This is a weekly feature produced by my friend Ginger. Let us know what you think.
This week in Dallas news: Who is the Dallasite at the center of the Clarence Thomas scandal? Plus ACLU support for some area protestors; Fairfield State Park plans; Democrats fighting in Dallas County; and the music scene in Denton.
The biggest story about North Texas right now is, of course, the ProPublica story about Clarence Thomas’ relationship with Dallas real estate magnate and GOP activist megadonor Harlan Crow. The gist of it is that Crow has been taking Thomas to his private vacation estates, hosting Thomas on his yacht for international trips, and flying Thomas around the country on his private jets for two decades and more. Thomas hasn’t reported any of this travel on any of his annual financial disclosures, in violation of federal law.
It’s no surprise that Thomas’ ethics are lacking. Perhaps it’s surprising that he didn’t bother to cover his tracks better, but perhaps Thomas thinks he has transcended the realms of the little people to whom ethics rules and laws apply since he joined the Supreme Court. But we’re not focused on Thomas’ problems. We’re here for the Dallas angle of this story: Harlan Crow.
Trammell Crow, Harlan Crow’s father, founded a namesake commercial real estate development and management firms. Trammell Crow went public and is now an independent subsidiary of the holding firm that owns Coldwell Banker. Harlan Crow manages Crow Holdings, which invests both Crow family money and outside investory assets to the collective tune of $29 billion. Crow Holdings invests in and develops commercial and multifamily residential properties; its best known local project is the redevelopment of Old Parkland. Crow Holding also owns one of the biggest apartment builders in north Texas. The difference between Trammell Crow and Crow Holdings is confusing; it took the DMN article to make it clear to me which parts were which.
Harlan Crow lives in Highland Park and has been involved in a number of Dallas institutions. He once owned D Magazine, which I regularly read and cite in these posts. He’s also on the boards of a number of right-wing groups including the AEI, the George W. Bush Foundation, and the Hoover Institute per this local news explainer. Some additional details about his finances appear in this MarketWatch story (Archive link) but the gist is nobody knows how much money Crow has and if he’s not a billionaire, he’s close. The MarketWatch story also mentions Crow’s donations to Greg Abbott and Mitt Romney, which is to say: what we know about. The Dallas Observer article about the story notes Crow’s friendship with the Bushes and Crow’s gift to Virginia Thomas’ political advocacy nonprofit.
The Dallas Morning News (Archive link) also has an explainer that covers all this information plus a couple of items about his involvement in local politics. In addition to fighting against a publicly owned convention hotel, he had to get his Highland Park estate rezoned so it could also serve as a historical collection. He also has an underground parking garage for his parties and the collection/library, so folks won’t have to park on the neighborhood streets.
The ProPublica article leaves me with the sense that Crow thinks the “we all go out to the ranch and do a little huntin’ and shootin’ and such” excuse will fly. That story has never acknowledged how much business and politicking gets done between people like Crow and Thomas and whoever else was involved. In Texas that story has (officially, superficially) passed muster for a long time. But when the ranch is an upstate New York estate founded by the same woman who built Mar-a-Lago or a fancy yacht, that line becomes a little harder to sell, and the broader US public isn’t as sympathetic as (some) Texans have been. Having said that, there aren’t any teeth in the ethics laws that Thomas violated, so it may not matter.
I’m not a big fan of Jonathan Chait but his piece in the New Yorker is a good summary of the whole business. It’s also a reminder to vote against every one of the people who hold Thomas up as a moral exemplar.
In other news:
- Another reminder that May municipal elections are coming up. Your 2023 municipal elections voter guide for North Texas from KERA and the Fort Worth Report will catch you up if you’re not ready.
- Related, here’s an explainer about residency requirements and some links to stories about controversies about Fort Worth candidates who may not meet them.
- A free speech case is about to come out of North Texas as the ACLU appeals the conviction of three protestors based on an August 2020 protest in Gainesville. (Denton Record-Chronicle; Archive link; Axios; Dallas Observer). The cops told them everything had gone well and then arrested them, and instead of pre-trial diversion they went to a jury. Apparently there was also some hinky stuff with evidence as well. Protesting George Floyd and Confederate monuments in suburban-rural North Texas is risky business.
- Op-ed from the DMN: City planning is for boomers, but millennials and Gen Z drive the market (Archive link). Food for thought on how urban planning serves monied (older) interests at the expense of less monied (younger) interests.
- The latest on plans for Fairfield State Park from the Star-Telegram. (Archive link). The developer is mad that the paper got the plans so you know it’s worth reading. It doesn’t look good for the park or public access.
- Aurora to run driverless trucks from Dallas to Houston by the end of 2024 (Archive link). Get ready, I-45 drivers. The future is here.
- I’m posting this article about parking lots in downtown areas of US cities for the map of downtown Arlington. Apparently 42% of downtown Arlington is parking places. This is the map page where you can fill in the names of some major cities. In Texas, Lubbock is at 35%; Fort Worth is at 27%; Dallas is at 24%; Houston is at 26%; and Austin is at 17%.
- Here’s a story that I’m noting for future purposes because I don’t quite know what to make of it yet: Dallas County forces Price out of 20-year seat on juvenile board following public spat (Archive link). Price is a force to be reckoned with in Black South Dallas; the spat was with County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins. I liked Lewis Jenkins’ handling of the pandemic and thought he might do well statewide. A serious split between Price and Lewis Jenkins might kneecap him. That’s all without getting into the problems with the county juvenile system, which the numbers cited in the article suggest are real and serious. I’m not sure how booting Price off the board solves them, though.
- In lighter news: Dallas’ first alcohol-free bottle shop to open in MCM space in Richardson. I don’t get to drink much for medical reasons so I’m excited to get some grown-up mocktail options.
- And in music news, from Denton, two stories: How to listen: Denton music scene gets the spotlight on NPR’s World Cafe (Archive link) and Denton Label Sawyer Editions Unearths the Future of Contemporary Classical. Denton has a thriving music scene, including a classical scene fostered by UNT’s music department, that I haven’t had as much of a chance to explore as I’d like. It’s only an hour away from me and I need to get up there for some performances.