Letters “Why is D Magazine obsessed with lambasting Plano?”

Debating Piano’s Neighborhood

YOUR ARTICLE ON THE DISPOSABLE NEIGH-borhood hit the nail on the head on many points. But why focus on Piano? These same shoddy houses are located all over Dallas-Fort Worth. Your article should have focused more on the fact that the middle class doesn’t have much of a choice when looking for a home, If you want to live in an established or new neighborhood, you have to build with the one or two builders that are developing there.

The real issues are the prevailing number of builders here that can get away with poorly built, poorly designed homes because buyers either don’t have the money or the education to recognize quality and the lack of choices available to the middle-class buyer. It’s not a Piano problem, it’s a Texas problem.

TARYN SHAPIRO

Piano



THE THEORY OF THE “DISPOSABLE NEIGH-borhood” in Piano is absurd! All of the homes in Highland Park, Preston Hollow, arid North Dallas have gone through complete updates because their original “finish out” was outdated, but appreciation covered the cost of updating and improving.

As a Realtor, I thank all the builders that have supplied the affordable housing that I sell and resell every 3-5 years. If a home needs updating, my buyer will only purchase if the seller includes the cost of updating in the sales price, thus allowing the updates to he financed in the mortgage. As a Realtor and a homeowner of a volume builder, I am proud of my home and have reinvested in my home to insure its future appreciation.

LAUREL SILK, GRI, ABR

REM AX, Piano



WHY IS D MAGAZINE OBSESSED WITH LAMbasting Piano? Now you’re resorting to scare tactics about the resale of upscale neighborhoods. Your article on “The Disposable Neighborhood.” was a frail attempt to derail the success of Piano, and your account of “shoddy” construction quality is laughable.

Relocating home buyers are still getting the quality they are used to throughout the nation-it just comes with a better price tag and more amenities.

DEE DEE TROSCLAIR

Plano



WARNER MCGOWIN MISSED A COUPLE OF major points in his premature obituary of Piano’s neighborhoods.

Virtually every one of these developments is controlled by deed restrictions and community associations, governing maintenance and upkeep of the home’s exterior appearance. Most of these neighborhoods have also retained professional community association management to insure that appearance (and value) is retained 10,20, or 30 years hence.

Sure, many of these communities could have benefited by master planning more open space and trail systems, but in the final analysis it is the S75-S80 per square foot price that makes the sale. Rather than focus on homes (hat pretend to be what they are not, focus on what they are-a great buy!

EDWARD H. BOUDREAU, CPM

President. Capita! Consultants

Management Corporation



Chorus of Boos

IT IS EXTREMELY UNFORTUNATE THAT D ELECT-ed to take a collection of beautiful songs in the Lifelong Friend CD and attempt to create an issue where none exists. The Turtle Creek Chorale’s mission is to enhance the musical and cultural lives of its audiences through the presentation of male choral music and to promote harmony and spread goodwill through the world. The Chorale has no other mission.

The magazine’s attempt to link the Chorale in any way to the issue of pedophilia is not only illogical but is also uninformed, inflammatory, and unconscionable. The only imaginable (although hardly logical or informed) basis for attacking the Chorale is that the organization has a predominately gay membership.

The Chorale stands strongly behind Lifelong Friend. The artwork for the CD is exactly what it appears to be-and what everyone but the magazine seems to recognize-the simple picture of two friends. Isn’t it far past time for us to start concentrating on the good in others and in our city rather than working so hard to manufacture bad news and HI will?

KAY WILKINSON, BOARD CHAIR AND

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Turtle Creek Chorale



Mike Mullen: Sleaze or Stud?

MIKE MULLEN REMINDS ME OF ONE OF THOSE con men on infomercials who says if you send him money, he will show you how to get rich. You know the kind-selling something they have no intention of ever delivering. D Magazine might have labeled Mike Mullen as the most eligible bachelor, but he sounds like this city’s most eligible sleaze to me. A very rich one, mind you, but still a sleaze.

MARCY NUUNS

irving



Thumbs Down to Thumbs Down

THE THUMBS DOWN YOU GAVE THE SIXTH Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza belongs to someone else. We are not trying to raise $3 million, and we are not a creator or collaborator of Image of an Assassination. The facts are quite simple: We are a public repository for information on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Just as we provide information and historical footage to media around the world (including D Magazine), The Sixth Floor Museum provided publicly available material to (he Zapruder family and the producers of the videotape-as did the Dallas Morning News, Time Inc., AP Wide World, UPI/Corbis-Betteman, and other sources.

JEFF WEST, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Sixth Floor Museum