Robert Wilonsky
@robertwilonsky.bsky.social
📤 1762
📥 132
📝 477
Editorial columnist at The Dallas Morning News. Writing about Dallas.
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about 11 hours ago
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Hahahahahahahahahahaha this is the visiting media’s view of Dallas outside the World Cup media center
about 11 hours ago
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I spent a very long, miserable, inspiring, infuriating, depressing Wednesday at Dallas City Hall, where cops were called on a former council member for going five whole seconds over his speaking time and a bunch of kids waited HOURS to save their tennis center.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: The kids are all right at Dallas City Hall. The grown-ups, not so much
Oak Cliff viaducts and tennis centers help make a long City Council meeting much longer and more unpleasant than necessary. I know, shocking.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/dallas-city-hall-oak-cliff-tennis-center-bridges-22320918.php
about 15 hours ago
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Today in Most Dallas Headlines Ever®.
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1 day ago
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A landmark I'd never written about lands on Preservation Dallas' Most Endangered Places list. Owned by state Sen. Royce West. And one possible future for Dallas City Hall, which, like the Oak Cliff villa built in 1914 by Joseph Kovandovitch, is made of concrete.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: Dallas’ landmark Concrete House, a state senator and no concrete plan
The Kovandovitch House in Oak Cliff,  owned by Royce West, makes Preservation Dallas’ latest list of most-endangered places.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/concrete-house-dallas-landmark-senator-royce-west-22315857.php
4 days ago
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*Arlington. Only because the Cowboys left Dallas in 1971. Before it became fashionable.
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4 days ago
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Jerryworld has never looked better. Or sounded louder. Just leave it like this.
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4 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
The Dallas Morning News
6 days ago
Robert Wilonsky writes, "I got tired of dealing with the living Wednesday, after the City Council took another step toward a Dallas City Hall exit, so I went to visit the dead. Except I couldn’t find them behind the tall grass behind the locked chain-link fence."
bit.ly/4vXYocp
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Forgot Bobby Ewing and Cliff Barnes shot an episode of "Dallas" in front of (the now-imperiled thanks to the mayor, city manager and eight council members) Dallas City Hall in June 1981 until I stumbled across this last night. The "RoboCop" prequel, obviously. No sound.
texasarchive.org/2024AC06461
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Dallas Filming at Dallas City Hall (1981) - KPRC-TV Collection
News footage of the hit show filming on location in Dallas
https://texasarchive.org/2024AC06461
6 days ago
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For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Not the *best* recording, but I'm thankful it exists at all: U2 at the Bronco Bowl, June 13, 1983. "War" tour, tho "Boy" got more play:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=lA-S...
Setlist:
tinyurl.com/2a6rc8zt
Views from the Golden Horseshoe:
u2start.com/shows/608#!p...
7 days ago
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Every so often since the 1950s, one of the local papers would run a story on the sorry state of the Old Letot Cemetery, named for the only Crimean War veteran to settle in Dallas. I guess it's my turn. I went out there Wednesday and found this on city-owned land.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: A Dallas-owned graveyard from the 1870s buried by neglect
The horribly neglected Old Letot Cemetery, closed by the city in the 1950s, needs yet another champion.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/dallas-cemetery-1870s-letot-historic-high-weeds-22311641.php
8 days ago
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I stopped by the Cole Manor last week, where the security guard, on his last day, let me in to see the place one last time before its demolition -- which Dallas PD just confirmed. On Preservation Dallas' most-endangered list since 2018, it will be gone in two weeks.
dpdbeat.com/2026/06/18/n...
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9 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
The Dallas Morning News
9 days ago
The city manager confirmed late Tuesday night that the $3.8-billion development won't be ready until at least 2030.
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Wilonsky: Dallas' self-inflicted wounds lead to a delayed convention center
The city manager confirmed late Tuesday night that the $3.8-billion development won't be ready until at least 2030.
https://bit.ly/43HPV12
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Mayor J. Erik Jonsson built Dallas City Hall. Just so Eric Johnson could abandon it less than 50 years later.
9 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Nathaniel Barrett
10 days ago
"[the Transportation Committee's motion] "recommends a full redesign of the convention center expansion." That, Tolbert wrote, will "cost approximately $597 million and will result in further delays beyond 2030." The most fiscally sound option continues to be cancelling the convention center.
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Last night, after the print edition went to bed, the city manager sent a memo to council making official what we long suspected: "The convention center expansion will push into 2030, rather than being completed at the end of 2029, as originally anticipated."
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: Dallas' self-inflicted wounds lead to a delayed convention center
The city manager confirmed late Tuesday night that the $3.8-billion development won't be ready until at least 2030.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/dallas-jefferson-houston-viaduct-convention-center-22308089.php
10 days ago
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I’m gonna need a minute to recover.
add a skeleton here at some point
10 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Brian Tyler Cohen
11 days ago
Bob Odenkirk is a national treasure. Take 44 seconds and watch.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0rB...
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Texas Tribune
11 days ago
Breaking: University of Texas at Austin leaders fired KUT General Manager Debbie Hiott on Monday, a little more than a month after she publicly challenged safety as the reason why much of the public radio station’s inaugural festival was forced off campus.
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KUT General Manager Debbie Hiott fired after festival dispute
KUT’s Debbie Hiott believes University of Texas officials terminated her because she publicly pushed back against administration claims that the station’s security plans for an inaugural festival were...
https://www.texastribune.org/2026/06/15/debbie-hiott-kut-fired-ut-austin-festival/
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Spotted while walking over to Dallas City Hall
11 days ago
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For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: The summer of '86, the Fabulous Thunderbirds were Texas' most ubiquitous band. So Q102 had the band play a free show at Memorial Auditorium on June 14. All the hits + Bobby Patterson's "How Do You Spell Love"
tinyurl.com/evjeexza
Setlist:
tinyurl.com/y7u8ez5w
14 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Brandon Friedman
14 days ago
New $400 million police training facility is on the way though. I honestly don't know what to say about the city's leadership at this point. Just horrifying decisions, left and right.
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
BevoOne
14 days ago
Nobody hates Dallas more than it's own city council.
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
The Dallas Morning News
14 days ago
Dallas has decided to stop funding the nonprofit responsible for the three-acre, sunken downtown haven designed by architect Philip Johnson, Thanks-Giving Square.
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Wilonsky: Dallas' 'potentially lethal blow' to downtown's Thanks-Giving Square
Dallas has decided to stop funding the nonprofit responsible for the three-acre, sunken downtown haven designed by architect Philip Johnson, Thanks-Giving Square.
https://bit.ly/3Q1RZxL
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Nathaniel Barrett
15 days ago
It's such dark days at council: neglecting or despoiling our civic and cultural assets at every turn.
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Txnewsprincess
15 days ago
This is infuriating and incredible.
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Thanks-Giving Square was created in the 1960s by a lot of people for whom this city would eventually name streets and highways. The foundation was among Dallas' first public-private partnerships. And the city ended it after 53 years. Without warning. In secret.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: Dallas' 'potentially lethal blow' to downtown's Thanks-Giving Square
Dallas has decided to stop funding the nonprofit responsible for the three-acre, sunken downtown haven designed by architect Philip Johnson, Thanks-Giving Square.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/downtown-dallas-city-hall-thanks-giving-park-22301523.php
15 days ago
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Thanks for the reminder.
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16 days ago
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“I am very pleased with the court’s ruling,” says Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua, one of the two plaintiffs.
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17 days ago
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Breaking: There will be no vote tomorrow on the future of Dallas City Hall, as Judge Eric Moyé, unconvinced by city’s outside counsel that the vote is just fact-finding and not the beginning of the IM Pei building’s end, grants two councilmembers’ request for a TRO.
17 days ago
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After a week of bad news for Dallas, I spent Saturday mapping the annual intern tour. Bad time to pull into Fair Park and realize FIFA's fan fest is behind chain link in a Starplex parking lot. Thought about moving. Then I was told to head over to the Old Mill Inn
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: State Fair favorite reopens 90-year-old Old Mill Inn in time for FIFA
Big Tex Choice Award-winner Isaac Rousso wants to keep Fair Park's 90-year-old Old Mill Inn open through the State Fair of Texas and beyond, if the city will let him.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/fair-park-state-fair-texas-fifa-dallas-old-mill-22296698.php
18 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Sarah Fackrell
21 days ago
Today in art law:
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For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: "You're listening to Little Feat live from the Dallas Convention Center Theater on The Zoo." Seven songs, anyway, from the band's June 2, 1978, Dallas stop recorded for KZEW. Don't bogart this recording.
archive.org/details/lf19...
A tale of two reviews:
21 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Texas Longhorns - The University of Texas at Austin
22 days ago
mood.
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
BevoOne
22 days ago
"Roberts, the last man standing in the sinkhole, has fallen from the front page to the footnotes to the forgotten. Which is what happens in this town, where the arms are long and the memories are short."
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Sherman Roberts, indicted in 2020, pleaded guilty in 2024 to bribing Dallas City Council members Dwaine Caraway and Carolyn Davis. A year later, he filed a motion to withdraw his plea. Yesterday, a federal judge gave him probation and told him, "You’ll be fine."
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: Dallas City Hall corruption case ends with a developer's probation
Sherman Roberts, who pleaded guilty to bribing council members Dwaine Caraway and Carolyn Davis, gets probation — and now says he’s an innocent man.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/dallas-city-hall-federal-corruption-case-bribes-22290194.php
23 days ago
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Rough few hours.
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24 days ago
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And the hits just keep on comin' ...
www.dallasnews.com/sports/stars...
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Stars pick Plano for new arena site as downtown Dallas faces twin sports team departures
The team announced Tuesday it has signed a nonbinding letter of intent to build an arena and entertainment district at The Shops at Willow Bend site.
https://www.dallasnews.com/sports/stars/article/dallas-stars-arena-plano-willow-bend-mall-22204289.php
24 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Julia Barton
25 days ago
Learn a new acronym, FIFA: VARA.
add a skeleton here at some point
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I have watched them steal the Enterprise out of space dock, like, 2,489 times. Conservatively.
add a skeleton here at some point
25 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
Nick Thorn
25 days ago
“…suggested the Whaling Wall because it was nearly 30 years old, fading and “past its useful life.” Basically sums up the Dallas approach for EVERYTHING in that city.
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Some more breaking local news: Wyland (and his local attorneys) just made good on his threat to file a federal suit over that downtown Dallas whale mural under the 1990 Visual Artists Rights Act. Also: "Wyland seeks actual damages of not less than $25,000,000."
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: Wyland’s destroyed whale mural surfaces in Dallas federal court
Wyland made good on his threat to file a lawsuit over the extinction of Whaling Wall 82, his 1999 mural featuring a dozen humpback whales painted on downtown Dallas parking garage.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/wyland-whales-mural-dallas-fifa-federal-lawsuit-22286748.php
25 days ago
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Now re-read today's column again ...
www.dallasnews.com/sports/maver...
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25 days ago
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Two fave slides from Wednesday's "Proposed City Hall Repair Program" briefing, which says fixing the building won't cost $1 billion after all. Triggered Scope set off the Band Name Alert. And "The Domino Effect of Complex Renovations" is the working title of my autobiography.
tinyurl.com/4a3kt85x
25 days ago
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There was a lot of AI slopping around those Dallas City Hall proposals sent to officials who likely never even looked at them. But some intriguing ones asked: What if I.M. Pei's brutalist colossus were the centerpiece to downtown revitalization, not the roadblock?
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: There are some decent ideas among those 418 Dallas City Hall proposals
A deep dive into the shallow pool of City Hall open-call concepts turned up a few provocative proposals — and a word of warning Dallas should take very seriously.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/dallas-city-hall-pei-proposals-mavericks-22282749.php
26 days ago
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For Your Weekend Listening Pleasure: Prequel! Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers at Reunion Arena, June 1, 1987, weeks after someone torched his home. All the hits with Clash, Byrds + Buffalo Springfield covers. "These days you better trust yourself."
tinyurl.com/4juwfc2w
Setlist:
tinyurl.com/mr46x4uk
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28 days ago
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reposted by
Robert Wilonsky
NPR
30 days ago
Perseverance, plus a whole lot of talent, is what got the Dallas hip-hop collective to our space after submitting to the Tiny Desk Contest four years in a row.
n.pr/4fd9W6E
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Cure For Paranoia: Tiny Desk Concert
Perseverance, plus a whole lot of talent, is what got the Dallas hip-hop collective to our space after submitting to the Tiny Desk Contest four years in a row.
https://n.pr/4fd9W6E
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Album cover or eyesore? Or both? Looks like the middle of the country. But this is in Oak Cliff, just off Ledbetter. An old church the city sold to a man the city's suing because, well, look at it. I went looking for one dead church and found two. And lawsuits.
www.dallasnews.com/opinion/comm...
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Wilonsky: One Oak Cliff block seeks salvation from two godforsaken churches
As Dallas attorneys try to raze two abandoned churches, residents wait and wait for help for what seems like forever.
https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/article/oak-cliff-dallas-attorneys-abandoned-churches-demo-22278877.php
30 days ago
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Most Texas thing I’ve heard in a long-ass time.
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about 1 month ago
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youtu.be/aT3GQO7btJ0
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Jazz Legend "Sonny" Rollins Honored By President Obama
YouTube video by TDC
https://youtu.be/aT3GQO7btJ0
about 1 month ago
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