Should we be worried about the water?

It hasn't rained much around here this spring, and summer's looking like it's going to be really dry. Our neighbors in places in Allen, Frisco and Little Elm are sounding alarms like they're going to dry up. And by the looks of Lavon Lake, they may be right. Many of our neighbors are already down to one-day-a-week watering. Meantime, the taps are full here in Flower Mound, or so I suppose. We're still on our regular rationing, which is "don't water between 10a and 6p, but go at it any other time". Is that going to change soon, if the rains don't come? Any insider knowledge?

Entrepreneurs - why I love 'em

For some reason, I'm attracted to entrepreneurs. No, not in that sense. But I enjoy their company, and I love quizzing them about how they started their business. I think my fascinated by people who are what I'm not. I'd love to own my own business, but I'm too stuck in the corporate world, too fascinated by the lure of a steady paycheck and working for one of the world's biggest, coolest companies.

I met an entrepreneur today in Dallas, and as usual, I peppered him with questions. Mr. Lucas is his name. He goes by Luke, and he's responsible for Luke's Locker, that great collection of stores for runners and walkers. He started his business decades ago out of the back of his car trunk, selling running shoes to friends of his who were part of a running club. He was selling Nike shoes even before Nike was called Nike. Very impressive guy, and like millions of Americans, he found his calling by starting his own business.

One of the first entrepreneurs I met in Flower Mound was Rich Schenck. I hope I've spelled his name right, and I hope I remember his story right. Rick, with his wife and parents, opened the UPS Store at 2499 and 3040, back in 1997 or 1998. We did a story with Rick on FOX 4 News back then -- part of a series on different ways to own your own business. Rick and his family bought into the old Mail Boxes Etc franchise, and I think now he owns a handful of stores. Another good story.

You tell me, who are the great entrepreneurs of Flower Mound? Who's built the biggest business from scratch? Who are the gods of small business and industry who live among us? Post a comment.

Grapevine moves toward light rail; why not Flower Mound?

Good article in this morning's DMN about Grapevine's move toward getting light-rail, as part of a deal with Fort Worth's T transit system.

It's a good move for Grapevine, considering they'd be part of a line that stretched in one direction from their downtown to downtown Fort Worth, and then on to SW Fort Worth. In the other direction, Grapevine will build an extension to the northside of DFW Airport, which would then connect this new Tarrant branch to an eventual extension of DART to the northside of the airport. All this could be in place by 2011 or 2012 or 2013.

Now I know Flower Mound's history of participating in mass transit projects. In and out of DART in the 1980's. Not supporting DCTA. You can debate the merits (or lack thereof) of either of these two specific projects all you like, and feel free to post comments here or blast me with e-mails. But wouldn't it be cool if we could tap right into that FW - Grapevine - Dallas line that could/should be coming here in 5 or 6 years?

On what set of tracks, you ask? There's no rail going that direction. Details, details. But wouldn't it be cool to have a rail line through Flower Mound that get us right to DFW Airport, or make a simple connection to either downtown Dallas or downtown FW?

I lived 5 years in Connecticut, and my wife rode the train every day from home to Grand Central Terminal. It was a 60-mile, 90-minute ride, but it sure beat having to navigate the Turnpike or the Merritt, and then the parkways in Westchester and the Bronx, just to fight all that great traffic in the city.

Light rail is where it's at, folks. This would be a good project to connect to, all things being equal.

DMagazine's suburban rankings -- FM is Top 10 again

Yet another strong finish for Flower Mound in D Magazine's ranking of Dallas-area suburbs. We're #8 this year, and in good company.

Their top 10:

1. Southlake
   
2. Parker
   
3. Highland Village
   
4. University Park
   
5. Highland Park
   
6. Colleyville
   
7. Trophy Club
   
8. Flower Mound
   
9. Hickory Creek
   
10. Murphy
    

UP and HP fell off the top of the list because of rising crime. And how does Highland Village rank above Flower Mound? Their survey notes the median household income in HV is about 10% higher than FM, and they're also excited about the new commercial development on their side of FM407 at FM2499. But I think they think that Highland Shores (a very nice neighborhood) is all that exists in Highland Village. I'm not trying to be a FM snob (maybe I am), but I'll put our all our neighborhoods against all theirs any day. The survey also applauds HV for its politics, which I think are downright hideous, mean and unprofessional -- far worse than Flower Mound's.

Two good stories I saw in the Canadian media -- part two, the urban sprawl

I wish I could give you a better link than a generic one for Avenue magazine, the Calgary equivalent to D Magazine. But, all I can do is link you to their site, because the articles I enjoyed reading in the May/June issue aren't on their website.

In the paper copy of the magazine, there were a series of articles talking about growth and sprawl in the Calgary area. We know a lot about sprawl in north Texas. In fact, the new issue of D Magazine ("rating the suburbs") now counts Prosper as a Dallas suburb. Prosper is north of Frisco!

The article included a series of satellite photos of Calgary, one a year dating back to 1999. Calgary is a booming prairie city that's about the same size as Dallas, without Fort Worth and all the suburbs. The city is eating up land in every direction as it tries to make room for all the people moving in. But as the city grows, it gets more difficult to get around, and there's a loss of important rural farmland too. The use of land is very inefficient -- not good for the environment, not good for the long-term maintenance of the community.

So what to do about that? The magazine makes note of cities like Portland, Oregon, where many years ago, the city leaders set strict guidelines to limit sprawl, and encourage "building up" instead of "building out". More efficiences for utilities and transportation and other public services, less traffic, better opportunities for business.

What does this have to do with Flower Mound? Perhaps not much, but I'm thinking out loud again. We too have strict development tools in place. We certainly prize our land. But are we acting as the best stewards of the gifts of land we've been blessed with? I think we should be actively offering a good mix of upscale housing options, including mid-rise or high-rise options for upscale residents. Put in the right location (ie Lakeside), I think they would add great value to our town (financially for one, as well as giving people a very convenient place to live and work, if they can work in a Lakeside office building). Have you seen the Grand Treviso hi-rise and lo-rise residential tower in the middle of Las Colinas? It's a hugely successful project that has added great value to that community, and it fits in perfectly with the high-end business-focused nature of that district.

I wonder what the Lakeside hotel and business district will look like in a year or two when it's under construction. To the consternation of some, the project will allow some full-time residents to live in the mid-rises to be built. But to do our part of stop the sprawl, adding more upscale high-rise residential would be a good step. But let's get the businesses built there first.

Two good stories I saw in the Canadian media -- part one, the strip mall

We just got back from a four time-zone trip that took us from DFW to Toronto to the Canadian/US Rockies and back home. While in Canada, I saw an interesting TV news story (on CBC, I think) and read an interesting series of articles in a Calgary equivalent to our local D Magazine, called Avenue Magazine. Unfortunately, I can't find links to either the story or the articles, so I'll have to paraphrase.

The CBC story was a lengthy feature on the network national news about the "lowly" strip mall, and its place in the business and social framework on a major city like Toronto. The strip malls featured in this story were older and had little, if any, architectural distinction. Some you might call rundown, and I don't think any of those featured in the story would be allowed to exist as they are in Flower Mound -- they were just too dumpy.

But we have our strip shopping centers here too -- lots of them. And some are comparitively very nice in terms of architectural styling, landscaping and the like. But still, I think at best they're a necessary evil. They're cheap to build, they're easy for businesses (particularly small businesses) to work in, and they're well suited for our auto-dependent residents, particularly out of the burbs like we are. But still, fundamentally they're ugly. They rarely add to the aesthetic appeal of a thoroughfare, and they tend to get dumpy pretty quickly after a few years, unless they're remodeled.

I'm not sure where this post is going. I'm just thinking out loud, and wishing we could build nicer facilities that would serve shoppers' needs and business needs equal or better to what the "lowly" strip mall provides for us now.

More tomorrow on the second story. Meantime, I'll throw out kudos to the strip center on the NW corner of 2499 and 1171, for their current remodeling project. Beyond that, the only strip center in Flower Mound that I like the looks of is the one that houses Red Hot & Blue on 2499, north of Forest Vista.

Pay more for recycling?

Did you get the summer issue of the Flower Mound town newsletter in the mail? Mine came today.

On the back, the Town is taking a poll. Would you pay $1.03 a month more on your water bill to swap recycling methods. With the new more-expensive service, you'd get a 95-gallon polycart (I guess just like your trash cart), in which you'd dump all your recyclable good. That polycart would be picked up once every 2 weeks, instead of the every-week service we currently get with the 18-gallon recycle bins.

I'm all for advances in recycling, and I'm all for making it easier for people to recycle. But it seems to me that the primary cost of this service is in the manpower required to pick up the recyclable materials, and not so much in providing an additional polycart. If we're cutting the pickup opportunities in half, why should we be paying more for that service? Seems like every-other-week service would be nominally cheaper than every-week service. Am I missing something?

The town wants your opinion, so e-mail them at townhall@flower-mound.com or cut out the form in the newsletter and bring it to Town Hall. Whether you e-mail your "vote" or drop it off, make sure to include your service address in your correspondence.

The newsletter says the Town will collate the results and present them to Town Council at a future meeting.

I'm back from vacation... will be back on the site in a few days

We just got back from a much-enjoyed vacation to a place where summer means temperatures stretch into the 70s on a warm day. Much different from here. See if you know where this photo was taken.



If you don't know but want to find out, or if you're really desperate to look at our family's vacation photos, click to my personal page at chipmahaney.com, but only if you're really desperate for something to do.

As soon as I spend a few more hours getting captions and other text on the family vacation pages, I'll get back to writing here. Should be fresh news on this site by midweek.

Hey, at least I didn't invite you over to my house to watch the big vacation slide slow, like families used to do with the neighbors in ages past.

Back in a few...

Meantime, I'm still looking for nominations for the Power (and Influence) Poll. Follow the link, read the comments that have been posted, add your own.

FIOS update - news for Flower Mounders

1. Check out new channel 35 on your FIOS service. That's the Town of Flower Mound channel (channel 15 on the old Comcast service). Am I just imagining, or does the signal on the FIOS Flower Mound channel look clearer than what we had with Comcast? Now I can watch Council meetings again!
   
   
2. Also, there's a new local weather channel on 49, which will compete with the Weatherplus local service on 850. I still liked having the radar/NWS radio channel on Comcast, but I like saving $20 a month on service even better - and that's why I'm on FIOS.
   
   
3. One more thing -- we have three dual-tuner DVR FIOS boxes in our house, and a fourth standard box (one-tuner, no HD capability). The standard box has consistently needed to be reset for some reason, requiring repeated calls to FIOS tech support. After the third reset request, I asked them what was going on. They said there was a bug in the programming for the standard FIOS box, and that it might be several weeks before it's fixed. After a little badgering on my part, they've allowed me to swap the defective standard box with a dual-tuner DVR box (so now I have four of those). They're giving it to me for free for six months. If I don't swap it after then, I'll be billed at the current rate for that box -- if they've fixed the bug by then.

Have you switched to FIOS? Did you save money? How's the service been at your house? Are you glad you switched?

What is it about Salernos?

This summer I'll be bringing back the annual Top 10 list of Flower Mound restaurants. You can read my personal restaurant rankings from 2005. For this year's list, I'll be soliciting your input. More on that later this summer.

For now, I want to ask about one restaurant in particular. Salernos -- a bona fide Flower Mound institution. We haven't been there in 6 or 7 years, mostly because we like going to Alfornos so much. We've been to Salernos twice for dinner, but a long time ago. Both times we didn't like what we ordered - although now I don't remember why.

My job: we'll make sure to visit there another time - perhaps later this month. Then I'll write an update.

Your job: tell me now why you like Salernos so much. Post a comment.

Citizen Budget Partners

For the past eight years, Flower Mound has asked a group of residents to take an active role in shaping the coming year's Town budget. As a journalist and not an accountant, I can't imagine anything less fun. That's why I'm thankful we have good volunteers to work with our smart and talented Town staff and council to take this process on. The more people who give advice and provide oversight, the better off we all are.

There's a good article in this week's Messenger about Flower Mound's Citizen Budget Partners. Thank you folks for serving. Let us know how it's going, and where the toughest choices will have to be made.

Southside update #2: our first visit to Culver's

We finally got a chance to see what was causing the packed parking lots and the long drive-thru lines.

Culver is a fast-serve family-oriented restaurant that has a pretty good variety of foods from your basic food groups: hamburgers, fries and ice cream. They have several speciality entrees and sandwiches as well for those who like those are trying to eat healthy or just want some variety.

Our family enjoyed the comfortable setting. The decor equates roughly to a Wendys. The food was good. The kids' meals came with a free cup of their custard (which is more or less really good ice cream). Everyone went home happy, and we'll come back for sure.

Southside update #1: The New Tom Thumb

Where else but Flower Mound Road would you find a review of a grocery store?

As I've mentioned before on these pages, I've been fiercely loyal to the Tom Thumb on 2499 and 3040 ever since it opened almost a decade ago. I've had my gripes with service there on occasion, but I've always found it to be a better place to shop than the Albertson's across the street.

This weekend, Tom Thumb South (as I call it) will have a Grand Re-Opening ceremony to celebrate their months-long store reconstruction project. It looks gorgeous inside, with all new signage, colors and design features, and with a new lighting scheme that's quite a bit dimmer than the pre-construction lights, but one that adds warmth to the store.



They did a terrific job on the look, and they've added several nice touches all around. But there are several changes I do not like.

• There seems to be fewer products and less selection in the new store. This has actually been a trend at Tom Thumb ever since Safety assumed control of the chain a few years ago. Fewer choices among different brands, and less of a product selection, as the store seems to focus more on those items that would sell faster. This is my impression only, not backed up by any facts, but I've shopped there hundreds of times in the past 10 years, so I think my guess is good.
  
• Perhaps this is a short-term construction issue, but there have been more and more "sold-out" situations at the store lately. Maybe they've been keeping inventory low to allow extra room for construction and for the relocation of several product categories to new homes on different aisles. But it's been frustrating of late to be looking for some of the advertised sales and find them out of stock.
  
• You now have to unload your cart on every checkout lane. Used to be, only the express lanes had this requirement. In the other lanes, your checkout clerk would unload your basket while he/she scanned each item. It's not a big deal for me to help with the process, but I used to watch each item cross the scanner to check for pricing errors (and those occur with some regularity). You can't do that now if you're unloading your cart.
  

I wish Tom Thumb South the best. The renovations will help the store compete better when the new Kroger Signature store opens in a few months.