fine. Operators will also have to provide des- ignated parking areas for their vehicles. When briefed on the proposed rules last month, City Council member Jesse Moreno said if Dallas is going to be so strict with dockless vehicle parking, it should be just as strict about other vehicles, including cars. He said he supports the dockless vehicle parking rules, but told the Department of Transportation: “We continue to have vehi- cles, trucks and cars parked on our Dallas downtown city sidewalks. If we’re going to have these same rules and implementations for our scooters, we need to do the same thing with our vehicles that are illegally parked, obstructing our [Americans with Disabilities Act] access points and our side- walks, especially in our urban core.” The rules also present new restrictions courtesy Bird production of videos that cast O’Rourke in a negative light.” At the meet-and-greet, Gonzales had hoped to film an exchange between O’Rourke and a conservative YouTuber. The suit claims that Cano suddenly stepped in, grabbing Gonzales’ hand and attempting to pry her phone away. Gonzales repeated “don’t touch my phone,” the suit continues. From there, the Dallas po- lice officer allegedly “shoved Gonzales down the stairs/ramp” that led away from the stage where O’Rourke stood. She says that’s when she first realized that the person who allegedly pushed her was an officer. “Upon learning this, Gonzales became more frightened,” the suit states. “Prior to learning that the person who grabbed and pushed her was a police officer, Gonzales in- tended to call the police for help, but seeing that the person was a police officer, Gonza- les felt she had nowhere to turn for help.” Gonzales asked the officer for her badge number, and she provided it before walking away, the lawsuit states. Then, another offi- cer appeared and the conservative journalist asked why his colleague had “put her hands” on her “so hard.” Gonzales alleges that the first officer hadn’t asked her to leave before getting physical and that attendees weren’t told to refrain from filming. The suit notes that at the meet-and-greet, many others had their phones out to record, and that O’Rourke’s speech was also livestreamed. In addition to her assault claims, Gonza- les alleges that her constitutional rights were violated. A Dallas police spokesperson said the de- partment doesn’t comment on pending liti- gation, and a representative for the city declined to respond to Gonzales’ allegations. An email request sent to O’Rourke’s team was unreturned by publication time. Texas Scorecard claimed in April that Dallas County District Attorney John Creu- zot refused to hand over records related to the officer in question. Gonzales had re- quested body camera footage, which the de- partment reportedly said it didn’t have, and she also filed an officer complaint. Speaking with the Observer, Gonzales’ at- torney, Jonathan Gross, said the incident is part of a broader pattern where conservative Scooters might be back on Dallas streets as early as this fall. reporters are subjected to physical aggression while holding politicians’ feet to the fire. “[Gonzales] feels that right now, conser- vative journalists like herself are fair game, and there’s no accountability,” he said. Former President Donald Trump was known for deriding the media, with experts warning that his rhetoric could (and did) spark attacks against journalists. He was slammed by press freedom groups for “glori- fying violence against reporters” during a 2020 rally, Insider reported at the time. ▼ TRANSPORTATION GET READY TO SCOOT AGAIN N for the providers of these vehicles. One item the Department of Transportation wanted to tackle was the number of operators al- lowed in the city and how many vehicles they’d be allowed to deploy. The department says only three operators should be allowed, and to start, none could have more than 500 vehicles. If operators can meet certain metrics, primarily a low number of complaints, they may be able to increase their fleet by 250 ve- hicles every three months. But if an operator gets too many complaints, the city could pull back on the size of its fleet. Whatever the size, an operator can’t have more than 25% of its fleet in Dallas’ Central Business Dis- trict. Also, riders would be able to use the ve- hicles only between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. The City Council hasn’t voted yet to ap- DOCKLESS VEHICLES LIKE SCOOTERS COULD COME BACK TO DALLAS BY OCTOBER. BY JACOB VAUGHN early two years after they got the boot in Dallas, rental scooters and other dockless vehicles still aren’t al- lowed in the city. Dallas’ Department of Transportation has been working on re- launching the dockless vehicle program for some time now and recently proposed a new set of rules. These rules restrict the number of vehicles and where they can be used and stored. Under the proposed rules, you can’t ride them in pub- lic parks or plazas, on the State Fair of Texas grounds or on the sidewalks. In other words, you’d be able to use them only on the road, which isn’t too comforting considering the city’s track record on pedestrian safety. Briefed on the potential changes, City Council member Chad West said, “It’s hard to tell them to stay off the sidewalks and get on the roads when they feel like they’re go- ing to die when we’re on the roads because the driving is so unsafe.” One problem with dockless vehicles has been where they end up. Some riders would ditch them in inconvenient locations, like the middle of the sidewalk, lying on their side. That’s why users will now be required to take a photo of the vehicle when they’re done with it to ensure it was parked cor- rectly. If it wasn’t, the user could face a $20 prove the new dockless vehicles. The trans- portation department is still holding meetings and gathering comments from res- idents and operators. If City Council does approve the new rules and operators are willing to come back, dockless vehicles could hit city streets in October. ▼ ENVIRONMENT BEGONE, WEED L CITY PLANS TO USE CONTROVERSIAL HERBICIDE GLYPHOSATE TO RID WHITE ROCK OF TOXIC WATER HEMLOCK. BY JACOB VAUGHN ocal environmentalist Ben Sandifer reported to the city of Dallas on June 19 that he’d spotted water hemlock growing at White Rock Lake. He knew the plant presented trouble. If ingested, water hemlock, a toxic plant, can kill a person in a matter of minutes. Sandifer said he doesn’t make a habit of eating random plants he finds at White Rock Lake, but just touching it can cause irritation of the skin. The U.S. Department of Agriculture calls water hemlock “the most violently toxic plant that grows in North America.” The death Socrates in 399 BCE is often attrib- uted to poisoning with common hemlock, which is in the same family as the plant re- cently found at White Rock Lake. People who come in contact with the plant should call poison control. Sandifer said water hemlock, which can grow up to 3 feet tall and sprouts white flow- ers in an umbrella formation, has been at the lake for years, but it has taken off in the area this summer. “The plant, like a lot of stuff out in the wild, can have good years and bad years,” Sandifer said. This is apparently a good year for water hemlock in Dallas. So, the city is acting to re- move it from White Rock Lake, using a prod- uct called Rodeo, which contains glyphosate. This concerns Sandifer, who said the jury is still out on glyphosate’s effects on wildlife, “es- pecially in aquatic areas” like White Rock Lake. “Some people think the cure for this could be just as bad as the plant itself,” he said. Glyphosate is one of the most commonly used herbicides in history, according to the publication Environmental Health News. Though the chemical has been believed to have little to no effects on surrounding wild- life, there’s growing evidence this isn’t the case, the publication wrote in 2019. The chemical “may impact the metabolism, growth and reproduction of aquatic crea- tures and could be altering the essential gut bacteria of animals such as bees,” noted En- vironmental Health. But Sandifer said using the chemical will allow the city’s crews to have limited contact with the plant. Sandifer guessed that the water hemlock is likely more of a danger to exposed live- stock or unwitting passersby who may acci- dentally touch the plant as they spend time at the lake. However, it also resembles plants people regularly consume, Dallas forester Chris McMaster said. “The scary thing about this plant is it looks like a lot of other plants in the carrot family, so it looks like other root plants that people would usually go out and forage and consume,” McMaster said. As the city’s forester helping address harmful wildlife in Dallas, McMaster said, “I don’t look to chemicals first.” He said the city generally tries to use fewer chemicals in instances like this. For example, products containing glyphosate haven’t been used at White Rock Lake in more than three years, McMaster said. “This kind of presents a unique scenario for us,” he said. The plant is just too toxic to remove without chemicals, he said. Removing the plant mechanically could cause the toxin in the plant to spread beyond White Rock Lake, exposing workers and surrounding communities, McMaster explained. “Even if we went and removed it mechanically, it would just pop up again through that root system,” he said. “The benefit of using glyphosate is it will kill the plant all the way through the root system.” But he doesn’t want the glyphosate to spread either. McMaster said that’s why li- censed professionals will apply glyphosate only in the immediate areas where hemlock has been located. Across the board, McMaster said the city is trying to reduce its chemical application. When city workers do use chemicals, they want to make sure the application is local to the actual problem instead of applying it to a large area. “It’s going to be very localized. It’s going to be very selective. … You go to that site, you specifically spray that plant and nothing else – no other areas around it, no other plant material, just that specific plant.” The city has already started treating the area, but it could take weeks before the wa- ter hemlock is completely removed from White Rock Lake. 11 dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUT |ZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS DALLAS OBSERVER S OBSER MJNTH 28–AUONTT X, 014 O ULY XX–MGUSH 3 X, 2022
