Eroding a Landscape Buffer

The Burger King on Campbell Rd west of Central Expressway is going to get torn down and rebuilt. Woot! The requirement for a certain sized landscape buffer along Campbell Rd is going to give way to make room for more parking. Boo! Burger King insists they need more. Ever more. Everything that's wrong with urban design today is caused by the insatiable demand for parking.

After the jump, the real problem with the Burger King parking lot.

Review: Eisenhower: The White House Years

Amazon

From Eisenhower: The White House Years, by Jim Newton:

As word trickled through the crowd, Lloyd Berkner, America's official representative to the international committee hosting the conference, graciously acknowledged the work of the Soviet scientists. 'I wish to make an announcement,' he called out. 'I've just been informed by the New York Times that a Russian satellite is in orbit at an elevation of 900 kilometers. I wish to congratulate our Soviet colleagues on their achievement.'"

The above quote does not have anything to do with Eisenhower, but it does have something to do with Richardson, Texas. Lloyd Berkner is none other than the man for whom that high school in Richardson is named. Berkner the man is nearly forgotten today, but that high school bearing his name is a reminder of how important Sputnik and the Space Race were to all Americans in the late 1950s. It's almost impossible to imagine today just how important. That alone makes the Eisenhower presidency important, too.

After the jump, my review.

"You Didn't Build That"

When we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.

Source: President Barack Obama.

That doesn't sound controversial, does it? So, why are Republicans making it sound like President Obama issued the Communist Manifesto in his comments this week at a campaign rally in Roanoke, Virginia? Wait, you say that I'm taking the sentence above out of context? That Republicans want to take a different sentence out of context? Republicans are making hay out of another sentence. "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that."

And by Republicans, I have to include Mike Hashimoto, editorial writer for The Dallas Morning News. Hashimoto takes that one sentence and proceeds to tell readers that the words "pull back the curtain on some personal truth, a core belief" of President Obama. For Hashimoto, "I think it's pretty clear that this is a president -- of the United States -- who has little appreciation for the American way and certainly the American Dream. To his mind, if government doesn't provide it, it's not worth having." [Emphasis his.]

That's a lot of mind-reading there. Thankfully, Americans don't have to read President Obama's mind on the subject. They don't have to read paragraph after paragraph of Hashimoto's own explanation of all that President Obama meant by that one sentence, the only one Hashimoto bothers to quote. Americans don't even have to ask President Obama himself to explain what he meant. He already did. Just read the full context -- a context that Republicans invariably strip from the retelling -- and you know exactly what President Obama meant.

After the jump, the full context.

How to Repair Streets the Best Way

Stop worrying about the potholes in the road
and celebrate the journey.

Source: Barbara Hoffman.

This just drives me crazy. The City of Richardson is facing numerous serious challenges. The redevelopment of Main Street/Central Expressway Corridor is just the latest major project kicked off by the city. The redevelopment of the West Spring Valley Corridor and the greenfield development around the PGBT DART station are two others that are still supposedly underway. I say supposedly because they haven't been on the council agenda much lately.

After the jump, what the city council thinks is more deserving of its limited weekly meeting time.

Speaking English: Balanced Budget (2012 Definition)

Last year at budget time, I set out with what I thought was a simple goal. I wanted the City of Richardson to adopt a balanced budget. I was disappointed. The city adopted a budget in which expenditures exceeded revenues. The city insisted the budget was nevertheless balanced. That's because the city feels free to use "reserved fund balance" to make up for a shortfall in revenues and still call the budget balanced.

I figured OK, maybe it's at least a cyclically balanced budget. Some years there's a reserved fund balance to draw down. Other years, the city runs a surplus and restores that reserved fund balance. An adamant reader insisted that I was wrong, that the reserved fund balance is drawn down each and every year, and replenished not by budget surpluses, but by increasing debt.

I never did get to the bottom of the conundrum. You can read the conclusion of last year's whole ugly mess if you want.

Now, they're ba-a-a-a-ck! The City Council is holding another of its annual so-called budget retreats this week. After the jump, my firm resolution.