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Public security concerning the City’s car parks

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Public car parks and surveillance cameras in the city center have been out of use for almost two years. City council unanimously approved $ 1.4 million for a new camera system at the October 5 meeting. The police department hopes the cameras will be installed before the end of the year. In the meantime, according to police, further steps are being taken to protect the area.

SoCo parking at 8 a.m. on Saturday.

During the council discussion, Mayor Whitaker said that neither he nor the other council members had ever received an email regarding a camera failure and that if he or his fellow council members had received such a notice , they would have made it a priority.

However, a city public documents request (R000627-091721) requesting emails regarding the cameras showed only one dated February 2020 from Chief of Police Dunn to all council members, City Manager Domer, Antonia Castro-Graham and Ellis Chang, explaining that the cameras had to be put back, replaced. There were no emails responding to Chief Dunn’s email.

Dunn is currently both Chief of Police and IT Manager.

Retirement Observer Editor-in-chief Sharon Kennedy also sent an email on Aug. 25 alerting every member of city council to the lack of surveillance cameras and the serious security concern for any citizen using public parking. Only council member Zahra responded and, in an August 31 email, said it was a priority and was forwarding the email to Chief Dunn for an update.

Fullerton Police Chief Dunn was invited by City Council at the October 5 council meeting to brief the public on the ongoing investigation into JP23, which resident Samantha Velasquez said she believed being drugged and after leaving the bar she was raped and left in the SoCo parking lot. .

“There have been several people who have made similar allegations to those of the original victim [Samantha Velasquez]Said Chief Dunn. “These investigations take months. We want to get all the evidence. The observer was later said by the Fullerton Police Department sergeant. McCaskill that the exact number of victims reported in this case could not be disclosed due to HIPAA regulations.

“Running in harmony with [the assault, drugging, and rape investigations] is the administrative process which is our entertainment license recourse process over which I have control in my office, ”said Chief Dunn. “This process is ongoing. We work through these [steps] now and I think the public will have a little more clarity on the department’s efforts in the criminal vein and the Fullerton Municipal Code (FMC) vein, which governs the entertainment licensing process.

Asked after the first police department remedy hearing for JP23, owner Jacob Poozhikala said one of the first remedies was removing the drink from the fishbowl, which Police Chief Dunn said is easily drugged. Since then, Poozhikala has also removed the tinted glass that limited visibility and installed a small sign in the women’s toilet that tells women how to protect themselves while drinking.

“These problems [over-intoxication and fights] aren’t JP23 issues, they’re all bar issues, ”Poozhikala said.

Observer volunteers visited the downtown nightlife scene and found several apparent Conditional Use Permit (UPC) violations (for which JP23 had previously been cited) occurring at other bars, including charges of customer coverage at Matador and Ziing. Matador had over 100 people lined up at Amerige’s corner, and Revolucion served drinks in fish jars (large enough to intoxicate five people).

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Parking garage

Does Klyde Warren Park Really Need Parking?

by Deena S. Hawkins on

Update: While previous reports referred to part of the new structure planned for the Klyde Warren Park expansion as a “parking garage,” a spokesperson for the park said there would be far fewer parking spaces than what is expected. was originally reported. And VisitDallas said this week that it currently has no plans to rent the new building, a change from announcing the extension for the first time. You can read more here.

For the July issue of D Magazine, on newsstands now, I’ve written about the park building boom that downtown Dallas has experienced over the past decade. There is Main Street Garden, Civic Garden (formerly Belo Garden), Pacific Plaza, and West End Square. Carpenter Park and Harwood Park are on their way. There’s of course Klyde Warren Park, the 5.2-acre bridge park built on Woodall Rodgers and opened in 2012.

Generally people love parks and people really love Klyde Warren Park. Kids love fountains and playgrounds, adults love food trucks and public spaces and yoga classes. Pedestrians downtown appreciate the way it connects, over a freeway, the Arts District and Uptown. The city and the developers love the way this increases the value of neighboring properties. Thursday afternoon, I left the office and headed out to the park to sit at a shaded table, eat a cookie, and watch the world go by. It was the best 30 minutes of my week.

So why isn’t everyone liking Klyde Warren’s upcoming 1.7 acre expansion, which again made headlines this week after Dallas City Council approved the finances from him? of the market ? (Much of the money for the $ 100 million expansion comes from TxDOT, private donors, and maybe federal grants.) More park can’t be a bad thing, can it. ?

Note the relative success of each of the newer downtown parks individually, and you’ll find a few nits to choose from. But overall, the construction of parks is a potential boon for the city center because it gives the city center something it badly needs: greenery, pedestrian public spaces and a break from the monotony of the city. car traffic on one-way streets. Many of these parks have literally supplanted parking lots, as clear a symbol as one might ask of Dallas shifting away from the self-centered mindset that has often kept downtown from being what it should be. They are shared and open spaces where everyone is welcome.

Maybe that’s why Klyde Warren Park’s expansion makes it look like Dallas could ruin the good thing we have. Expansion plans highlight a parking lot and a new building that will house, among other things, a center for VisitDallas, the city’s recently besieged visitors’ office. (Update, 1:30 p.m.: While previous reports on this have characterized the structure as a “parking garage,” a spokesperson for Klyde Warren Park said the new extension building will only include about 15 parking spaces exclusively. for people working in the structure. Read more here.)

That’s a lot of enclosed space, although plans call for new green space in the form of Jacobs Lawn. The expansion would expand the children’s park while adding an ice rink that would be used in the winter. Better road links to the Perot Museum are also part of the deal. (All of this would complement the equally controversial “super fountain” that’s in the park’s future.)

Still parking? Visiting Dallas?

“Klyde Warren Park has shown that Dallas residents want more places to meet and an urban core that improves walkability,” the Dallas Morning News’ Mark Lamster wrote in 2018. “But this new expansion offers the opposite: it’s a garage with private event space, and public amenities are an afterthought. Specifically, there is almost no park in this park – the additional space that there would be is cut off from the rest of the park by the new structure.

Boosters said the parking garage is needed and the rental of the enclosed lodge included in the new construction will help fund park operations. The park is owned by the city, but is managed by a private foundation which pays for its maintenance. Renderings make expansion a great place for your company’s next corporate retreat. But does Dallas need its parks?

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