Thank God for Wylie H. Dallas. If you don’t know him, he’s a — secret. He is also “erudite and omnipresent.” D Magazine puts it this way:
Wherever a post or news article about city affairs appears online, Wylie is sure to show up in the comments, sometimes simply to quip, sometimes to offer other investigative avenues that it seems only an insider would be familiar with. Jim Schutze at the Dallas Observer has gone half-insane trying to sleuth out Wylie’s real identity. He thinks Wylie works at City Hall. We’re not so sure. And we pray the mystery remains.
Whenever I try to explain Wylie to agents or friends, they look at me as if I’m crazy: whaddaya mean the guy doesn’t exist? How could he sign a contract?
Well, he does exist, he just conceals his identity super well. I have no idea who he is, but we had him on the Great Western Mortgage Real Estate Happy Hour — Wylie disguised his voice. Wylie first came to life during the days of Mike Snyder and the Museum Tower Nasher fracas which I hope is near settled — sales at Museum Tower are brisk. Basically, the former KXAS anchorman, as a publicist, posted blog comments under a fake name supportive of Museum Tower. The Dallas Morning News found out by checking IP addresses, and shortly thereafter Mike retired to spend more time with his family and do Indian Princesses. Wylie Dallas had a lot of good virtual word wars with Mike, I mean, with the characters he made up: Barry Schwartz of St. Louis and Brandon Eley of the Bronx.
Wylie’s kind of like a political Superman: he wants to defend the City of Dallas from stupidity and bullshit.
Monday he did me a huge favor: he started writing about the Preston Center sky bridge that Trammell Crow wants to build to connect the second floor of that old parking garage with the top floor of what used to be Sanger Harris: you know the area. I have been trying to write that story for weeks, I am behind on so much dirt. The vote goes to the Dallas City Council on Wednesday. Already I am squirreling my Xanax and Tylenol for the ensuing headaches of listening to the skybridge “discussions” down on Marilla.
Wylie’s question: what the hell is so wrong with it?
