Back Talk Oak Cliff

A credit card solicitation every week — what's up with that?

Not surprising news from credit card firms is that they're tightening credit, raising interest rates and taking cards away from some people. But buried in the story about the credit crunch is this interesting tidbit: "Mail offers to new and existing customers are on pace to drop below 8.4 billion pieces, the lowest level since 2004." A little quick math shows that 8.4 billion credit card solicitations divided by 300 million U.S. residents means that each of us, on average, received 28 mail solicitations this year. And if you further parse the numbers, eliminating about half of the population that is (or at least should be) too young to receive a credit card and people who don't have any income, that means that the rest of us receive about one credit card solicitation per week. No wonder so many people have more credit than they need or can handle.

Pledge drive: Bike racks at neighborhood businesses

Only $10. That's all Oak Cliff neighbor (and resident Energizer bunny) Jason Roberts is asking for one of his newest fundraisers — a pledge drive to install bike racks at North Oak Cliff businesses.

It's an Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce Alternative Transportation Committee fundraiser, and the goal is $1,500, which will pay for five bike racks. So far, $1,160 has been raised, and fund raising continues through Saturday, Nov. 1. A shout out from blogger Holly Jefferson will probably help, as will Roberts' persuasive (and humorous) logic:

"... these days, [$10] is like a cup of coffee, right? or maybe half a gallon of gas. ... If you are one of the wonderful contributors to our goal, we will hold an old school ice cream party in the Bishop Arts District, just like you would have had after jump-roping-for-heart in the sixth grade!"

Speaking of neighborhood businesses and bikes, when I visited Eno's Pizza Tavern for October's Delicious piece, I learned that owner Matt Spillers rides his bike to and from the restaurant every day. Way to be green, Matt.

Victory after 10 years: Iconic but not helping downtown

Not long ago, the DMN published a series of stories titled "Partial Victory", which was a rather ingenious way of highlighting the big, new "Times Square for Dallas" surrounding the American Airlines Center downtown. The good news, according to the story: Ross Perot Jr. says that Victory is farther along, development-wise, than he thought it would be at this time. The bad news: Apparently, if you don't live there (and not many people do), you don't know what's happening at Victory and you aren't participating in terms of spending money.

As it stands now, about 10 years into what Hillwood describes as a 25-year process, there are about 13 restaurants, a dozen retailers, more than 750 residential units and quite a bit of office space, including WFAA-TV's Times Square-like station on a corner near the AAC. But the place has become more upscale, to the exclusion of everything else, than the developers apparently planned, so while it's easy to find a $1,500 hotel room and a $400 dress, you can't find an inexpensive lunch, a drugstore or a grocery store, according to the News.

Interestingly enough, that's the same complaint that the people living and working downtown — and I mean the original downtown — have, too. And it's interesting to remember that one of the sales pitches we were given when the developers floated the $230 million arena bond in 1998 was that Victory was an important step in downtown's revitalization. As we can see now, that hasn't been the case — the distance between Main Street and Victory is too far for the average person to make the walk, and whatever good is happening at Victory isn't trickling over to downtown.

Plastic grocery bags: No tax on them by city hall

Those ubiquitous plastic grocery bags drew some discussion at City Hall Monday, with the city's environmental guy squaring off with a bag maker about how toxic (or not) the bags are, according to a DMN story. Eric Griffin, the city's interim Office of Environmental Quality director, asked the council to consider eliminating the use of plastic grocery-type bags over a five-year period, primarily by levying a five-cent fee to discourage use and banning them completely if the fee didn't work. But councilman Linda Koop, chair of the council committee discussing the issue, flat-out told Griffin she didn't favor taxing the bags. Meanwhile, Griffin and a Hilex vice president (Hilex is one of the world's largest bag producers) argued about whether the bags are toxic and how quickly they break down in the environment. One interesting tidbit: Those of us who are putting the plastic bags in the city's blue recycling bags apparently are creating work for city employees. Since the grocery bags aren't recyclable, they're being sorted out of the blue bags and shipped to the landfill instead. In the end, Koop and omni-present councilman Ron Natinsky agreed that something needs to be done, perhaps requiring that a certain percentage of the grocery bags be manufactured from recycled material.

This weekend: Bonafide Blues at Eno's, Kessler School Pumpkin Patch, Fall Home Tour and Urban Bazaar

Start your weekend with a neighborhood band tearin' it up at a neighborhood restaurant — Bonafide Blues takes the stage at Eno's Friday night at 9:30 p.m. (Lead singer Bill Ford's alma mater, Southern Methodist University, published a story today about the advertising lecturer's hobby.)

Then on Saturday, it's home tour time. Start your day at 9 a.m. with some coffee and breakfast tacos at the Kessler School Pumpkin Patch, then head to the Turner House for the 10 a.m. Centennial Ceremony, marking the 100th year of the Winnetka Heights neighborhood. The home tour's 11 homes will be open for public viewing between noon and 6 p.m. If you still don't have your tickets, buy them on tour day at the Stevens Park Pavilion on Colorado.

Somewhere in the midst of the festivities, drop by the Bishop Arts District to shop at Make's Urban Street Bazaar, where designers and craftsmen will be hawking their wares, and Bishop Arts retailers will offer specials.

City council priorities: a curfew, a promoter and a trans-fat ban?

DMN city council reporter Dave Levinthal apparently spent some time at the city council's retreat this week, and he highlights a few ideas that council members are considering pushing later this year ... here's a sneak peak at what might come up during the next council term:

• "A daytime curfew for school-aged children in an effort to curb truancy," this idea courtesy of mayor pro tem Elba Garcia.

• Additional crime-monitoring cameras in troubled neighborhoods.

Christmas catalogues in September

This arrived in my mailbox on Friday. I don’t know that I have ever received a holiday book this early. Not much else to say, is there?

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: L.L. Bean,Christmas catalogues,shopping

Former Bishop Arts shop owner Hamilton Rousseau dies

I never visited the late Hamilton Rousseau's tobacco and bottled soft drink shop Ifs Ands & Butts. My husband did, not long before we moved to Dallas a little more than three years ago. He was mesmerized by the place and its seemingly endless soda options, but couldn't remember what it was called. So for Christmas 2005, I tried to track down the name of the store with the intention of buying my husband an array of sodas as a Christmas present.

I finally figured out the name of Rousseau's shop, but I was too late. He had already closed its doors because of his failing health (The Soda Gallery now sits in its place). If I remember reading his original website correctly, he hoped to someday reopen or reinvent the shop. Sadly, a few days ago, Rousseau passed away due to complications from Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), according to Pegasus News. His obituary, in which his shop's location is described as "Olde Oak Cliff", can be read here.

Sales tax free weekend

And there were a lot of shoppers out over the weekend, taking that 8-plus percent discount. I made a couple of calls and sent some emails today to get a sense of what it was like, and the general impression is that, while many stores were busy, things were mostly under control. Many retailers brought in extra employees, and if checkout lines were long, they mostly moved reasonably.

My favorite story? A long-time Back Talk visitor reported that the employees at one Target were scurrying around the store, walkie-talkies in hand. Whenever there was a crisis, each raised the walkie-talkie to their mouth and scurried faster until the crisis was resolved.

Feel free to add your experiences. We take our shopping –and our customer service – seriously here at the blog.

Technorati Tags: tax free weekend,shopping,back to school