Why Does CandysDirt.com Cover Dallas City Hall? Come For Luxury Listings, Stay For Zoning And Land Use

Occasionally I’m asked why a real estate news site covers Dallas City Hall. Shouldn’t we stick to what CandysDirt.com has done best since 2011: celebrity real estate, luxury listings, and “house porn”?

I began freelancing for CandysDirt.com in 2019, writing a weekly feature on open houses. In 2022, as the redistricting process was heating up at Dallas City Hall, I covered a few public hearings, not knowing any of the players or the history of how the 14 Dallas City Council districts are divided. I soon learned with the help of editors and readers who have been around a lot longer than I have.

Those stories engaged a new audience: residents who were interested in their City Council representation and how it might affect the future of their neighborhoods. 

Dallas Opts to ‘Keep it Simple’ With Ban on Single-Family Neighborhood Short-Term Rentals

We picked up steam, deep-diving into federally funded housing programs, controversial rezoning requests, and the great short-term rental debate of 2023. We’ve covered big issues like gentrification and displacement, context-sensitive density, and parking requirements.

Lately, thanks in large part to great source development with City Hall insiders, we’ve taken a peek behind the curtain at the departure of City Manager T.C. Broadnax. Our coverage on the May 4 bond election and the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan update is unmatched. 

The Road to Dallas City Hall

My background as a reporter has varied, but it’s been primarily focused on local government since the late 1990s when I wrote and edited for every desk except sports at The Battalion, the student newspaper at Texas A&M University. Since then, I’ve covered Death Row executions and school board meetings for The Huntsville Item, county government for The Daily Herald in Henry County, Ga., and served as managing editor of The Sealy News. 

But the highlight of my journalism career was covering municipal government for The Bryan-College Station Eagle. I won prestigious awards from the Associated Press Managing Editors and the Texas Press Association for my coverage at The Eagle, particularly the work we did exposing the College Station City Council’s violation of the Texas Open Meetings Act when they fired a city manager without posting the item on an agenda. The City of Bryan later hired me as their communications and marketing director, a brief foray into public relations.

So it seemed a good fit for me to launch into Dallas politics. At CandysDirt.com, I’ve also been fortunate enough to cover council proceedings in Plano, Mesquite, Addison, Fort Worth, Frisco, Duncanville, and Gunter. 

Local Government Matters

Local government matters not just to homeowners but also to Realtors, builders, buyers, and sellers. Your elected officials are the first line of defense in addressing potholes, dangerous intersections, mobility, new development, and of course, housing. 

[Podcast] Yes, Forward Dallas Is About Change, Says Committee Member

Dallas’ May 4 bond election matters to our readers. The update of the ForwardDallas comprehensive land use plan matters to our readers. We rely on your feedback about what’s occurring in your neighborhood to dig deeper and explore issues related to zoning, density, and complicated financing structures for new housing development. 

CandysDirt.com also ventured this year into podcasting. I’ve had the opportunity to invite the sources I regularly quote in news stories to have a conversation on the Dallas Dirt podcast. This format seems to suit our City Hall followers who would rather listen to a dialogue during their morning commute than scroll through a lengthy meeting recap.

I’ve done podcast interviews with District 1 Councilman Chad West, Interim Planning and Urban Design Director Andrea Gilles, Senior Planner Patrick Blaydes, Park and Recreation Board member Rudy Karimi, and Comprehensive Land Use Plan Committee member Nathaniel Barrett. Interviews with developers Scott Beck and Matt Segrest have been recorded and will air in the near future. 

Additionally, we offer no-paywall coverage of Dallas City Hall on a weekly, sometimes daily basis. 

CandysDirt.com may not be your first stop for Dallas City Hall news, but maybe it should be. 

Got a news tip? Contact me at [email protected] or follow me on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn.