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Over on Walkable DFW, Patrick Kennedy has begun a series wherein he takes the Hot or Not? concept and applies it to places in North Texas. First up: Addison Circle. Time to vote.

Earlier today, a little before lunch, an errand took me on foot through the Arts District. I was walking down Ross with our creative director, Todd Johnson, when I espied a wiry, short fellow wearing earbuds and what I consider a tasteful fauxhawk. He was walking quickly and looked familiar.

“Kevin Moriarty!” I shouted.

The artistic director of the Dallas Theater Center spun on his heels as if he expected an assault. I introduced him to Todd. We continued our walk, the three of us, together.

1. “TxDOT is not in the development business,” says a TxDOT traffic engineer in response to some South Dallas residents’ argument that a rebuilding of S.M. Wright Freeway should also include efforts to revitalize the neighborhood the highway destroyed in the first place. But the engineer is right — highways cutting their way through this city have helped destroy neighborhoods and stifle development for decades. So why would we want to bother our transportation department with having to think about the impact their roads have on the places they go to and cut through?

2. Last year the city struggled to cut $190 million from its budget. This year, even after those cuts, the budget gap is a whopping $130 million, which means those two oh-so-popular options are back on the table: cutting police and raising property taxes.

3. Dwaine Caraway continues to follow the mantra that it is good to be hard on small crimes (baggy pants, scrap metal yards) unless they are the kinds of small crimes Caraway doesn’t think you should be tough on (illegal poker games). But Caraway is getting some heat for the way he avoided normal chains of command and flexed his political might in order to retaliate against parking tickets given outside a house in his district known for hosting poker games.

1. Are you, like me, addicted to all news related to Greece’s financial meltdown and the possible global economic meltdown that may ensue because of it? If so, you’ll be interested to hear Dallas has its own potential meldown on its hands: billions of dollars of back pay liability that may be due former police officers and firefighters. Time to stock up on canned food and ammunition.

2. I’m still not sure where Riverfront Boulevard is, but it seems the DMN interviewed a bunch of skeptical stakeholders on Industrial Boulevard who have doubts about the city’s plans to rework the street of liquor stores, bail bondsmen, and jails to condos, retail, blah, blah, blah. I would have doubts, too, if the council person leading the effort delivered choice quotes like this one from Dave Neumann: “I’m very much an advocate of property rights, and I respect property rights, but I’m also an advocate of our city moving forward.” Which basically means he doesn’t respect property rights if your property is in the way of the bulldozers. In that case, why squabble about property rights at all?

3. What does Eric Cowan’s victory in the DISD school board race mean? That Cowan is a candidate that transcends racial concerns? That non-hispanic Oak Cliff dwellers are flexing their slowly growing political might? That public schools that are overwhelmingly Hispanic won’t have representation that understands their particular concerns and issues? That racial politics don’t matter when it comes to making good decisions about local schools? Or that Cowan actually cared about winning, and with low-turnout DISD school board elections, that’s what counts?

4. And, finally, Rudy Bush points us to the briefing DART will give to the Dallas City Council today, which basically says that the transportation system is broke. Happy Monday.