Tuesday, March 19, 2024 Mar 19, 2024
39° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
Publications

Pulse OF THE City

By D Magazine |

FRISCO, TEXAS: THE LITTLE TOWN THAT COULD

Dallas’ newest suburb plans to be the biggest.



If you sit there, they may come could be an apt motto for Frisco. Texas’ newest (and oldest) boom town 20 miles north of Dallas.

Frisco’s first stab at the big time came in 1902 as a depot for the St. Louis-San Francisco Railway, boldly announcing its “unquestionable prosperous future, first-class railroad facilities, and commanding position.” But the misplaced optimism got the town exactly nowhere. The railroad lines never made it further west than Fort Worth, and when the passenger trains stopped running in the mid-1950s, Frisco was dead.

Or so it seemed.

In 1998, Frisco is back and extolling, via its web .site, its “unfolding economic environment,” “vibrant community,” and commanding position city’s 70 square miles are dirt.

But this time, Frisco’s dirt seems to be in the right place. Bordering Piano and just across Highway 121 from the corporate giants of city’s 70 square miles are dirt.

But this time, Frisco’s dirt seems to be in the right place. Bordering Piano and just across Highway 121 from the corporate giants of Legacy Park, Frisco is attracting tons of families. In 1990,108 single-family building permits were issued; by last year, the number had skyrocketed to 1,185. With a 183.7percent population jump from 1990 through 1996, Frisco is the fastest-growing city in Texas-“and/or the world,” says Frisco Economic Development Corporation executive director Jim Gandy.

Meanwhile, Frisco is building new schools, extending waste water lines, and making roads. And by December 1999, the city will have truly made it: Frisco will have a mall.

-Catherine Newton

From the Department of Oops

Someone should take the web site away from The Dallas Morning News.

The Internet as a medium has perplexed many of the nation’s largest newspapers. One of the only papers in the nation to go out on the cyber limb, The News has gambled twice and lost.

A recent story regarding a supposed Secret Service agent who was prepared to testify that he saw President Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky “in a compromising situation” was recanted the following day.

Similarly, in February 1997, The News published via their web site that Timothy McVeigh confessed to the Oklahoma City bombings to his attorneys. It was big news, especially to defense attorney Stephen Jones, who claimed the report was a hoax, as did J.D. Cash, a friend of the secret source.

YESTERDAY



Water Under the Bridge

Dallas is a landlocked city, but it didn’t have to be.



TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO THIS MONTH, promoters of Trinity River navigation hit a sandbar when local voters squelched plans for a canal project that had been a century-long dream.

The first boat to complete the voyage from Galveston to Dallas in 1868 took more than a year. By 1893, the journey from the Gulf of Mexico to the Commerce Street bridge was cut to 10 weeks with the voyage of the steamboat Harvey. Locks and dams were built along the stream, but by World War I, enthusiasm had dried up. To rejuvenate interest, Basil M. Hatfield, captain of the flatboat Texas Steer, traveled all the way from Fort Worth to (he World’s Fair in Chicago in the 1930s.

When Congress agreed to spend $1.3 billion on the development of a canal, proponents celebrated. The price tag on the federal funds, however, was a local contribution of S313 million, and the navigators hit another snag: Alan Steelman.

In the ’72 Congressional race versus incumbent Earle Cabell, the Republican candidate pounded hard against a “concrete ditch” and pulled off a stunning upset.

The Trinity Opportunity Development Committee assured the populace that the Steelman victory did not embody anti-canal sentiment. To prove it, an election was hurriedly scheduled for March 13, 1973. A newspaper blitz promised taxpayers a beautiful river for only 20 cents a month, but a coalition of financial conservatives and environmentalists overcame mild .support and soundly defeated the measure. The elevated bridges across the river at 1-20, Loop 12, and the Jefferson Street Viaduct are monuments to what might have been.-Tom Peeler

DO YOU LOOK LIKE YOUR PET?

For an upcoming story, please send a photo of you and your canine, feline, bovine, or whatever to: D Magazine, Attn: Pet Editor, 1700 Commerce St., 18th Floor, Dallas, TX 75201.

Mattox vs. Pauken: Round Three?



THE ANNOUNCEMENT BY Dan Morales that he would not run for another term as attorney general was the starting gun for what could be the most intriguing race to watch this political season.

The primaries this month pare down the party candidates and could potentially square off Democrat Jim Mat-tox and Republican Tom Pauken-yet again. Pauken twice challenged Mattox in Dallas’ 5th District congressional races in 1978 and 1980.

The two may differ in ideas but share an unpopularity within their respective parties. Mattox infuriated fellow Democrats when, in typical pit bull fashion, he unfoundedly accused Ann Richards of cocaine use.

Similarly, Pauken, former Texas GOP chairman, has infuriated many in his own party. He bashed Governor George W. Bush’s tax package, which some thought was retribution for being passed over for assignments when Bush Sr. was president.

Although politics makes for strange bedfellows. Mattox and Pauken prefer to sleep alone. And neither one will back down in the grudge match of the political season.

THANK THE COMMISSAR IT’S FRIDAY

Thank God It’s Friday-that uniquely American mantra-has been adopted In Beijing, where Dallas-based Friday’s Hospitality Worldwide Is doing a booming business.

In a country where “Snake Soup” is exactly that (snake soup) and a dish called “Pig’s Fallopian Tubes” is made with-you got It-pig’s fallopian tubes, the Chinese didn’t quite know what to make of traditional T.G.I. Friday’s staples like buffalo wings (Buffalos fly?) and mocha mud pie (Dessert of dirt?). Just to make sure the restaurant of the West didn’t alienate purists in the East, Friday’s added to the menu what has become (natch) its most popular item: Spicy Thai Chicken Noodle Salad.

-Hillary Hylton

FOR THE RECORD



ALIVE AND KICKING

“With all due respect to Mr. Savage, I was unaware that he was still living.”

John Carona, state representative, apologizing for overlooking Wallace Savage in a Yes! for Dallas campaign that announced the support of “every living mayor our city.” Savage served from 1949 to 1951 and opposed the new arena.



THERE’S SCHOOL SPIRIT AND THEN THERE’S SCHOOL SPIRIT

“Continue and your beautiful, blonde daughter will never cheer at her first football game. I have been hired to hurt/kill her…. Vengeance is God’s, but killing is mine.”

Tamela Ellis, wife of a high school officialin Tyler, in a letter to school trustee Ginger Motley, who was investigating school construction contracts that potentially involved her husband. Ellis was acquitted of charges of issuing a threat by a federal jury.



AT LEAST HE’S CONSISTENT

“The court decision is bad as a matter of telecommunications policy, it’s bad as a matter of antitrust policy, but it’s also bad as a matter of law. Seems like the judge has hit the trifecta.”

Larry Irving, director of the National Telecommunications Information Agency, responding to Dallas federal judge Joe Kendall’s decision that would allow Southwestern Bell to enter the long distance telephone market.



HELLO, KETTLE? THIS IS THE POT. YOU’RE BUCK.

“I think it is very disingenuous to sell a campaign to voters based on a house of cards.”

Laura Miller in a debate with former mayor Annette Strauss regarding the proposed Dallas arena.

Related Articles

Image
Business

At Parkland Health, the End of Subjective Surgery

Artificial intelligence is helping trauma surgery teams make data-based decisions about when to operate at Dallas County's safety net hospital.
Advertisement