No one expects perfection. But basic civility and professionalism are minimal standards for any workplace. At this point, even a little icy politesse would be better than what some Dallas City Council members dished out last week: public squabbling and an abrupt, unnecessary end to a committee meeting that left important issues unaddressed. It was embarrassing and pointless.<\/p>\n
The panel involved was the council\u2019s Housing and Homelessness Solutions committee, which council member Cara Mendelsohn leads. Its Dec. 9 agenda included several significant issues, including a discussion about the city\u2019s homelessness encampment policy and a $10 million contract with Housing Forward to continue moving people off the streets. <\/p>\n
But first, the committee heard a presentation titled \u201cData Driven Visualizations on Dallas Homeless Issues.\u201d Mendelsohn had invited the speaker, Allen Gwinn, a clinical professor of IT and Operations Management at SMU. He explained how he mapped police incident data, 3-1-1 reports about homeless encampments, and DART bus routes and train stations and then overlaid the maps to show where the variables converged. Gwinn concluded that homelessness encampments tend to be built near public transit and that the city isn\u2019t effectively addressing crime or homelessness.<\/p>\n
Those conclusions were a reach, based on the data Gwinn presented. Still, the most effective way to reveal the weaknesses of the presentation would have been a series of deliberate, thoughtful questions from committee members.<\/p>\n
Opinion<\/p>\n