It has likely been well over 150 years since the late Alexander Harwood, a six-term Dallas County clerk and aide to the Confederate postmaster general, garnered as much enthusiasm from local elected leaders as he did at last week’s Dallas City Council meeting.
Five Dallas City Council members blocked what Mayor Eric Johnson and others clearly hoped would be an easy approval of a largely symbolic street name change across three blocks of Harwood Street stretching from Klyde Warren Park north into Uptown. The proposed change to Exchange Place — requested by Johnson and Council Members Jesse Moreno and Gay Donnell Willis — would allow the future headquarters of the Texas Stock Exchange to use the address One Exchange Place. Because of the history of the street, originally named in 1872, the change requires a three-quarters vote of the City Council, or 12 votes.
Council Members Paul Ridley and Bill Roth argued against the change, saying it was important to preserve the street’s history. Council Member Cara Mendelsohn agreed, grinning as she noted she is not usually “into historic preservation, but lately seem to be all about it.”
Mendelsohn then publicly offered to trade her vote when the item comes back for another shot on October 14.
“I am willing to trade, but the only thing I will trade for will be a cessation of efforts to leave City Hall,” she said, referring to the longstanding debate over whether to move the seat of government to a new Downtown location.
Johnson noted the vote-trade offer was “borderline improper,” adding, “we’ve reached a level of pettiness at this point that I think is unprecedented and pretty detrimental.”
This discussion matters for at least two reasons.
First, as The Dallas Morning News editorial board eloquently noted, the vote amounted to “an ugly snub at the people who are actually driving wealth for the future of this city.”
Second, it’s the latest sign that the dividing lines on the future of City Hall, the building, will carry over into other, completely unrelated matters. Of the six council members who have consistently voted against a possible relocation, only Laura Cadena supported the proposed street name change.
After an initial 9-5 vote in favor of the name change fell short of the required 12 votes, Council members voted to bring the item back in three weeks, though voices on both sides said the outcome was unlikely to change.
Not bad for a county clerk who has been dead since 1885.
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 City Council members voted on Wednesday, September 23, to:
Approve Item 7, granting DPD another year on a deal with Southern Methodist University’s Simmons School to keep building virtual reality de-escalation training scenarios for officers, at no additional cost to the City. The extension was needed because the department still hasn’t spent through the nearly $800,000 federal grant it accepted in January 2024, due to “delays in commencing the project” that ran past the original contract term.
Approve Item 17, which authorizes $28 million for Linbeck Group to build Phase One of the Dallas Zoo’s Safari Trail, the “African Shorelines” stretch with penguins, flamingos, and a café. The funding includes $18.4 million in zoo donation match dollars and $9.6 million from the voter-approved 2024 bond. Construction is slated to start next month and wrap in March 2028, with the full three-phase trail (rhinos, cheetahs, okapi) finished by 2030. Learn more in the NBC 5 story linked above.
Approve Item 20, a plan to demolish and replace a 1976 Lake Highlands car wash where the Goldstein family currently washes our vehicles. The $1.2 million Tax Increment Financing (TIF) subsidy from the Skillman Corridor district will help fund development of a two-story, 7,220-square-foot retail and office building to replace the car wash. City staff and an outside underwriter call the subsidy gap funding on a roughly $4.7 million project, with construction running from March 2027 to December 2029.
Approve Item 21, for Dallas to sign an interlocal agreement allowing DART to contribute future sales tax revenue to city TIF districts. This vote authorizes no money, but any future request for DART dollars must include an identified city match.
Approve Item 22, appointing Wei Wei Jeang and Brian Bernknopf to fill two vacancies on the City of Dallas Economic Development Corporation (EDC) board, replacing Jeanne Phillips and Deborah Hunter Johnson. Terms expire June 30, 2027, and June 30, 2028, respectively.
Approve Item 49, adopting an updated Dallas Cultural Plan. This is a cleaned-up version of the plan the council amended last December after directing the city manager to review and revise programs in response to a series of presidential executive orders intended to wipe out any hint of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Approve Item 51 granting Cara Mia Theatre Co. and Teatro Dallas resident company status at the Latino Cultural Center. The deal brings the city an estimated $36,000 a year, plus signage on the building reading “Home of Cara Mia Theatre and Teatro Dallas.”
Approve Item 52 giving the city manager authority to sign an agreement with an unnamed “international sports organization” for an unnamed “future major international sporting event initiative,” with the item noting participating cities must keep quiet until the organizer makes an official announcement. The item also notes future public safety, transportation, facilities, and sanitation costs will come back to council members later. D Magazine’s Bethany Erickson poked around the interwebs to come up with some contenders for what this might be. KERA’s Megan Cardona reports it could be the Texas leg of the 2028 Summer Olympic Torch Relay.
Approve Z7, Hillwood’s plans to put an office tower on a vacant lot at Carlisle and Bowen, right across the Katy Trail from its own corporate campus. They needed council sign-off to build a bit bigger and closer to the property lines than current rules allow.
Deny Z10, Winners Assembly Church’s ask to rezone roughly 33,000 square feet at MLK Jr. Boulevard and Colonial for a 25-story hotel, apartment, and retail tower in South Dallas/Fair Park, a request the City Plan Commission unanimously recommended denying. Read more from The Dallas Morning News.
Blocked and ultimately delayed PH1, the previously noted public hearing on renaming North Harwood Street between Woodall Rodgers and Harry Hines to “Exchange Place.”
A proposal to strengthen the powers of the Dallas mayor, recently put forth by three former mayors, deserves a fair hearing from voters at a time when City Hall is not working for most residents, The Dallas Morning News editorial board writes.
Former Dallas mayor Laura Miller and potential Dallas mayoral candidate (hello) Ben Abbott, a Highland Park resident, are among a coalition of community leaders pushing for a City Charter amendment to block a move from City Hall. The Save City Hall coalition announced a plan to gather voters’ signatures to put a measure on the May 2027 ballot, KERA News reports.
Dallas Water Utilities published its annual federally required list of industrial wastewater users in “significant noncompliance” for July 2025 through June 2026. This year’s sewer shame list includes 10 names.
More than two years after voters approved a $1.25 billion 2024 bond, the City has committed or spent about $137 million of it as of June 30, according to the latest quarterly bond report. Staff expects to commit another $82 million by the end of the fiscal year, including $30 million for the Law Enforcement Training Center at the University of North Texas at Dallas.
🔢 Number of Interest
20,000
Number of signatures from registered City of Dallas voters needed to place a Charter amendment on the May 2027 ballot.
🤝 Meetings of Interest: September 28 - October 2, 2026
Thursday, October 1
✈️ Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Board Meeting, 8:30 a.m., DFW Airport HQ Board Room, 2400 Aviation Drive, DFW Airport, TX 75261
Several agreements for art installations at the under-construction Terminal F are on this agenda, aiming to “provide the new terminal with a modern, immersive art experience.”
📜 Dallas City Council Ad Hoc Committee on Legislative Affairs, 1 p.m., Council Chambers, 6th Floor, Dallas City Hall, 1500 Marilla St.
Briefing: Proposed Legislative Program for the 90th Texas Legislature and 120th Congress
Committee members will review the City’s proposed agenda for the 90th Texas Legislature and the 120th Congress, a 62-item list assembled from committee memos approved between June and September. Some highlights: opposing casino gaming, asking for voter-approved room to exceed the 3.5% property tax revenue cap, handing school crossing guards off to someone else, and “preserving local discretion” on federal immigration enforcement, which should go over great in Austin.
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🗣️ Quote of Interest
I think this is something that the financial services companies that are relocating to the city in that area really want. I think it’s something they understand is going to help them market the area.
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.
