Barack Obama Wannabe Stefani Carter

Barack Obama / Stefani Carter

Young, bright, Harvard-educated, African-American candidate for the state legislature. What once described Barack Obama in Illinois is now being appropriated by none other than a north Texas Republican candidate for the Texas legislature. And if the biography isn't enough to get voters to see a little Barack Obama in you, how about lifting lines and ideas right from Barack Obama's keynote address to the 2004 Democratic Convention, the speech that launched his national career?

After the jump, look who's riding Obama's coattails?

116th Caltech Commencement

There has been no news from Richardson since last week because Ellen and I were in Pasadena, California, to attend Caltech's 116th commencement ceremony. Scott received his Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. The weather was ideal (the 75 degree days and cool nights were a welcome break from the Texas heat). The commencement ceremony struck just the right balance between seriousness and levity (and sometimes both rolled up together. For example, read Caltech professor Sean Carroll's take on the lyrics to the song Gaudeamus Igitur sung by the Caltech Glee Club). And the post-commencement luncheon in the Athenaeum was awe-inspiring (this private club on the Caltech campus hosted Nobel Prize winners Albert Einstein, Robert Millikan and A. A. Milchelson at its first formal dinner in 1931).

Besides glowing with pride during commencement, we also visited the outstanding Norton Simon art museum in Pasadena. Saturday turned out to be a full day at Universal Studios Hollywood after we discovered that you can't take just the studio tour without buying a ticket for the whole theme park experience, too. (For a more authentic studio tour, check out Warner Brothers instead.) Each evening was spent dining and strolling in Old Pasadena, the kind of livable city that Dallas and Richardson ought to study.

For more photos, look here:

• Caltech
  
• Norton Simon Museum and Pasadena
  
• Universal Studios Hollywood

2010 World Cup - South Africa

The whole world is watching. Even Americans. From June 11 through July 11, the world will pause to watch the World Cup. Find a location in the Dallas area to join in. Ideally, a location where Brazilians gather to watch Brazil play, or where Slovenians, Slovakians or Serbians gather -- the more exotic the country, the better, if they have a critical mass of fans in the north Texas area. The enthusiasm is infectious. Catch it. Even if you never watched a soccer match before in your life.

RICHARDSON

Fox and Hound*
112 W. Campbell Road
972-437-4225
www.foxandhound.com
*All locations will open early

Humperdink's Sports Bar and Restaurant
1601 N. Central Expressway
972-690-4867
www.humperdinks.com

Restaurants On Notice

Below is a list of restaurants that I've eaten in that have received a rating below 90 (that is, less than "Excellent") on a recent inspection score by the Richardson Health Department. I'm putting these restaurants on notice. If their scores don't improve to 90 or above ("Excellent") on their next inspection, I don't be eating there anymore.

(Note that a score of 80-89 is still considered "Good." I just like to think I have high standards. And note that there are other restaurants with scores less than 90. These are just the ones that I have had the pleasure of dining at and the ones that have been inspected in the last couple of months. The full list of restaurant scores can be found here.)

Inspection	Restaurant	Address	Score
05/27/10	Funasia - Main (upstairs)	1210 E Belt Line Rd	74
05/27/10	Funasia - Concession (downstairs)	1210 E Belt Line Rd	75
05/21/10	Chick-Fil-A	603 S Plano Rd	87
05/13/10	Twisted Root Burger Co.	730 E Campbell Rd	88
05/03/10	Furr's Cafeteria	350 S Plano Rd	84
04/29/10	Oriental Express	1600 N Plano Rd 2000	86
04/28/10	The Upper Deck Bar and Grill	1403 E Campbell Rd	79
04/27/10	A Taste of Italy	3555 Murphy Rd	88
04/26/10	Dos Charros	108 Univ Vlg S/C	81
04/26/10	Canyon Creek Country Club Main Kitchen	625 Lookout Dr	89
04/22/10	Spring Creek B.B.Q.	270 N Central Expy	83
03/29/10	Chien Garden	1144 N Plano Rd #121	83
03/16/10	Scalini's Pizza and Pasta	3610 Shire Blvd 5108	88
03/15/10	Boudreaux's Cajun Kitchen	720 E Campbell Rd	88

Richardson's Walkability

Patrick Kennedy, on his blog WalkableDFW, has championed walkability as a necessary component of a city's livability. In a recent blog entry, he reports on an academic finding that intersection density is the number one predictor of walkability. He says:

"Intuitively this makes sense in that the smaller the blocks, the greater number of intersections, the more storefronts, the more choice of route, etc. We have also known that intersection density is an indicator of traffic safety."

Kennedy goes on to present a detailed analysis of the intersection density of downtown Dallas compared with Portland, Oregon. Read his blog to learn which city comes out ahead.

After the jump, what another walkability measure says about Richardson.

Bush Turnpike TOD

My first impressions of the developers' vision for the transit-oriented development around the Bush Turnpike DART station in Richardson:

• It looks promising. Preserves creeks. Connects to trails and DART rail. Strives for mixed-use walkability.
• I like how it uses Spring Creek trail to punch a hole in Central Expwy to tie east/west together.
• It gets Cottonwood rail line across Central Expwy without blocking traffic at Plano Pkwy. Advantage Richardson over Plano.

OTBR: A Rapeseed Field In Germany

Latitude: 48.295399° N
Longitude: 11.999700° E

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

Twitter Tracks: Baseball, Local Election, Oil Spill

Twitter tracks from May, 2010:

• 2010 05 01 - Congrats to Berkner and Richardson HS baseball teams, co-champs of District 9-5A. One game playoff today to determine top seed in playoffs.
• 2010 05 01 - Play In May! That's the goal of every high school baseball team in Texas. Two RISD co-champions went at it today. http://goo.gl/miKc
• 2010 05 01 - Thanks to the entire DMN team for coverage of today's rally for immigration rights. Add "si se puede" to the great American rallying cries.
• 2010 05 01 - I'm just going to enjoy the spectacle of the Kentucky Derby and all its excesses and not once think of Sen. Mitch McConnell. ... Drats.
• 2010 05 01 - The best thing about the Kentucky Derby and all other big betting events??? Despite the fact that my pick loses, I never lose any money. :-)
• 2010 05 01 - I was for Richardson's bond election before, but now I've learned that my alley will likely get replaced if the bond passes. Woot!
• 2010 05 01 - The Blind Side: good feel-good movie, more a family movie than a football movie. Sandra Bullock was good, not great. Compare with Precious.
• 2010 05 02 - Richardson Echo letter to the editor: "Don't let Richardson become Bedford, Texas all over again." Ouch! http://goo.gl/etdD
• 2010 05 02 - Catch Conan on "60 Minutes?" You know how long that show has been on the air? It uses a mechanical stopwatch and a magazine as brand symbols
• 2010 05 02 - RT @WalkableDFW: "Funny that my iPhone always uses it's and its incorrectly and imposes its will upon me." Yeah, that's my story, too.
• 2010 05 02 - Headline: "Pope all but endorses authenticity of Turin Shroud." I detect a man desperate to change subject, even at cost of sounding silly.

After the jump, more Twitter tracks.

Route 66 And US 75 - ctd

Texola, Oklahoma

Yesterday, I blogged about old Route 66 and the small towns along it that withered and died when the new Interstate Highway bypassed them. I suggested that the towns may have been doomed in any case, but the freeways played their role. I suggested that fear of the same thing happening again is what keeps city fathers worshipping at the feet of freeways today. No one wants to be the next Texola, Oklahoma.

I quoted Patrick Kennedy as claiming that freeways are sucking the lifeblood out of cities and are a lifeline for suburbs that the suburbs would be better off severing to enable much needed reinvention. I said there was something that didn't seem quite right about that argument, but I never did get around to saying what it was. That's because I wasn't sure myself.

After the jump, my rambling attempt to understand just what it is that bothers me about Kennedy's argument.

Route 66 And US 75

Texola, Oklahoma

Recently, I've been thinking about how US 75, which bisects Richardson, is a blessing and a curse. Texas Instruments, a huge economic engine in Richardson's history, wouldn't be where it is without US 75 being where it is. More recently, Telecom Corridor wouldn't be here either without US 75. And yet those benefits come with a price.

Significantly, US 75 is also known as Central Expressway. The name has nothing to do with Richardson, but the name is fitting for what it does to Richardson, slicing it in two down the middle. In the past, I've argued that we need to punch holes in Central Expressway to knit east and west Richardson together again and make it whole. Patrick Kennedy, who runs the most excellent WalkableDFW blog, has been even more ambitious in his thinking. Rather than punch holes in the freeways, he wants to narrow the highways or rip them up altogether.

After the jump, where he and I talk to each other or through each other, I can't decide which.