Artist-activists in Detroit wanted to make a statement about the number of abandoned, dilapidated buildings crumbling throughout their once fine city.

"The artistic move is simple, cover the front in Tiggeriffic Orange - a color from the Mickey Mouse series, easily purchased from Home Depot. Every board, every door, every window, is caked in Tiggeriffic Orange. We paint the facades of abandoned houses whose most striking feature are their derelict appearance."

They called the project, "Detroit. Demolition. Disneyland." The idea, of course, was to foment discussion on the state of Detroit's rehabilitation efforts and highlight pockets of structural misery.

But a funny thing started happening. The City of Detroit apparently began moving the orange-painted structures up on the list for immediate attention and demolition. And that left the artist-activists to puzzle: "In this relationship, where do the city's motivations lie? Do they want to stop drawing attention to these houses? Are the workers simply confused and think this is the city's new mark for demolition? Or is this a genuine response to beautify the city?"

Could this be a reasonable response to our own city's untended blight?

Democratic candidates for Dallas District Attorney touted their qualifications and proposed reforming the district attorney’s office on Monday.

At the Belo Mansion Banquet Hall, three district attorney hopefuls answered questions about various aspects of the DA’s office and about the changes they would make if elected. The Democratic primary includes former Federal Prosecutor Larry Jarrett and local attorneys B.D. Howard and Craig Watkins. Criticism of the Dallas District Attorney’s past performance highlighted the debate.

“The problem is we have a law enforcement community that does not speak to each other,” said Larry Jarrett. “For eight years we have been the hype of crime in the nation. The City of Dallas has the highest crime rate in the country. That’s an abomination.”

Jarrett added that if elected District Attorney, he would work with law enforcement to better solve crime problems in the community. “We need a comprehensive law enforcement plan,” said Jarrett. “The only way we can develop a comprehensive law enforcement plan is by having everybody around the table.”

Craig Watkins, who lost to District Attorney Bill Hill in 2002, said that the District Attorney’s office needed a more preventative approach to reducing crime in Dallas. He said that the DA needed to be more than just a prosecutor and that the DA’s office should implement policies that would help improve the community in addition to prosecuting criminals.

“We should develop a policy that will prevent crimes from happening in the county,” said Watkins. “To develop those policies, we have to look at the underlying issues as to why people commit crimes. If we can educate our children, get them off drugs, we can lower the crime rate.”

Watkins also emphasized the “ideology” of the District Attorney throughout the debate. He said that the current DA’s office had the wrong ideology and that, if elected, he would not accept every case that the police department brings. Watkins suggested that the current ideology was “all about numbers.”

When asked about retaining current employees at the District Attorney, Watkins said, that if he were elected, those who were not a part of his ideology “must go”. Jarrett had similar plans for the District Attorney’s office.  “Every job is in jeopardy,” said Jarrett.

In response to a question about the fake drug scandal of 2001, B.D. Howard said that scandals like it can happen if the police department and the DA are too close together. “There must be a clear line between the DA and the police department,” said Howard, arguing that the best way to prevent future scandals from occurring is by having a clear separation between law enforcement agencies and the District Attorney’s office.

The 2001 “fake drug scandal” happened when police informants planted fake drugs on innocent people, ultimately leading to the indictments of several Dallas police officers.

Jarrett used the question about the scandal as an opportunity to tout his qualifications. “I am very proud of my record,” said Jarrett. “I do not have a record of deception.” Jarrett also used the question to take a jab at Watkins’ credentials, pointing to his role as an “intern prosecutor” in the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office. Jarrett seemed to imply that Watkins was deceptively hyping up his qualifications for Dallas County District Attorney.

During the question and answer period, an audience member questioned Watkins about his role at the Tarrant County DA. Watkins campaign brochure states that he was an Assistant District Attorney for Tarrant County, though apparently his role with the Tarrant County DA was really that of an intern prosecutor.

Watkins suggested that there may be a typo in the brochure.

Our friends at the Waco Tribune have the latest update on the lawsuit involving SMU, a Dallas condo owner and the proposed George W. Bush presidential library.

Seems Dallas attorney Gary Vodicka has sent a subpoena to Baylor University demanding the university turn over confidential documents related to its bid for the Dubya library. The subpoena is part of a lawsuit Vodicka has filed against Baylor's top rival in the library selection process, Southern Methodist University, wherein Vodicka says SMU violated its legal obligation to residents of the neighboring University Gardens condominiums by not maintaining the property in a deliberate ploy to drive residents out.

Yep, that's what you want when you're putting together an answer to an RFP - total public disclosure. Much hilarity is sure to ensue.

Full story here.

The Houston Chronicle's Rick Casey writes about how John Sawyer, a former assistant superintendent for business and finance at Fort Worth ISD, worked with the school district's auditor to use a program under which the federal government "reimbursed school districts for expenses involved in delivering medical and some special education services to low-income children."

Sawyer and his district made a ton of money off the program. 

 Click here to read the story

Our resident economist Carl Pellegrini provided Dallas Blog with some price changes over the past twelve months which reflect the rising cost of raw materials.  Fresh and dry vegetables increased 57%, gasoline 40.5%, home heating oil and distillates 36.5%, eggs for fresh use 35.1%, oil field and gas field machinery 10.7%, and transformers/power regulators 10%.  He sees inflation in raw materials spreading into the capital goods sector.  But, according to the new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, supposedly there is no inflation.  Carl Pellegrini is skeptical about that:  "Not to worry--the 'it is different this time' Fed--will get us through unharmed."  Carl is not so sure and believes that the Fed will be forced to deal with the pervasive effects of this spreading inflation, whether it acknowledges its existence or not. 

There is a lot of food for thought here.  Carl Pellegrini's next economic analysis for Dallas Blog will be available within a week. 

Oh for heaven's sake.

We're all pro-business and pro-profit and pro hometown company, but come on. That's about six week's profit for the Irving-based company, and it's been more than a decade. Just pay it already.

There's only one more town hall meeting scheduled on the 2006 bond program - Council member Dr. Maxine Thornton-Reese hosts one at Beckley-Saner Recreation Center on Tuesday at 6 p.m. - and DallasBlog's read is that voters attending these meetings are on board for a larger bond package.

DallasBlog has attended half a dozen town hall meetings, and from south of the Trinity to the northernmost districts, attendees are saying they want the 2006 bond to be big enough to handle a good portion of the city's ennumerated $7 billion needs package.

But what voters need to be aware of, says one council member, is the effect of some of the projects they want on the city's operating budget in the long run.

Council member Angela Hunt of District 14 (just west of Highland Park) says that while she's been listening carefully to the kinds of programs voters say they want covered, she's keeping an eye on the effect on the city's operational costs.

"One of the issues that we must consider are the operating and maintenance costs associated with certain types of bond projects," she told DallasBlog. "For example, a new road has little to no ongoing maintenance costs, and will likely save us in annual maintenance expenditures. However, if we build a new library or recreation center, each year we have to budget money out of the general fund to pay for electricity, water, employees, etc. That money is not in our budget now, so if we decided to do those types of projects, there would be a tax increase associated with it."

Because the bond meetings are intended to help council members determine which projects to include in the bond program, staff can't project those costs right now. After staff has analyzed the public input, Hunt said, the council will be able to better estimate what the O & M costs are, and what it will mean to the annual budget and to property taxes.

"I and other councilmembers have made it clear to our manager that we want the O & M property tax implications fully explained to the voters," she said.

A Rasmussen poll released today indicates that only 66% of the American people have been following the news about Dick Cheney's hunting accident.  Of those only 27% think that the incident raises serious questions about Cheney's ability to serve as VP while 57% see the incident as merely "one of those embarrassing things that happens to all of us."  Of those polled 39% believe the US needs stricter gun control laws while 52% disagree.

Points, the Sunday viewpoints section edited by Rod Dreher, had an excellent series of articles and short takes on a wide range of subjects. It quotes Republican Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska as saying: "This party that sometimes I don’t recognize anymore has presided over the largest growth of government in the history of the country and maybe even the history of man." I second Chuck Hagel’s concerns about the spending excesses of the Administration and Congress.

Sunday’s Points also has an incisive piece by self-described liberal Jim Sleeper entitled the "Pornification of the Public Square". As Sleeper notes, "Sex sells. And until liberals challenge the free speech that permits it and conservatives protest the free market that preaches it, our kids will pay the price." To read the entire Sleeper article link here (registration required).

Dallas Democrat Suzanne Martin has an excellent article in Points entitled "One sad Democrat" in which she bemoans the lack of solutions being offered by her Party to the serious problems facing our state and nation: "Many of the politicos who failed those folks in the Gulf Coast are elected Democrats. Texas Democrats haven’t exactly being swinging the axes to break the school finance logjam. Washington Democrats act beat-up and tired." To read Suzanne’s entire article, link here (registration required).

Yet, another interesting article (by another Democrat, Mickey Kaus) is about the propaganda barrage in the mainstream media (the Dallas Morning News arts section is one of the worst offenders in this regard) on behalf of the movie about the two homosexual cowboys, Brokeback Mountain. Kaus finds that those folks who are pushing the idea that this is some kind of "breakout" movie are kidding themselves. To read Kaus’ full article, link here (registration required).

Finally, Wendy Shalit has a fascinating piece on how the Orthodox Jews have it right in their attitude towards sexuality. Here is how she concludes her article: "When it comes to modesty, I often wonder, who are the real extremists? Those who insist that only public and tawdry displays of sexuality are legitimate, or those who appreciate privacy and restraint as necessary components for attaining real intimacy." To read Shalit’s entire article, link here (registration required).

By the way, the man who edits the Points section has a new book coming out this week entitled "Crunchy Cons". Rod Dreher makes the case that cultural conservatism needs to re-assert its influence over a conservative movement that seemingly has lost its way. Sounds like Dreher’s book is well worth reading.

Surprisingly, there are two remarkables in Sunday's excursion into mediocrity by the daily's second most unremarkable columnist.

The first was noticed by my buddy Tim Rogers on today's FrontBurner under "Corrections and Clarifications," where he generously provides pro bono editing services.

The second notable is that nowhere in the Sunday column is mentioned the concept of property rights. I guess they've gone the way of horse carriages?

But maybe, Steve, it's not snobbery, arrogance and elitism. Maybe, just maybe, it's the duty of the Highland Park Town Council to defend the interest of its citizens, including their presumably anachronistic property rights.

And maybe that's more important than traffic engineers getting restful sleep.

-Trey Garrison