City News Roundup

CNN story trots out same old dumb cliches and more Dallas news

CNN got someone to say that the TV show about Dallas is "somewhat accurate."

Courtesy photo

This week's roundup of Dallas news is a low-key assortment with items about a free tuition program for Texas college students, an update on a big road project in East Dallas, and a big tenant for a major building in Deep Ellum.

Here's what happened in Dallas this week:

Officing at The Stack
Dallas advertising agency TRG, formerly The Richards Group, will relocate its headquarters from Uptown Dallas to The Stack Deep Ellum (The Stack). According to a release, TRG has signed a long-term lease for approximately 101,808 square feet, which includes multiple floors, at the 16-story office building which opened in May 2021 at 2700 Commerce St. in Deep Ellum. TRG is expected to move into The Stack in early 2023, joining real estate firm Hines, digital life insurance platform Bestow, and third-party logistics company Worldwide Express. The Stack Deep Ellum is a joint venture between Westdale Real Estate Investment and Management, Ivanhoé Cambridge and Hines; Westdale president Joe Beard says that the building is now 100 percent leased.

Free tuition
The University of Texas System has received a $300 million endowment that will provide free tuition to certain students. Seven UT System schools, including UT Dallas and UT Arlington, are part of the Promise Plus program that covers tuition and fees when students meet certain income requirements.

At UT Arlington, the program expands to undergraduates with family incomes under $85,000. The school anticipates that more than 4,000 students or one in 10 students can qualify in the next school year.
At UT Dallas, the program expand to undergraduates with family incomes under $65,000. (Previously the income level for qualification was $25,000.)

In a statement, Board Chairman Kevin P. Eltife called it "an investment in our students, in public higher education and the state of Texas."

Gaston Ave update
The Santa Fe Trail pedestrian bridge over SH 78 (Garland Road/Grand Avenue) will temporarily close in East Dallas on Monday, April 4 through late summer 2022.

This work is part of a $6.3 million project to improve the intersection at Gaston Avenue. They need to close the pedestrian bridge because they're going to be widening the SH 78 lanes under the Santa Fe Trail bridge. a detour will be in place for trail users.

Located just east of the Gaston Avenue intersection, the pedestrian bridge will be closed for up to four months. Incentives are in place to expedite the work. The overall project is scheduled to complete in spring 2023.

They're reconfiguring the intersection to provide "safer turning movements" and more efficient through-lanes on east and westbound SH 78. East and westbound Gaston Avenue is narrowed to one lane in each direction until further notice. Drivers should be alert to slower traffic and plan ahead for delays in this corridor, especially during peak travel times.

Dallas = Texas
CNN has an inexplicable non-newsy story about how Dallas is a larger-than-life city that has come to epitomize Texas. Moreso than Houston, Austin, or San Antonio, so ha ha to them. The story required two people to write (two old white male people, who both seem to be based in the U.K.: Richard Quest and Joe Minihane), and rehashes a peck of tiresome old cliches.

Their rehashed cliches include:

Southfork Ranch, whose manager they interview (she says the Dallas TV show was "somewhat accurate")
JFK. He was assassinated here, did you know that?
crazy Dallas Cowboys fan
BBQ — and for that, they go to Dallas' quintessential BBQ joint: Smoke-A-Holics in Fort Worth, which they call "Dallas' sister city" LOL, Fort Worth will not like that, which they would know if they ever set foot here

Maybe CultureMap Dallas should do a story about how England is full of people who drink tea, love the Queen, and have bad teeth.

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Free Food

Food Bank to host summer food giveaway at UNT Dallas campus

Photo by Michael Martin

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Two Dallas organizations are partnering on a big summer food giveaway: The North Texas Food Bank is joining forces with the University of North Texas at Dallas (UNT Dallas) with a mobile food distribution event at the UNT Dallas campus on Friday, July 18.

UNT Dallas and the NTFB already host a drive-through mobile pantry each month, but this one is specifically focused on children who are out of school for the summer.

Each participating family will receive about 60 pounds of food, including fresh produce, to help fill the gap left when school-provided meals are unavailable.

So far this year, the monthly mobile pantry events at UNT Dallas have provided approximately 140,000 pounds of food to more than 1,500 families and 7,000 people. Long lines usually form on University Hills Blvd. well before the gates open.

UNT Dallas has partnered with NTFB since 2020, hosting monthly mobile food distributions on campus. Each event is supported by student, faculty, and staff volunteers, providing relief to campus and community members. The university also operates the Trailblazers Care Pantry, an on-campus resource that provides groceries, hygiene products, and a Career Closet for students preparing for interviews or internships.

A recent Feeding America study found that Texas has the highest number of food-insecure people of any state, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area ranks third in the nation. Within NTFB’s 12-county service area, nearly 744,000 people, including more than 250,000 children, don’t always know where their next meal will come from. Over 60 percent of that population lives in Dallas County.

The July 18 food distribution is first-come, first-served, and no ID or pre-registration is required. Participants must arrive in a vehicle, as this is a drive-through-only event. It'll run from 8-11 am, or while supplies last, at the UNT Dallas campus in southern Dallas, at 7300 University Hills Blvd.

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