Judge Allows Pecan Grove to Stay Put Near Methodist. Yesterday, State District Judge Bonnie Goldstein invalidated a City Council vote that allowed Methodist Dallas Medical Center to whack down a grove of 11 pecan trees that separated the hospital from the surrounding neighborhood. The hospital wanted to build a new gym there, but residents wanted the buffer. This is the weird vote that happened in a southern Dallas gym during an off-site Council meeting. The Council allowed landlord Ralph Isenberg to pull an affidavit his wife signed that sided with the neighbors. He was incredibly disparaging to his wife, who wasn’t present at the meeting, and the Council allowed him to submit a new affidavit claiming the opposite of her original claim. He said her English wasn’t good enough to understand such a thing. That, the judge found, shouldn’t have happened; his new affidavit was entered too late. And so she spiked the vote.
Expect Scattered Rain Today. We get the table scraps of Imelda, which hammered southeast Texas yesterday. But it won’t be anything more than scattered showers.
Another Record For North Texas Giving Day. You all gave $50 million this year to area nonprofits, a full $2 million more than 2018. That is worth celebrating.
Developer Ruel Hamilton Says Those Bribes Were Really Charitable Donations. This is the low-income developer who the feds say paid the late Councilwoman Carolyn Davis for her support of tax credits for a decrepit apartment in Oak Cliff. He says that money went to pay for kids to go on Freedom Ride tours, which “retrace the Rides of the 1960s and teach children about the civil rights movement.” His court filing doesn’t mention the $7,000 bribe he allegedly paid Dwaine Caraway.
