City Hall Roundup: Some Data Drops for Your Super Sunday

The Super Bowl is just hours away, but that doesn’t mean you can’t spare a few minutes to get into the numbers behind some of the most contentious Dallas City Hall initiatives since ForwardDallas 2.0.

There’s some good news, too, in the latter half of this week’s roundup.

Alley vs. Curbside Pickup Stats

Staff got grilled by the city council on Wednesday over the city’s push to limit where alleyway trash pickup services will be offered. Following the contentious meeting, City Manager Kimberly Tolbert said the city would develop a framework targeting problem alleys for either service elimination or rate hikes.

Officials at the Sanitation Department have been arguing that some kind of transition away from alleyway to curbside pickup was necessary to reduce the number of collection incidents caused by narrow alleys.

City Staff Signal Targeted Shift From Alley Trash Pickup

On Friday, CFO Jack Ireland sent a memo to council members outlining some of the incident data from between 2019 and 2025. Council members had asked about the costs associated with equipment damage and worker injuries during alleyway pickups. Unfortunately, most of the figures could not be broken down to differentiate between alley and curbside incidents.

Staff were able to isolate the number of incidents tied to residential alley and curbside trash and recycling collection, excluding landfill operations and travel-related incidents. The data does show a significant disparity between the pickup types.

The difference is all the more stark considering alley service locations comprise only 37% of collection points. Regardless, alleyway pickup is treasured by those who currently have it, and a recent city survey of alleyway customers found overwhelming support for keeping it among respondents, with a majority saying they would be willing to pay more to maintain the service.

How Library Usage Figured Into the Proposed Library Closures

Some library use data was published in a memo on Friday, courtesy of the Office of Data Analytics & Business Intelligence.

The figures were requested by Council Member Cara Mendelsohn (District 12) and other officials during a meeting of the Quality of Life, Arts & Culture Committee last month.

Proposed Dallas Library Closures Get Rough Reception

Staff were pitching a reconfiguration of the public library system that involved closing the Oak Lawn, Skyline, Renner Frankford, and Arcadia Park branches. That proposal is now being reconsidered following a rough reception from residents and council members.

The data is from 2023, and I went ahead and highlighted the branches under consideration for closure. Branches were pitted against each other within their respective service regions, with libraries tied to recent bond elections excluded.

For an in-depth explanation of how staff determined the rankings, check out this report on the proposed regional model and the hard choices that are a part of it.

“City staff will incorporate the feedback received [during the committee meeting] and we will continue to do our due diligence. We are also planning to partner with the Friends of the Dallas Public Library on a community survey before coming back to the committee,” the city said in a media advisory last month.

Dallas Puts a Dent in Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Dallas has apparently been cleaning its act up some, according to the city’s latest Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory.

Since 2015, the baseline year for the Dallas Comprehensive Environmental and Climate Action Plan (CECAP), community-wide greenhouse gas emissions are down roughly 11%. Meanwhile, emissions from city government operations have dropped approximately 29%. The CECAP goal is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

“I’m encouraged by the results of this plan but note that we are just getting started,” said Angela Hodges Gott, director of the Office of Environmental Quality & Sustainability. “We’re five years into the 30-year plan mapped out by CECAP. OEQS is working diligently to identify ways in which we can better partner with our residents and businesses to encourage good environmental stewardship and to harness enthusiasm to make Dallas a cleaner, greener, and healthier city for everyone.”

DFW Ranks Best in Texas for Livability — But That’s Apparently a Low Bar

Data from the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory runs through 2023.

Additional gains in Dallas wouldn’t just be great for residents and the environment. The Lone Star State could really use a boost in that department, with Texas ranking No. 45 out of all the states for air pollution, according to WalletHub.

Federal Funds To Back Up Community Projects

Dallas is going to get roughly $15 million in federal earmarks for community projects following the enactment of a $1.2 trillion spending bill signed by President Donald Trump this past week.

“The City of Dallas will receive funding for 17 projects totaling $14,975,000. This funding represents the largest total of Community Project Funding the City has received since the federal process was revamped in 2021,” City Manager Kimberly Tolbert’s chief of staff wrote in a memo.

Several funded projects focus on corridor upgrades, trail and pedestrian improvements, and park development, including the Royal Lane corridor, Ferguson Road, Hemlock Avenue, White Rock Lake Trail relocation, Five Mile Creek Trail, and new or enhanced parks in the International District and West Dallas. Here’s the full list of projects organized by congressional district:

Transit-related funding includes modernization projects at DART’s Cityplace/Uptown and Ledbetter stations, Bachman-area transportation improvements, and supplemental transit dollars tied to Dallas’ role as a 2026 World Cup host city.

City departments will begin coordinating with federal agencies to draw down funds, a process expected to take one to two years pending city council approval, according to the memo.