I'm feeling optimistic today. I know, my style here usually leans towards the negative, so regular readers who did a spit-take with their morning coffee just now are forgiven. But, this morning I'm believing in American ingenuity, in American can-do spirit, in an expression attributed to Winston Churchill, "Americans will always do the right thing, after they have tried everything else." What am I optimistic about today? Electric vehicles.
The City of Richardson will be taking up the City's outdated Comprehensive Plan in this next City Council term. It will be a heavy lift. Not everyone even agrees on what the action item encompasses. Will it just be an exercise of refreshing the map that shows where in Richardson single family homes are allowed, and offices, and shops, and parks? Or does it include related things like whether homeowners are allowed to add an accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to their property? Or whether the minimum number of parking spaces buildings are required to have should be relaxed or eliminated altogether?
City government resists change. It's in their nature. I'm expecting Mayor Dubey to align with the institutional interests and narrowly draw the boundary of what's open for review. I'm hoping that there will be pushback from the new City Council to get the boundary drawn expansively. Updating the Comprehensive Plan to allow a broader mix of uses is useless if they leave in place other regulations and building codes that deter such uses. A push for broad change is bound to meet resistance. Some people are passionate about the status quo.
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| From 2022 10 24 Avignon |
This photo-of-the-day is from Palais des Papes in Avignon, France. The photo shows a curious architectural detail of the palace, a brick wall viewed through three arches. Two of the arches are back-to-back in front of the wall, but off-center from each other. Why? Dunno. The 14th century architect was not around to ask.
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| From 2022 10 24 Avignon |
This photo-of-the-day is from Palais des Papes in Avignon, France. I'll let Wikipedia tell the story:
"It is one of the largest and most important medieval Gothic buildings in Europe. Once a fortress and palace, the papal residence was a seat of Western Christianity during the 14th century. Six papal conclaves were held in the Palais, leading to the elections of Benedict XII in 1334, Clement VI in 1342, Innocent VI in 1352, Urban V in 1362, Gregory XI in 1370 and Benedict XIII in 1394. Since 1995, the Palais des Papes has been classified, along with the historic center of Avignon, as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for its outstanding architecture and historical importance for the Papacy."
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The Dallas Morning News reported that mayoral candidate "[Bob] Dubey said [Mayor Paul] Voelker’s “micromanagement from the top down” has deterred some council members and residents from speaking at council meetings."
Candidate Dubey won. It's Mayor Dubey now. Monday night the public got its first chance to see how the new regime is changing how council meetings are run, presumably opening them up, encouraging more open deliberations by council members. I'm here to report that from my perch in the cheap seats at the back of the house, the new boss looks a lot like the old boss.
Where Am I Wednesday!
Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.
Answer is after the jump.
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| From 2022 10 23 Sète |
This photo-of-the-day is from Sète, France. It shows one of the many street murals that adorn this city.
A bonus photo is after the jump.
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| From 2022 10 23 Sète |
This photo-of-the-day is from Sète, France, known as the "Venice of the Languedoc" for its network of canals. "It is a port and a seaside resort on the Mediterranean with its own very strong cultural identity, traditions, cuisine and dialect." It's overshadowed by Marseilles, Saint Tropez, Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo, but it's worth visiting anyway. We happened to be there because Viking cruises thought so, too (and it's a convenient stop for a cruise between Barcelona and Marseilles).
A bonus photo is after the jump.
The 2023-2025 Richardson City Council was sworn in Monday, May 17, 2023. Other than canvassing the election results and swearing in the new Mayor and Council, no business was conducted. The first order of business next week at the May 24 meeting will be selecting a new Mayor Pro Tem from among their ranks. The following is The Wheel's highly unscientific, subjective-as-heck, just-mostly-guesswork betting line on who that will be.
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The photo above shows "woke bureaucrats" parachuting into public schools in Kentucky to "hijack our children's future" and teach CRT. Or at least that's what one imaginative candidate for the GOP nomination for governor, Kelly Craft, Donald Trump's own former U.N. ambassador, claims is happening. Watch her television ad yourself. Then watch Tuesday's election results from Kentucky to see if voters are persuaded.
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| From 2022 10 21 Barcelona |
This photo-of-the-day is from Barcelona, Spain. It shows a selection of souvenirs at a shop on a city street. Is the chimp embarrassed?
After the jump, a bonus photo of my favorite street sign.
In relaying my thoughts on the 2023 Richardson City Council election, I said something that is both factually incorrect and personally embarrassing. I said:
Despite the backing of the Richardson Coalition PAC, [Stephen] Springs couldn't overcome [Dan] Barrios's support of his own from the Richardson Area Democrats PAC. Even though the RC spent money on a mailer endorsing Springs and the RAD only used its Facebook presence and word-of-mouth to promote Barrios, it wasn't enough to get Springs across the line.Source: The Wheel.
I should have said, "the RAD also spent money on a mailer endorsing Barrios." Then I should have expressed my displeasure with their action.
I regret the error.
H/T to Andrew Laska for catching my mistake.
[Update: July 21, 2023: The Richardson Area Democrats PAC's semiannual report shows a $100 contribution to Dan Barrios's campaign.]
Source: DFW NBC5.
There are good reasons not to get your news from local television stations, not least of which is reporting this bad. It's not "Dewey Defeats Truman" bad, but it's still pretty bad. And here it is a week after the election and DFW's NBC5 television still has this up on its website of election news.
Looking at NBC5's vote totals, you can see where NBC5 went wrong. The votes are exactly the totals reported by Collin County. The problem for DFW NBC5 is that the City of Richardson is spread over two counties. Adding in the Dallas County votes, you'd get the true totals: Dubey 4,909; DePuy 4,609.
Remember, if you want the best in local news, news you can trust, look no farther than The Wheel.
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| From 2022 10 21 Barcelona |
This photo-of-the-day is from Barcelona, Spain. It shows the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia. According to Wikipedia, "it is the largest unfinished Catholic church in the world. Designed by architect Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926), his work on Sagrada Família is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On 7 November 2010, Pope Benedict XVI consecrated the church and proclaimed it a minor basilica." We exposed more film here than anywhere. Of course, we shoot digitally. We haven't shot film in two decades. But this basilica would have been worth the film if we had.
Bonus photo after the jump.
The City Council election is over. Congratulations to all the elected council members. Congratulations to Bob Dubey, our new mayor. But before we close the books on the election, I need to mention some loose ends that really should be tied up, before we move on and they are lost to memory.
Where Am I Wednesday!
Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken.
It's odd how something that you notice for the first time suddenly seems to be everywhere. How did I ever miss it? One example is the word "chocolaty". I noticed the package for Girl Scout Tagalongs® cookies (by the way, the best Girl Scout cookie) describes them as "Crispy cookies layered with peanut butter and covered with a chocolaty coating." I wondered why they didn't say "chocolate coating". Looking at the ingredients, I realized the answer is because the cookies don't contain any chocolate. They use various chemicals that taste "chocolaty." Once I was aware of this, I now see "chocolaty" on lots of products that I previously would have called "chocolate."
Likewise, I had never heard the term "third place" until a week ago. (Actually I had, but it had a different meaning. I'll get to that in a postscript). Then I heard "third place" three times in a week.
I'll have thoughts about this in the blog tomorrow.
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| From 2022 10 19 Madrid |
This photo-of-the-day is from Plaza Mayor in Madrid, Spain. According to Google, "Cafes & restaurants line the arches of this stately square with Philip III's statue in the center." It's a great place to start exploring Madrid in any direction.
A bonus photo is after the jump.
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| From 2022 10 19 Madrid |
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| From 2022 10 19 Madrid |
The first photo-of-the-day from another odyssey is from Madrid, Spain, the home of flamenco. According to Smithsonian Magazine, "the world outside Spain often stereotypes the nation as inhabited by flamenco dancers, singers, and guitar players...Inside Spain, however, the relationship between the flamenco art form and Spanish national identity has been fraught for more than a century." But forget that for an evening, just sit back, relax, and enjoy the music.
Bonus video after the jump.
In May of 2019, when I first wrote about the Morris Ice House in old downtown Richardson, now called the "CORE" (you know, like New York has the "Big Apple", Richardson has the "Core"), I noticed that on Google Maps, the Morris Ice House was labeled "Rinky Dinky Building." Offended, I immediately submitted a correction to Google Maps. Of course, I was ignored. (Remember, our motto here is "Not Being Listened to Since 2006.") Or so I thought.
Candidates for Richardson ISD Board of Trustees have filed 8-Day Campaign Finance Reports. Here are the totals for the 30-Day Reports and the 8-Day Reports, ranked by the combined totals.
| Eric Eager | Place 6 | $2,484.14 | $1,886.09 |
| Debbie Renteria | District 3 | $2,226.43 | $1,943.40 |
| Blake Sawyer | Place 6 | $1,967.37 | $573.00 |
| Bonnie Abadie | District 3 | $1,205.00 | $650.00 |
Candidates for Richardson City Council have filed 8-Day Campaign Finance Reports. Here are the totals for the 30-Day Reports and the 8-Day Reports, ranked by the combined totals.
| 30-Day | 8-Day | ||
| Bob Dubey | Mayor | $21,697.55 | $3,387.10 |
| Dan Barrios | Place 3 | $14,629.56 | $8,481.69 |
| Janet DePuy | Mayor | $11,350.00 | $7,515.00 |
| Ken Hutchenrider | Place 5 | $3,915.00 | $11,515.00 |
| Curtis Dorian | Place 1 | $10,401.00 | $2,050.00 |
| Stephen Springs | Place 3 | $6,875.00 | $5,260.00 |
| Todd Hunter | Place 5 | $1,961.70 | $3,386.15 |
| G. Scott Waddell | Place 1 | $3,755.00 | $700.00 |
2023-04-02: Jeff Leach had it coming:
"Texas GOP lawmaker is tricked into reading dirty names during committee meeting."
2023-04-07: "On a vote of 86-52 the Texas House adopts amendment to ban school vouchers."
Richardson's representative, Angie Chen Button, who campaigns on a message of supporting public schools, votes to support vouchers.
