Retail-Ready is the New Mixed-Use

Just what is transit-oriented development anyway? A high-density, mixed-use residential and commercial area with convenient access to public transit. More or less, right?

After the jump, another definition.

GreenVUE: A Case Study in Muddleocracy

I've been thrashing around on the subject of efficient local governance. For example, in "Mayor John Marshall", I suggested that maybe a strong personality in the mayor's office can bring leadership and direction to the Richardson City Council. It's a start. Today, I want to review a recent example of the council at work to suggest that the muddled process on display Monday nights at city hall might be only part of the problem.

After the jump, analyzing the second council hearing on the GreenVUE apartment application.

Berkner 87, Lake Highlands 53

From 2012 00 Miscellaneous

Basketball season is underway. The Berkner Rams defeated the Lake Highlands Wildcats 87-53 at LHHS Tuesday evening in the District 9-5A opener for each team. The Rams, ranked 11th in the state, are off to a great start. It's a great time to be a Ram!

Come out to support the Rams or Wildcats all season long. The season schedule for the Rams is after the jump.

Review: Lying

Amazon

From Lying, by Sam Harris:

What was so fascinating about this seminar, however, was how difficult it was to find examples of virtuous lies that could withstand Professor Howard's scrutiny. Even with Nazis at the door and Anne Frank in the attic, Howard always seemed to find truths worth telling and paths to even greater catastrophe that could be opened by lying."

After the jump, my review.

Mayor John Marshall

Confidential to Amir Omar and Laura Maczka: This first paragraph is the only time your names will be mentioned in this blog post, but I have you both in mind as I write the rest.

Recently, I lamented what I considered the recent sorry state of Richardson government. In my opinion, in this council term, we've been treading water, accomplishing little, missing opportunities. I titled the blog post "Dysfunctional by Design" because I saw the problem as structural, imposed on us by the constraints of Richardson's City Charter and the Texas Open Meetings Act. I ended on a pessimistic note, saying "I'm thrashing around here. I don't have the solution."

Well, thrash long enough and sometimes you break free from the constraints holding you down. John Marshall, Tom Craddick and the Texas State PTA provide three examples of how things can get done even in the face of structural constraints. One example is lauded by history, one reviled, one trivial, but all show what can be accomplished if you take the initiative to do something.

After the jump, what a Richardson mayor can learn from history.

Playoffs: Allen 37, Dallas Skyline 17

From 2012 00 Miscellaneous

The Allen Eagles defeated the Dallas Skyline Raiders 37-17 Saturday afternoon at Mesquite Memorial Stadium. It marked the first loss for the District 9-5A champions, who end their season 12-1. The Eagles (12-1), the District 10-5A champions, advance to play DeSoto next Saturday at 6:00 PM at SMU's Ford Stadium in one of the Class 5A Division 1 state championship semifinal games.

Laura Maczka Wants Businesses to Come to Richardson

A week late, Neighborsgo has the story that Laura Maczka is running for mayor of Richardson. Taylor Adams quotes Maczka:

"As the mayor, my biggest job is to encourage businesses to continue to come to Richardson. I have a responsibility to bring what is most important to the taxpayer. My goal is to balance the quality of life and the amenities our city has come to enjoy," she said.

Plans also include development of the remaining green space in the city, she said.

Source: Neighborsgo.

After the jump, unpacking Maczka's words.

Texas Picks Winners and Losers

Rule of thumb: picking winners and losers is bad if Barack Obama's Washington does it. It's good if Rick Perry's Texas does it. That's the kind of contradiction that makes American politics inscrutable to foreigners and infuriating to the ever-shrinking middle of the American electorate in between the party bases.

Under Mr. Perry, Texas gives out more of the incentives than any other state, around $19 billion a year, an examination by The New York Times has found. Texas justifies its largess by pointing out that it is home to half of all the private sector jobs created over the last decade nationwide. As the invitation to the fund-raiser boasted: "Texas leads the nation in job creation."

Yet the raw numbers mask a more complicated reality behind the flood of incentives, the examination shows, and raise questions about who benefits more, the businesses or the people of Texas.

Source: New York Times.

After the jump, a big loser in Texas.

OTBR: An Olympic Rowing Course in Australia

Latitude: S 33° 43.560
Longitude: E 150° 40.812
A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Richardson Leaves ICLEI

From David Chenoweth's blog comes word that the City of Richardson is dropping its membership in "ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability." I assume that this doesn't mean that Richardson's interest in sustainability is waning. Or that it thinks sustainability is best accomplished with a go-it-alone approach.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves here. You probably have never heard of ICLEI. If you have heard of it, the chances are it was through some right-wing channel that views it as part of a worldwide conspiracy to impose socialism, herd you into cities, confiscate your guns and pickup trucks, and force you to use contraception and abortion to control population growth. Or something like that.

After the jump, let ICLEI introduce itself to the rest of us.