District 14 friends and neighbors,

Congratulations to the Dallas Mavericks on such a great season! We look forward to another great season next year. 

Council and staff are working diligently to complete important city business before the Council recess in July. After today, there will be just one more city council meeting, on June 26. We still have one more D14 townhall before the break, our Uptown Townhall on Tuesday, June 25th at Mi Cocina (see notice below). This will be our last newsletter until August, but please be on the lookout for notifications from my office on important upcoming events and meetings.  

Tour of the District with City Manager 

Last week, I took interim City Manager Tolbert on a tour of District 14. As a resident of District 14, she was already familiar with many of the issues I wanted to highlight. During our tour, we noted the significant amount of sidewalk clutter in Downtown and Uptown, illustrating that the digital kiosk proposal would only exacerbate this problem. We also visited Exall Recreation Center, the Roseland DHA Community, several homeless encampments, and drove along Maple to observe the heavy construction traffic and parking challenges. I look forward to collaborating with her on key initiatives affecting District 14 and the City of Dallas during our search for a permanent City Manager. 

Forward Dallas 

At yesterday’s Special Called meeting, the Plan Commission said no to multiplex housing as a Primary Use in the Community Residential Place Type, instead making it a Secondary Use. Multiplexes are defined as multifamily with less than nine units. This is a decision in the right direction by CPC. The motion to drop multiplexes as a primary use also proposed introducing residential design standards into the development code and strengthening the Neighborhood Stabilization Overlay ordinance to address things like height, roof design, garage parking placement, lot coverage, impervious surfaces, and setbacks. As a reminder, The CPC will be holding the next briefing and public hearing on Forward Dallas on June 20th both virtually and live at City Hall. Forward Dallas discussions will take place starting no earlier than 6:00 PM. Forward Dallas is now not expected to be before Council until the Fall.  

Sanitation Collection 

Today Council was briefed on proposed changes in sanitation collection procedures. Sanitation reported that Dallas has the lowest curbside collection percentage of all large cities in Texas (62% vs. at least 95% in the other large cities). It was also reported that alley collection, particularly in the narrow 8- and 9-foot-wide alleys, presents safety hazards for the workers, risks damage to trucks and resident fences and precludes use of more efficient automated trucks. Maintaining alley pick up has a significant impact on everyone’s sanitation bill due to the need for increased staffing, collection trucks, maintenance and property damage expenses for alley pick up. They therefore are proposing to transition collection from most alleys to curbside over the next two years, starting in January 2025. This will affect approximately 14% of all District 14 collection points. Provision will be made to assist those residents with physical limitations in placing their collection bins on the curb. 

Juneteenth Holiday  

Tomorrow is Juneteenth which marks the day in 1865 when federal troops freed the last enslaved people in Texas, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth became a federal holiday in 2021. City Hall will be closed tomorrow in observance of the holiday. 

As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me or my staff via email:

paul.ridley@dallas.gov

max.sanchez@dallas.gov

apryl.davismaynard@dallas.gov

marisa.king@dallas.gov

We appreciate your comments and feedback!

Thank you,

Paul E. Ridley