Council Recap: Key to the City

Source: City of Richardson.

I've already covered the Richardson City Council's deliberation on applying for grants from CDBG and creating a UDC ("Council Recap: CDBG and UDC Spell PROGRESS").

The agenda also had an item for how to honor individuals or organizations. There were two parts. The first is awarding a "Key to the City." The second is namiing a City asset like a building after a person. At the time, I said I'd cover these when a final draft policy came back before council in a week or two for approval. But I don't expect the final policy to differ much from the draft policy we saw. The design of the "Key to the City", on the other hand,...

Council Recap: CDBG and UDC Spell PROGRESS

Let's celebrate. For the first time in a while, every substantive agenda item deliberated by the Richardson City Council had an outcome I liked. And I'm not easy to please, I know. The three topics were CDBG, UDC, and Naming Things. The first two will take a long time to implement. I'll cover those in this week's council recap. The third will be decided when it comes back to council in a week or two. I'll cover it at that time.

Rooster (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Rooster (TV 2026): Steve Carrell sitcom where he plays a professor at a small college where his daughter and his ex-wife also teach. Good ensemble cast. Nothing new in the formula. It's just a feel-good, throw-back sitcom trying to appeal to a wide audience. B+

HBO

Monday Night Follies at City Hall

Finally, progress on addressing housing needs in Richardson for Low and Middle Income families and on getting our Comprehensive Zoning Code aligned with the Envision Richardson Plan we spent so much effort on. It's about time. Two home runs.

Young Sherlock (TV 2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Young Sherlock (TV 2026): Definitely not canon. Hoped for more sleuthing and more exploration of Sherlock's early relationship with Mycroft and Moriarty, but if you ignore that this is a Sherlock Holmes story, you might like it just as a family-based crime/mystery story. B-

Prime

POTD: Itchan Kala

From 2025 09 17 Khiva

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Itchan Kala. According to Wikipedia, "Itchan Kala is the walled inner town of the city of Khiva, Uzbekistan. Since 1990, it has been protected as a World Heritage Site. The old town retains more than 50 historic monuments and 250 old houses, dating primarily from the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries."

Bonus photos are after the jump.

POTD: Ulli Hovli

From 2025 09 17 Khiva

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Ulli Hovli ("Big Yard"), a restored 17th-century Turkmen fortress-settlement located in Uzbekistan’s Khorezm region. Originally built by the Khan of Khiva as a fortified outpost to protect trade caravans, it has been transformed into a living museum and popular tourist complex. We stopped for lunch...and camel rides.

Bonus photos are after the jump.

Council Recap: Greenwood Park PD

The Undercurrents Beneath a Unanimous Yes

The Richardson City Council approved the Greenwood Park Planned Development (ZF 26-02) application. It will raze a nursing home and build 40 single-family detached homes. The City received 5 statements in support of the request and 3 that were neutral. No one spoke in person for or against. That sounds like a nothingburger matter for a city council. And in the end, it was a unanimous yes vote, but one that several council members seemed less than completely happy with.

Flock Cameras are Watching Us

Flock Safety is a growing surveillance company. They are growing by selling their mass surveillance camera system to cities around the country. The sales pitch on their website entices cities with, "Join the Largest Fixed LPR [License Plate Reader] Network. With billions of monthly plate reads, Flock connects communities, businesses and law enforcement in a shared network built to stop crime." LPR is a bit of a misleading term. The technology does a lot more than read license plates. Elsewhere in the sales pitch, it says, "No Plate? No Problem. Capture more detail with Vehicle Fingerprint® and Flock FreeForm®. Turn images into actionable evidence — no plate required." Flock's website even includes a helpful webinar: "How to Speak to City Councils: Meeting the Moment with Confidence." That gives me a sinking feeling that cities across America stand little chance against Flock's smooth-talking salesmen. You see, fighting crime is a higher priority for voters than protecting privacy. Because council members have to, in turn, sell the systems to voters, they end up talking like Flock salesmen themselves and maybe even believing the sales pitch wholesale.

Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026)

Rotten Tomatoes

Remarkably Bright Creatures (2026): A warm-hearted story of an aging woman, a broke young man, and an aquarium octopus, all trapped in sad circumances in life. A series of lucky coincidences lead them all to help each other. Adapted from the 2023 selection of "Richardson Reads One Book." B+

Netflix