I fear for Deep Ellum. The neighborhood of old, low-slung brick buildings is attracting a lot of development, much of it committed by Westdale, whose aesthetic and literary choices make me want to pluck out my eyeballs and give them to Tim Headington so that he can use them as the centerpiece for a tiny downtown park. I already told you what I think of the giant robot Westdale painted on its Case Building. Nothing against robots, but this one looks silly. I realize not everyone (maybe no one) shares my opinion. In the comments to that post, I was invited to never return to Deep Ellum, which hurt my feelings.

Well, now I’ve got another criticism of Westdale’s work. Perhaps this take will prove more popular. I hereby assert that the 72-word marketing blurb for Westdale’s next planned Deep Ellum office building — called The Stack, pictured above — is the most ding-a-lingest thing that has ever been written in Dallas. For your consideration:

UNT Student Killed By Police After Pulling Meat Cleaver and Frying Pan. Witnesses say he’d been banging on doors and smashing out lights at an apartment complex in Denton. Once police were on scene and questioning witnesses, he came back out of an apartment, according to police. Officers apparently tried to tase him, it didn’t work, and the man charged, stabbing one of them in the shoulder. He was shot and killed. The officer is expected to recover.

18 DFW Companies Earn Perfect Scores For LGBTQ Inclusivity. That’s according to the annual Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index. North Texas had 11 perfect scores last year. I point you to D CEO’s excellent package called, “The Business of Pride,” which digs into the steps some of these companies have taken.

Adelfa Callejo Sculpture Will Go in Main Street Gardens. Callejo, a civil rights advocate, was Dallas’ first practicing Latina lawyer and will now represent the city’s first sculpture of a Latina.

Norma Hunt Has Been to Every Super Bowl. She’s the only woman who can say that. Now, for the first time in half a century, she will go with a chance to watch her team win it. I promise this bullet point is only 30 percent, maybe 40 percent, about me wanting to remind you that team is my team, the Kansas City football Chiefs. I mean, definitely no more than 50 percent. 60 or 70 percent, absolute tops. Chiefs Owner Clark Hunt is a Dallas guy! This is basically a Dallas story. Seriously, 80 percent at most.

You wouldn’t necessarily know it by listening to DART President Gary Thomas, but a dozen years since the idea for D2 first came about, many mission-critical questions remain about the city’s planned subway system. Chief among them is whether DART could come up with $300 million, should it miss out on federal grant dollars.

D2 is a massive undertaking. Its current iteration runs from near Victory Park and follows Field southbound to Commerce. From there, it heads east through downtown, cutting under 345 onto northbound Good Latimer. It is expected to cost $1.4 billion.

On Tuesday, Thomas went before the City Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to update them on D2’s progress. His presentation put a hefty focus on incorporating train stations into the fabric of the city—one concept integrates a station into a reimagined Pegasus Plaza.

But more critical is the degree to which DART will have to acquire public property, whether D2 can play nice with TxDOT’s eventual plans for 345, and, of course, the money.

So long to the funky igloo building on Zang: it was destroyed in a fire last week, freeing the way for more apartments on land belonging to the restaurant group that owns El Fenix. The former home of the Polar Bear Ice Cream Company has been on Preservation Dallas’ list of the city’s most endangered buildings since 2016. It’s stood there, just south of Colorado, since the 1930s, when it was a hole-in-the-wall burger joint targeted at Lake Cliff Park back when it was a busy amusement park. Since 2014, when the Tex-Mex restaurant that called it home shuttered, it has looked as if it’s been slowly sinking into the earth.

It was wind-damaged and covered in graffiti. Last Thursday night, a fire gutted most of the inside and spat flames out of its roof and ventilation ducts. Jason Evans, a Dallas Fire Rescue spokesman says it took fire fighters about 30 minutes to get the flames under control.

On January 31, a quite interesting discussion around transit will take over the debate chambers at Old Parkland. It’s headlined by Jarrett Walker, the man charged with overhauling the currently inefficient DART bus system. But there are other heavy hitters here: Michael Rogers, the city’s transportation director, joins West Dallas Councilman Omar Narvaez and the city’s deputy resilience officer, Genesis Gavino, to discuss the forthcoming mobility and climate action plans.

DART Board Member Patrick Kennedy will moderate a panel on how to fund transit projects, which includes assistant city manager Majed Al Ghafry, former TxDOT Commissioner Victor Vandergriff, and McKinsey senior partner Steffen Fuchs. Finally, you’ll hear from folks who actually ride DART, like D contributor Doyle Rader; other DART board members, like Dominique Torres and Jon-Betrell Killen; and another expert who helps visualize data, friend-of-the-magazine Robert Mundinger.

The event, the Death and Life of Dallas Transit, is organized by the Coalition for a New Dallas. That’s the super PAC co-founded by D founder Wick Allison. (D and the Coalition are separate entities.) Learn more about the panels below, and register here. The symposium begins at 8 a.m. on the 31^st and runs past lunch.

Trump Puts Former North Texas Federal Prosecutor on Defense Team. When the impeachment trial kicks into gear this week, congressman John Ratcliffe will be there to defend the president. Ratcliffe got his law degree at SMU, was the mayor of Heath, and served as a U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Texas.

Man and 15-year-old Boy Injured in South Dallas Shooting. They were standing on a street corner when people in a passing car opened fire on them, blatantly ignoring the mayor’s proclamation that 2020 is a year of non-violence, just like the guy who shot a 9-year-old girl on I-35E in a road rage incident earlier in the day.

Price Cut on T. Boone Pickens’ Ranch. The 65,000-acre Mesa Vista spread in the Panhandle was put on the market in 2017 for $250 million. Brokers have cut the price to $220 million and said that the buyer can keep the washer and dryer combo, too.

DART to Present New Plans for Silver Line. Far North Dallas residents are cheesed at how the trains will cut through their neighborhood, so DART will propose elevating the tracks at some busy intersections. Except that goes against an earlier resolution that the trains and cars will remain at or below grade.