Filling a Vacancy on City Council by Appointment

At Monday night's meeting, the Richardson City Council is scheduled to appoint a person to fill a vacancy in the Place 5 position on the council.

Some people just can't let go of the false idea that filling a vacancy by appointment instead of special election is a violation of the Texas State Constitution. And that the city charter itself gives the city council the option of calling a special election. By some people, I mean specifically local gadfly Cheri Duncan-Hubert. She's been corrected before, including here, but in a (long) Facebook thread she demonstrates a remarkable persistence of willful ignorance. So here we go again.

Late Spring in the Steger Garden (2015)

From Flowers

POTD: Water Taxi

From 2015 03 16 Bangkok

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Bangkok, Thailand. Specifically, the Chao Phraya River, Bangkok's main thoroughfare. After a while, there's only so many temples you can stand to tour. You have to get away from the crowds, out on the river and breathe in some fresh, clean... diesel fumes from the river buses, cross-river ferries and water taxis. Good times.

Review: Salvage the Bones

Amazon

From Salvage the Bones, by Jesmyn Ward:

It's summer, and when it's summer, there's always a hurricane coming or leaving here. Each pushes its way through the flat Gulf to the twenty-six-mile manmade Mississippi beach, where they knock against the old summer mansions with their slave galleys turned guesthouses before running over the bayou, through the pines, to lose wind, drip rain, and die in the north. Most don't even hit us head-on anymore; most turn right to Florida or take a left for Texas, brush past and glance off us like a shirtsleeve. We ain't had one come straight for us in years, time enough to forget how many jugs of water we need to fill, how many cans of sardines and potted meat we should stock, how many tubs of water we need."

It's a Hurricane Katrina story, but so much more. After the jump, my review.

POTD: Bigfoot

From 2015 03 16 Bangkok

Today's photo-of-the-day is from Bangkok, Thailand. It shows the foot of the statue of the Buddha in Wat Pho, aka the Temple of the Reclining Buddha. The full statue is about 50 yards long, filling the temple. There's just enough room for visitors to walk along the outside wall, from head to foot then back along the back side. There's something attractive about a religion that depicts its most holy figure in a reclining position, blissfully at peace. Good times.

Oh, and that big foot? Each is about 15 feet long.

A bonus photo after the jump.

Arapaho Redevelopment Put in Storage

From December, 2011:

The other request is for rezoning for a self-service warehouse with outside vehicle storage (boats, motor homes, etc.) on Arapaho Rd west of Custer Rd. That's right in a shopping center, across the street from a shopping center, just down the street from the Civic Center. A few years ago, the city thought parked boats and motor homes were such an eyesore that the city council passed an ordinance restricting home owners from parking their recreational vehicles at their houses. The city also spent years buying up aging homes across Arapaho Rd from the Civic Center and tearing them down. Why in the world would the city now agree to zoning that would allow a self-service warehouse, with boats and motor homes parked outdoors, to be built in a shopping center, near a residential neighborhood, and just down the street from the Civic Center? Here's another use destined to destroy any hope that this aging retail neighborhood can be revived.

Source: The Wheel.

That's what I wrote three years ago. The city council rejected that particular rezoning request in December, 2011, but the owner returned in March, 2012, with a modified request (he dropped plans for outside vehicle storage) and the council approved that. So now we have a self-service warehouse smack dab in the middle of the West Arapaho enhancement/redevelopment area.

It's time for an update on this three-year-old decision.

Still Alice (2014)

IMDB

Still Alice (2014): No cure for Alzheimer's. No surprise movie happy ending. Sad but still positive. Oscar for Julianne Moore. Deserved. B-