In the heart of downtown Dallas sits the only cultural institution solely dedicated to Asian arts and culture in the southern region of the United States.

It’s the University of Texas at Dallas’ Crow Museum of Asian Art.

This spring, the museum closed for a few weeks for a major transformation — and for good reason, said Crow Museum Director of Development Caroline Kim.

“This is the first time we have turned over our entire museum dedicated to just one exhibition,” she said.

As a result, the installation and design for “Japan, Form and Function: The Montgomery Collection” took weeks, Kim said.

But now the fruits of that labor can finally be enjoyed. The exhibit is officially open to the public, and it will remain open for the year.

In total, the exhibition boasts 250 objects, including ceramics, lacquer, wares, textiles, furnishings and more. They’re items that collector Jeffrey Montgomery gathered over decades.

“It shows not only the large Japanese history, but how we are all interconnected,” said Kim.

Throughout the museum, the broad influence from other cultures is highlighted. For example, a sake bottle on display made by a Japanese artist has obvious influence from Chinese potters. Furthermore, while looking at the colors, styles, treatment and design, Kim can point out additional Korean influence in a bottle.

The pieces represent different regions from the southernmost top of Japan to its northernmost points.

Kim’s proud to showcase such an impressive collection at the Crow Museum. More than that, though, she’s proud to be able to show it off for free; while the museum accepts online donations, it never charges an entry fee for its showings.

And this showing? There’s a chance it could stay in Dallas for more than the yearlong commitment of its current display. Kim said her museum is in talks to possibly purchase this collection from its owner.

“He has offered it to the Crow at a very, very under-market price for acquisition,” Kim said. “So we are in our early stages of hoping that we can raise the funds to acquire the collection so that it stays in Dallas.”

If that happens, it would make Dallas the city with the largest and arguably most valuable collection of Japanese objects outside of Japan itself.

Kim just hopes people will come see the artwork and appreciate the story the pieces tell while celebrating Japanese heritage in Dallas.

“Our mission is to love and celebrate the cultures and arts in Asia all year round,” she said.

The Dallas Stars on Wednesday morning issued an apology statement to the Golden Knights and the National Hockey League in response to the behavior of some of the team’s fans during Game 3.

Towards the end of the second period of Tuesday night’s Game 3, some spectators at the American Airlines Center opted to voice their frustration with the Dallas Stars by throwing items down onto the ice.

In a statement Wednesday, Stars president and CEO Brad Alberts called the actions “unacceptable” and said they “put the safety of players and fans at risk.”

In addition to the antics of some of the team’s fans, NHL Player Safety announced that Stars captain Jamie Benn would have a hearing Wednesday for cross-checking against Golden Knights’ Mark Stone.

Benn was ejected because of his hit on Mark Stone less than two minutes into Game 3, according to AP.

On Wednesday afternoon, it was announced that Benn would be suspended for two games as a result of the incident. Meaning, the Stars will be without their captain for Game 4 and Game 5 (if necessary).

Speaking to media Wednesday, Benn called the incident with Stone an “unfortunate play.” “Just an unfortunate play. I just need to be more responsible with my body and my stick,” Benn said.

The NHL also announced that Dallas’ Max Domi was fined $5,000, the maximum allowable under the CBA, for slashing against Stone.

New York City is sinking under the collective weight of all of its buildings, a new study has found.

This gradual process could spell trouble for a city around which the sea level has been rising more than twice as fast as the global rate — and is projected to rise between 8 inches and 30 inches by 2050.

What’s more, scientists expect more frequent and extreme rainfall events such as nor’easters and hurricanes due to the human-fueled climate crisis.

“We’re a ways off from the ocean simply moving in,” said lead study author Tom Parsons, a research geophysicist at the US Geological Survey. “But we’ve had a couple of major hurricane events with Sandy and Ida in New York where heavy rainfall caused inundation in the city, and some of the effects of urbanization have allowed water to come in.”

The paper, published in the journal Earth’s Future, aims to show how high-rise buildings in coastal, riverfront or lakefront areas could contribute to future flood risk and that measures should be taken to mitigate the potentially hazardous impacts.

Sinking city risks — and a mystery
The researchers calculated the mass of the 1,084,954 buildings that existed across the five boroughs of New York City at the time, reaching the conclusion that they weighed about 1.68 trillion pounds (762 billion kilograms) — equivalent to roughly 1.9 million fully loaded Boeing 747-400s.

The study team then used simulations to calculate the effects of that weight on the ground, comparing that with satellite data showing actual surface geology. That analysis revealed the rate at which the city is sinking: “The average is about 1 to 2 millimeters a year, with some areas of greater subsidence that are up to about 4½ millimeters a year,” Parsons said.

Subsidence is the technical term for the sinking or settling of Earth’s surface due to natural or artificial causes. A September 2022 study found that 44 of the 48 most populous coastal cities have areas that are sinking faster than sea levels are rising. This latest study’s novel approach is to take into account specifically the weight of New York City’s buildings and how they are contributing to the subsidence of the land beneath them.

However, not all of the sinking is due to the buildings. “We could see some correspondence where there’s construction on very soft soils and artificial fill,” Parsons said. “Other places, we see subsidence that’s difficult to explain. And there’s a lot of different causes of it, such as post glacial relaxation that happened after the last ice age, or groundwater pumping.”

Some areas of lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens are among those that are sinking at a faster than average rate, according to the study.

“Some of that seems to correspond with construction projects going on,” Parsons said. “But we also see subsidence on the north end of Staten Island that I can’t figure out an explanation for, and I’ve looked into all kinds of different things — so that still remains a mystery.”

Mitigating risk around sinking cities
Subsidence can pose an even earlier flooding threat than sea level rise, the research suggests, and not just in New York City. “It’s a global issue. My coauthors from the University of Rhode Island looked at 99 cities around the world, not only coastal but inland as well, and the vast majority of them have subsidence issues,” said Parsons, citing the case of Jakarta, which is sinking so fast that the Indonesian government is planning to build a new capital city elsewhere.

“We know that global sea levels are rising and shorelines are changing, and that it is critical to understanding the impact of human activities, such as greenhouse gas emissions, on our warming world,” said geophysicist Sophie Coulson, a postdoctoral fellow at Los Alamos National Laboratory who was not involved in the study. “This research takes a look at an important human factor that has only recently come into focus — the effect of urban building loads on coastal land subsidence.”

The authors, she added, use a clever combination of computer modeling, satellite measurements and GPS data to estimate the short- and long-term sinking rates of different areas of the city and identify the areas most at risk.

“New York City is among the most densely populated coastal areas in the world, with a large portion of its critical infrastructure constructed in low-lying coastal areas,” she said.

“Understanding how and why the landscape is changing, and identifying areas most vulnerable to flooding is essential for making the right preparations to mitigate future sea level rise.”

New short-term rentals are banned for a year in Plano starting next week.
The Plano city council passed a temporary ban on new short-term rentals at a joint meeting with the Planning and Zoning Commission.

Members of the Texas Neighborhood Coalition urged the council to pass a temporary ban after a shooting outside a short-term rental in Plano. The group advocates for a permanent short-term rental ban in residential neighborhoods.

Council members also voted 6-2 to table a short-term rentals registration ordinance until June 26. The additional time will allow for the study and assessment of the potential impact of pending state legislation related to short-term rentals. A registration ordinance would allow the city a way to approve, deny or revoke registration for short-term rentals.

Mayor John Muns and Council Members Anthony Ricciardelli, Maria Tu, Julie Holmer, Rick Smith, Rick Grady and Shelby Williams voted in favor of the interim ban.