THUMB AWARDS

Thumbs Down: To the Dallas City Council for continuing to keep alive the Roseland Parkway proposal. They seem determined to demolish 125 houses, 29 apartment buildings, and 17 businesses to build an eight-lane thoroughfare through a part of town that has begun to experience a revival. Furthermore, city transportation planners are juggling figures that don’t make sense. They insist that the population of the northeast segment of Dallas will grow by 200,000 by 1990, when in fact there are fewer than 5000 acres of undeveloped land in that part of town, and some of that is flood plain. Even if the land were developed, it could accommodate only 75,000 people. Do your homework, boys. We need better public transportation, not more concrete.

Thumbs Up: To Jas. K. Wilson for providing a $5000 scholarship in the performing arts to SMU and also for turning over space in their downtown store for a gallery for local artists. Well-placed civic philanthropy is an art in itself.

Thumbs Down: To the Dallas Movie Classification Board for their latest absurdity – a V (for Violence) classification for the Agatha Christie spoof-thriller Death on the Nile. The MPAA, the national rating body, gave the movie a PG rating; Dallas is the only market in the country to give the film a restricted rating. Our rating of the Board: R (for Ridiculous). And we look forward to the day when we can rate it E (for Extinct).

Thumbs Up: To departing DISD superintendent Nolan Estes. In his last two months on the job, he is co-authoring a book. The subject is how to promote a school system and how to get good press. Wisely, Mr. Estes has not chosen to write a book about how to teach kids to read and write.