City News Roundup

Dallas mayor’s new task force intends to use data to fight crime

Mayor Eric Johnson announced The Mayor's Task Force on Safe Communities on August 19.

Courtesy photo

Mayor Eric Johnson is creating a task force to fight increasing crime in Dallas, which will rely heavily on "data-driven solutions."

At a press conference on August 19, Johnson announced The Mayor's Task Force on Safe Communities, which he said will work to reduce and prevent violent crime without reliance on law enforcement.

"I believe in the Dallas Police Department, and I believe that the Dallas Police Department's focus on guns, gangs, and drugs is both smart and necessary to help reduce violent crime in our city," Johnson said. "But we can’t ask or expect law enforcement to do it all."

"To paraphrase one of our former police chiefs, we already ask cops to do too much," he said. "Police have to be social workers. They have to deal with mental health and drug addiction and cycles of abuse. And we've asked law enforcement to do all of these things in an environment where illegal guns are far too easy for criminals to obtain."

Johnson said he had not discussed the task force with police chief Renee Hall, who has been on medical leave since July, nor with other city council members.

But he has appointed three co-chairs:

Pastor Michael Bowie, senior pastor at St. Luke Community United Methodist Church
Rene Martinez, educator and community activist
Alan Cohen, president and CEO of the Child Poverty Action Lab

St. Luke's is located on I-30 just east of Grand Avenue, and has had Johnson as a longtime supporter; he earned the church a commemoration in 2013 by the Texas House of Representatives.

Martinez is a one-time chairman of the Dallas chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) who also worked for DISD.

Cohen, who also worked for DISD, is head of Child Poverty Action Lab, a nonprofit unveiled by Mayor Mike Rawlings in 2018 with the lofty goal of reducing poverty in the city by half in the next 20 years.

In a 2018 story, WFAA said that CPAL would use data to ease the poverty problem, stating, "the hope is that armed with data, they’ll be able to work together to produce small solutions that as a whole will have a major effect."

At the press conference, Johnson said that the city will never have enough police officers to prevent all violent crime. "What Dallas hasn't focused on enough is data and best practices," he said.

Data. Buzzword at Dallas City Hall right now.

Other members of the task force will be announced. They're expected to develop recommendations and report back to the mayor before the end of the year.

UPDATE 8-29-2019: The 13 remaining members of the task force are as follows: Marc Andres, Derrick Battie, Stephanie Elizalde, Gary Griffith, Mita Havlick, Changa Higgins, Chad Houser, Amanda Johnson, Edna Pemberton, Alex Piquero, Debbie Solis, Maria Valenzuela, and Marian Williams.

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Dallas sees Texas' biggest one-year jump in cost of raising kids

Courtesy of SmartAsset/iStock

Raising a child in Dallas will cost parents over $23,000 this year.

Raising a child is not an easy or inexpensive feat, and a new study has determined Dallas parents are saddled with the second-highest costs for childrearing in Texas, with expenses jumping higher than any other metro statewide since 2025.

SmartAsset's latest report, "Cost of Raising a Child in Major U.S. Metros – 2026 Study," calculated year-over-year changes in the annual cost of raising a child (factoring in childcare, additional housing costs, food, transportation, medical costs and other necessities) in the 48 largest U.S. metro areas. MIT's Living Wage Calculator was used to compare the living costs of a household with two working adults and one child to that of a childless household with two working adults.

Childrearing costs in Dallas-Fort Worth have grown 4.5 percent since last year, totaling $23,340 for a family of three in 2026. That's over $1,000 more than what it took to raise a child in 2025, and it's $1,414 higher than what it took in 2024.

This is how SmartAsset broke down the cost for raising a child in Dallas:

Cost of childcare: $10,736
Cost of food: $1,826
Other expenses: $10,778

Though Dallas has the second-steepest costs for raising a child in Texas, the metro is actually much more affordable than most other places in the U.S.: DFW ranked 39th in SmartAsset's national list of cities with the highest childrearing costs in 2026, making it the 10th most affordable U.S. metro for raising a family.

San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont in California topped the list with the highest childrearing costs in the U.S., at $43,171. The cost for raising a child in this California metro soared nearly 11 percent higher since last year.

Memphis, Tennessee ranked dead last as the most affordable U.S. metro for raising a child in 2026. Families will spend less than $20,000 to raise a child in Memphis, only 3.24 percent more than what was needed in 2025.

Raising a child in other Texas metros
It may come as no surprise that Austin is the most expensive place to raise a child in Texas, and it appeared as the 31st most expensive U.S. metro for families. Parents will spend nearly $25,000 to raise a child in the state's capital city, which is $703 higher than it was a year ago.

Meanwhile, San Antonio-New Braunfels is the most affordable metro in the Lone Star State for raising a family, and it's the third-most affordable place for raising a child nationwide. San Antonio parents will spend $21,393, or $448 more than last year, on their childrearing costs.

Houston also ranked among the top 10 most affordable U.S. metros for raising a child, landing in 7th place nationally, with childrearing costs adding up to $22,605 in 2026. That's only $737 more than last year.

The top 10 most affordable U.S. metros for raising a child in 2026 are:

No. 1 – Memphis, Tennessee ($19,922)
No. 2 – Nashville, Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee ($21,216)
No. 3 – San Antonio-New Braunfels ($21,393)
No. 4 – Birmingham, Alabama ($21,684)
No. 5 – Virginia Beach-Chesapeake-Norfolk, Virginia ($22,314)
No. 6 – Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, Georgia ($22,470)
No. 7 – Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands ($22,605)
No. 8 – Richmond, Virginia ($22,658)
No. 9 – Louisville/Jefferson County, Kentucky ($23,270)
No. 10 – Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ($23,340)

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