The aerial photo of Union Terminal Park in March’s magazine was discovered by Sally Rodriguez, the Dallas Park and Recreation Department’s unofficial historian. Her actual title is coordinator for the department’s planning, design and construction division, but when she took the job 11 years ago, some of her assignments sent her digging into file cabinets and closets, where she unearthed this photo and dozens of others like it that had been stashed away and forgotten.

A Q&A with Rodriguez appeared in March’s magazine for Lake Highlands, where Rodriguez lives, and tells more about her photo finds. Don’t miss future editions of the Oak Cliff Advocate for more of Rodriguez’s discoveries.

The city of Dallas recently approved the updated Dallas Bike Plan, which includes trail improvements and incorporating bike lanes into Dallas streets. It could take some time to see the changes because the city doesn’t have the millions needed to put the plan in place. But even without a bicycling infrastructure, cyclists and motorists can still coexist. There are already many people in our neighborhood proving that it’s possible to get around without a car. Cycling enthusiasts are eager to get others on bikes, but there are still some who think bikes don’t belong on the road and that any money spent on a bike plan is wasted. Advocate photo editor Turk recently talked with local bike advocates and critics and gets both sides of the story for our cover story of the March 2012 Oak Cliff Advocate.

At least someone is making money from garage sales: The city reports that it earned $186,450 from the $15 permit fee residents have been required to pay during the past fiscal year. Interestingly, according to the DMN blog, the city pays about $360,000 to police garage sales, which staffers say would be spent regardless of the permit fee.

According to the city briefing, more than 12,430 permits were issued, and the city also dished out 720 violation notices and 17 criminal citations (no idea what a criminal citation entails here).

Something I didn’t know: You’re restricted to one sign per garage sale, whether it’s on your yard or on a neighbor’s more visible yard (with their permission, of course). Meanwhile, no signs can be hung on city right of way (meaning signs, utility poles and other public property).

Councilwoman Angela Hunt suggested three potential changes to the ordinance:

1) Allow sales on front lawns, not just in garages (I think that horse has left the barn, at least from a practical standpoint, so changing the ordinance just makes sense);

2) First permit free but additional charge for second; and

3) Allow more than one sign (but still no right-of-way signs)

Like it or not, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is sure to become a symbol for Dallas. The trust’s outreach and development director tells us why.

COVER STORY | VIDEO: Everywhere you look in Oak Cliff, there’s two-wheeled transit. We’re the bicyclingest neighborhood in the city.

At this week’s East Kessler Park neighborhood meeting, Councilmember Scott Griggs will present Katherine Homan of Handley Drive a proclamation for having the city’s first comprehensive green home.

Homan and her late husband, Richard, envisioned and built the home long before the word “green” became trendy in construction lingo. We wrote about Homan and her neighborhood activism a little over three years ago, and also about the energy efficient home that was a labor of love for the Homans.

A story that appeared in the Dallas Morning News last October (that is no longer available online, for some reason) states that Homan pursued the city’s certification of the home to honor her late husband on what would have been his 70th birthday. Richard Homan, she says, “built a healthy house to live in that would be an example to the homebuilding industry about how a green, energy-efficient home could be built.” Other homes with similar characteristics were built around the same time as the Homans’, but Steve Saunders with TexEnergy Solutions, who helped found the Green Built Texas program, asserts that the Homan residence on Handley is first comprehensive green home built in Dallas.

Homan says that during the building her home “and until relatively recently, this house was not taken dead seriously, but rather regarded as a curiosity — a novelty.” They did it as “part of our pledge to each other and a demonstration on how responsible citizens could work to live a more sustainable life,” she says. Echoing those thoughts, the city’s proclamation states that the Homans “showed the persistence to navigate the bewildering array of incomplete and imperfect information that was the wilderness frontier of what is now known as green building.”

Read the full proclamation after the jump.

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Plano last week passed a law that could make streets safer for cyclists.

This caught my attention because here at the Advocate we have been working on a story about bicycle safety, commuting and the future of cycling in Dallas.

Look for it in the March issue, which should hit your doors late this week or early next (and the web on Friday).

Essentially, the bike plan could make things better for cyclists, but because of financial limitations, the plan might not come to fruition for years. Until then, we are told, we need to learn the rules and exercise common sense in order to keep everyone on the road safe.

Plano has taken things a step further, enacting the safe-passing law which requires drivers to stay at least three feet away from cyclists while passing in cars or six feet when driving a truck and forbids motorists from making a right turn in front of a cyclist without leaving a safe distance between them and from throwing objects at cyclists. So, yeah, it is no longer OK to throw objects at cyclists in Plano. Is it OK anywhere? (Don’t answer that. Based on road rage-fueled comments received while researching the cycling story, I really don’t want to know everyone’s thoughts on that.)

Denton and Fort Worth have already enacted a similar safety ordinance. Dallas? Not yet.

The city of Dallas plans to put a bond package before voters in November in hopes of paying for much-needed upkeep. Unfortunately, the city intends to issue bonds totaling between $450 million and $550 million; only about 5 percent of its $10 billion needs/wants inventory list.

City Councilman Scott Griggs told neighbors at a town hall meeting Wednesday night that the city’s top priority is to build an enormous drainage tunnel to control flooding for Mill Creek. That paved-over creek runs from Downtown to Uptown and routinely floods the Baylor hospital area in heavy rains.

The price tag for that project is about $300 million. That means the city would be left with $150 million to $250 million for everything else.

To put that in perspective, consider that it costs about $1 million per lane, per mile to build a new road. One project, ranked very low on the north Oak Cliff needs/wants list, for example, is to rebuild Clinton Avenue from West Seventh to West Davis. That 184-foot stretch of road, near the Kessler Theater, would cost $20,050 to replace.

Overall, the portion of Oak Cliff included in Griggs’ district has a needs/wants price tag of about $309 million. That includes funding for erosion control, flood management, storm drainage, parks and rec centers, street and alley reconstruction, bridge repairs, sidewalk safety, lighting, traffic signal updates and other upkeep.

Griggs noted there are 14 City Council districts. Say each one is vying for a piece of $200 million. That’s an average of $14.3 million per district. Griggs’ district includes Oak Cliff, West Dallas and the Mountain Creek area; three distinct geographical areas with unique needs. That means, if his District 3 receives $14.3 million in the bond election, his portion of Oak Cliff would have about $4.8 million. One of the highest priorities for Griggs’ Oak Cliff district is flood control for Five Mile Creek, which would cost more than $4.2 million.

And that’s only if voters approve a bond program. Most of the 30 or so neighbors who attended last night’s meeting indicated they would not vote for a bond program if it contributed very little to their neighborhood.

After much construction and a bit of rescheduling, the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, the newest addition to the Dallas skyline, will officially open the weekend of March 2-4. The three-day celebration is filled with concerts, parities and, of course, a ribbon cutting ceremony, but other events already have kicked off. Here are a few:

Now until Feb 25

The Latino Cultural Center (LCC) is showing “White Steel, Blue Skies: A New Icon for Dallas’ Skyline.” The center invited Latino photographers from North Texas to photograph their takes on the bridge’s architecture to commemorate its opening. The winning submission of the third annual Trinity River Corridor Photography Contest also will be exhibited.

Thursday, March 1

Jim Lake Companies and the Dallas Design District Blog are hosting a kick-off celebration for the opening weekend of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at The International on Turtle Creek. Drinks will be complementary, and fare from the Easy Slider Truck will be on the menu.  Roberto Verastegui and his jazz trio will perform while attendees partake in photos of West Dallas and the new bridge by photographer by Dave Kozlowski, Harman’s prints of historic Dallas neighborhoods taken by David Anthony, and other works from Galerie Zuger. Stay tuned for updates on food and entertainment.

The Haley-Henman Gallery will feature an art show, “Focus on the Bridge.” The installment features photographs taken by David Clanton, Cecelia Feld, Bob Johnson, Michael Lyon and Alan Robertson. An opening reception for is March 1 at 6:30 p.m., and the show runs Feb. 29- March 5.

Friday, March 2

The weekend kicks off with the a $200-per-ticket party on the bridge at 7 p.m. Lyle Lovett and his band are the evening’s headliners, followed by DJ Lucy Wrubel and Sing-Off runners up Street Corner Symphony. Local cuisine and specialty drinks will be served by Trinity Groves. We’re interested to see the 14-foot Calatrava-inspired costumed performers. Fireworks will end the evening.

Saturday, March 3

The eight annual Trinity River Levee Run 5k and 10k races begin at 8 a.m., this year from the west side of the Margaret Hill Hunt Bridge. Runners will cross the bridge, then run through the Design District and back. Contact the Dallas Running Club for more information. Preregistration is $30, and $40 on race day.

Following the race is a free street fair at noon, which will be one of the few times during the weekend when pedestrians can walk across the bridge. Food vendors, dancers, radio personalities, local bands and musicians, and sidewalk artist Douglas Rouse will be there, and artwork from the Trinity River Photo Contest and the Trinity River Art Contest will be exhibited. The “Parade of Builders” will honor those who had a hand in building the bridge, including Santiago Calatrava, and interactive booths will chronicle the work of those who are key to the Trinity River Corridor Project. Fireworks will end the street fair at 9 p.m.

Sunday, March 4

A sunrise blessing and ribbon cutting begins at 7:15 Sunday morning and is open to the public. The National Anthem will be performed by Street Corner Symphony, and the Orchestra of New Spain will sing in honor of the Spanish naming of the Trinity River.

At 1:30 p.m. Bike Friendly Oak Cliff  leads a free bike tour chronicling the major historic moments of the Trinity. The ride will navigate several of the adjacent downtown bridges that span the river. As it turns out, the Houston Street Viaduct turns 100 this year.

Urban Emergence, a seminar that showcases up-and-coming neighborhoods worldwide for their strides to become popular destinations, will begin at 2 p.m. Held in Methodist Dallas Medical Center’s Hitt Auditorium “technology, urban innovation and futurism converge” as city planners, historians and architects alike discuss what makes these neighborhoods the gems of their communities then and now. This event will be in partnership with the Dallas CityDesign Studio.

The Trinity Trust will host a red carpet event for the premiere of the film “Calatrava Student Constructors” this coming Monday, Jan. 23 at the Texas Theatre.

The movie documents a dozen students from local public and private schools, including Townview and Bishop Dunne, building a 20-by-8-foot replica of Dallas’ Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in one day. The students were selected to be engineers for a day.

“Everything about this project is awe-inspiring, but I think what appeals to me the most is the math and science (engineering) that goes into it,” says Angelica Sanjuan, a Townview student who participated in the project. “I guess the best way to describe it is ‘wow.’ ”

The replica was constructed at The Trinity Trust office, where actual models and maps of the project are housed. Emmy award-winning producer Judy Kelly created the “educational outreach film”.

Part of the event is a panel discussion comprised of people who had a hand in building the actual Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, including: Duane Milligan of the Texas Department of Transportation; Rebecca Rasor of the Trinity River Project/City of Dallas; and Bill Doreen of Williams Brothers Construction. They will answer questions about the bridge, and the architecture and construction methods that went into its completion.

RSVPs are required for the event with a $10 donation suggested. The evening begins at 6 p.m. with a reception, followed by the first movie screening at 6:30 p.m. and the panel at 7 p.m., then the second and final screening of the movie.