Podcast: Dallas Is Losing People to the Suburbs Because of Bad Politics, Dallas Cothrum Says
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‘When your name is Dallas, you root for the city,’ but Dallas is losing people to the suburbs because of politics, says Dallas real estate consultant Dallas Cothrum. The land use expert and president of Masterplan calls out poor practices by city councils past, highlighting the Trinity East natural gas drilling controversy and its lasting impact on Dallas in this packed episode of the Dallas Dirt podcast with Candy Evans.
“In this great period of prosperity during the last census period, we somehow lost 100,000 people. I don’t know how that can happen in a boom time,” Cothrum says. “And we’re not losing them to Cincinnati or San Diego. We’re losing them to McKinney and Frisco and Cedar Hill and Lucas and very predictably, and I think they better start seeing on Marilla that they have to make a real change and keep those people.”
Dallas Cothrum
Trinity East Drilling Controversy
In this episode, Evans kicks off the discussion by asking Cothrum about Dallas’s recent $55 million payout to settle a 2014 lawsuit by Trinity East Energy. Cothrum represented the oil and natural gas company, which filed suit against the City of Dallas claiming the city accepted payment to drill on city-owned land in northwest Dallas near the Elm Fork gun range, and then backed out of the deal.
“You have to think about the dire straits that the city was in at the time when they made this deal, but they did make the deal and they did take the money,” Cothrum says of the cash-strapped 2014 administration that faced a $30 million budget gap during the Great Recession.
The Big Picture
Cothrum fears that the 2014 lawsuit and other major blunders that have come out of Dallas City Hall are emblematic of something bigger.
“I have clients that have asked me, particularly people out of town, ‘Is this how the City of Dallas does business?'” Cothrum says. “Dallas is a business, and I believe people have to be able to trust who they’re dealing with.”
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Bad Deals, Public Opinion, and a Hot Take on Dallas Multi-Family Zoning with Dallas Cothrum – Dallas Dirt
About the podcast: Dallas Dirt is a weekly audio and video podcast hosted by Candy Evans. Listeners and viewers are invited to share their comments and suggestions at [email protected]. Dallas Dirt is accepting pitches for local Dallas and Texas-based podcast guests. PR requests and guest submissions may be emailed to [email protected]. Advertising and episode sponsorship opportunities are available. Contact [email protected] to inquire.
