6 August 13 - 19, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents CBRE, the consulting group that has largely steered the City Hall “Love It or List It” conversation, estimates the cost of mov- ing 911 and emergency management ser- vices to a new building at $40 million. That number would get the city “a modern design criteria,” and bring things up to “what the industry best practices are.” And even if the issue has not yet earned the full-throated opposition that nearly every other City Hall-adjacent agenda item has inspired, not all are convinced that this is necessary. Dur- ing the June 10 council meeting, representative Paul Ridley questioned whether the types of extreme events Oden described truly necessi- tated such a drastic change. “It just seems that if that is going to cost us $40 million for the off chance that [an emergency] may happen once or twice in 10 years, that’s a really low capital investment priority,” Ridley said. In this issue, there’s one more key consid- eration that the horseshoe will have to make. As currently proposed, the public safety fa- cility funding needs include $40 million for emergency management’s relocation, but the bulk of the $441 million bond would be used for upgrades to Dallas Police facilities such as the law enforcement training center and crime scene and evidentiary storage. Dallas voters already approved funding for the train- ing center as a part of the 2024 bond, although an $82 million funding gap remains that this theoretical November bond could fill. Issuing additional debt comes at a cost. Dallas’ Chief Financial Officer Jack Ireland has warned that moving forward with the proposed November bond package would delay some projects that were included in the 2024 bond for an additional year. Delay- ing projects that the community has asked for and voted for, and the risk of construc- tion cost escalations that come with time, have to be considered. “We will have to make some hard choices,” said council member Kathy Stew- art. “These decisions have a huge impact on our residents and what their expectations are, what their neighborhoods need, what they’re waiting for. … I think we have to al- ways keep our residents in mind, and under this particular scenario, I don’t know that they fare particularly well.” ▼ ELECTIONS IN HIS DREAMS TALARICO OUTLINES ECONOMIC AGENDA, PITCHES ‘NEW AMERICAN DREAM’ IN ARLINGTON BY AUSTIN WOOD D emocratic Senate nominee James Talarico pitched himself as an equal- izer as he unveiled his economic platform in Arlington Aug. 5. “We need a new American Dream,” Ta- larico reiterated several times at the city’s e-sports stadium. The evening campaign stop marked the launch of the “New Ameri- can Dream Tour,” which will center on his economic agenda amid a contested race against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. Talarico was introduced by several North Texas officials, including Arlington Mayor Jim Ross, U.S. Rep. Marc Veasey and Democratic District Attorney candidate Tiffany Burks. No- tably, former Tarrant County Judge Glen Whit- ley, a Republican, also endorsed the candidate. The night before, Paxton held an event at a restaurant in Allen where he laid out his own economic priorities. He called for an expansion of child tax credits, tax deduc- tions for living expenses such as housing and healthcare, and the permanent exten- sion of Trump’s savings accounts as part of his agenda, as previously reported by The Dallas Morning News. Quick to point out the address was deliv- ered in the “American Dream City,” Talarico spoke on affordability, wealth inequality and green energy in his remarks. “We deserve the chance to chase our dreams, to pursue happiness,” Talarico said. “That’s how it used to be in this country, and it can be that way again.” Broken dream? The candidate harkened back to transfor- mational economic initiatives such as The New Deal and Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society while speaking about his economic agenda. Those programs, he said, created an affordable, upwardly mobile society with a vibrant middle class that has become a dis- tant memory for too many Americans. “Republicans and some Democrats sold the false gospel of trickle-down economics. That the best way to grow the economy is to let the rich get richer and forget about ev- erybody else, that the best way to motivate wealthy people is to give them money, and the best way to motivate the rest of us is to take it away,” he said. He cast the blame for much of that past’s dissolution on corporate interests and gov- ernment corruption. While most of the ad- dress focused on his own agenda, he did throw a few barbs at his opponent, who he said is beholden to wealthy interests over the welfare of working citizens. “If you are struggling to afford groceries, if you’re struggling to afford gas, if you’re strug- gling to afford housing, childcare, and pre- scription drugs — the things that we need to survive — it’s not because you’re lazy,” Ta- larico said. “It’s not because you made bad choices; it is because the system has been rigged against you by billionaire megadonors and corrupt politicians like Ken Paxton.” Talarico focused further on the ultrawea- lthy while highlighting cost-of-living strug- gles facing much of the population. He specifically called out Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and “a resident who became the world’s first trillionaire” for controlling un- precedented wealth as families struggle. Te- sla founder and noted Trump donor Elon Musk, a Texas resident, earned the distinc- tion in June as SpaceX stock soared. Trump-era tax breaks for corporations and the ultrawealthy were permanently ex- tended by the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” in 2025, something which Talarico said he would support repealing He also called for closing tax loopholes for billionaires, strengthening labor unions, restricting cor- porate money in politics and ending Super- PACs as part of his address. “[Billionaires] don’t see us as Democrats and Republicans; they don’t see red or blue,” he said. “They only see green. They see us as people to rip off. They see us as one oppos- ing team. So we might as well start acting like one.” Affordability and education Affordability is set to be a key factor in most races around the country this year. A recent Gallup poll found that 55% of Ameri- cans report recent price increases caused fi- nancial difficulties, while a recent Fox News poll on the race found that 37% of Texas vot- ers consider inflation and high prices to be the issue they care most about. In turn, Talarico spent much of the speech on how Texas families are struggling financially and how he would reduce the cost-of-living burden. Like Paxton, he called for an expansion of child tax credits, al- though unlike the Republican nominee, he also made universal childcare part of his platform. Median-income families spent anywhere from 8.9-16% of their household income on child care in 2022, according to the latest available data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Other priorities Talarico listed included: • $1 trillion cost-of-living tax credit for the middle class • Raising the minimum wage, expanding overtime pay • Canceling medical debt • Capping high interest card rates • Investment in college and vocational education • Paid family leave In a state where public education is fac- ing an increasingly uncertain future, Ta- larico evoked the memory of another famous Texan while calling for investment. “Like me, Lyndon Johnson was a Texas teacher before he ran across,” he said. “LBJ made the largest federal investment in America’s children and families, larger than anything we had seen in the history of this country — Head Start, Title One, Medicare, Medicaid. When we take back LBJ’s seat, we can pass an LBJ-sized investment in public schools across the country.” Energy and technology Last legislative session, Texas Republicans authored several bills targeting renewable energy. While all ultimately failed, advocates warned that each could have hamstrung the industry with excessive red tape. Talarico called on lawmakers to “stop at- tacking our growing renewable sector” and said that Texas needs a balanced energy in- dustry to continue being a leader nationwide. “We should partner with our oil and gas industry so Texans can stay an energy leader in the 21st century, just like they were in the 20th century,” he said. “Texans should le- verage our energy expertise to lead America toward a cleaner, cheaper future.” Artificial intelligence, as it increasingly is in everyday life, was also a topic of discussion. Mike Brooks Dallas police respond to a call in Deep Ellum. Calling 911 for 911 from p4 Austin Wood A large crowd attended a recent James Talarico rally in North Texas
