Park Cities In The Spotlight This Week.

We published a couple of articles about the coyotes that were at White Rock Lake and Flag Pole Hill that were being aggressive. I spoke to a resident that neighbors the lot where one coyote was stalking a couple of horses that were grazing. She said to me that she sees them all the time and that one had even tried to attack her daughter but they thought it was because of the chickens that they were raising in their back yard.

Most of the experts have long noted that the coyotes and bob cats were on the move south after the work to expand both the Dallas North Tollway and the 121 additions to McKinney. It cut off a rather large pack of coyotes forcing them to come south. The bob cats were using the utility right-of-ways to bypass traffic and people as they moved along the greenbelts.

The Katy Trail Extension at White Rock had become a coyote highway at night because of the ducks and small pets that were allowed to be out unattended.  It was funneling them toward Fair Park and into South Dallas with the ultimate being the Great Trinity Forest, a 6,000 acre lowland hardwood forest. Movement on the Katy Trail  through Uptown and the Park Cities was basically cut of by US75 Central Expressway-- cut off that is until the city built  a multi-million dollar way for coyotes and bob cats to cross Central Expressway right into the Park Cities, Uptown and into South Dallas along the Trinity.

Two women in the Park Cities are excited. They seem to thing that the three coyotes that they have seen is something new and they are trying to head it off early. The problem is, they really have been asleep at the wheel. This is not something new. This is not some great  reveal. This is reality that has been going on for the past 20 years or more.  There has been a lot of discussion about this for most of those 20 years. The photographers have noted it. The news has run stories about it. The naturalist have blogged about it. It ain't new!! In fact, it is rather old news.

Having that pointed out, yesterday, I made a trip to University Park to see the Robert Indiana "LOVE" sculpture that was presented to the city of University Park by a couple in celebration of their 25th wedding anniversary.  To me, it was a touching gesture by the couple to present LOVE to the University Park across from one of the most amazing pieces of architecture in the area, Highland Park Presbyterian Church. (yeah, Scotland!). I have long admired the detail and the massive size of the structure. It's my kind of architecture that I not only admire, but LOVE, so to have that piece of sculpture in the adjacent park to that wonderful architecture made the afternoon seem like heaven.

LOVE to the Third Power

This piece has been shown in New York and around the country.It's home is now University Park, Texas.

The island setting is a great placement. The sod is dormant at the time having been put down not long ago.