Each editor was brought to tears at least once while interviewing students for our cover stories this month. The article, "Comeback Kids", profiles standout seniors at neighborhood high schools who have essentially turned lemons into lemonade — using the obstacles in their way as stepping stones instead of stumbling blocks.

Listen to this Advocate Radio podcast with editors Marlena Chavira-Medford, Christina Hughes Babb and Keri Mitchell talk about some of these inspirational students, and some of the stories we didn’t have room to print. The podcast takes roughly 11.1 MB to download and 12 minutes to listen.

Hopefully this month’s Advocate has reached your front doorstep, along with our annual Home Design issue. (If not, it should sometime this week.) One of the Home Design stories profiles a family who turned their ranch house into a bungalow, and when remodeling the house, homeowner Cari Kelemen drew her inspiration from architect and author Sarah Susanka of the "Not So Big House" books.

I recently spent some time chatting with Susanka — who happens to have a new book out titled "Not So Big Remodeling" — and talked to her a little bit about her philiosphy, and how it might apply to homes and homeowners in Dallas. You can listen to our conversation in this Advocate Radio podcast.

The question posed in April’s cover story, "The $100 Million Question", might seem like it came out of left field. And perhaps it did, but we thought it might be good to explain the genesis of the story, and the discussion we hoped to provoke by writing it.

To hear more from publisher Rick Wamre, contributing editor Jeff Siegel and managing editor Keri Mitchell about how this story came to be, listen to this Advocate Radio podcast. You can either download it (10.4 MB) or simply play it (a little more than 11 minutes).

As promised, here’s the audio of our little talk this afternoon with Samantha Couch and Hannah Wedding, the captains of Lake Highlands Thunder, the high school girls team that will play the guys from The Ticket radio station. (It takes about 30 seconds to download and the segment lasts about 7 minutes).

Tip-off for the FREE event is at 5:35 Wednesday at SMU’s Moody Coliseum wherefrom KTCK will broadcast its popular drive-time show. Show your support for the LH girls by making a donation: to LH Thunder at Community Trust Bank, 8222 Douglas Ave. Ste 1, Dallas, Texas 75225, or at Paypal.com — click send money, use email address lh_thunder09@yahoo.com, and by showing up to the showdown.
 

How do descriptions like “dire” and “unpalatable cuts” sound? That’s the word from Dave Levinthal, the ace city hall reporter for Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper, who joined Rick Wamre and myself to talk about the impending crisis.  What’s going to happen? Can we save the 200 cops and the beefed up code enforcement that we’ve been promised? How will the council react to making cuts or raising taxes? And how worried should we be?

We also found a couple of minutes to discuss the 2011 mayoral race. To download or stream the podcast, click here. It’s about 21 minutes and 29 megabytes.

The March cover story on Dallas’ trail system pretty much sticks to those 8- and 12-foot paved pathways that neighbors use to hike and bike, safely out of reach of zooming vehicles (at least, for the most part). But what if runners and cyclists and even parents pushing strollers could do so safely on actual streets?

The idea behind "complete streets" is making room for everyone — pedestrians, cyclists, vehicles and mass transit (including light rail and streetcars). This concept doesn’t currently exist in Dallas, but plans are in the works for a Katy Trail-Arts Loop that would connect the trail to Downtown via existing and planned complete streets. (This plan is briefly discussed in the Preston Hollow cover story.)

City Councilwoman Angela Hunt and Friends of the Katy Trail executive director Eric Van Steenburg sat down with us to talk about this plan, and when and where else we might see complete streets here in Dallas. To download or stream the podcast, click here. It’s roughly 15-16 minutes and 21 megabytes. After the jump, watch a video interview with the commissioner of the Department of Transportation in New York, which is attempting to turn all of their roads into complete streets:

We invited Jim Schutze and Sam Merten of the Dallas Observer to discuss the city’s plan to build and own the convention center hotel. Our publisher, Rick Wamre, who has a few thoughts on the subject, joined in. Want to know what’s really behind the push to build the hotel? Worried about how much it’s going to cost? Feeling a little paranoid about how the city is handling this project? Then download or stream the podcast here. It’s about 22 minutes and 21 MB. (Best yet, we fixed most of the technical problems. Technology is a wonderful thing.)

And our timing couldn’t have been better. Dallas’ Only Daily Newspaper reports today that city officials have had much more difficulty than expected in finalizing a deal to operate the hotel – something the city wants to do quickly so construction can begin before May’s hotel referendum.