Video: Drum roll for respect

It certainly is a guilty pleasure watching grown up man in suits go bunkers and dance around like five year olds. This is exactly what Council members Dwaine Caraway, Jerry Allen and Tennell Atkins did while hosting a drum line face-off in front of City Hall. Bands from Lake Highlands, Skyline, Adamson and Townview put on quite a show to bring attention to the March for Respect, a walk through the West End on March 27 to show support for Texans with developmental disabilities.

Click here for the slide show

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• Posted by Can Turkyilmaz on Mar 11, 2010 at 06:01 PM in Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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Will wet-dry election actually turn all of Dallas wet?

What happens if the city schedules a wet-dry election, but state law makes the result moot for part of the city? That's what we may find out if the group gathering signatures for a November vote gets on the ballot.

That's because a section of Texas' Alcoholic Beverage Code doesn't allow a city-wide election to change the wet-dry status of an area if that area has already voted on the issue and if the area is "wholly contained" within the city. And Oak Cliff seems to fit that definition, even if the dry parts of Preston Hollow, Lake Highlands, and Far North Dallas don't.

Sound confusing? That's because it is; so confusing, in fact, that several attorneys told me that the city could be sued for even scheduling an election, let alone over what the results mean. More, after the jump:

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• Posted by Jeff Siegel on Mar 11, 2010 at 03:29 PM in Neighborhood, Siegel, Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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Pack your Advocate for spring break travels

If you're heading somewhere exotic or picturesque for spring break, make sure to take an Advocate with you, and snap a pic of you and your family or friends with the magazine at a scenic locale. If you send us the photo, along with a description of who and what is in the picture, you may find yourself in an upcoming edition of the Advocate.

If you don't have an Advocate lying around at home, you may be able to pick up a copy of March's issue at one of our neighborhood rack locations. And if you're not traveling during spring break (like the many of us who no longer get a "spring break"), no worries — just pack your Advocate the next time you go on a trip, and send us whatever you come up with.

• Posted by Keri Mitchell on Mar 11, 2010 at 12:23 PM in Advocate, Mitchell, Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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Video: Andrea Davis lays down canvases on her therapy couch

I met Andrea coming out of an elevator. She was pulling boxes of art supply out. I thought she was too clean and neatly dressed to be an artist and i was right. She is a licensed professional counselor and those supplies are for her clients. She told me all about it. You can reach her by email at adavisart@gmail.com

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• Posted by Can Turkyilmaz on Mar 10, 2010 at 04:09 PM in Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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Wine review: Villa Maria Riesling Private Bin 2008

New Zealand is best known for it sauvignon blanc, and deservedly so, for they are among the best in the world. What the Kiwis get much less attention for is riesling -- which is too bad, since they make some very, very nice ones.

The Villa Maria riesling  (about $14, purchased, widely available) is a lovely wine, with riesling oiliness (which is a very good thing), some lime zest citrus, stone fruit, and a long finish. Also, it's not especially sweet considering how much residual sugar is in the wine. In this, it's a finely crafted effort, in which the winmaker aimed at balance between the various components -- fruit, sweetness, and acid. Would that more winemakers tried to do this. And, of course, it has a screwcap.

The only drawback to this wine is that it's kind of picky with food. In this, it's a good example of why some wine is better with some food -- though everyone is free to drink whatever wine with whatever food they like, of course. If you're not going to drink the Villa Maria on its own, it really does need to be paired with a dish that complements it. Think salads or a lighter style seafood. I drank it with potato pancakes and braised red cabbage, and that didn't do much for the wine.

• Posted by Jeff Siegel on Mar 10, 2010 at 06:20 AM in Siegel, Wine, Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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Richardson students’ artwork selected for state art show

Three Richardson High School students’ artwork was selected out of more than a thousand entries for the annual Texas Visual Art Association’s High School Art Show. This year, 1,183 pieces were entered but only 199 works were accepted — four of which were created by Richardson students. Nathan Pautsch and Kendall Wrightson each had a piece accepted, and Trevor Yokochi had two pieces accepted.

You can see their work, along with all the other accepted pieces, inside UTD’s Visual Arts building now through Saturday, March 21. And that show is free to see.

• Posted by Marlena Chavira Medford on Mar 9, 2010 at 02:48 PM in Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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DallasCityHall.com: A missed opportunity

I owe every resident of Dallas an apology. I could have solved the city's budget woes and fixed the long-term problems facing the city, but I choked. I did not display grace under pressure. What didn't I do? I didn't buy Dallas' Internet domain name when it expired yesterday morning -- because then I would have held it hostage until the city met my demands (non-negotiable, of course) to reform how Dallas is run.

More, after the jump:

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• Posted by Jeff Siegel on Mar 9, 2010 at 06:49 AM in City Hall, Siegel, Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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Donate canned food, take capoeira classes

Here’s a deal worth keeping on your radar this month: In an effort to collect food for North Texas Food Bank, Dallas Capoeira is accepting canned food in place of tuition. Bring in three cans of food and you get one free class. The limit is eight classes.

"Capoeira was developed by slaves in Brazil who were oppressed and hungry. It's amazing how the art-form has progressed where now it can give back to the oppressed," says instructor Chad R. Adams. "Three cans of food is the minimum, but we'll take more."

That promotion is happening now through Wednesday, March 31.

• Posted by Marlena Chavira Medford on Mar 9, 2010 at 04:00 AM in Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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City wants to hire fewer cops this year

As the DMN points out, no matter what other priorities have come and gone these past few years, the city council and city manager have found the money to hire 200 more police officers per year. It was Mayor Tom Leppert's election battle cry, as I recall, and the initiative to hire more officers each year appears to have been effective in helping reduce crime. Now that the city budget is bleeding red ink, though, city manager Mary Suhm told the DMN she's recommending that about 120 officers be hired this year instead of the budgeted-for 191. She cites the budget woes, but she also offers up the excuse that cutting back on the hiring is a good thing because the police department needs more time to integrate the rookies on the force hired the past couple of years during the 200-cops-per-year push.

I don't have a problem with cutting back the hiring for a year; almost everything else is being cut downtown, so it only makes sense to dial back hiring cops for a bit. But to say that we need more time to integrate rookies seems suspect; after all, weren't the number of rookies on the force taken into account when the budget was put together in the first place?

There are going to be plenty of tough budget decisions made downtown in the upcoming six months. Why not just play it straight — say that we simply don't have enough money for this or that — rather than look for excuses to try and save face?

• Posted by Rick Wamre on Mar 8, 2010 at 01:30 PM in City Hall, Crime, Wamre, Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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Dallascityhall.com where are you?

As you can imagine, us Advocate reporters rely quite a bit on the city's official website, Dallascityhall.com for phone numbers, e-mailing city council members, reading meeting agendas, etc. But when I logged on this morning in hopes of locating a number for someone in the Water Utilities department, I found, well, see for yourself. According to Robert Wilonsky at the Observer, who apparently tried to connect earlier than me, the domain registration expired over the weekend. Doh! The site has reportedly been up and down all morning, so by the time you read this, it might be back. But, as Wilonsky notes, it forces the question, "are budget problems that bad?" — a question we addressed here last week (spoiler alert: the answer is "yes").

• Posted by Christina Hughes Babb on Mar 8, 2010 at 12:54 PM in Advocate Mag, Far North Dallas
  
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