10 July 25 - 31, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents unfair. During the pandemic, he dedicated “all of his budget” to the Belmont’s roofs, parapets and sidings to ensure structural in- tegrity. The 2021 Snowmageddon freeze re- sulted in plumbing issues that “destroyed the interiors of more than half of the rooms.” “That’s what disrepair has happened,” he said. During the July 18 designation commit- tee meeting, Ford sat with his brow fur- rowed and lips slightly downturned. When asked to elaborate on his thoughts he often rubbed his face, as if exhausted. He told the committee he has spent nearly 10 years “try- ing to figure out what [the Belmont] wanted to be.” He says he wants people back on the property, but feels the landmark designation process may be throwing a wrench into his timeline. When we asked if it would be one year, or two, or three, before the Belmont is open once again, he said “I can’t make any crystal ball predictions.” And, while he admitted to us that he has come to terms with the fact that he might not be the best person for the hefty job, he also said he’s turned down over 30 inter- ested buyers whose vision for the Belmont’s future “didn’t pass the smell test.” Anderson says, at one point, he wanted back in, but Ford declined. “I met with Jordan Ford several times … and said, ‘Look, let me help you. I’ll help you for nothing.’ Because I didn’t want to see it wrecked,” Anderson said. “An old property, unattended to, deteriorates fast. …. I suspect they’re going to say they can’t sell it, it’s de- teriorating now, so they need to tear it down and sell the land. Build a high-rise or some- thing.” Ford told the City Plan Commission in 2019, and reiterated this summer, that he has no plans to tear down the Belmont. He has said numerous times over the years that his intention is to reopen the hotel. But it’s diffi- cult, when listening to Ford — a man who seems brimming with ideas and money but has yet to execute on the promises he has made since taking over and struggles to artic- ulate what the path forward looks like — to know what is actually happening at the hotel on the hill. (“With Jordan, sometimes, you have to pull the words out of him,” Suzan Kendron, a land use attorney with Jackson Walker, who is representing Ford during his dealings with the city, told the committee.) In city meetings, he said he has re- sponded to city notices, such as alerts to fix broken windows or cover graffiti, in a timely manner in his near-decade at the Belmont’s helm. Other promises for major renovations are harder to verify, unless visible from the street, and it has become neighborhood gos- sip just to see a light on in a room, or to see a person walking through the property. There have now been multiple iterations of partners with development plans that “didn’t work out” on Ford’s end. There have been multiple attempts to pass an ordinance that would preserve the hotel that fell flat on the city’s end. And so the Belmont sits, and, like a dere- lict gambler deep in an insurmountable hole, Ford seems to believe he just needs a little more time before he hits big. ▼ PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION FEWER DART DOLLARS MORE CITIES VOTE TO CUT DART FUNDING. BY JACOB VAUGHN S everal North Texas cities have been questioning their contributions to the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system and whether they’re getting their money’s worth from the partnership. Now, two more cities have signaled they, too, have doubts about DART. In votes last week, city councils in Car- rollton and Farmers Branch voted to re- duce DART’s funding. As it stands now, every dollar spent in member cities is taxed 1% to help fund the transit system. That’s the way it’s been since 1983. But the two cities approved resolutions Tuesday to sup- port capping DART contributions at three- quarters of a cent for every dollar. They join Plano, Rowlett and Irving, all of which passed similar resolutions. These resolu- tions are symbolic in nature as only the DART board can vote to reduce funding for the transit system. Every year, Farmers Branch contributes $22–$23 million, Jawaria Tareen, the city’s deputy city manager, said at a city council meeting. DART’s estimated revenue for 2024 is $870.8 million. Tareen said the city has concerns about the reliability, quality and fiscal responsibility of DART, along with the system’s cleanliness and safety. She said the city was trying to determine whether taxpayers are receiving a value cor- responding to their investment and whether Farmers Branch is subsidizing the system for other member cities. If Farmers Branch capped DART contributions at three-quar- ters of a cent, it could save $5–$6 million ev- ery year, which it could invest in other projects. “The city of Farmers Branch is not drop- ping out of DART,” Farmers Branch Terry Lynne said at the city council meeting. “We’re not eliminating DART service.” The mayor said he wanted to look at this as a re- alignment of DART participation. He said some cities use DART more than others, and some DART services work better for Farm- ers Branch than others. “So, we need to take a good hard look at this,” Lynne said. There are also some other municipalities that may want to join DART, something that other member cities have been pushing for. “This is not anything new and we are not alone in taking action,” Lynne said. Farmers Branch voted unanimously to lower its contributions to DART. Carrollton voted to do the same just hours before. However, there was a bit more pushback on the city council. Carrollton city council member Daisy Palomo wondered if residents who use DART will have to make up for the lost funding. Carrollton Mayor Steve Babick couldn’t say whether or not this would happen. Mayor Pro Tem Richard Fleming took issue with the DART cuts being part of a broader transportation initiative the city is taking on called Transit 2.0. But the city attorney said Carrollton was just asking for the reduction as part of this transpor- tation initiative. Fleming was the only city council member who voted against the resolution. DART sent a letter to both cities asking them to defer the vote and saying that re- duced funding would only make the transit system worse. Jeamy Molina, executive vice president and chief communications officer for DART, told the Observer in an email earlier this month that any reductions would have dev- astating effects on communities, businesses and the most vulnerable populations in cit- ies that rely on the transit system for jobs, healthcare, education and more. The cuts could result in DART employees losing their jobs and increased wait times for service. ▼ EDUCATION ‘GUT WRENCHING’ THERE ARE THOUSANDS OF HOMELESS STUDENTS ACROSS DFW. BY JACOB VAUGHN J ames Thomas with the Plano Inde- pendent School District is a foster care liaison for the McKinney-Vento pro- gram. He said during a panel discussion on student homelessness in Dallas recently that when he first set out to tackle student home- lessness in Plano, he thought it would be an easy task. “It [homelessness] doesn’t exist. I’m not going to have to do anything with that,” he said of his corner of Plano. But he soon real- ized he was sorely mistaken. “I did not like what I encountered,” he said. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assis- tance Act created a program to help home- less youth gain access to education across the country. Homeless youth in school are identified through a student residency ques- tionnaire. In 2022, there were 966 McKinney-Vento students identified in Plano ISD. The fol- lowing year, there were hundreds more. This is likely an undercount, as it can be dif- ficult to identify homeless students because they don’t often want to be identified. Thomas said students may be fearful that their school might call CPS on their parents if staff find out they’re homeless. That’s not what would happen, though, Thomas said. He and the others on the panel, which included representatives from several other school districts, said they come at student homelessness without judgment and just try to help youth where they are. Carrie Stevens, another McKinney- Vento foster care li- aison with Plano ISD, said there were 1,365 homeless stu- dents in the district last year. “It’s a little bit frightening,” Thomas said of the number. He said school staff should be trained to spot telltale signs of stu- dent homelessness. The more homeless students a district can identify, the more likely it is to get resources to help. Summer Martin, director of counseling for the Richardson Jessica Waffles Musician Sarah Jaffe peformed at the Belmont Hotel, once a hip venue, in 2019. Unfair Park from p8 Jacob Vaughn Reduced funding could mean more expensive trips for riders.