Council member Kathy Stewart hosted a town hall Tuesday night.
Dallas City Council member Kathy Stewart’s town hall Tuesday began as an update on crime statistics, park improvements and code compliance enforcement, but it devolved sharply when neighbors wearing “Save City Hall” buttons questioned Stewart about her March 4 vote to explore alternative locations for City Hall. A final decision has not been made by the full council.
In an op-ed for the Dallas Morning News, Stewart defended City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, who took heat for approaching the Dallas Mavericks a year before open discussions with the council began. The Mavericks now say they’ve narrowed their choice for a new arena to two sites: the old Valley View Mall and Dallas City Hall.
“The allegations against (Tolbert), that she has been having conversations and taking actions outside of some imagined narrow lane, would be unremarkable — even expected — if she were in the private or nonprofit sector,” wrote Stewart. “A CEO who doesn’t engage broadly with stakeholders, citizens, community leaders and civic partners isn’t doing her job.”
Quin Mathews, former anchor at WFAA-TV, disagreed.
“That’s not her job,” he told Stewart in a heated exchange.
“Absolutely that is her job,” Stewart replied. “Her job is to figure out what are some of the questions that need answers. Her job is to lead the city.”
Ruth Adams has lived in Lake Highlands for more than 60 years. She was one of several attendees who rose to say they believe the 47-year-old building at 1500 Marilla should be saved.
“When we had visitors from California a few months ago, City Hall was one of the things they wanted to see. We’ve traveled all over the world, and you see buildings that last many years. I’m sorry to say it, but I feel like Dallas does not have a preservation feeling. This is just a continuation of the fact that we are not concerned with preserving the buildings of this city. City Hall has not been taken care of, and it’s too bad.”
Stewart agreed that she, too, was angry about the building’s deferred maintenance, and she accepted her portion of responsibility for voting to divert funds which were originally proposed for City Hall maintenance. Caring for that building isn’t easy, she said, due to its unique systems, including HVAC housed indoors on the eighth floor.
“I’ve been doing property management for almost 20 years,” argued another longtime Lake Highlands resident. “A lot of us who are in this industry have heard this discussion that it’s so difficult to repair City Hall’s unique HVAC system because it’s housed indoors — that’s crazy. It’s done all the time. I promise you there are air conditioning companies who’d be willing to do it.”
The meeting was adjourned after 90 minutes, but the first 45 were spent on issues unrelated to saving or selling City Hall. Major Yancey Nelson, leader of the Dallas Police Department’s Northeast Substation, reported that violent crime here is currently lower than in any other division. Property crime remains challenging, though, particularly for businesses and multi-family neighborhoods, where car break-ins persist.
“We cannot arrest our way out of crime,” he said. “Everyone wants a sense of safety where you reside and where you work.”
When asked about traffic enforcement, Yancey reported that 7,700 tickets had been issued to violators along Abrams, Whitehurst, Forest and Royal so far this year.
The Department of Transportation and Public Works is working to address speeding and traffic safety using three pillars: engineering, enforcement and education. They are installing speed cushions (easier on vehicles than old school “speed bumps”), AI-capable “smart signals,” which turn green automatically for emergency vehicles, push-button activated flashing beacons for pedestrian crossings and all-way stops in some areas.
Code Compliance handled more than 5,000 requests last year, with the most common violations including high weeds, litter, bulk trash, illegal dumping, vegetation obstruction and parking on unapproved surfaces. The top five service issues sent to 311 via phone or app were code violations (6,382), requests for a sanitation roll cart (2,190), parking violations (2,107), requests to locate a water or wastewater line (885) and reports of animal abuse (676).
Ryan O’Connor, deputy director of the park department, announced plans for two city parks. “Orbiter Park, off Royal Lane between Greenville and Central, has been around for a long time but it’s never really been a highly used park,” he explained. A new master plan will use $1 million in bond funds to add access and a parking lot off Royal, plus a dog park, playground and picnic area. Timberleaf Park, near Abrams and Forest, will receive a picnic area, sports field and dog park. At Forest Lane and Audelia Road, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held April 2 to open a new park there, and construction has begun on a new community center.
