City News Roundup

W Hotel in Victory Park has a new boss and more Dallas news

That's "W" for W Hotel.

Courtesy photo

UPDATE 11-20-2019: Interabang Books has re-opened. A release from the store says, "We are open for business at our new spot as of Wednesday afternoon, one month to the day after the October 20 tornado. To be very clear, this is the bookstore's NEW LOCATION in the Pavilion on Lovers Lane: 5600 W. Lovers Ln., between Inwood and the Dallas North Tollway, near Chico's and Eatzi's." The email says that the store's banner won't go up until Thursday morning, so customers should look for "the bright blue door" near the end of the shopping center close to the Tollway. "Shipments of books and gifts are still arriving, but the significance of the one-month milestone and our desire to see friends' faces like yours again was too strong to wait any longer. Interabang will be open from 10 am to 8 pm daily through December. We look forward to seeing you today, tomorrow, this weekend, and from now on!"

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A popular bookstore is recovering from the tornado, we're getting more scooters, and there's a pilot program for a new high-tech crime-fighting initiative by the DPD. Also, a luxury hotel in Victory Park has a new owner.

Here's what happened in Dallas this week:

Bookstore prevails
Interabang Books, the beloved bookstore that was among the businesses destroyed by a tornado on October 20, has found a new location: The store will re-open at The Pavilion on Lovers Lane, the shopping center near the intersection of the Dallas North Tollway, where it will move into the space near Eatzi's vacated by Capezio.

A spokesperson says that they'll do a light renovation of the space and hope to re-open by Thanksgiving.

Their original location was at the Preston Royal shopping center, which was decimated in the storm, and is still in flux.

More than 900 homes and businesses were damaged by the tornado, including 106 that were destroyed and 287 that were seriously damaged; 87 commercial structures sustained damages.

More scooters
Ojo Electric Corp. has expanded its electric rideshare scooter service in Dallas, increasing its fleet from 100 to 500 seated electric scooters.

The scooters can go up to 20 mph, the top speed for bike lanes, and, on a full charge, can go as far as 50 miles. The scooters also have GPS, and allow geo-fencing and automated speed throttling. In Dallas, Ojo has partnered with Shift Transit which oversees scooter deployment, balancing, service and repair, and 24/7 telephone customer service.

Bill bought the W
The W Dallas Victory Hotel has new owners: HN Capital Partners and Dunhill Partners, the company owned by Bill Hutchinson, who announced the purchase via an Instagram post, along with the news that they'll undertake a $21 million renovation. Dunhill is also a partner in the new Virgin Hotels Dallas, set to open in the Design District in December.

Starlight pilot
The Dallas Police Department have a new crime-fighting initiative that uses technology called Starlight. The program uses a state-of-the-art software and camera system to prevent crimes at stores, gas stations, and convenience stores. The equipment shows what's happening in real time, providing what they call a "virtual patrol." Each store is equipped with cameras, signage, and a blue light, to indicate that the store is being monitored by the DPD.

This is a pilot program being implemented in partnership with Safer Dallas and Motorola, and is launching at three locations that receive a high volume of calls for police services, including the 7-Eleven at 2911 E. Ledbetter Rd.; the 7-Eleven at 2503 Lemmon Ave.; and perhaps most significantly, the Ferguson Food Mart and Texaco Gas Station, the same gas station that the city filed a lawsuit against in July.

city-news-roundup politics

RIP, Kay

Kay Granger, trailblazing Texas Congressional leader, dies at 83

House Republican Leadership Speaks To The Media After Conference Meeting

Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Kay Granger, first Republican woman from Texas to serve in the House, has died at age 83.

DALLAS (AP) — Kay Granger, the first Republican woman from Texas to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives and who served for nearly three decades, died Sunday at the age of 83, her son J.D. Granger said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a post on X that throughout her career, Granger "broke barriers for women in public service.” He added that she “was a dear friend who will be greatly missed.”

Granger, who began her career as a high school teacher and a businesswoman, accomplished many firsts as a politician. She was the first woman elected mayor of Fort Worth, Texas, and the first Republican woman to chair one of the most powerful committees in Congress, the House Appropriations Committee.

First elected to the House in 1996, she served for nearly three decades but did not seek reelection in 2024 and experienced worsening “health challenges” in her final months in Congress, according to a statement her office released in December 2024. Granger, who didn’t cast a vote in Washington after July 2024, didn’t specify or elaborate on those health challenges but said in the statement that frequent travel to Washington had become “both difficult and unpredictable" since early September of that year.

Granger graduated from Texas Wesleyan University in 1965 and considered a career in fashion design but followed her mother into teaching. She worked in the Birdville school district for nine years, teaching English literature and journalism, according to a profile compiled for the publication “Women in Congress, 1917-2006.”

A divorce would lead to a career change. To earn more money, Granger worked from home selling insurance. Her mother, Alliene Mullendore, who moved in with Granger after a stroke, helped keep an eye on the kids. Granger eventually built a successful insurance business that she managed for more than two decades.

“I was a high school teacher with three children, a 2-year-old and 6-month-old twins, and my husband left," Granger told The Hill in a 2008 profile. “It's the reason I talk so much to working mothers ... you just fight your way through the day.”

Granger got her political start serving on Fort Worth's zoning commission and then won office to the city council. She went on to win election as the city's first female mayor, serving from 1991 to 1995.

Fort Worth Stock Show Grand Entry Gala Mayor Betsy Price, Ed Bass, Congresswoman Kay Granger Former Mayor Betsy Price, Ed Bass, and Congresswoman Kay Granger at an event in Fort Worth. Photo by Krista Bohr

Granger’s “Code: Blue” programs included citizen patrol initiatives that halved the rampant crime rate and partnerships with the private sector that drew major businesses to the city. Her resuscitation of Fort Worth’s flagging economic fortunes drew national attention.

In 1996, she was recruited by both parties to run for the House under their banner, and she won as a Republican.

Upon entering Congress, she was named to an advisory board that consulted then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich. She also received seats on three committees: Budget, House Oversight, and Transportation and Infrastructure. She resigned those assignments as part of accepting a seat on the Appropriations Committee.

On the committee, she focused on defense spending, including championing the production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in Fort Worth.

When Republicans took charge of the House in 2023, Granger became the committee's chair, where she sought to enact steeper non-defense spending cuts than the top-line numbers House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden agreed to as part of avoiding an economically disastrous government default.

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