Councilmember Cara Mendelsohn

It may still be warm outside, but the holidays are here! I hope you've been having a great time connecting with friends and family.

As we reach the end of the year, lots of staff members at city hall will be taking time off, including in our District 12 office. But no matter what day it is, we'll have somebody monitoring the emails in case you need assistance. Everyone knows to call 911 for emergencies, but 311 is your handy number for help with other city services.

Wednesday was the last full council meeting of 2021, and it was a BIG day! We unanimously approved a new ethics ordinance. This project was launched by Mayor Eric Johnson, who appointed a great task force of thought leaders, and then the committee I chair, Ad Hoc Committee on General Investigations and Ethics, worked on it and brought it to the full city council. Councilmember Blackmon was instrumental in this effort and it is my sincere hope this bold step of creating an Inspector General and a host of other changes will lead to a much stronger culture of ethics at city hall. You can read more about it here:

In-person office hours return! You're invited to drop by Campbell Green Recreation Center today, 12/10, 2-4 and Friday, 12/17, 2-4, to get help with any city issues, give input, or just say hello! It's first-come, first-served, but pre-Covid, nobody waited more than 10 minutes.

Happy Hanukkah & Merry Christmas! Cara

ps-Cotton Belt/Silver Line & poker room updates at the end of the email!

Council Liaison: Madison.Johnson@dallascityhall.com

Council Assistant:

Luis.Delgado@dallascityhall.com

Here's the site: https://dallasredistricting.com/

You're invited to attend a series of town hall meetings to offer input to the Redistricting Commission. The first meeting will be at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 11 at Dallas City Hall in Council Chambers (6EN) and will be accessible virtually via Cisco webex. Individuals who wish to speak during a Redistricting Town Hall should register at bit.ly/2021RDCTH (you can use this link to register for all redistricting meetings) by 10 a.m. the day of the meeting. All speakers will have three minutes to speak about the redistricting process. Virtual speakers are required to show their video when addressing the commission.  

Please join us to celebrate this holiday season at the Campbell Green Recreation Center. If you have a group that wants to perform or have a display, contact Luis at District12@dallascityhall.com. Food and drinks will be served on a first come basis.

********** If you have gently used children's items that would be appropriate to put in a CPS visitation room, you can bring them to the holiday event! Currently, most visitation rooms are very sterile and institutional. We'd love to take over gently used rocking chairs, doll houses, toys, wall art, rugs/mats, board games, etc... to help parents and children 0 - 16 reconnect with each other in a more relaxing, comfortable, and engaging environment. Note, if you would like to help paint a room on a Saturday or Sunday, please email Luis at District12@dallascityhall.com. (groups welcome)

She'll also give an update on the number of families served and outcomes to date. Bring your questions, and also learn how to get involved during the Holiday season. Monday, December 13th from 6pm -7:30 PM via Zoom.

Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86754151829?pwd=Nm9PVFVCWG9hTk9ZOWNYd005ZGh1QT09

Family Gateway is looking for volunteers for their Holiday store at Bentwood Trail Presbyterian Church on Sunday, December 19th. To register please visit the link below:

Thank you to the seniors at Highland Springs for inviting me to join them for a State of the District event. Several hundred interested residents showed up with great questions and care for our future. What a wealth of experience and advice! We are so lucky to have this wonderful senior living community in District 12.

The best way to follow what is happening with the Quality of Life committee is to watch the meetings and check the agendas. You can find them on the city website (https://cityofdallas.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx) From the home page, select council meetings, then pick the committee meeting from the list to view the agenda and associated documents. If you’d like to view the meeting, from the home page, select watch council meetings, then select council meetings, and the committee. 

Your willingness to speak before council has been helpful and I encourage residents to continue sharing their comments at meetings with the full council. Link to sign up to speak at council meetings - https://dallascityhall.com/government/citysecretary/Pages/CCrules.aspx

It's just not Thanksgiving without turkey and fixings, but not everyone has the resources to celebrate with a feast. This year we were thrilled to give out a couple of dozen turkeys and boxes of food to District 12 residents who needed a helping hand. Thank you to Madison and Luis for all the coordination and heavy lifting to truly serve our District 12 residents!

Oncor is coming to prune trees in the areas below. This important maintenance helps keep the electricity going when we have strong wind and storms. They will notify you with a door hanger before they cut your trees if there are limbs too close to the electrical wires. They use an arborist and safe protocols near electrical wires, but it is true they cut more than we expect because branches move more than we think, and unless there is unusual growth or a change to the line, they only do this every 7 years in a single location. Legally, they have the right to cut branches that are near electrical wires, even those on your property. Thank you for your cooperation.

A new pilot program has begun to address the bulk trash needs of District 12. A large bin has been placed at Renner Frankford library for residents to place bulk trash any day, any time. This does not replace any existing services. It is meant to provide additional services to those who wish to use it.

As the district furthest away from any transfer station for the city, the amount of items we set out each month really impacts the reliability of the schedule for pick up.

One problem we've noticed is when there is more bulk set out than expected. For instance, if the sanitation department schedules 5 days to pick up all the bulk in one area, but more items than expected are put out, the trucks will load up faster, and they will have to be emptied more times than expected. It takes 40+ minutes to drive each way to the transfer station, so they can't really catch up if they have to add in 2-3 extra trips each day.

Code compliance has initiated this pilot with District 12 in an effort to reduce illegal dumping and provide overflow do-it-yourself bulk trash drop off. This does not change anything with your current bulk trash service, but here is what is new:

The bin is at Renner Frankford library in the corner of the parking lot and it is open and ready for you 24/7! Code compliance is monitoring the site daily and we will conduct this pilot through February.

Thank you to all the D12 residents who came out for the program co-hosted with Districts 11 and 13 about panhandling and homelessness. Standing room only! Wow!

The event shared information about the new panhandling pilot, how the Office of Homeless Solutions is dealing with encampments, and provided an opportunity for attendees to ask questions. Approximately 65 questions were submitted (some are duplicates) and Christine Crossley, the director of OHS is writing answers to the questions that will be shared with residents when complete.

In the meantime, having reviewed the questions, I will offer these statements from my own perspective that seem to answer most questions on the list:

The current construction not part of DART work, it's just fixing the roads. With the DART construction coming soon, we'll be glad to have this done before it begins!

The big, mature trees will be removed because they sit on top of utilities that have to be moved with the DART Cotton Belt/Silver Line construction. The City of Dallas continues to work with DART to pay into a special mitigation fund to restore trees along the Cotton Belt/Silver Line as close to the place they were removed as possible.

The city is considering various ways to improve the convention center. The option that the consultants are recommending is to redo it at a cost of almost $2 billion. Taxpayers own the convention center and there is about $200 million in debt on the existing building. Additionally, the Omni Hotel is owned by taxpayers with approximately $400 million in debt. Adding new hotels may mean less revenue will come to the Omni to pay the debt. The consultant has proposed 4 options, and I think there are at least two other options that have not been presented that would be a much better idea. For instance, I support adding a ballroom, additional break-out rooms, replacing major systems like HVAC, improving wayfinding, adding public art, and other upgrades to the facility. So far, there hasn't been a discussion about COVID, adding outside festival space, or activating Young Street with stores, restaurants, entertainment, and transportation that connects with the rest of downtown. Here are two articles about it:

In the Environmental committee this week, there was a discussion about banning leaf blowers in Dallas. I do not serve on this committee, but there are strong feelings about this topic on both sides. This won't come to the full council for many more months, but here are some articles about it:

The City has been served with two lawsuits as there have been two poker rooms denied by the Building Official and the board of adjustment has upheld both denials.

A request by State Representative Chris Turner has been formally made asking Attorney General Ken Paxton to clarify the meaning of "economic benefit" under the gambling provisions of the penal code.

The city continues to watch this issue closely.

New restaurants: Sushi Box, Brass Tap, Andy's Frozen Custard, and Don Pepes. Coming soon... Starwood Cafe, Cane Rosso and Stretch Zone.

Please do not allow your children to climb on top of the pavilion or climb the sculpture.

The park area can be reserved on the City of Dallas Parks Department website at: https://www.dallasparks.org/365/Make-a-Reservation

This week you may see additional clearing in the DART right of way and removal of center median street lighting.

Below are approved lane closures for utility work. These lanes could be closed until December 31, 2021. All are for single right lane closures:

You may have noticed the mobile signage alerting drivers to the impending construction have had the dates moved back month after month. DART is submitting plans to the City of Dallas, which is reviewing them to ensure they are engineered for safety and according to all agreements. Once the plans are approved, permits will be issued. DART stated at a public event last week they expect to start construction in January.

Need help, got a question, or want to give input?

Email: Cara.Mendelsohn@DallasCityHall.com

Office phone: (214) 670-4067

Text phone: (214) 490-1036