Town Hall Meeting

I wanted to have a town hall meeting before the election on May 11th.  This meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 8th at 7:00 pm at the Lamar High School Auditorium.  The subject matter discussed is going to be the Arlington Aviation Program, Law Enforcement/Crime, and some of the things that are happening in the North.  What I really want to do mostly is talk to the residents of the north and listen to what is important to you and see what you are seeing in our neighborhoods.  It is valuable to our North Chief of Police, and myself that we improve the quality of life in District 1.  I can only do this by listening to you.

So please plan to come out and spend a little time with me on that evening.  I am not up for election this year so there will be no, "can I have your vote please".  Just a night of sitting and talking about what we need to do as a community, here in North Arlington.

The Boyz of Summer

Baseball season is back in full swing in this great baseball city.  (take that Josh)  Opening day was awesome!!  What a great game to watch on the first day of the season in Arlington.  Our little Rangers won their opener and went on to take 2 out of 3 in the home stand, against our arch rival Angels.  What was really sweet was the fact that the baseball fans of Arlilngton got their revenge served cold to Josh Hamilton.  He did it all by himself.  The first two games he went 0 for 11, with a batting average as low as .054.  In the third game of the stand he did get a couple of hits, but Kinsler's 3 run shot proved to be enough to win.  So Josh's impact was of little consequence.  At one point this weekend both Josh and Puljos were batting a combined 144 and costing the Angels over 45 million dollars worth of payroll this year. 

I'm excited about this year's season.  We do have a few holes in the line up but there are also several blinding bright spots.  All in all a beautiful weekend full of baseball, hotdogs, peanuts and beer.  It's going to be a long season, and I look forward to another remarkable year for the Rangers and the baseball fans of Arlington.

Short Term Rental Off The Table

Last night at the City Council Meeting, short term rentals were on the agenda, because this issue was tabled during the meeting on the 19th of March.  I made a motion to remove it from the table and place it on the floor.  I then made another motion to remove the item from the agenda.  What does all that mean and why on earth did I do that?

Essentially, I believe that there should be something on the books concerning short term rentals in Arlington.  But the meeting on the 19th of March proved to be very productive, concerning a rental in a certain neighborhood.  The owner of the property has agreed to meet and talk to the neighbors in the area.  Horaaay!  Finally we have some dialogue between the interested parties.  It is my sincere hope that this discussion will become productive in solving this problem.  In truth there was little support on the Council and if voted on it would be burried for a year before it could be revisited.  I did not want that scenario to play out.  By removing it from the agenda we could revisit the issue immediately if the talks weren't fruitfull.  I am very optimistic about the possibility of an agreeable outcome to this situation.

In the meantime I think that we know the addresses that are being offered as short term rentals.  We will contact these properties and leave information concerning their requirement to register with the city.  Then we can monitor the calls to service by our police and fire departments.  After this baseball and football season we will have a very good accounting of the problems encountered by neighbors of short term rentals.