Back Talk Lake Highlands

Who knew that $295,385 seems like less than $295,000 when it comes to home pricing?

Selling or buying a home in today's supposedly turbulent market? Check out this recent story in the Wall Street Journal, which offers a few interesting tips about pricing a home from a strategic standpoint. For example, which is a better price for your $300,000 home: $295,000 or $295,385? You might be surprised to know that $295,000, according to the story, conveys "quality" while $295,385 might indicate a "bargain," meaning that the higher number might actually be the more effective one in a competitive market. That's just one of the conclusions in the story, which contains some ideas that would work just as easily at Saturday's garage sale, too...

It's official: Cell-phone ban in school zones is approved by council

Perhaps not surprisingly, the city council today approved a ban on hand-held cell phone use in school zones and authorized spending $144,000 to erect 2,623 signs in the 651 city school zones, according to a DMN article. (The money is expected to be generated from $200 fines for violating the law; simple math says police probably will initially feel some city-induced pressure to write 720 tickets to make sure the policy is budget-neutral. That's about one violation per school zone.)

If you think about it, voting against this measure would have been like voting against mom and apple pie (I guess Chevrolet probably isn't appropriate here anymore). The News article says Mayor Tom Leppert acknowledged research that indicates cellphone bans don't really work and can even waste government resources; he said it's worth giving the policy a chance and that the council may review the policy later to see if it's working. (Too bad he didn't follow that thought process before gutting the city's Verified Alarm System policy a few months ago.)

Somehow, I don't see any council members — now or in the future — willing to fall on their swords and vote out the policy. This is a policy that will never go away, no matter how effective or ineffective it eventually becomes — it will be just too politically charged to disappear. Anyway, the ban doesn't include the wired-in Bluetooth phones or behind-the-ear models, just the hand-held ones.

An inside look at Trader Joe's

We've had a lot of interest in Trader Joe's here, in especially in conjunction with the town center, so I thought I would link to this Business Week article. The company does not usually discuss itself, so the tidbits here are quite interesting. Note, too, that there is nothing in the piece about expansion.

Immediately impound vehicles driven by the uninsured? That's Rasansky's plan for Dallas.

Here's a good idea that's sure to be dragged behind the figurative car for a bit before it's resolved: According to the Morning News and WFAA-TV, councilman Mitch Rasansky has suggested in writing to Mayor Tom Leppert that Dallas police be empowered to immediately impound cars found to be driven by people who can't produce proof of insurance. Fellow councilmen signing the memo were Jerry Allen, Sheffie Kadane, Linda Koop and Ron Natinsky — enough signatories that the News says automatically requires council discussion of the idea.

"We need to send a message that this is not acceptable," Rasansky told the News.

Starbucks closing early tonight

If you're anticipating an after-work Starbucks fix ... you better leave the office early. At 5:30 p.m. all Starbucks locations around the globe will close for 3 hours of barista training. Luckily we have plenty of great coffee shops around Lake Highlands to keep us sufficiently caffinated. (White Rock Coffee Shop: get ready!)

Check out those early voting numbers

Several stories (here and here) have broken down the impressive numbers, which look to be record-setting. Early voting is not only ahead of the 2004 presidential primary, but has already surpassed the totals for 1996 and 2000.

But I wanted to note a couple of local points not covered elsewhere. (All of the early totals are here -- just click on the bottom two links for the party you're interested in.)

A record-setting post about Skillman/Church development

One week ago, our Christina-Hughes Babb posted about the Skillman/Church redevelopment, based on a neighborhood meeting she had attended. One week later, her post is still going strong. We have had 40 comments, which is a record -- not only for this blog, but for each of the four blogs that we do.

Thank you for your participation. Needless to say, we'll be following up this story in the magazine. If anyone wants to comment further, do it on this post. The comments section on the first post is at two pages, and we've never had that happen.

Bill Clinton is stopping by Samuell Grand Park at 1:15 p.m. today (Tuesday)

If you've ever wanted to get up-close-and-personal with a former president, here's your chance: Bill Clinton will be visiting Samuell Grand Park, 6200 E. Grand Ave., today at 1:15 p.m. as part of a get-out-the-early-vote event adjacent to the rec center. Like him or not, how often does a former president show up this close to home? Be forewarned, though: He's scheduled to be at an event 20 miles away (Mountain View College) at 11:45, and then he's supposed to be in Grapevine at 2:45 p.m. And given his reputation for being late, and the rather tight schedule, who knows how that's going to play out ...

A new twist on resale shopping

I stumbled upon a fun little store on Lovers Lane this past weekend. The sign out front read "Shopaholic!", but when I first opened the door, I thought I had accidentally walked into a beauty salon instead of a clothing shop. Turns out, it was both.

The stylist, who I'm assuming was Ami, explained that the clothes and accessories hanging in two rooms of the house-turned-business were all resale — picks from vintage shops and estate sales and other stores' sale racks (at least, that was my guess when I saw a Marshall's tag still attached to a sequined pink dress). I found lots of adorable stuff, and a quick browse revealed price tags mostly in the $10 to $30 range.

Ami said she and owner Sherry Gilderoy, who some people might know from the morning show on 103.7 lite FM, do all of the shopping for the store themselves, and often use the clothes and accessories in their makeovers. What a fun concept, and a good way to find cute, cheap clothes that aren't being worn by everyone else.

And if it makes you feel even better, a portion of each sale is given to the Alliance for a New Humanity.

Pedestrianism (walking around) and Dallas — mutually exclusive?

Councilman Angela Hunt's blog summarizes an almost laughable commentary today from a Brookings Institution/Univerity of Michigan guy saying Dallas is on the cutting edge of urban pedestrianism — that Dallas is becoming a great place to walk around. (The Brookings Institution, fyi, is one of the nation's best-known think tanks.) I had to chuckle when I read that, as Hunt apparently also did, because she then spends a few paragraphs knocking down the guy's thesis and talking about things she's going to work on downtown and elsewhere to try and make his commentary a reality.

Still, at this point, "pedestrianism" and "Dallas" really don't belong in the same sentence. It's not as if people don't like the idea of walking around the city; we just don't seem willing to commit the economic resources and zoning chutzpuh to embrace higher densities, which are really going to be the key to making pedestrianism a reality here.

Hunt cites a number of places she's planning to focus on — Victory, Uptown, Arts District, West End and others — and naturally they're in relatively high-density (for Dallas) locations. Higher gas prices and environmental concerns give us all a good reason to think twice about turning on the car — hybrid or otherwise. And there's nothing more invigorating than a walk through a high-density commercial/retail/residential area. The problem in Dallas today is that you have to go to Europe, New York, Chicago or Boston to do that...