An open letter to Tom Leppert

Dear Mayor Leppert...

(Since I met you only briefly at the VPNA Mayoral Forum, I don't feel comfortable calling you Tom. Yet.)

You have been in office for just one week and surely by now your head is spinning from all the requests and pleas for help from folks all over Dallas.

And by now you must be asking yourself -

"Just what was I thinking when Ron Kirk and Roger Staubach asked me to run for mayor, and I said Yes???"

No matter, you are the now the mayor and it's time to make good on all those high-sounding promises you made during the campaign. The next four years are gonna be so much fun, I can feel it in my old dog bones.

Instead of giving you a list of special requests, please allow me to send you this list of ideas and concepts. You probably won't need much help in doing many of them. The positive benefits of doing them will stay with follow you for years to come.

Go back into the neighborhoods

During the campaign, all the columnists wrote about how you were seen all over Dallas - north, south, east, west - in neighborhoods where most people would never visit on a good day.

Now that you are mayor, don't give up this habit. There are neighborhood meetings taking place nearly every evening, and your staff (and the staff for every city council member) can tell you exactly when and where they are.

Go to these meetings, but don't call ahead. Just show up without your entourage. Make a little speech, sit back and listen, and bring lots of paper to write down what everyone asks.

Two things to remember - Holding a Meet the Mayor session in NorthPark or Galleria is a waste of time. And there is no reason to ask a city council member permission to visit their districts.

Hold council meetings at night

There are many issues that the council will decide that require the input of residents. We in the neighborhoods hear that all the time, but let's be honest, not all of us are independently wealthy or can afford to take a full day off from work to speak (or just sit) at the chambers waiting for an issue to come up.

So why not hold the meetings later in the day. Start them at 1 pm, break for dinner, and then hold court on those issues that require our input after we get off work.

This won't work for all the issues, or all the people involved, but it's going to bring more people to City Hall. That may be the most exciting - and scariest - thing of all.

If the people can't get to the council, bring the council to the people

Why can't the council meet in the neighborhoods, either in the evening or even on - dare I say it - a Saturday???

This won't work for all those times Mitchell Rasansky wants to quiz someone from Planning, but it's going to encourage more public participation from (gasp!) the public.

I am sure DISD would have no problem letting you use the high school buildings for these meetings.

And while you are doing that, how about webcasting all the briefing sessions and council meetings?? Not everyone has access to cable or public access television. And don't forget to archive all those meetings.

Listen to the people

When I was growing up in Philadelphia, the two mayors I knew - James H J Tate and Frank Rizzo - both went on live TV every Sunday afternoon and took calls from the public on absolutely everything (thankfully, I was too young to make phone calls).

And they read many of the questions on the air, while the rest were forwarded to the proper city department.

I am absolutely sure the three major stations in town - and the Hispanic stations - would have no problem hosting this program on a regular basis (say, every two weeks).

And by the way, no substitutes - it's gotta be the Mayor on the air or no one.

Lower Greenville

You knew I could not write this column without talking about Lower Greenville.

As noted, you need to be at neighborhood meetings down here - Belmont, Lower Greenville, Vickery, Lakewood Heights, and on and on.

You also need to sit down with the two council reps for the area - Ms. Hunt and Ms. Medrano - and talk about restarting the Lower Greenville Land Use Study program. LGNA short-circuited this far-sighted plan nearly five years ago, and we have paid the price for it every single day.

Code enforcement is hit and miss down here. It's no problem issuing tickets to residents for yardsigns on the parkway on a Sunday, but what happened to the audit of bars and restaurants? How about San Francisco Rose parking cars on the empty lot across the street from their doors every weekend (for the past ten years)? What about the parking problems caused by bar patrons on streets where the residents live in dread of the weekend?

And on and on and on. I could dedicate a whole website to all these problems.

Oh wait, I did!

I also own the domain MayorTomLeppert.com just in case you don't pay attention (Allen Gwinn at Dallas.org owns MayorLeppert.com).

Get ready for redistricting in 2011

The US Census takes place in 2010, and you will be leading the redistricting process in 2011.

Let's not repeat the mistakes caused by Mad Maxine Aaronson and Joe Don't Call Me Jose May. Districts 2 and 14 need to be realigned with Central Expressway as the natural boundary. There is no logic to including Lower Greenville in the same district as Dallas Love Field, or the people around Lakewood Library being tied to Arlington Park.

Start getting familiar with today's population trends and how they will impact redistricting in 2001. Better to be prepared than to screw whole neighborhoods.

This is my short list. I am sure that I will add to it over the next few years.

Here's wishing you all the best for the next four years.

Barking Dog