On March 25, 2025, the Richardson Area Democrats (RAD) hosted an online forum for Richardson mayoral candidates. The forum also included Place 6 candidates and RISD District 2 trustee candidates, but here I focus only on the mayoral candidates. You can watch it on YouTube yourself (the mayoral portion is short) or you can read my takeaways here. I recommend you do both.
For just the seventh time in Richardson's history, voters get to vote for mayor. Three of those races were uncontested. Three offered a choice between two candidates. In 2025, for the first time in Richardson's history, voters will get to choose among three candidates. It's still early in the campaign. We've had no forums. We've had no campaign mailers, robocalls or text messages. Social media campaigns have barely begun.
I thought now would be a good time to research the archives for what I said about these candidates when they ran for City Council before. For Alan North, I chose 2011, the one and only time he filed to run for office. For Amir Omar, I also chose 2011, the first time he ran for re-election. For Bob Dubey, I chose 2019, the first time he ran for re-election. I found it interesting what I wrote in those more innocent times.
Artist: John Trumbull.
On March 6, 2025, the Richardson Charter Review Commission continued their review of the Richardson Charter, covering Articles 6 (City Manager), 7 (City Attorney), and 8 (Administrative Department).
(Still no video by the City to link you to. One commissioner said, "I know I wasn't here last week, but I watched it on the video, so I'm completely caught up with the discussion." He didn't credit Justin Neth, but I'm guessing it was Neth's personal video he was referring to. It's ironic that the City Council voted 4-3 against video recording of Charter Review Commission meetings, citing an unwillingness of commission members from having their discussions video recorded, only to have the value of a video record demonstrated so quickly and clearly by the commission itself.)
Source: AP Photo.
The season is coming to an end for the team. The coach's contract is expiring. The coach was gifted good enough game plans, but he couldn't deliver on the reason he was hired, which was to bring a championship to the city. When it came time to decide if the team should extend him a new contract for another season, the team decided to go in a different direction. Most fans thought it was the right decision.
That might sound like I'm talking about the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Mike McCarthy, but if you guessed I was really talking about the mayor of Richardson, Bob "Coach" Dubey, I can't say you're wrong. The City of Richardson's "Coach" is in the same boat that McCarthy was. Having a long career on the sidelines can result in enough friendships to win you the job in the first place, but that won't save your job if you don't win championships. Too often, Coach Dubey went with his gut, throwing out good game plans on the fly, and ending up with a string of losses. Sooner or later, a coach trading on his longevity needs to be thanked for his service and replaced. Let's look at the results on the field this term to decide if that time is now.
On November 19, 2024, Mayor Bob Dubey was interviewed by Poonam Sandhu, CPA, on her podcast "Tax Bites with Poonam." In the introduction, Mayor Dubey said, "I really don't consider myself a politician. I'd like to say I'm a statesman." A politician calling himself a statesman is like a used car salesman calling himself a "Transportation Solutions Consultant." But Poonam politely let Mayor Dubey's self-aggrandizement slide. Luckily for him, she wasn't in a fact-checking mood. I guess she left that to the listeners. I listened.
Source: Google Street View.Staycation Coffee's current home
Catalyst: "a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction"
Example usage: "I'll be honest, I think this is a catalyst type project that will spur on to bigger, better things." — Mayor Bob Dubey, speaking of Polk Street Apartments.
City leaders have a fondness for the term "catalyst project." It's a buzzword that makes them sound knowledgable about the future. Do they ever go back and measure the performance of past catalyst projects?
Artist: John Trumbull.
On February 20, 2025, the Richardson Charter Review Commission continued their review of the Richardson Charter, covering Articles 5 (Recall) and 14 (Initiative and Referendum).
(Still no video by the City to link you to. Mayor Bob Dubey slammed the door on that, saying, "Initially, I'll be honest, I said I don't think we even really need to discuss that." Forced to discuss it, and vote on it, he supplied the tie-breaking vote to reject video recording.)
Source: h/t DALL-E.
On February 17, 2024, the Richardson City Council discussed the potential video recording of Charter Review Commission meetings. Some questioned the need. Some the cost. Some were concerned about the fairness to Commissioners who did not anticipate being recorded. Councilmember Dan Barrios argued for recording the remaining meetings due to the Commission's significance. Councilmember Jennifer Justice made a motion to leave the current situation as it is (no video), with future Commissions informed in advance of whatever was decided at that time. The motion passed 4-3, with Mayor Pro Tem Arefin, and Councilmembers Dan Barrios and Joe Corcoran opposed. Kudos to them for taking the side of increased transparency.
Read on for details of the arguments.
Source: h/t DALL-E.
The City of Richardson approved an application to build 279 apartments on Polk Street in downtown Richardson. The applicant requested exceptions from current zoning requirements: 1) 4-stories instead of 3-stories. 2) less open space 3) longer block length (580 ft) 4) less residential parking 5) service doors placed on street frontage. The request was approved by City Council 5-2, with Mayor Pro Tem Arefin and Councilmember Dan Barrios voting no. I applaud their votes, as I, too, would have voted no. But let's hear from the five Councilmembers who voted to approve this superblock apartment project.
Artist: John Trumbull.
On February 6, 2025, the Richardson Charter Review Commission continued their review of the Richardson Charter, covering Articles 9 (Boards and Commissions) and 10 (Civil Service). (Still no video by the City to link you to.)
Consider four different streets, four different apartment buildings. One of these is not like the others.
Source: Belt+Main.
The others are after the jump.
On February 10, 2025, the Richardson City Council is scheduled to hear a zoning application to build a 275 unit apartment building smack dab in the middle of downtown. Some people might be opposed to this because it's yet another apartment building. Not me. I'm OK with the use. It's the form of the apartment building that I think is a disaster for future development of downtown.
Source: Ketomed.com.
Richardson will elect a new Mayor and City Council on May 3, 2025. The mayor's race will have three candidates on the ballot: incumbent Mayor Bob Dubey, former City Councilmember Amir Omar, and outsider Alan North.
Artist: John Trumbull.
On January 30, 2025, the Richardson Charter Review Commission started their review of the Richardson City Charter, article by article, beginning with Articles 1, 2, 17, and 18. (Only the five visitors in attendance saw what happened. Maybe someday, someone will invent something that could record government meetings for the convenience of people who can't attend in person.)
The Commission was looking for changes to the Charter to suggest to the City Council to put before voters in November. The City Council has the last word about what goes on the ballot. The citizens, at the ballot box, have the last word about what goes in the Charter. In three hours of deliberation, there was only one substantive change that was deliberated.
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.
Source: City of Richardson.
On January 7, 2025, the Richardson City Plan Commission (CPC) approved, but only with a special permit, ZF 24-33, "a City-initiated PD Amendment to the Collins/Arapaho TOD and Innovation District Form Based Code Planned Development to allow a 'Drone Operations and Maintenance Center' as a permitted use in the Employment Sub-District."
Do you even know what a Drone Operations and Maintenance Center is? I didn't. And, judging by the discussion by the CPC members, neither did they. I have three comments.
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.
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.
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.
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.
