Far West Club could lose permit

The contentious Far West nightclub is one step closer to losing it’s right to operate as is at the Gaston-Garland corner in East Dallas after the Dallas Plan Commission voted yesterday to revoke it’s 99-year special use permit.

Thanks to plan-commission member Michael Davis (Dallas Progress) for the update — he says "Lakewood/ Lakewood Heights, C-streets, and the other nearby neighborhoods were there in full force" at yesterday’s hearing.

Now the item will move to the City Council’s agenda.

Cops citing short-cutters at Casa Linda

Avoid the Casa Linda area (Buckner-Garland) at all costs — that is, if you have any designs on reaching your destination on time. It is a mess during early and afternoon drive times and on Saturdays too. And probably all day everyday. Traffic is backed up along Garland and Buckner from all directions. And don’t even think about trying to cut through the bank parking lot (if you’re turning right from Garland onto Buckner, it’s very tempting because the right turn lane is blocked off). There are TWO COPS on motorcycles just waitng to make this bad situation even worse for you. There was one out writing tickets yesterday. Today there are two. My advice: if you’re in it, you really have no choice but to wait it out. If this intersection is on your regualr route, find a new route. This might take a awhile.

The Texas Department of Transportation, as I understand it, is responsible for all the road construction, but, for what it’s worth, plaza owners AmREIT do a pretty decent job of updating the community on progress. 

East Dallas homeowner shoots intruder

A Lakewood-area homeowner shot and killed an intruder early this morning. The homeowner’s name hasn’t been released, but the shooting happened in the 6100 block of Tremont. The body of 21-year-old Gary Williams was recovered from the front porch, after which he was taken to Baylor where he died.

Here’s the DMN report — I’ll update when/ if I hear more details.

Initially, the story reminds me of one about a year ago in Little Forest Hills, where Carter Albrecht was shot and killed when a homeowner mistook him for an intruder. Carter was on the man’s property and trying to enter the home, according to reports, but he was in a confused state of mind — the incident was a misunderstanding that went from bad to tragic. Of course the homeowner was protected by law in that, as in this case.

But … chances are, this Williams guy was a thug, and knew he was running the risk of being blown away when he decided to break into someone’s home.

Scammers at the gas pump

Gas prices have dropped
significantly in the past week-ish, but before you get too giddy at the
pump, know this: Identity theft is a "growing threat" at area gas
pumps, according to this DMN
story. It seem scammers have come up with some ingenious high-tech
device that allows them to read numbers from credit and debit cards
used at the pump. Actually these devices have been around awhile but
have recently become more discreet so that victims wouldn’t notice
them, even if they knew to look for them.  Anyway, read up, stay aware,
be careful out there … and enjoy the sub-$3 gas prices while they
last.

City council priorities: a curfew, a promoter and a trans-fat ban?

DMN city council reporter Dave Levinthal apparently spent some time at the city council’s retreat this week, and he highlights a few ideas that council members are considering pushing later this year … here’s a sneak peak at what might come up during the next council term:

• "A daytime curfew for school-aged children in an effort to curb truancy," this idea courtesy of mayor pro tem Elba Garcia.

• Additional crime-monitoring cameras in troubled neighborhoods.

Marijuana plants found near jogging trail

A city worker found a crop of obviously well-cared-for marijuana plants near
the jogging trail that runs from 635 to White Rock Lake, in a spot
where dozens, perhaps hundreds, of pedestrians and cyclists pass daily.
Talk about overlooking the obvious.

If the cyclists and joggers would stop bickering and the runners
(myself included) would lose the headphones and pay attention to their
surroundings … maybe we wouldn’t miss the little things — LIKE 27
SEVEN-FOOT-TALL POT PLANTS right in front of us!

Are police solving crimes?

There’s an interesting piece in Saturday’s Morning News about police “clearance” rates, or in other words, the percentage of crimes that are actually solved.

Essentially, Dallas police do a fairly good job or solving murders, solving about seven out of every 10, but the chances of them catching those responsible for home burglaries, beauty shop holdups, or car thefts is slim — for example, they solve about seven of every 100 burglaries.

Citizen journalists we appreciate (need) you

… and so does the community. 

Over the weekend Keri Mitchell and I attended a Blog/New Media Expo
in Las Vegas. I am sure we will sporadically share our newfound wisdom
with you over future days and weeks, but for now I’d like to touch on
one important thing I derived from the experience:

I learned that in order to have an outstanding neighborhood blog,
you have to have outstanding folks out in the neighborhood writing
regular, interesting, super-local posts. Advocate has a stellar
editorial staff, if I do say so myself.  But we are but a very few
people putting out five neighborhood magazines every month, plus the
occasional special addition. While we want to be all over the place covering news for Back Talk, we can’t be more than one place at a time — or should I say we haven’t figured out how to yet. 

That brings me back to my aforementioned assessment — we need the citizen journalists, such as Back Talk contributor Norman Alston, who help us
keep our finger on the pulse of Lakewood and do a great job of
writing about it.

Police search for East Grand robbers

Police have released details about three men suspected in an East Grand Ave. convenience store robbery yesterday. Reportedly, the same men might be responsible for other robberies committed in Lake Highlands, Old East Dallas        and along North Stemmons Freeway, south of Love Field.

Here’s a description of the men the police are looking for.

Robbery at Lakeland-Ferguson Walgreens

Early this morning, the Walgreens on Ferguson at Lakeland (B on the map) was robbed. Police questioned three suspects but didn’t make an arrest. More (albeit very little more) here.

I often stop in that Walgreens on my way in in the mornings. I didn’t today but I did drive by and did not notice anything outstanding (I admittedly wasn’t looking for anything at the time, though). It seems the thieves were trying to take the ATM machine but gave up.