Emmieb

We look at restaurant week as both an opportunity to donate to charity and try out a new restaurant. We work higher-end restaurants into our going out budget, which means we're not "out of our element" and I don't notice the second-class treatment.

What does bother me is that this years posted menu seem to focus primarily on steak and/or salmon. I can make that at home. If you're trying to entice me to your restaurant this is the perfect time to highlight a specialty of the house. Chamberlains has the right idea.

This is supposed to be a fun week. If the restaurant can't enjoy itself, then perhaps it should make a donation based on profits off of regular, full-priced meals and opt-out of the rest of restaurant week.

Yay! It follows to reason the more of their employees might move downtown, which will contribute to the growth of a lively downtown neighborhood. As someone who's been here for years, I really dig that idea.

One of the things that Leppert did say a few times was the "Brand" of Deep Ellum and the need to preserve that while moving on.

I cut my coming-of-age teeth in Deep Ellum. I've been known to leave my car there overnight and I've seen more shows than I can count.

And while the passing of greats makes me nostalgic (Trees, for example) new greats are being allowed to flourish - Twisted Root, anyone?

I admit I don't contribute as much as I should, but I live four blocks away in downtown and I patronize the businesses in my backyard.

As long as Beck keeps the atmosphere and doesn't turn Deep Ellum into the next West Village or Shops at Legacy, then I'm ok with their purchase. I'm even ok with them scraping the buildings that can't be salvaged as long as they replace them with ones that feel as though they've been there forever.

This city's roots are in Deep Ellum...and now all I'm getting are lame plant-analogies. We need to allow the neighborhood to move forward. Or it will always be mostly deserted.

Clay - you've got a point, but why not do both?

A few years ago we were on an island in the Mediteranean and the cap of the island had a windmill farm on it. It was so far from being an eyesore that it actually had a calming effect. Done correctly they're very tall and quiet and proud looking. Also, when you consider that Dallas is windier than Chicago it seems foolhardy NOT to take advantage of an infinitely renewable resource.

This same island also had solar panels on almost every (200+ year old roof) - there's no reason that we can't add solar panels to street lights, the tops of all of the buildings downtown, and even perched at the top of the windmills.

The resulting power would power our civic buildings, as well as our residential and mixed use buildings, in addition to the existing plan.

The council (undercover or not) needs to be far more long-sighted than they have been.

Windmills is the first time I've seen it.

Now if we could just get them to replace the real eye sore- yet another soon-to-be-congested highway - with a rail line.