self-identified "libtard" like Jim Schutze doesn't buy into that, it ought to be warning enough to Richardson city council members, city staff or city appointees to some regional board or other to watch your backs. If you are involved in some regional discussion or other and it isn't obvious to you who is being set up as the patsy in some master plan or other, it could very well be us. Because Jim Schutze says we're in a back-alley fight, whether we know it or not.