Friday at sundown marked the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and the beginning of a 10-day period of self-reflection and repentance that ends with Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
In his Saturday morning sermon, Temple Emanu-El Rabbi Michael Lewis wove a timeless message on selfishness and selflessness into Dallas politics. Rabbi Lewis spoke of teachings from the Book of Judges and, a few thousand years later, a lesson from a rabbi known as the Kotzker Rebbe on “fish love.”
As the teaching goes, when someone says they love fish, what they really mean is “that you want to take the fish out of its home and kill the fish and then eat the fish. Fish love is when I love something because it benefits me, because it’s good for me. And who cares about what happens to the fish?”
Fish love, Rabbi Lewis said, is normal. It’s how we’re wired. The problem starts when nothing counterbalances it. “Civilization declines when people only look out for their own interests.”
Citing Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, he defined morality as “a willingness to ask not just what is good for me, but what is good for all of us together.” Put another way for fans of the sitcom Parks and Rec: in a world of “Treat Yo Self,” how do we reframe treating others as the way to treat ourselves?
Then he brought it home.
This past spring, some Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) cities weighed pulling their 1-cent sales tax out of the system. Two stayed in. Highland Park voted to leave. Rabbi Lewis quoted Walt Humann, a long-time civic leader known as the father of DART, on what changed: Forty years ago, “no one ever asked, Tell me what’s in it for me. It was always, How can we help the region, and how can we help our own citizens? Today… it’s more transactional. How much are we getting and how much are we paying?”
“What’s in it for me? That’s a fish love question,” Rabbi Lewis said.
He was careful not to pretend the agency is above criticism. But, he added, “when we talk about disinvesting from a public good to save a penny on every dollar, we are unraveling more of the threads that bind people together.”
He also gave this city its due, noting that Dallas offers some of the finest examples of selfless civic leadership, including the creation of DART, DFW Airport, the Katy Trail, and the Dallas Arts District, among many others.
“But I worry,” Rabbi Lewis said. “I worry that we have climbed the ladders others built for us only to pull it up behind us, putting self-interest ahead of sacrifice.”
Our City faces real economic and moral challenges. They rarely show up on an agenda labeled as a test of character. They often show up in moments of crisis, when we are forced to choose how to respond to politics of bigotry or demonization of “the other.”
Rabbi Lewis ended with a wish for the year ahead: “May we be rewarded not through the gifts that we get, but by the gifts that we give to others.”
Shana tova — happy new year — to all who celebrate.
For more on this and other hot topics, join me over on the new Meetings of Interest Community Page. I’ll be posting updates, videos, GIFs, and more throughout the week. It’s like a Facebook page, but (hopefully) without all the personal attacks and misinformation.
📖 Table of Contents
/
🗞️ ICYMI: Highlights From Last Week
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson took the GOP midterm convention stage on Thursday night and shared the story of his political transformation, from lifelong Democrat to proud Republican. Johnson touted his city’s decrease in crime and homelessness on his watch, as well as the growth of Y’all Street, “America’s next financial capital.” Read more.
On Wednesday, September 9, Dallas City Council members voted to:
Approve (consent agenda) Item 5, which authorizes the Dallas Housing Finance Corporation to acquire The Hartford, a 14-story historic office building at 400 North St. Paul Street in Downtown, for conversion into 217 affordable apartments.
Approve Item 9, which authorizes a four-year agreement with Grambling State University, Prairie View A&M University, and the State Fair of Texas to keep the State Fair Classic at the Cotton Bowl through 2029. The agreement increases incentive payments to the two schools from $175,000 each to $250,000 each beginning this year.
Approve Item 32, signing off on the DFW Airport Public Facility Improvement Corporation buying the 811-room Hyatt Regency next to Terminal C for no more than $193.65 million. The airport-owning cities, Dallas and Fort Worth, are required to approve the deal.
Approve a modified version of Item 36, freezing the City’s living wage for certain contract workers instead of larger cuts aimed at saving the City millions of dollars, The Dallas Morning News reports.
Approve an amended version of Z4 allowing Oak Lawn’s former Resource Center health campus to be converted into a padel club.
Approve (consent agenda) Z12, which carves a new subdistrict out of the Downtown Special Provision Sign District, so the Texas Stock Exchange can add a ticker to the skyline.
Delay PH 1, a public hearing and an ordinance to rename the Houston Street Viaduct, between Zang Boulevard and Young Street, the “Pettis Norman Bridge,” in honor of the former Cowboys tight end, civil rights advocate, and businessman who died in July 2025. After reports that the City violated its own rules on public notice of the name-change proposal, it now appears council members will pursue a “ceremonial” name change, meaning the bridge’s official name would still be the Houston Street Viaduct. The date of the next hearing on this is unclear, as it was not publicly stated.
Dallas Police officials are sharply reducing the number of outside law enforcement agencies that can access its Flock camera database from 1,508 down to 202. The update came during Tuesday’s Public Safety Committee discussion on the controversial technology that most City Council members still support using. Learn more from WFAA-TV.
Dallas is facing challenging budget decisions, but cuts to public safety are off limits. D Magazine explains why, including a 2024 City Charter change that requires the police force to grow to 4,000 officers, hundreds higher than DPD’s previous staffing high.
🔢 Number of Interest
44
Dallas landed all 42 census tracts it nominated for the second round of the federal Opportunity Zone program, and Gov. Greg Abbott’s office even tacked on two more, bringing the City’s total to 44. Opportunity Zones create federal tax breaks designed to pull private investment into distressed neighborhoods. The feds are expected to certify the designations by November 28, with the new zones taking effect January 1 and running through the end of 2036. Read more.
🤝 Meetings of Interest: September 14 - 18, 2026
Monday, September 14
🎭 Dallas City Council Quality of Life, Arts, and Culture Committee, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
"Revised and Restated" Dallas Cultural Plan
Committee members will discuss proposed updates to the 2018 Dallas Cultural Plan, which folds amendments Council approved on December 10 into a clean, republished version of the original planning document. The restated plan drops from six priorities to four, cutting Equity and Diversity and keeping Space, Support for Artists, Sustainable Arts Ecosystem, and Communication, while the strategy list shrinks from 31 to 25. The new executive summary notes the changes were made in response to President Donald Trump’s executive orders that threatened to cut millions of dollars in grant funding if state and local governments continued any Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs or policies. City Council is expected to vote on September 23.
57.00 MB • File
🚧 Dallas City Council Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
After a state and federal crackdown on street pavement art, including rainbow crosswalks, City leaders will discuss changing City Code to allow public art on City sidewalks. Read more.
Wednesday, September 16
🗣️ Dallas City Council Briefing and Budget Workshop, 9 a.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
A series of steps is required to finalize the fiscal 2026-27 budget, including:
A public hearing on the tax rate, followed by a committee-of-the-whole session for a final round of amendments and straw polling. Two budget amendments were still pending as of Friday. One is a city manager revision co-sponsored by Council Member Chad West, shifting $427,927 from DPD’s First Offender Program to the Arcadia Park Branch Library and kiosks at two other library locations. A second amendment from Council Member Gay Donnell Willis trims $17,000 from Youth Commission travel for the Inspector General. Other Council members may make additional amendments without advance notice.
Record votes on the $5.66 billion appropriation ordinance, the tax rate, and a separate resolution ratifying the property tax revenue increase. The rate falls a tenth of a cent to $0.6978 per $100, but for technical reasons, state law requires the motion be worded as a rate increase, “effectively a 5.4% increase,” and it needs nine votes.
Also up for a vote: a fee ordinance amending 19 chapters of the city code, an item renaming Facilities and Real Estate Management and making the Office of Housing and Community Empowerment a division of the City Manager’s Office (11 votes), pay and position schedules, and the 2027 employee health plan design.
Thursday, September 17
🏞️ Dallas Park and Recreation Board, 10 a.m., 6FN Conference Room, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
📃 Dallas City Plan Commission, 10:30 a.m. Briefing, 12:30 p.m. Public Hearing, Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
Item 4: Owner CL Mockingbird Central Plaza wants to convert an underused parking lot behind the Mockingbird Central Plaza shopping center, at Mockingbird and McMillan across from the SMU/Mockingbird DART station, into townhomes.
Item 7: Peachtree Group’s Moxy-AC Hotel at Hall and Oak Grove, now nearing completion, wants a carve-out from the McKinney Avenue sign district so it can light up the top of the building.
🗣️ Quote of Interest
Dallas is actually one of the finest examples of a ‘how can I help’ success story in our country… But I worry that we have climbed the ladders others built for us only to pull it up behind us, putting self-interest ahead of sacrifice.
A note to readers: Meetings of Interest is an independent newsletter curated and authored by The GoldHam Group Managing Partner Scott Goldstein and edited by GoldHam Managing Partners Sam Goldstein and Vana Hammond. The content, perspectives, or commentary presented herein reflect the views of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the views, policies, or positions of any other organization, institution, or individual, unless explicitly stated otherwise. Any affiliations are for identification purposes only and do not imply endorsement.
Thanks for reading.
Have a great week.
Best,
Scott Goldstein
Managing Partner
The GoldHam Group
Sam Goldstein, Scott Goldstein, and Vana Hammond are co-founders of The GoldHam Group, a southern Dallas-based boutique communications, events, and public affairs firm.
Giphy