Showing posts with label LocalPolitics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label LocalPolitics. Show all posts

Monday, January 20, 2025

Charter Review: Sneak Preview of Changes

Source: Arefin Shamsul Facebook.

On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission to review and suggest changes to Richardson's City Charter. I've been presenting my own suggestions (see links at bottom). The Commission held their first meeting Thursday, January 16, 2025. It was an orientation meeting. Nothing much was supposed to happen, and nothing was made of it when it did, but guessing how things will go tells me we got a sneak peek at some big changes that will be coming to Richardson's Charter. I'll get to those eventually, but first some scene setting.

Monday, January 13, 2025

City Charter: Transparent Appointment of Boards and Commissions

Source: Arefin Shamsul Facebook.

On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission, as required by law every ten years to review and suggest changes to Richardson's City Charter. Here, in a series of posts, I am presenting my own suggestions.

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

WAIW: Guess the Neighborhood — Addendum

Source: City of Richardson.

In yesterday's special Tuesday edition of "Where Am I Wednesday?" we were in southwest Richardson, specifically in the Richardson Heights neighborhood where the City of Richardson has encroached with new sign toppers branding residential streets as "Heights." What is wrong with the "Richardson Heights" sign toppers already in use, you may ask? That's the subject of today's speculation.

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

WAIW: Guess the Neighborhood

Source: Google Maps.

Where Am I Wednesday! (Special Tuesday Edition)

Fifty points to the first person to identify where this photo was taken. Specifically, what is the name of the neighborhood? Before you answer, read on.

Monday, January 6, 2025

City Charter: Video Record of City Council Meetings

Source: Adobe Firefly.

On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission, as required by law every ten years to review and suggest changes to Richardson's City Charter. Here, in a series of posts, I am presenting my own suggestions.

Monday, December 23, 2024

City Charter: Initiative and Referendum

Source: Adobe Firefly

On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission, as required by law every ten years to review and suggest changes to Richardson's City Charter. Here, in a series of posts, I am presenting my own suggestions.

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

What Did We (Not) Learn from the Boil Water Notice

Source: 5 NBC DFW.

Richardson City Manager Don Magner read a memorandum to the City Council on December 16 titled "Boil Water Notice: Summary of Findings and Recommendations." I have three takeaways:

  1. To his credit, Magner admitted that individuals on City Staff made errors in judgment on the day of the event and he disciplined four individuals.
  2. Magner failed to assign blame for all of the "gaps in training and operational oversight" that contributed to the need for a BWN.
  3. There is still a five hour period in the timeline that deserves more investigation.

Monday, December 16, 2024

City Charter: Single-Member Districts

Zachary Carnell/WUFT News

On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission, as required by law every ten years to review and suggest changes to Richardson's City Charter. I will be presenting my own suggestions.

The City of Dallas just completed its own once-a-decade review of its City Charter. As homework, the Richardson Charter Review Commission ought to review the City of Dallas's work, certainly before concluding that no significant changes are needed to Richardson's Charter.

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Council Recap: 7 Brew Drive-Thru Coffee

7 Brew

Corporate website: "7 Brew is so much more than just a coffee stand." What is the "so much more?" It isn't food. It isn't a sit-down restaurant. It's "service, speed, quality, energy and atmosphere." In other words, it's still a coffee stand, but one that customers allegedly love.

Yet on December 9, 2024, the Richardson City Council denied a request by 7 Brew to build a coffee stand on the south side of East Belt Line Rd between Plano Rd and Glenville Ave. The vote to deny was 5-2, with only Mayor Bob Dubey and Mayor Pro Tem voting to grant the permit. If this were a parliamentary democracy, I might say the leaders have lost the confidence of the body. But it's not a parliamentary system and a vote for a drive-thru is hardly consequential enough to be considered a "vote of no confidence" in the leaders. No need for any resignations, but there's a message there somewhere.

Monday, December 9, 2024

Council Recap: Charter Review Commission

On December 2, 2024, the Richardson City Council appointed eleven members to a Charter Review Commission, as required by law every ten years. Details on the 2014 amendments can be read in "Charter Amendments: Vote Yes AND No".

Let's examine the new commission members for 2024.

Thursday, November 28, 2024

Replanting Richardson, Again

Source: Adobe Firefly

"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in."
— Proverb.

I always thought this proverb said something about old men knowing they won't live long enough for a newly planted tree to mature. Now I have to think of the possibility it's about men who rip up trees and replant over and over, never giving the trees a chance to grow old.

Monday, November 25, 2024

Replanting Richardson on the Down-Low

Someone informed me of some landscaping changes on Main Street in downtown Richardson. The trees in the median were reportedly ripped out and replaced by shrubs. Someone said it's the second time. That can't be, I thought. The trees were just planted. The Main Street redevelopment project was just celebrated in October, 2021. Sad to say, the news appears to be true, as the photo above shows.

Friday, November 8, 2024

Water, Water, Everywhere

Source: nbc5dfw.com

"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink." — Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

The City of Richardson's Holly Water Tower lost all pressure on Thursday, triggering an alert on the City's website, on social media, and elsewhere (we'll come back to that) to boil water before usage. City staff and volunteers quickly moved into action acquiring truckloads of bottled water for distribution to affected residents. All well and good. Triage before post-mortem, you know. There'll be time enough for questions later. First things first. The City is testing water and hopes to have results back Friday, November 8. When it's deemed safe to drink again, the City will spread the word...somehow.

When that day comes, there are some questions that I'd like the City to publish answers for.

Monday, October 28, 2024

Council Recap: Review of Almost Final Comp Plan

Source: h/t DALL-E

On October 21, 2024, the Richardson City Council and City Plan Commission (CPC) reviewed a close-to-final draft of a new Comprehensive Plan.

My own feedback can be found here:

I'll add that the best thing about this draft Comp Plan isn't the plan. It's the list of 77 action items. It's a better list than the list the Council came up with during their own goal-setting retreat at the beginning of their term. But there's too much latitude in it. They shouldn't leave it to City Manager Don Magner to prioritize and schedule, not if they care about what gets done and what gets kicked down the road.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Salvage Yard: Gateway to Richardson IQ

Source: Investopedia

At the Richardson City Council meeting of October 14, 2024, the Council approved yet another car dealer to locate in Richardson. And not just any car dealer. This was a request by AutoSavvy. Does Richardson benefit from yet another auto dealer? Especially AutoSavvy? I say no. No City Councilmember could offer a reason to say yes, except maybe as a placeholder for five years, the length of the special use permit under consideration. But they unanimously voted for it anyway.

Monday, October 21, 2024

Council Recap: Cars & Signs, Ad Infinitum

Source: h/t DALL-E

At the Richardson City Council meeting of October 14, 2024, the Council approved yet another car dealer and, in a separate action, amended the existing planned development for the Eastside development to allow the applicant to develop a "master sign plan" for the development. A master sign plan is a way of getting approval for signs that are currently prohibited by ordinance. Because of course they did. They know better, just listen to them during deliberations. But when it comes time to vote, they can't help themselves. They vote yes.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker

Adobe Photoshop

Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker.
Resident, Employer, Landowner, Developer.
Renter, ..., wait, where are the Renters?

The City of Richardson has published a draft of its long-overdue Comprehensive Plan update, the first since 2009. I noticed words like residents, citizens, stakeholders, etc., used in different contexts. Are the distinctions significant? Dunno. The Plan doesn't say. And the closest it comes to a definition for any of the terms is this: "stakeholder—residents, employers and business owners, landowners, brokers and developers, partner agencies and organizations, nonprofits, and public officials." That's pretty comprehensive. It doesn't explicitly include renters, but because renters are residents, I'd argue that it implicitly includes them. But does the City think that? Really?

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Grading Richardson's Comprehensive Plan

The City of Richardson has published a draft of its long-overdue Comprehensive Plan update, the first since 2009. The initial grade I'd award? Incomplete. I was interested in, for example, what the recommendations would be for increasing the so-called missing middle housing in Richardson, that is, housing types like duplexes, accessory dwelling units (ADUs), bungalow courts, and townhomes. I found some mushy aspirations, but nothing that commits the City to any changes.

Monday, October 14, 2024

Point North...Park?

The City of Richardson has published a draft of its long-overdue Comprehensive Plan update, the first since 2009. My eyes went immediately to how Point North Park is represented in our new plan. Point North Park is in far northwest Richardson, wedged between Canyon Creek and UT-Dallas.

Monday, October 7, 2024

"Resolved" Doesn't Mean What They Think It Does

Steven King's "IT", not my alley. IJS.

Driving home Saturday night, I noticed that a grate on a storm drain in the alley was out of place, leaving a potentially dangerous surprise for an unsuspecting driver. But...another neighbor had already taken action, moving an orange traffic cone from a nearby construction site over to the missing grate. Thank you to a good neighbor. Immediate danger addressed, I filed an issue on the MyRichardson app.