By Commissioner John Wiley Price
Join me and VOTE AGAINST Republican Propositions S, T, and U at the bottom for your ballot.. These propositions are a direct assault on the progress we’ve achieved in our lifetimes.
Think about it. Single-member districts? That wasn’t our grandparents’ fight – that was our fight, spanning two decades starting in the 1970s. Many of you stood with me, marched with me, demanded that our voices be heard in every corner of this city. We won that battle, but now they want to take it away.
The desegregation of Dallas ISD? That wasn’t some distant historical event. It was a three-decade fight that began in the 1970s and stretched into the 2000s. Some of us were those children, bused to schools across town, facing hatred and fear, all for the promise of an equal education. And now, with these propositions, we risk sliding backwards.
Let’s break down what’s at stake:
Proposition S would let wealthy individuals and corporations sue the city more easily. The non-discrimination ordinances that protect us from prejudice? The equity programs that are finally helping Black businesses grow? The affordable housing programs keeping our families in place despite rising gentrification? All of these could be undone with the stroke of a pen and the filing of a lawsuit. And more so, our tax dollars would be spent fighting these lawsuits instead of being used to better our communities.
Proposition T would give a small, unrepresentative group of 1,400 people the power to terminate the City Manager. This is a direct attack on the single-member districts we fought for just a few decades ago. Many of us remember a Dallas where our communities had no voice in city government. We changed that. We created a system where every neighborhood, including ours, has a seat at the table. Now they want to replace our hard-won representation with a scam survey of 1,400 people.
Proposition U mandates the hiring of 900 additional police officers, regardless of training or preparation. Our police chief has stated that training 900 new recruits is nearly impossible, noting that the department can only hire 250 officers a year. This proposition would flood our streets with underprepared officers, undoing years of progress toward building trust between law enforcement and our neighborhoods. We’ve spent years—decades—working towards a police force that serves and protects all Dallasites. We’ve pushed for better training, community policing, and accountability. Proposition U would undermine all of that progress.
The tragedy here—the thing that should anger every one of us—is that these propositions threaten to undo progress we’ve made in our own lifetimes. Progress that’s so recent, so fragile, that many of us still remember what Dallas was like before. And now, we face the very real possibility that our children and grandchildren could inherit a city that’s moved backwards.Early voting runs from Oct 21 to Nov 1, and Election Day is Nov 5. VOTE AGAINST Republican Propositions S, T, and U at the bottom for your ballot.
