Bike-Share Ultimatum Delivered. Add City Manager T.C. Broadnax to the list of people fed up with the unregulated onslaught of rental bikes tangled up on Dallas sidewalks, trails, and bodies of water. In a letter to the five bike-share companies now hawking their product here, Broadnax on Thursday warned that they have until Feb. 5 to get their act together, which involves moving bikes off of narrow sidewalks and away from sidewalk ramps and unpaved surfaces, among other requests. Otherwise, the city will begin collecting some of the 20,000 or so rental bikes in Dallas itself.
Here’s That Panhandling Lawsuit Against the City That Everyone Knew Was Coming. And it’s from no less than the “Will Rap For Weed” woman, Yvette Gbalazeh, the Deep Ellum cannabis enthusiast and street activist turned novelty gubernatorial candidate. Gbalazeh, arrested twice for solicitation in 2016, alleges that the city’s panhandling ordinance is unconstitutional, an assertion that the city attorney and police chief seem to agree with, which is why it is not presently being enforced. Her lawyer smells class action.
Local Connection to the Most Horrific Story of the New Year Found. The man and woman charged in California with torturing and imprisoning their 13 children for years allegedly started the abuse when they were living near Fort Worth.
County Commissioner Candidate Makes Questionable Offer. In a recorded phone call, J.J. Koch told Stephen Stanley, his opponent in the race for the northern Dallas County commissioner’s seat, that he would pay Stanley’s campaign debt if Stanley dropped out of the race. It is, at least, a very bad look for Koch, and at most, attempted bribery. Stanley sent a complaint to the state Attorney General’s office.
Timberlawn Shutting Down. The troubled East Dallas psychiatric hospital will close on Feb. 1 after a number of incidents called into question patients’ safety there.
It’s Not That Cold. We might even hit 60-something degrees Saturday, if you can believe it.