Dallas has seen a fair bit of tough news lately—but also deserving of coverage is the work being done at places like Prosperity Park, where a vacant lot in a high-crime area was transformed. I spent some time watching the park burst to life. My dispatch from the Oak Cliff site now run by kids:

Dallas intended to spend some of its federal COVID relief fixing homes and improving infrastructure in the Tenth Street Historic District. Instead, one family was out of their house for three years and neighbors want to know where the infrastructure dollars went. labreportdallas.com/public-servi...

Kelli examines the tension between service providers who are trying to house the homeless and the police department, which is increasingly detaining, ticketing, and arresting people in encampments. Her @labreportdallas.bsky.social dispatch from the messy conclusion of a six-week services blitz:

This is the most exasperated statement, lol, "will you shut up, we're leaving you one (1) whale"

Eight months ago, Dallas PD created a new team for homelessness enforcement. We were curious how its work squares with recent efforts to connect people in encampments to housing/treatment/shelter. Kelli found two very different approaches, which shows how complicated this issue is on the ground.

The state says foster kids in North Texas are in "imminent danger" because third-party case managers are failing. A judge today appointed a receiver to oversee the program. Before the order, @sharongrigsby.bsky.social spent weeks in court watching things go wrong: labreportdallas.com/p/the-presen...

good local journalism labreportdallas.com/p/how-a-humb...

A decade ago, when tax bills suddenly doubled for West Dallas homeowners, those without homestead exemptions were at the mercy of the market. Since then, advocates have stood up infrastructure to get ahead of these spikes and help people stay in their homes. labreportdallas.com/p/how-a-humb...

nobody wants to work anymore

THREAD: I got laid off from NYMag/Vulture after 14 years. The family lost 75% of income + medical. Now mzs.press bookstore, once a side project. is do-or-die for Judith & I. I feel weird telling you this because others are doing much worse. But if you could like or share this, we'd be so grateful!

"...the emails revealed that there have been secret site visits underway for a while, with a quorum-avoiding number of hand-picked council members touring potential new sites for City Hall." @txnewsprincess.bsky.social on City Hall's latest mess: www.dmagazine.com/micropost/ai...

"A 'priority two,' which is considered the second-most serious and can include domestic violence incidents, took officers an average of 32 minutes to get to in 2020. In 2025, that average was about 179 minutes." Kelli investigates officer staffing decisions and their impact on response times.

Still one of my favorite things we published on the @dmagazine.bsky.social site.

Read @timmytyper.bsky.social on Tommy Lee Walker, the innocent man who Dallas County yesterday admitted was executed for a crime he didn't commit in 1953. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...

In Dallas, churches are exploring transforming excess land and old buildings into affordable housing. The movement is part of a national trend, but Charlotte is the model for how to get it done. @sharongrigsby.bsky.social took a trip to teach us a thing or three. labreportdallas.com/p/faith-base...

New from @stevanzetti.bsky.social: A Dallas megadonor, a new nonprofit, and a scheme to relocate the homeless out of downtown shed light on a larger right-wing triumph over “housing first.” www.texasobserver.org/dallas-texas...

It's generally good news when your appraisal district adds nearly $3 billion to the tax rolls, like Dallas did this month. But what if that precedes a wave of defaults and foreclosures of affordable apartment buildings? Let's take a drive through Lake Highlands. labreportdallas.com/p/the-housin...

If you want to understand the suburban war on DART—there's some absurd stuff in here, and elected officials seemingly ignore evidence showing the public actually wants the transit service—you won't find anything better than this @thetexanrhino.bsky.social piece. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...

Dallas will likely end 2025 with its fifth straight decline in violent crime, in part by focusing on tiny geographies that account for most of it. What's that look like in practice? And what can't the cops solve? @kellixsmith.bsky.social on Volara in Oak Cliff: labreportdallas.com/p/the-stubbo...

Yesterday's City Hall vote remains weird. Why is Councilman Ridley's idea not the first thing done? "One stipulation called for city officials to focus primarily on getting an independent facility condition assessment of City Hall before considering relocation." www.dallasnews.com/news/politic...

Mayor Eric Johnson finally whipped some votes. (And Bethany's story is a must-read on how the Dallas City Council and its police department rebuffed ICE.)

AND the mayor is missing from the meeting he called.

Starbucks is coming to South Dallas. But the real story is why the nonprofit leading the overhaul of the Forest Theater believed the national brand to be its best neighbor. @sharongrigsby.bsky.social on a new approach for economic development in the Sunny South: labreportdallas.com/p/why-starbu...

IDK guys, I kind of feel like we're operating on someone else's timeline on this. Yes, it's true the discussion about deferred maintenance of 1500 Marilla has been going on for years, but the suddeness of the "we could just tear it down" talk seems basketball shaped.

From Councilman Chad West's email newsletter, about Dallas' efforts to keep the Mavericks and Stars in town. I thought we literally had The Sports Mayor?

A DART board member tells me Farmers Branch and Highland Park will also discuss holding withdrawal elections from the agency. Much of the broader coverage has focused on the suburbs itching to bail. Here's a profile of a group fighting to keep—and improve—DART. labreportdallas.com/p/dart-s-big...

Of all the things going on at City Hall, I'll never understand Dallas' seemingly random insistence on enforcing ticky tack rules that make it harder to run small businesses. www.dmagazine.com/micropost/th...

"The city, it should be noted, had no problem spending $140 million to restore the Cotton Bowl, a building that essentially hosts one marquee event per year."

🧵In Dallas and 18 other cities, the Texas Legislature has made it legal for developers to build multifamily or mixed-use projects on any land zoned commercial, retail, office, or warehouse without a zoning change. Like here, on Columbia Ave. in East Dallas.

Next Thursday! This is going to be a lot of fun. (also, "may" LOL)

Dobie Pre-K will soon be a hub for services in Esperanza. To understand the significance of local government finally paying attention here, @kellixsmith.bsky.social spent weeks with residents to learn about resilience and community in this pocket of North Dallas. labreportdallas.com/p/esperanza-...

Do this in front of Dallas City Hall

Come for the arson, stay to better understand subsidizing affordable housing in Dallas. labreportdallas.com/p/the-contro...

🧵 Fourish months ago, @sharongrigsby.bsky.social and I holed up in essentially a glass-doored closet and talked at each other until we could see the shape of a new publication. The Lab Report has a ways to go—website (the design rips), social accounts (yikes)—but we’re now running stories.

We are very pro things-that-are-good-for-Dallas: labreportdallas.com

We're building something new over here, and I'm so excited to have Kelli with us. If you care about compelling local journalism that isn't boring, we're launching this for Dallas later this summer. Sign up here: labreportdallas.com

Hey there, Since the Fort Worth Star-Telegram hired me 8 months ago, I've been able to write about Palestine-Israel and its relation to the lives of everyday Americans with conviction. Freedom is a privilege I suspect most mainstream newspaper writers don't receive, and I don't take it lightly. 🧵

Feels like it should be more of a local conversation that the city of Dallas is barely growing. Fort Worth has added 84,461 people since July 2020, a 9.1 percent increase. Dallas in that same period: 22,661, or 1.7 percent. Houston grew by 1.8 percent from 23 to 24 alone. Yikes!

It's taken six years for Dallas to get changes to the parking code in front of City Council, which will happen after lunch. I promise it will not take you that long to read about how requiring so many parking spots in so many places changed how the city developed. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...

A week into early voting, I was, lol, the 604th voter at the Oak Cliff Government Center yesterday morning.

Voted early today for Dallas City Council. Turnout is so bad that the election workers thank you like you're a veteran returning from war. Here's @dmagazine.bsky.social's voter guide: www.dmagazine.com/guides/every...

Luka came home last night. @mikelikessports.bsky.social was there, and he has come to punch his city in its collective gut: "This is still Luka Dončić’s city. He just doesn’t live here anymore." www.dmagazine.com/sports/2025/...

I’m really disappointed in this @politico.com piece. If we’re going to talk about who is writing about DC, we need to talk about WHO is writing about DC, and whether they are good stewards of journalism. 🧵 www.politico.com/news/magazin...

Alex did an awesome job examining a highly complicated, political matter that could really tank public transportation in North Texas. Read his stuff!

So. After 11 years, I'm leaving @dmagazine.bsky.social to start something new with @sharongrigsby.bsky.social. Here are some parting words on Dallas and what's next. Let's go. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...

Went to the American Airlines Center on Saturday to see how mad Mavericks fans are (very) and the lengths ownership would go to ignore them inside the stadium. A dispatch from a real weird scene in Victory Park. www.dmagazine.com/sports/2025/...

This guy again www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...

It sure appears Plano really does not want to be in the whole DART business anymore. www.dmagazine.com/frontburner/...