City Hall Roundup: Downtown Crime, KBHCC, DallasNow Scam
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Anyone who wants to spend a bit of their Memorial Day weekend catching up on the goings on at Dallas City Hall came to the right place.
Downtown earned a lot of attention this past week. Between the city center’s major public safety update and scrutiny over how much the redevelopment of Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center will cost, downtown’s future seems to be at somewhat of a crossroads.
In other news, City Hall got some kudos for growing the Dallas parks system, and criminals are already trying to leverage the Planning & Development Department’s (PDD) deployment of its online permitting platform.
Here’s what we’ve got on all that:
Downtown Crime Finally Spurs Official Action
In collaboration with Downtown Dallas, Inc. and neighborhood stakeholders, officials are going to try to put a dent in criminal activity and homelessness in the Central Business District before the World Cup next summer.
More police will reportedly be deployed downtown and efforts to rehouse the homeless people in the city center will be ramped up as authorities enforce the state’s ban on public camping, according to The Dallas Morning News.
The pivot toward more aggressive enforcement follows a study commissioned by Downtown Dallas, Inc. that showed significant increases in crime and disorder in the neighborhood over the last several years, which has led to a decrease in property values and a slowing of residential growth.
“If this trend continues, cascading effects will further and rapidly erode value, impacting the City of Dallas far beyond its Downtown core,” the study reads.
There’s also the looming threat of corporate relocation out of downtown, which is something that AT&T is purportedly considering. The company is currently headquartered in Whitacre Tower on South Akard Street.
Some 130 Dallas Police Department officers will be assigned to the Central Business District, and they will be made more visible.
“You’re going to see mounted patrols, more officers on bikes, we’re going to have more personal contact with people downtown,” said DPD Maj. John Madison, who has been appointed to lead the effort, WFAA reported.
It’s Going To Cost However Much It Ends Up Costing
Staff at City Hall apparently don’t have a firm idea on how much it will ultimately cost to redevelop Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center.
On Wednesday, staff briefed the Dallas City Council on the latest designs for the new convention center, which is expected to help revitalize downtown. During the meeting, however, council members probed the city’s finances related to the project.
In a revealing moment, Council Member Jesse Moreno (District 2) asked what the budget was for the convention center. Rosa Fleming, the director of Convention & Event Services, replied, “So, we never use the word cost or budget.”
She went on to explain how the figures in previous project presentations actually represented potential revenue and bond dollars the city could draw from to pay for the convention center. Wednesday’s presentation, however, had an actual cost range of $3.3-3.5 billion, a good deal more than the $2.1 billion in debt issuance the city estimated back in 2022.
“What we always said is that we had to get to schematic design and programming, which is where we are now, to bring you all an actual cost number,” she said.
Officials also raised the outstanding debt associated with the current convention center and the Omni hotel, which totals nearly $1 billion.
The city’s financial situation is not in the best shape, with staff projecting a budget shortfall of $7 million next year. Fiscal hawks like Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) have been sounding the alarm over how much the city spends each year while simultaneously failing to take care of its assets on the real estate front.
“We have to budget to take care of these systems before they fail, and that means that we have to give up some other stuff,” she said.
During the meeting, staff informed council members that they need to take out a $1 billion bridge loan to cover costs associated with preparing the convention center for the World Cup.
Phishing Scam Piggybacks Off DallasNow Launch
Cybercriminals have apparently caught wind of PDD’s launch of DallasNow and are sending phishing emails to unsuspecting individuals who might have a project registered on the online platform.
The emails are impersonating PDD staff and asking the recipients to verify their account or payment information. They contain “urgent language” and include links or attachments that could infect computers with harmful software.
PDD is cautioning DallasNow users to be wary of emails claiming to be from the department, especially if the sending email address ends in anything other than @dallas.gov.
“When in doubt, contact us directly through our official website or customer support line at 214.948.4480,” PDD said. “If you receive a suspicious email claiming to be from us, please forward it to your company IT security and delete it immediately.”
As welcome as DallasNow has been by stakeholders in the development community who want services at City Hall to operate like it’s the 21st century, there are some drawbacks to modern society. Phishing scams are one of them.
