THUMBS DOWN The Taxpayers Do Care

THUMBS DOWN to Alphonso Jackson, chief executive officer of the Dallas Housing Authority. First, Jackson denounced the middle class (and multi-racial.) opponents of a proposed North Dallas housing project as “racists.” As is usually the case, the use of an epithet betrayed the lack of an argument. Then, when Craig Flournoy and Steve McGonigle of The Dallas Morning News revealed the Authority had overpaid for the proposed site by more than a half million dollars, Jackson’s astonishing response was, “The price is not relevant, If people said we paid too much, that’s fine. And I’m not going to argue what the procedure was. I don’t care.” Jackson, who was a wellspring of good sense when he came here in 1989, is either suffering from bureaucratic bum-out or bureaucratic arrogance. Either way, he should go. And the North Dallas project should be reconsidered from the ground up. Perhaps City Manager John Ware should post a notice at every elevator stop at City Hall: “The taxpayers do care, even if you don’t.”