‘There Was No Plan’: City Scrambles to Shelter Residents Left in the Cold
Members of the Dallas City Council describe navigating a chaotic few days of power outages, burst pipes, and icy roads without clarity from the electricity provider.
By
Peter Simek and Matt Goodman
Published in
FrontBurner
February 17, 2021
5:15 pm
On Tuesday evening, downtown, Uptown, and East Dallas Council member David Blewett became so frustrated with his inability to reach constituents suffering through the prolonged power outages that he did something he has only done a handful of times while in office. He tweeted.
Blewett said in his tweet that he was testing the medium and had “a bet going” about its effectiveness. Without any context, however, the tweet came across as tone deaf, particularly at the end of a day that had seen pipes burst in several Uptown apartment complexes. His followers pounced, some responding with videos of flooded apartments and images of Uptown residents living i
Dallas Political Battles Further Complicate Fair Vaccine Distribution
Local governments are responsible for getting vaccines in people s arms. It isn t going smoothly because they don t all agree on the best path forward.
By Matt Goodman
Published in
FrontBurner
January 21, 2021
3:53 pm
If you live in Dallas and hope to get the COVID-19 vaccine soon, good luck. Bureaucracy and infighting are in far greater supply.
The mayor is at odds with the county judge and members of the City Council over how to register residents for vaccinations. The state of Texas has threatened the County Commissioners Court with pulling the Fair Park mega center’s vaccine supply, which triggered an emergency meeting to kill an order. And members of the City Council allege the mayor is making it harder to get people living in poor neighborhoods signed up for appointments. It has been a mess.