LETTERS

The Courage of Darrin Bernstein



Thank you, Skip Hollandsworth, for telling the story of Darrin Bernstein [’A Profile In Courage,” May]. Darrin is a delightful young man and his plight with cystic fibrosis is all too typical. It is important that your readers know about this dreadful disease and what is being done in the form of genetic research to combat it.

Jack B. Bell

President, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation

Dallas



Skip Hollandsworth’s story about Darrin Bernstein and cystic fibrosis was exceptionally well done. It was such a sensitive and honest glimpse into the realities of cystic fibrosis.

Skip did an excellent job of capturing the Bernstein family’s feelings and communicating Darrin’s incredible personality. I’m sure that many people who’ve never heard of cystic fibrosis were touched and, more importantly, educated by the article.

Kathy Catsinas

Dallas



The Best Bars, Bar None



Just to set the record straight, in your May story on “The Last Real Bars” you incorrectly identified one of the two cousins who opened the Club Schmitz as “Bugin” when in tact his nickname was “Bigun.” I wouldn’t bother except he is no longer around to fend for himself and he was a very good friend of mine. I have been in most of the clubs you featured and must say that for the things your article was all about, none topped the Club Schmitz. You also failed to mention their chili. It is without a doubt the best in Dallas. I was in the bar on opening day in 1946 and frequent it to this day.

Howard H. Harris Dallas



I enjoy D magazine very much because you normally do an excellent job in most articles. However, you may have bitten off more than you can chew in Bart Barker’s attempt to list the city’s “best” bartenders [“The Last Real Bars,” May].

That courageous but ill-advised effort has probably at least irritated and more likely totally estranged every tippler in town who has a regular hangout and a favorite purveyor of the grape.

I’m firmly convinced that Sharon Cromer at Monopoly downtown is the fastest, most efficient, most amiable, most entertaining, and most-concerned-about-her-customers bartender who ever held down happy hour.

Edward Lee

Dallas



Downtown:Setting the Record Straight



Scott Bennett’s “Real Estate Report” [May] on Festival Marketplace contained several inaccuracies. He described Festival Marketplace as a “residential-etc.” center. While many of us believe that Dallas will greatly benefit from additional downtown residential development, and while the first proposals for the Festival Marketplace area included residential, the latest plans I am familiar with eliminate the residential component altogether.

Bennett’s report then went on to suggest that the Reunion project and Bryan Place were fair examples of public/private cooperative efforts and stated that condemnation was used to acquire land for Bryan Place. I feel it is important that Dallas taxpayers know that not one square inch of property in Bryan Place was acquired through condemnation, no revenue bonds were sold to finance Bryan Place, and no special tax breaks were granted for Bryan Place.

Jim Rogers

President, Bryan Place Property Owners’

Association, Inc.

Dallas



My hat is off to D magazine for your accurate and balanced article on our efforts to transform the southeast corner of downtown [the Farmers Market]. However, I am disappointed that our friends in the West End fear that any success we enjoy will be at their expense. This is like saying San Francisco should never have allowed Ghirardelli Square because it would ruin the Fisherman’s Wharf, or Covent Garden in London should never have been given a face lift because of nearby Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square.

If Dallas is truly the international city we like to boast about so much, then surely our downtown can support more than one place for people.

Hubert F. Flamant

President, Belgian American Investments

& Trade

Dallas

lung live Satire



Your May “Inside Dallas” introduced me to a noteworthy satirist, although a bit late. Had I known about Bradley Miller and his National Capitalist Workers Party, I would have underscored my rage by switching morning papers when Joe Bob Briggs was fired by John Wiley Price.

Fortunately, the major publications in Dallas have one consummate satirist left: D magazine’s Chris Tucker. His columns have grown from a pleasant surprise as I leafed through your pages, to D”s piece de resistance.

I certainly hope Tucker has more job security than his peers on the morning dailies. After all, a satirist is a terrible thing to waste.

Frank D. Repp Jr.

Dallas



April Fools! Your Newsweek-styled “Special Report” on Madonna moving to Dallas was hilarious. It made writing out the check for next year’s subscription renewal a bit easier. Over the past year I have especially enjoyed the last page columns by Chris Tucker and guess I shouldn’t have been surprised to see he also penned the “scoop” on the Madonna Move.

Mark Van Winkle

Dallas



DART: Wrong From The Start



The DART buses I see are empty. This is the expected result of social engineering rather than a transportation system designed by those in the business. I did not vote for DART, What is needed is a high speed monorail with free parking areas outside the city. When arriving at a downtown station, DART minibuses would complete the short ride to the final destination. Dallas now has a transportation morass that cannot work, and will be paid for with increasing frustration by taxpayers and suffering commuters.

Terry R. Eastman

Coppell