CITYSCOPE

It flies in the face of all the local political trends, of course, but smart money says that this new city council will be the most conservative in years. The reason? With our budget woes, the city is not going to be able to play sugar daddy to every service and program that needs funding. The voters have made it pretty clear that they’re willing to pay to maintain current services. But with less money coming in, even holding onto what services we have now may take a tax increase. The word is that if the council won’t go for a tax hike, the city staff is prepared to suggest that some city-sponsored services be cut or turned over to private enterprise. Frankly, it really doesn’t make that much difference who got elected mayor; the man in the middle is city manager Richard Knight Jr. and he’s the one who’s got to pull all this off.



Every good political campaign has at least one non-issue, and this past month’s city council races were no exception. This time it was the redistncting issue. Jim Buerger tried to make political hay out of it by backing the 10-1 plan (all single-member districts, only the mayor elected at large); that won him a couple of key endorsements, but obviously, the issue was not the fulcrum point of the race. The other major candidates-Annette Strauss, Fred Meyer, and Jim Collins-supported the status quo, with eight seats elected from districts, and two members plus the mayor elected at large. The irony is, it’s all pretty much beside the point, because it’s practically inevitable that redistricting will happen any way-and not necessarily in either of those configurations. Folks on both sides of the ideological center line say they’re ready to see the council tackle the issue sometime this summer, or fall at the latest. But the final decision rests with the voters, and who knows what they’ll approve?



Guess who’s trying to get a hammerlock on the lucrative wrestling market? None other than Dallas Cowboys owner Bum Bright, who is quietly muscling in with the Von Erichs. One of Bright’s companies, Bright Sports Marketing, has formed a partnership with Fritz Von Erich to handle some aspects of the business that have been traditionally done in-house-videotapes, charity appearances, etc. Bright’s No. 2 man, Jim Francis, confirms that “there are other projects in the mill, too,” and though he won’t elaborate, sources say that one is the Von Erich’s Friday night television program filmed at the Sportatorium. The show, which is widely syndicated, will reportedly be moved to a “studio production” with souped-up graphics and high-tech production techniques-things not normally associated with pro wrestling. Bright hopes to add one other element currently missing from the Sportatorium-a packed house. His strategy for that? Provide free seats.