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It’s a little simple (and surely he could have found a better example than Houston), but still he makes a very valid point.

If the headline of this post doesn’t compute, then try wrapping your cerebellum around the following quote from Dallas’ assistant city manager Jill Jordan.

Question: Jill, with the kayaking, that’s a water contact sport, but what about the water quality?

Jill Jordan: The water quality issues that have been recently in the press really dealt with sediment issues, and so it will be fine for the people just in the water.

This exchange comes from a longer Q&A session that was buried after the jump on DMN city hall writer Steve Thompson’s notes from a breakfast given by the Greater Dallas Planning Council Thursday.

Jordan is probably referring to another DMN writer, Randy Lee Loftis, when she talks about coverage of the Trinity’s water quality issues. Loftis’ stories on the Trinity being among the most polluted waters in Texas and the Trinity’s high PCB levels that make its fish poisonous for humans should be required reading if you plan to kayak through the city’s planned standing wave project.

By myopic, I mean my recap will not extend much beyond the patio at the Barley House (well, except we’re going to talk about a transportation snafu involving DART). Anyway, Eric asked me yesterday to answer five questions about the Greenville Avenue St. Patrick’s Day Parade. After the jump, I’ll do my best.

I was horrified to see this sign in a downtown storefront. (And I’m trying to figure out how to use that adverb in a sentence.)

1. What gets me about this extensive report in Sunday’s paper about the Trinity toll road isn’t the fact that the levee repairs will continue to hold up the construction of the road or that the NTTA has said again that projected tolls don’t justify the total cost of the project. My problem is that the conversation is still, “how are we going to build the toll road,” and not, “how are we going to raise the money to build the Trinity River Project without the toll road?” Last year at this time, Wick’s rough estimates put the money needed to build the project without the toll road at around $90 million (to put that in perspective, according to the DMN story, the toll road is currently about $1 billion underfunded). The toll road is never going to happen, so let’s pick up the conversation from there.

2. I’m starting to feel like the Monday barker who brings bad DISD news. This week’s sad song: ten of more than 30 DISD high schools are considered chronically failing.

3. A simple question for you to fight out in the comments: who is going to enjoy the Dallas Zoo’s six new elephants more: Elizabeth Lavin or John Carona?

I like the D Spot campaign. Of course, even as I approach my 40th birthday, my sense of humor remains at about a sixth-grade level. So take my opinion in that context. What I don’t dig about the D Spot campaign is its execution on storefronts downtown. The whole point of the D Spot is showing people that there are cool places to hang out downtown. Me, today, I found my D Spot at City Tavern. Solid grilled cheese sandwich. And I like a place where people order shots before noon. But on the walk back to the office, I saw these two vacant storefronts plastered with D Spot insignia. Is it just me? Isn’t it a bit ironic that you’re trumpeting the hipness of downtown on abandoned businesses? (And, yes, I understand that a business like, say, City Tavern — an open business — is not going to want D Spot insignia plastered all over it. But still. You get where I’m coming from, no?)

The annual meeting of the DowntownDallas organization, the folks who helped you find your D Spot, just concluded at the Sheraton. Our fearless leader, Wick Allison, moderated a panel at the luncheon. I’ll give you a recap (at great personal risk) if you’ll be kind enough to jump.