I got on an airplane for France at 5:30 p.m. a week ago Wednesday. I saw my first English-language news (save for a couple of very brief visits to the web site of Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper) on Tuesday morning, when I picked up an International Herald Tribune in Paris and discovered that the U.S. financial system was about to collapse.
But that wasn’t what shocked me. I also found out, courtesy of the Wi-Fi at the airport, that the plan commission had voted not to rename Industrial and Ross, and that Mayor Park Cities was really upset that someone who wasn’t a malcontent opposed the convention center hotel.
Frankly, my feelings were hurt. I’d like to think that all my hard work over the past couple of years had earned me enough respect so that big news would only break when I was in town to write about it. Or, failing that, that Leppert could have passed me the high sign when I saw him at lunch a couple of weeks ago at Al Biernat’s. (I was eating with two Australian winemakers; the mayor was power suited up, dining with a couple of other movers and shakers.)
The interesting thing about all of this is that none of it was supposed to happen. As a commenter noted last week, the mayor is all powerful and all knowing, and those of us who think otherwise are pathetic. The Trinity vote was supposed to have quashed the Opposition, and the mayor was supposed to rule over Dallas like a well-beloved monarch, periodically waving to adoring crowds.
Which hasn’t happened. Leppert’s allies on the council, most notably Dave Neumann and Ron Natinsky, got outflanked on renaming Ross and the convention center hotel, and Leppert seemed at a loss about what to do. He still hasn’t said anything about Ross (unless it happened while I was in France) and his hotel news conference this morning seemed a little less than overwhelming. It’s hard to imagine Michael Bloomberg doing the same thing in New York City when someone disagrees with him.
What has happened, I think, is that the mayor underestimated the opposition. It’s not just a bunch of malcontents, although there are plenty of us. Rather, there are a lot of people in town who disagree with him on a variety of issues, but this is normal in a major American city. But I don’t think he understands that. Call it hubris or naivety or political inexperience, but I can’t shake the feeling that Leppert doesn’t think that people who disagree with him need to be taken seriously.
The Crow family said, months ago, that they would oppose the convention center hotel, and the mayor did not, apparently, make any overtures to try and change their position. (If he had, the news probably would have been leaked to show how unreasonable the Crows were being.) This is difficult to understand. The Crows have been part of the Dallas power structure for so long that you have to take them seriously, regardless of anything else. This is a basic rule of politics: Respect your elders.
As for Ross and Industrial, good luck. Even a good politician would have a difficult time wriggling out of this mess, and no one around here is a good politician.
