BILL CHERRY'S GREATEST DALLAS PARK CITIES REAL ESTATE BLOG: September 2008

I well recall my daddy explaining to me during my high school days why business monopolies are frequently a bad thing -- and why the government had to take steps to make them illegal in many cases.

And when I went on to college, that was reinforced.  And when I got my first job in a bank, that law was what kept banks domiciled in, say, Texas, from having branches in Louisiana and Kentucky and California.

Well over the past forty years those laws have been picked at and amended and watered down until they are not only impotent but have little value.  It's how we have Walmarts and Wells Fargo Banks and enormous brokerage houses that are now public corporations rather than partnerships as they were back in the days when it was Merrill, Lynch, Pierce, Fenner and Smith.

You are all familiar with the toll the American economy is taking now, a very serious toll that would be a blip if it weren't for monopolies.

Here's another that is closer to home:  There are three major carpet manufacturers in the US.  They have systematically acquired the names and good will of smaller mills, so that often times while the public thinks it is buying a premium brand and paying the price for it, it is just buying carpet from one of those three manufacturers.

So you pay the premium price.  You're told that brand of carpet has a reputation and warranty for being so good that if anything happens to it that is unsatisfactory within the first ten years, it will be replaced.

That warranty may have some teeth in it if your retailer was one of the home improvement monopolies like Lowes and Home Depot, but it is nothing more than a blip if your retailer is a local store.

The local stores turn in the claim, but they have no leverage whatsoever over the mills.  So what's the bottom line here?  One monopoly supports another monopoly.  The customer loses if he negotiates his carpet purchase from his neighbor's store and it turns out to be faulty goods.

See how many examples of why monopolies are a bad thing......

Since World War II, Galveston has had increasing numbers of federally funded housing projects for the poor.  One reason is that the city has a huge state medical school and hospital known to Galvestonians as UTMB but that stands for University of Texas Medical Branch.

Loads of charity patients are treated there every year, in fact they move there from all over Texas for free treatment.  And it's now to the point that the hospital is continually finding itself in the red and looking for more money.

WELL HERE'S WHAT THIS BLOG POST IS REALLY ALL ABOUT:  You are probably aware that when the Federal Government passed building safety requirements, handicap service provisions, and that new buildings must be built above the 100 year floodplain, that it has excluded itself.

What's good for the goose is apparently not good for the gander in "Federal Government speak."

Consequently there are federal buildings all over the US that would not meet the specifications required of private sector owners.

Soooooo, most of the federally funded housing projects in Galveston were built at grade, and grade is slightly above sea level.  And rather than tear them down and rebuild them above the floodplain when they've become functionally obsolete, they have just remodeled them. 

So after Ike, all of those poor people came home to find all of their possessions destroyed and no place to go.  And to get federal assistance (FEMA), you must have an address.  But wait. they no longer have addresses!

No one was there to help them...many are elderly and disabled.

Congratulations to the U.S. Government.  This is one more example of why government's involvement in our lives must be reduced and not expanded. 

I suppose families in every town across America make a conscious effort to look for activities that they can do together.   Our family has for generations.

<<===DALLAS WIND SYMPHONY

And one of the first things that quickly moves to the top of the list when trying to choose is what the total cost will be.  This is especially a consideration when the event could be a fine arts performance or series.

Big bands and orchestras have been dribbling away a bit at a time since the end of World War II, and classical orchestras, ballets and the like have followed right along.  It all has to do with the cost of salaries for the performers. 

Fortunately, this one has some strong sponsors, and that keeps the price of tickets down.

So here's a special way to have fun as a family and to experience superb classical music performed in Dallas' famed Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center. 

The Dallas Wind Symphony is far from "your grandmother's stuffy, fussy concert....We make it our job to raise the roof, to surprise you, to make you laugh," the current brochure points out. 

This series begins tonight, September 23^rd, and the title of the program is "Globetrotters."

It's pieces from across the globe:  Slavonic Rhapsody. Suite Francaise, Chant Funeraire for an example. 

October 21^st is "Band's Greatest Hits": November 18 is "Americans We," with Stampede, American Salute, Ava Maria, Tull's Rhapsody mad Bernstein's Suite from On the Waterfall. 

January 13^th is "Wonderwinds"; February 10^th is Big Band Boogie with the music of Glenn Miller, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman - you get the idea.

March 17^th's concert is titled "Marches in March," April 8^th's is "Song and Dance," and December 22^nd is the annual and very famous "Christmas at the Meyerson."  That one's our favorite.  

And the final program is July 4^th.  "A Star-Spangled Spectacular," flag waving and everything. 

Season's tickets range from $84 to $245 a person.  Let me quickly add that I haven't found any bad seats at the Meyerson, so you can do just fine with the 84 buck ones.  That works out to $12 per person per concert. 

OK, here's how to order by telephone: 214 528-5576.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

214 503-8563

800 314-7110

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas!

I admit that for the major portion of my life I was overly interested in technology, especially electronics, and ESPECIALLY, especially anything having to do with broadcasting, whether receiving or sending.

And I've always been handy with tools, primarily because I like doing that kind of stuff.  I think I got that from my mother's daddy who was quite a craftsman.

But in recent years, say the past ten, I've let the new innovations get away from me.  For an example, I have no need for an I-Pod.  I probably have nearly 1,000 CDs of the music I love, and a stereo that's big, I'll admit, but will drown out any kid's booming car driving down the street.

Patty has been after me for more than a year to upgrade from the old Sony 24 inch TV set that we've had for a very long time.  She wanted a flat screen high definition TV that could be mounted on the wall.  "The grand kids expect us to have one, and it'll be a great way for us to watch "Dancing with the Stars," she told me.

So between her and her son, Randy, they figured out which TV we should get, how big it should be...the whole works.  My only criteria was that it had to be a Sony.  So they ordered a Sony KDL-4024100 from Walmart's web site.  It's a 40 inch job.

It arrived and after we unpacked it, I learned that it didn't come with the parts to mount it on the wall, and further, if you want the one Sony sells, you're looking at about $225 for 5 or so pieces of metal and a handful of screws. 

So I went shopping.  I bought a wall mount from Fry's.  $125. Millions of parts and a quadrillion ways to mix and match the parts so it would fit the customer's TV.  It didn't fit ours.  Then I bought another style from Target.  $100.  Half as many parts, but it was too small to reach across the back of the TV.

After church I stopped by Home Depot to rent a tile wet saw.  While I was there, on a whim I looked to see if they had a contraption to hang our new TV.  They did, and I hung it today by myself (important because most of them are so awkward that they require two people).  There are only four parts plus a wide selection of screws so that there will be the right ones for every TV.  It cost $125.

So I'm writing this piece to save you from misery.  Buy the Space Saver Mounting System, Model #30630.  If you know how to use a level and an electric drill, you can easily and quickly wall mount your flat screen TV.  And thank Home Depot for carrying them.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

214 503-8563

1 800 314-7110

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

One of the things I've learned throughout life is that everyone fancies himself as a pretty good critic of restaurants.  However, oft times those opinions and recommendations are based on limited experience.

In my case, for an example, I've had the good fortune of sampling dinner in fine restaurants in most major cities throughout the US, but I've never been to a movie-style dimly lit cafe across the Atlantic.

But I would like to tell you about two Italian restaurants that are within about one song or so on the car radio from our home in Dallas' Lake Highlands.  We think they're terrific.

First and foremost is Roma's.  It's near the corner of Walnut Hill and Greenville Avenue.  God only knows what the original creator of this building had in mind -- concrete floor, crazy kind of booths and a bar inside, and a cockamamie sort of suspended covered deck that has loads of charm but looks like something my Uncle Joe would have built from scrap lumber one Sunday afternoon after church.

<<=== ROMA'S ITALIAN - Upper Greenville Near Walnut Hill

Nevertheless, Roma's has wonderful food.  It really does.  Their sauces are especially good, and the price probably comes in lower than every good Italian restaurant in Dallas.  Patty and I go there frequently.  Of course our favorite waitress is a charming 25-year older direct from Germany rather than Italy, but then I told you this place is cockamamie.  Reservations aren't needed. Roma's, 7402 Greenville Avenue, 214 373-0500.

Patrizio is in tony Highland Park, in fact Highland Park Village.  So naturally it attracts those who want to be seen.  They linger over discussions about Chanel and the Cowboys at the bar as they sip the latest version of a cocktail.  Some actually eventually end up at a table for four for dinner.

But pay no mind to them.  The rest of us come from both the Park Cities and the rest of Dallas for the wonderful northern Italian fare.  In fact Patrizio is one of our very favorite restaurants in Dallas.  And here's the interesting part.  Dinner here runs about twenty bucks a person.

And if you're in the mood, you can eat on the patio.  It's fun as long as you're prepared to accept that Highland Park mosquitoes sting, too, even though it's common knowledge that they have teeny diamond cocktail rings from Harry Winston's on their little nail-polished stingers.

Patrizio is at 25 Highland Park Village.  Reservations appear to be taken only when the staff is in the mood.  214 522-7878.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

1 800 314-7110

Galveston, Texas is a barrier island. 

And it is where I was born and lived for most of the first 65 years of my life; the last three in Dallas. 

I know the island so well -- its past and its present -- that for 10 years I wrote its history and its people's stories through weekly columns for the Galveston paper.  And I told them on camera for a Houston TV station's news reports.  

I continue to write them for the monthly editions of Texas Escapes magazine.

My book, Bill Cherry's Galveston Memories (Van Jus Press 2000) has sold thousands. 

Today I face thoughts and ideas that I have glossed over in the past.  

After 108 years, with the visit of Ike, the Island has seen destruction that would likely be on par with the famous 1900 Storm if it weren't for the many-mile seawall that was completed in 1902, and that has been added to several times since.  

But the facts remain the facts.  God and nature never meant for life and property to be safe on barrier islands.

Yet enormous amounts of building has been allowed to continue, year after year, on Galveston Island, and most of it no better protected from destruction than those that went down in 1900.   

You see, during my lifetime, massive amounts of residences, primarily vacation homes, have been built on those parts of the island that are at water's edge and that are not protected by a seawall.  Some of those homes cost $2 million or more.   Today, we find many have been reduced to toothpicks by Hurricane Ike that came for a visit on September 12-13. 

Zillions of dollars worth of toothpicks that will be the only collateral for insurance claims.  And all of them, even those that survived without extensive damage should have never been built.  Not one of them.  

God and nature never meant for life to be safe on barrier islands.  

And then there is the machoism, the machoism I once subscribed to.  "I'm not afraid.  I'm not evacuating.  I'll ride it out at home."  Another idiotic and a very selfish decision.  

So what's the purpose of my piece?  It is to ask that the public, mortgage lenders and property insurers will discontiue supporting further building on land in Galveston that is not quasi-protected by a seawall. 

And it is to ask that the state pass legislation that will allow the governor to put entire areas under martial law when a threat like Ike is near; thus giving the right to law enforcement officers to arrest those who refuse to leave.  

After all, why should the public pay for the poor financial decisions of the cavalier?  Why should public servants risk their own safety to straddle idiotic personal decisions of others gone bad?  

In the meantime, how will this mess that has been left behind ever be sorted out?  How will life ever return to normal for those who live on Galveston Island?  I pray it will and that it will soon.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS DALLAS

214 503-8563

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

            Don't tell me I'm playing some sort of reverse race card when I tell you that for the majority of my life, I've been totally sure that barbequing is a talent God only doled out to a handful of black men.

            I've eaten barbeque in shacks with dirt floors, shacks with wooden floors surrounding a big rectangular brick barbeque pit.  I've eaten the savory meat on Mrs. Baird's white bread and her hamburger buns.  And I've eaten barbeque dinners on paper plates at picnic tables under massive oak trees. 

            Sometime with a beer that had been chilled in an ice chest.  Other times with a fresh piece of just-baked lemon meringue pie for the ending accruement. 

            But I learned early on that if there was a white fellow at the pit, the result, regardless of the proper ambiance, was going to be substandard. 

            The barbeque stands in my hometown of Galveston that excelled were named Honey Brown's, Oliver's, and Big Heavy's.  But they are long-gone, the proprietors having passed away and the recipes not left behind. 

            But it doesn't really matter anyway since I'm in Dallas, home of barbeque served in stage-set restaurants.  Saddles hanging from the ceilings, fake barn wood walls, kids not over twenty years old cooking and serving the stuff through cafeteria-like lines. 

            This isn't barbeque, just like a Big Mac isn't a hamburger!

            But I want you to know that I have FOUND real barbeque.  You can smell it smoking in the early mornings if you are anywhere near the corner of Lover's Lane and Greenville Ave.  

            You follow your nose, but if you're not careful, you'll drive right by its source.  It's in the center of an old strip center with only a handful of parking spaces, and a teeny sign high up on a pole.  Who would have ever guessed this was it?  But it is!  Baker's Rib.  Try it.  Take some home.

                                                                 4844 Greenville Ave, Dallas - (214) 373-0082

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 43rd Year Selling Texas

214 503-8563

1 800-314-7110

            When the boat arrived in Dallas from the Old Country (Galveston), dropping Patty, me, our dog Emmielou and our cat Ethyl off to begin our new life in the New World, we were hardly prepared for one important aspect of the move.

            Those we had depended on for years - our minister, plumber, electrician, painter, butcher, dry cleaners - not only weren't on the boat with us, but had no plans to move to Dallas to continue serving the Cherrys. 

            So we've spent the last three years looking to find those in Dallas who provide the superb services we were used to in Galveston.  (Oddly, when we got here we found that our Wells Fargo banker, Damion Phillips, had just moved here, too.)

            If you've read my recent Active Rain blog entries, you know that I've been writing for Dallas homeowners a series of names and phone numbers of these special people so that you won't have to go through the Cherry's learning curve unguided.

            One of the first chores when we bought our Dallas home was getting window coverings for it, and we thought 2 inch plantation shutters were the appropriate look.  By accident we found a company that builds shutters in Dallas.  There factory is about a ten minute drive from our house, so we went to see their products in their show room. 

            Sunburst Shutters is all but an anomaly in today's world.  They send their own people - in our case, Michael, Mike and Steve - out to measure each window.  Within the month, they are ready to install.  In our case, two nice guys, Ron and Edgar, did that for us.

<<===Ron and Edgar - Sunburst Shutters

            Sunburst Shutters custom products, made from a patented substance that looks, feels and has the weight of wood, but doesn't warp, have done more toward adding to the charm of our home than any one thing we have done.  And honestly, Patty and I are more than convinced that they are fairly priced.

            While Sunburst Shutters has factories in a number of cities, Dallas' is run by Bruce Jones.  He deserves the credit for making Dallas' Sunburst Shutters what it is.

SUNBURST SHUTTERS

10900 PETAL, SUITE 100

214 343-2601

Investigate Sunburst and its products yourself.  If your research brings you to the same conclusion ours did for us, consider buying from them.  Of course, there is no way to know whether your experience will equal ours.  I can assure you that it can't possibly surpass it.

BILL CHERRY, REALTORS

DALLAS

Our 43rd Year Serving Texas

214 503-8563

1 800-314-7110 -- 24 Hours