Rise and Shine, Park Cities (2-10-11)
Let’s talk business.
1. I love Fuel City’s tacos, its resident longhorn cattle, its parking-lot karaoke on Fridays, and its status as the best-lit beer-buyin’ place in the Oak Cliff periphery.
So what does “the ranch in downtown Dallas” have to do with the Park Cities? Well, its founder/owner, John Benda, hails from University Park, and the man is Texan-Texan-Texan, with more than a few stories to tell.
Read about him in next week’s issue of Park Cities People.
2. Flavors From Afar may have just departed Snider Plaza, but co-owner Nancy Krabill plans to schedule special “meet-ups” at Plaza Health Foods, she said, as a means of delivering items bought online. The store’s imported Italian goods will also be available through an e-commerce delivery service.
3. Snider Plaza’s Mallie is now Christy M. Boutique online. The clothier’s official name change (read: new signage) could be in order as soon as this weekend, says owner Christy Mesec, so be on the lookout.
4. On to schools.
With four iced-in days on its calendar last week, Hockaday quit hibernating altogether when Wednesday’s bad weather hit. Thanks to a new remote-learning program that prompts teachers and students to work via web conferencing, e-mail, and other online means, classes were slated to go on as usual. Well, sort of.
HPISD was closed again for inclement weather.
Which approach would a teenage you have preferred? (I’ll take your answers off the air.)
HP is closed again today?
Nope, it was open, but I see how this post would be confusing. Look at the post below saying school will be open tomorrow – posted yesterday meaning today. phew.
I love Christy M.’s Boutique and have shopped there for years – the merchandise is fabulous and Christy is delightful!
I am thrilled with the name change.
@Maggie: Kmom is correct! Please forgive the ambiguity.
Georgia,
What time of day does Fuel City do the parking lot Karaoke on Friday’s….just curious. Marc
I’m not sure, Marc — it’s fairly late, though. I’ve never actually been (am just tickled by the fact that it’s there).
Schools:
Let’s beat Robin Hood and keep our money in HPISD. We obviously know how to educate our children. Imagine what we could do if we could keep an extra $1,000,000 per school to spend on whatever we wanted to better our schools.
For the unaware, the Texas Education Act requires HPISD to raise apprx $105,000,000 each year in property taxes and RETURN $75,000,000 back to the state to be redistributed to “property poor” districts. In other words, 3 out of every 4 dollars DO NOT STAY in HPISD to benefit our students.
The “Robin Hood” system currently in place was precipitated by a 1984 lawsuit by a group of school districts charging that Texas ‘ use of property taxes to fund education resulted in substantial inequity among school districts. The Texas Supreme Court which ruled the finance system unconstitutional in 1989. In 1993, came Senate Bill 7. the legislation that invoked the property tax recapture provision, also known as Robin Hood.
More than 30% of Texas’ ISDs are designated “Chapter 41” and are required to send part of their tax collections to the state for redistribution.
I don’t mind helping educate the children of Texas, but paying for FOUR school districts is extreme. Beat Robin Hood, now!