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Do It Now!

The City Council elections on May 1 will bring new faces to a 14-1 council that is still quite new itself. You’ll hear plenty of rhetoric and promises before Election Day. But when the dust settles, what should the new council do? We asked that question of 27 knowledgeable; Dallasites-and got very definite ideas in return.
By D Magazine |

DR. ROBERT FINE, chairman of the ethics committee, Baylor University Medical Center

Think more like physicians, especially when it conies to their ethical behavior. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if politicians thought, “First, Do No Harm”? That is glaringly absent light now.



JOHN FULLINWIDER director, Common Ground

Guarantee employment for youth this summer and every summer. Why do kids in the inner city already have a guaranteed job in the criminal underworld economy-drug runners, prostitutes, thieves–but they don’t even have the hope of a job in the regular economy? Let’s put employment ‧centers in the schools and rec centers. Dropouts who enroll in summer school could also get jobs. There should be a special outreach to the most alienated kids. And the jobs should pay at least $5 an hour. The really alienated kids see minimum wage as chump change. If private^ sector employment can’t be found, the city, county, housing authority and DISD should be the employers of last resort.



DAN RUSS managing director, Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture

They should remove themselves from business once or twice a year to a retreat with people who have a sense of history and vision larger than their political concerns. This will enable them to know each other outside the necessarily adversarial relationships of the political arena. We have a diverse council now, not like the old homogeneous group that spent a lot of time together socially. If they feel the humanity of each other, that will work to human-is? the process.



SUZANNE MCKEE. partner, Corgan Associates Architects; chairman of the board, Goodwill Industries

Re-energize downtown, specifically with downtown housing. Expand on the concept of the Downtown Improvement District. Hopefully that will result in more public spaces downtown, as well as grocery stones and more retail stores,



KAREN ASHMORE co-founder of the Dallas Rainbow chapter of the National Organization for Women

Aggressively work to eliminate racism and sexism in funds allocation-in everything from the distribution of arts and cultural monies to minority contracting issues. The City Council has had policies before, but they’ve looked the other way. They have enough task forces. They need to be actively committed to equality in funding, and they need to just do it.



AL LIPSCOMB, outgoing council member

The top priority must be public safety and the creation of jobs. With crack cocaine and the decadence running through the city, we’re not going to have a city or a Metroplex if we don’t do something. We must come up with a meaningful version of the old Civilian Conservation Corps to be sure people have something to do that will restore dignity and a sense of purpose.



THOMAS MUHAMMAD, vice president South Dallas Innercity Community Development Corporation

Stick with existing plans for community development-such as the South Dallas Fair Park Neighborhood Preservation and Economic Development Plan. That would make sure funding stays in the area. It would create a retail incubator for small business and would solve a lot of inner-city problems.



JOHN TATUM, president. Elm Development Company

Blow off the suburbs and build DART for Dallas. The suburbs want equal benefit from DART but will not allow DART to operate effectively by providing different services for different needs in different cities. DART’s board politics has sacrificed Dallas’ downtown as a result. The “transit mall” on Pacific is a dumb idea-just plain dumb. We all deserve mass transit, but Dallas’ leadership refuses to commit itself to an appropriate technology. Instead of a trolley, we should have rapid rail in a tunnel downtown. DART’s investment could now be anchoring Toronto-style retail on Main Street and serving 10,000 new residents returning to the city. Unfortunately, when it comes to DART, Dallas has never done what’s best for Dallas.



KATHERINE OWENS, co-artistic director of the Undermain Theatre

I want to see some kind of public awareness campaign that deals with the issue of weapons. Look at what organized efforts did for drunk driving and smoking. Those activities are absolutely unacceptable now. Why can’t we do the same thing with handguns?



WINK DICKEY, executive director of Dallas Habitat for Humanity

The city needs to develop a program that will efficiently move properties with liens on them into the hands of people who can build affordable housing. There are currently thousands of pieces of property that have liens on them, and none of the ones foreclosed on are being tunneled to the In-fill Housing Program. Right now it takes an incredible amount of time and red tape to get anything accomplished because the people in the housing department have no experience at this kind of thing. In a city this size there should be a hundred groups like us-profit and nonprofit-building affordable housing. We just have to remove the barriers.

BARBARA RENAUD GONZALEZ.

community development consultant, Dallas County Community College District, and free-lance writer

Apologize for the Super Bowl parade, for glorifying a bunch of football players and setting an awful, conspicuous example for the youth of Dallas. Football players are not heroes; they’re great athletes, but they’re not heroes.

MITTIE IMANI JORDAN, director of the South Dallas Cultural Center

Address the issue of “class flight” by focusing on ways to restore and revitalize the core residential communities. We provide a wealth of opportunities to the “greater” Dallas community, yet those taking advantage of us are unwilling to live here, educate here and reinvest their tax and consumer dollars. As we address this issue, it is critical that we do not do so at the expense of displacing or further alienating our current majority residency, which is primarily lower-income, black and Hispanic.



ROY HONEYCUTT, president of CAPPS (Citizens Association Police/ Public Service)

Remove the police department from under the auspices of the city manager and make the chief and department accountable to the mayor and City Council. Then allow the chief to operate the department as he/she sees fit, reporting monthly to the mayor and council. This removes the opportunity for one city official making police decisions based on political personal agendas. If it’s a police matter, the police chief knows more about it than [city manager] Jan Hart.

CYNTHIA BLACKFOX ALCOZE

acting executive director, Dallas Inter-tribal Center

In light of the ever-increasing racial tensions in the city of Dallas, it is imperative that the City Council make easing racial tensions a top priority. To do this they must begin with themselves-they need to be the role model for racial harmony.



DR. BEVERLY MITCHELL-BROOKS, president and CEO, Dallas Urban League

The first thing that they must do is to go into a workshop or session on how to get along with each other, and in that session, get an understanding of their agendas and the concerns of the people they represent. A lot of young people look to the City Council as role models. How they get along serves as a signal for how we all respond. If people see that they appreciate diversity and disagree without being disagreeable, then they can start addressing the very gut-wrenching issues that face the city.



PAUL ZANE PILZER author, investor and founder of ZCI, a multimedia publisher

The most important issue facing the Dallas City Council is economic growth-how to retain the base we have and how to increase it. Looking back, we have spent too much time fighting over how to share a seemingly ever-shrinking economic pie among ourselves, rather than working on how together we can increase the total size of the pie so there is more to share for everyone. Economic growth should be posted on the wall of the council chamber and considered to be the council’s top priority in resolving virtually every issue that comes before them.

JERRY BARTOS. outgoing council member

City Council members should undertake their duties with a reverent attitude toward the people whom they serve, It is the people’s district and the council member only serves that district for as long as elected and should not forget that. The council member should regard citizens’ tax money as frugally as possible. Instead of looking at the numbers on a sheet of paper, they should consider the dollars coming out of the purse or wallet of the people. Finally, on every issue, in every debate and vote, “REMEMBER THE PEOPLE.”

HENRY R. MARTINEZ the Ledbetter Neighborhood Association

Solve the race issue. Get the community, grass-roots people and parents and kids together to sort out the problems. Committees and task forces don’t solve problems because they’re not grassroots. And the council should set a good example by being more businesslike and stop finger-pointing.

DR. RON ANDERSON, president and CEO of Parkland Memorial Hospital

To help resolve public health problems in Dallas, the new City Council must have a vision beyond single-member districts and city limits, because disease knows no boundaries. Public health must address a broad population base, which mandates the collaboration of many agencies-the city, the hospital district, the county health department and other agencies-in order to manage efforts and conduct a needs assessment.

JACK EVANS, former mayor of Dallas; owner of Jack Evans Investments

We’ve got to come up with a program of economic development and stick with it. The first thing we’ve got to do is attract more business to Dallas. For example, we don’t have a single major bank. I’d like to see a major banking institution move their headquarters to Dallas.

THE REV. TOM PLUMBLEY, senior minister of Midway Hills Christian Church

We must find some way to reduce violence by getting guns off our streets. We often think that’s a federal or state matter, but when a gun is used, it’s extremely local. The council should pass bans on some of the more ridiculous weapons, like assault rifles.

TRAVIS WORTHAM, Superintendent of the Texas Youth Commission

Involve youth of the city interculturally. Kids are not part of the mainstream now and need to be included. The council needs to address the problem of summer employment. We’ve seen an enormous increase in crime by youths, and we’ll continue to see a rise in problems among teen-agers unless these issues are addressed.



JIM BUERGER, chairman of the board and CEO of TRAVELHOST; former DART board member and council member

Council members, in their heart of hearts, need to be positive, professional and able to find amiable ways to work together to resolve Dallas’ obvious challenges. A little negative can undo a great deal of positive. Clearer council goals and processes that use hard data to measure and manage progress will reduce ambiguity and fears of unfairness. Think before you act! Dallas’ future depends on it.



GERALD B. ALLEY, president, Con-Real, Inc., a construction and real estate company

Make sure that the balance of economic benefits is spread evenly throughout the city, among all groups, by breaking away from traditional policies and guidelines. Create new policies for the way city projects are selected and bid to ensure an economic balance among all.



RON COWART, president. Refugee Services of North Texas

The council should request reimbursement from the federal government for programs developed to meet the basic needs of refugees being resettled in this city.



DARRELL BOCK, professor at Dallas Theological Seminary

Listen to each other. The whites need to listen to the blacks with regard to their frustrations about being disenfranchised. Hear their pain. To the blacks: Understand that your language of confrontation drives people away from cooperation. To the Hispan-ics: Speak up and work for cooperation. To all council members: Keep in mind that what you want for your own community might not be in the best interest of the city.

DON WILLIAMS, president and CEO of Trammel! Crow Co. and chairman of Dallas Citizens Council

Encourage and support housing in the center city. To reverse the flight to the suburbs we need a lot of residences downtown. It would help us have a nightlife that’s attractive to restaurants and retailers, and young people who have migrated here from other large cities would enjoy a more urban life. We say, for example, that we must keep Neiman Marcus downtown. Having more people live there would aid in that.

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