The February 16, 2025, Richardson City Council meeting started out like a bureaucratic snooze-fest. There were no public speakers lined up to address the city council. The agenda topics were all "review and discuss," with no decisions to be made, things like FIFA World Cup, senior property tax exemption, Safer Streets Richardson, and Eisemann Center operations. In other words, nothing to ignite fireworks.
I found my mind drifting to imagining watching a TV series pilot. You know, where a standalone episode of a television show is produced to test the show's world, key characters, and storylines, in order to determine if a full run of the series should be ordered. Call the TV series, I don't know, maybe "The Non-Consent Agenda." Should this show be green lit for production?
FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup is coming to the US, Mexico, and Canada this summer. Arlington's AT&T Stadium will host nine matches in June and July. The organizers expect five million visitors to north Texas. The potential storylines for "The Non-Consent Agenda" are endless. But which ones are being talked about. Will they attract an audience?
Council member Arefin asked, "How are they going to commute from Richardson to Arlington?" Council member Justice said, "I think it's still in the works. We've had some discussion on the RTC...to allow hiring some additional buses and those sorts of things to go from the TRE to stadium area." As usual, a half-assed scramble to support one of Arlington's big events. A better storyline for "The Non-Consent Agenda" would be to let 'em walk. Arlington is not a member of DART. Plano and other suburbs are flirting with dropping out of DART, in order to instead give a $20 million incentive to AT&T to relocate their headquarters from Dallas to Plano. A regional transportation faceplant might help show the folly of what local governments want to spend their sales tax dollars on instead of building out public transit. But that kind of truth-telling storyline for "The Non-Consent Agenda" is not likely based on what was said in this pilot episode.
Instead, we get storylines like this. Arefin asked about availability of tickets. He expects to see watch parties in Richardson and would like to attract teams and fans to eat lunch and dinner here. Council member Dorian asked if emergency medical services at FIFA events is covered. Council member Barrios asked about activating the downtown area around any of the games ("maybe playing a game outside"). He asked if the city can charge FIFA for providing security. (Answer? No.) My mind was drifting away. These characters and storylines aren't going to sell this TV series.
Did the city staff have a better storyline? One slide by the city listed activities in partnership with the FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee, including something called the Richardson "BioBlitz" at Breckinridge Park, where the public is invited to photograph and catalogue species of plants, animals, and fungi. I could see the TV series being canceled even before the first fans show up.
Then the police chief brought up TV-ready things to talk about. He said he was worried about hooligans. Soccer hooligans in Richardson? It would be must-see TV. Oddly, the police chief (and no one else) mentioned terrorism or ICE. This TV series won't be realistic without a subplot involving planning for federal arrests and detentions and protests and local police overreaction. You know it has to be happening somewhere. So how about talking about that?
Instead, Mayor Amir Omar brought the discussion back to dollars and cents projections. In his best Columbo style, he said, "Just a couple questions on my end. I was a little surprised to see the 70 to 80% [hotel] occupancy expectation. I'd love to dig a little bit deeper on that, the normal being 62%. Why such a low lift?" If the millions of visitors aren't staying in hotels, where are they staying? Maybe the hype machine is working overtime? Maybe FIFA is succeeding in getting cities to stretch their tax dollars on something even less likely than, say, the Eisemann Center Presents breaking even instead of FIFA itself paying off (see the storyline at the end of the pilot).
Senior Property Tax Exemption
There is no storyline here. The city's senior property tax exemption has a target to maintain a tax benefit of approximately 30% of the average senior's home value. In 2025, the $160,000 exemption had a tax benefit of 33% of the average market value of a senior's home. The same exemption in 2026 is forecast to generate a 31.39% tax benefit after factoring residential value growth of 5%. Staff recommends leaving the exemption where it is. Mayor Omar had no problem with that recommendation. Council member Justice agreed. Asking for disagreement, Mayor Omar received none. No friction among the TV show's characters on this matter. Moving on...
Safer Streets Richardson
The council received a report on Richardson's Safe Streets Initiative, which is focused on reducing injuries and deaths, creating pedestrian-friendly streets, and unlocking grant funding. If it isn't obvious yet, the project involves a consultant team and multiple committees. My attention started wandering. Then I saw the catchy title of this effort: "50x50", meaning 50% fewer deaths by 2050. Finally, a S.M.A.R.T. goal by the city, something rare in Richardson's usual soporific vision and goal statements. I could immediately see the "50x50" splash of the title sequence of a spinoff TV series. Let's do it.
The draft guiding principles lost the punch of "50x50." The third guiding principle to achieve safer streets is "Build safer streets." D'oh. How to do that shouldn't be too hard to coax out of the safety analysis. 63% of all bicycle and pedestrian fatalities and serious injury accidents are on 3% of Richardson's roadway network. The next steps planned were obvious: review the data, select countermeasures, perform cost/benefit analysis, and look for funding opportunities for implementation.
The way to reduce pedestrian and bicycle deaths and injuries is through physical design changes (narrower lanes, tighter turning radii), safer pedestrian crossings (curb extensions, safety islands, shorter crossing distances), and protected infrastructure for vulnerable users (connected sidewalks and bike networks).
All of that is obvious. But don't do all these things in a way that cars can still move through streets and intersections at the same or even higher speeds. Pothole free, straight streets, with left and right turn lanes at every intersection prioritizes cars. Prioritizing cars necessarily means de-prioritizing everything else. The key insight is to actively disadvantage cars. Make driving inconvenient compared to walking or taking a bike. If you don't do that, you aren't being serious about achieving 50x50. I won't prejudge how this storyline will play out, but I didn't hear anything in the pilot that hints at a plot twist in this direction later in the season.
Eisemann Center Operations
City staff reviewed Eisemann Center Operations. City Manager Don Magner stressed the point that the Eisemann Center, Wildflower Festival, and the Cottonwood Art Festival never made money. The hotel/motel tax fund helped subsidize these community events, but even still money from the general fund was needed. Council member Hutchenrider warned that potentially the hotel/motel tax is on the chopping block in a future state legislative session. "The Eisemann Center is an incredible asset. But you know, if it comes down to it, do we maintain a sewer system, do we maintain the Eisemann?"
Mayor Omar gave a foreshadowing of future storylines in "The Non-Consent Agenda" that should get viewers tuning in again and again. He said, "I'm going to only point at our neighboring city, who is probably known by one event more than any other event, which is the Taste of Addison, and after 30 years, they made the decision to cut it off. I'm sure that probably was a difficult decision to make, but there are tough decisions being made all around the region and probably all around the state, because of what's happening, and we just all need to keep that in mind, especially as we try and look at other things that we do, that we all cherish and think are the most amazing thing ever... We've got to figure out how that's going to balance with everything else we're trying to do, or if we do like our other neighbor, Plano, did recently, which is, do you raise taxes... so that you can be able to manage still keeping all these amenities that you want to keep."
So, is this TV series worth keeping on the air? Most certainly. The season coming up is chock-full of storylines that have potentially dire consequences for the whole community. Keep watching as the council members fight over the sacred cows of Richardson.
"Green-light this series?
Potential cliffhangers teased.
Ratings need more spice."
—h/t ChatGPT
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