Richardson's Empty Storefronts

Ever wonder why Richardson has so many empty storefronts? Maybe it's because Richardson's city council spends too much time keeping businesses out of Richardson and too little time attracting them.

Case in point: the following is a (lightly edited) slide presented at the October 14 city council meeting.

• City Council has expressed an interest in making certain the City has a well balanced, diverse mixture of retail establishments.
  
• To that end, staff constantly looks for opportunities to enhance existing regulations, especially when it observes new trends in the community.
  
• Recently, an influx of applications for [a certain kind of] establishment have been received.
  
• Consistent with how other similar establishments have been treated, regulations regarding where these businesses can locate may be desirable to prevent clustering and ensure location appropriateness in keeping with the community’s standards.
  

After the jump, is this the right way to attract small business to Richardson?

Richardson City Council Cover-Up

In a move away from transparency, the Richardson City Council amended its city ordinances Monday night by unanimous vote, without deliberations. Despite paying lip service to the value of openness and transparency, the new ordinance not only permits cover-ups, it demands cover-ups in certain circumstances. This change was slipped into the city council's so-called consent agenda, in which items are adopted without separate consideration and without deliberation.

What is the council covering up now? After the jump, the details.

Lake Highlands Homecoming Win

From 2013 10 11 Richardson vs Lake Highlands

The Lake Highlands Wildcats celebrated a 29-18 win over the Richardson Eagles Friday night.

More photos after the jump.

S2L77: Cappadocia

From 1977 04 08 Turkey

Cappadocia, in central Turkey, is one of those unforgettable places that combines otherworldly geology with spellbinding history. It's a land of fairy chimneys and underground cities where early Christians sought refuge from ancient Romans. They carved houses and churches from the soft volcanic rock or tuff. These were occupied for centuries until just a generation or so ago. Today, an open air museum showcases hundreds of such living quarters and dozens of churches dating back a thousand years.

More photos after the jump.

Inaction Items

You may remember I made something of a deal out of the fact that the Richardson City Council met away from city hall, without video cameras to record their deliberations, four separate times in August and September. The meetings were billed as "Council goals retreats."

It's over a month later now. What are the goals and near-term action items the council came up with? Follow me after the jump as I play detective to find out.