STREET TALK

There have been persistent rumors that Mayor Starke Taylor is unlikely to run for re-election next spring, despite the fact that he announced last winter that he would. Anyone who attends Dallas City Council meetings couldn’t have missed seeing the tired, frustrated expression that often appears on Taylor’s face. And whenever that rumor emerges, so does the list of possible candidates to fill his place.

Council members Annette Strauss and Jerry Rucker are always near the top of that list, along with former City Councilman and attorney Lee Simpson. But now two others have surfaced: Dan Petty and John Scovell. Petty is currently president of Henry S. Miller Co. and was president of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce from 1977 to 1979 and assistant city manager from 1974 to 1977. Petty also served as executive assistant to former Gov. Preston Smith and was the state’s director of the Division of Planning Coordination. Scovell, the founder of Positive Parents, is president of Woodbine Development Corp. For years, city leaders have tried to persuade Scovell to run for mayor. So for, he’s resisted.



City Plan Commission member Tricia Smith made an interesting career move in late July. The longtime Oak Cliff resident and supporter left her cushy media relations position at Allied Bank in Lakewood to join Redbird Bank in Oak Cliff, a new independent bank in the area. Smith says she made the change because of the opportunity to boost her income and the need to get back to the south side of town so she can be closer to clients of her media consultant practice. Although she says she isn’t closing any doors, she denied rumors that she might be interested in running for the Dallas City Council next spring.



Rumors that the Cathedral Shrine of the Guadalupe between Ross, Pearl and Flora streets will be razed to make room for the widening of Flora are exaggerated, according to Landmark Committee member Leif Sandberg. He says there is no dispute about the historic significance of the 1902 building’s architecture.

Sandberg says that the city is offering the Catholic Diocese of Dallas about $2.6 million for the 15,700 feet of property on the north side of the block, on which the church’s education building sits. The sanctuary and parish, however, will not be demolished. Half of the land that the city acquires will be used to widen the street and lay sidewalks for pedestrians in the Arts District. The city plans to sell the other half of the property back to the diocese. Sandberg says that the city believes there will still be enough open land to build a new education building on the same block.

Despite this assurance, members of the diocese say the razing of the education building and the subsequent loss of tuition income will be a blow to the church’s finances.



Pet owners will have an easier time locating lost animals if an idea proposed by Dallas real estate developer Fred Brodsky is enacted. Brodsky hopes to establish a computer network, Petnet, that will list all the animals in 22 area holding centers.

More than 36,000 pets are destroyed in Dallas each year, Brodsky says. The major reason is the difficulty owners have in tracking down their pets at city pounds and American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) shelters. “The system will be a computerized listing, whereby an owner can call a number, give a description of the pet and then be told if the animal has been found and where it is,” he says.

Petnet will cost between $200,000 and $250,000 to establish. Brodsky says that donations can be sent to an account that the city has set up to help get the system started. He hopes to present his plan to the City Council at a later date.



If recreational running is your style, enter the Second Annual Park Cities People 10K and One Mile Fun Run, which benefits the Plaza Theatre. It’s set for September 29 at 9 a.m.

The run begins and ends at the theater in Snider Plaza and follows a winding course through Park Cities streets, according to Debbie Slaughter, advertising director for the neighborhood newspaper. Both the 10K race and the Fun Run will be divided into age categories so that children and adults will have an equal chance to win prizes.

The entry fee for each racer is $9 before September 24 and $12 from that date until the race. There’s also a wheelchair division for handicapped racers. Merrill Lynch Realty is sponsoring this year’s race.