Laura Miller
Encyclopedia
Laura Miller served as mayor
of Dallas
, Texas
(U.S.
) from 2002 through 2007. She did not run for re-election in the 2007 mayoral race. She was the third woman to serve as mayor of Dallas.
, Maryland
, Miller attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison
and spent the early part of her career as a journalist
. As a journalist, Miller worked as a staff writer for The Miami Herald
and The Dallas Morning News
and then as a columnist for the New York Daily News
and the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald
. In 1991, Miller became an investigative reporter for the Dallas Observer
and then a columnist for D Magazine
.
and southwest Dallas. In 2002, Miller was elected as Mayor of Dallas, replacing Ron Kirk
who left the post to run for the United States Senate
position vacated by retiring Texas Senator Phil Gramm
.
She fought for and won approval of a strengthened smoking ban
, an ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
, a revamped public housing
system, a $23 million homeless assistance center, major changes to the city's Trinity River
Corridor improvement plan and a taxpayer-funded downtown
redevelopment effort.
She participated in an agreement between American Airlines
, the City of Fort Worth, DFW Airport and Southwest Airlines
to revise the federal flight restrictions
at Love Field Airport, which involved: replacing geographic limitations on Love Field service with: flight caps determined by a limitation on the number of gates allowed at Love Field, restrictions on the rights of any new air carrier to service North Texas via any airport other than DFW Airport, and banning international commercial air travel at Love Field. The unique agreement and resulting oligopoly required an exemption from federal antitrust laws, which Miller also successfully helped obtain.
David Levey, executive vice president for Forest City Enterprises
, credited Miller for reviving a $250 million deal to renovate downtown's long vacant Mercantile National Bank Building
.
During her term, the Dallas Cowboys
announced plans to build Cowboys Stadium and many citizens hoped it would be built in Dallas. The city and the Dallas Cowboys, however, failed to reach a deal and the stadium was built in Arlington
.
She announced parade plans for the Dallas Mavericks
championship in 2006, prior to the Mavericks losing four straight games and ultimately the NBA championship to the Miami Heat
in six games.
Miller was succeeded in office by Republican Tom Leppert
.
, a Seattle-based developer of wind, solar and gas-fired power plants. Summit was recently selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to receive a $350 million cost-sharing award to build the world’s first IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) clean-coal power plant located near Odessa, Texas
. The low-emissions project, called the Texas Clean Energy Project, is projected to capture just under 3 million tons a year of carbon dioxide, which will be used for enhanced oil recovery in the West Texas Permian Basin.
Miller's other environmental accomplishments included the formation and co-leading (with former Houston mayor Bill White) of the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition, made up of 36 cities, counties and school districts in Texas that opposed the construction of 11 coal plants (which would have used older technology) by TXU
, a Dallas-based energy company. Ultimately, TXU (now called Energy Future Holdings) officially suspended its plans to build eight of the eleven plants. As a result of these efforts, Miller won a 2008 Climate Protection Award from the Environmental Protection Agency
for this nationally-recognized effort, which has been memorialized in a documentary film, produced and narrated by Robert Redford
, and entitled “Fighting Goliath: The Texas Coal Wars.”
Steven D. Wolens
. They have two daughters, Alex and Lily, and a son, Max.
Miller was seen attending many popular rock concerts at the now closed Gypsy Tea Room during her tenure as mayor, notably accompanying her son Max to a sold-out Something Corporate
concert.
In 1998, Miller was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments which effectively eradicated the cancer.
Mayor
In many countries, a Mayor is the highest ranking officer in the municipal government of a town or a large urban city....
of Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
(U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
) from 2002 through 2007. She did not run for re-election in the 2007 mayoral race. She was the third woman to serve as mayor of Dallas.
Education and career
Born in BaltimoreBaltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, Miller attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison
University of Wisconsin–Madison
The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...
and spent the early part of her career as a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
. As a journalist, Miller worked as a staff writer for The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald
The Miami Herald is a daily newspaper owned by The McClatchy Company headquartered on Biscayne Bay in the Omni district of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States...
and The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
and then as a columnist for the New York Daily News
New York Daily News
The Daily News of New York City is the fourth most widely circulated daily newspaper in the United States with a daily circulation of 605,677, as of November 1, 2011....
and the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald
Dallas Times Herald
The Dallas Times Herald, founded in 1888 by a merger of the Dallas Times and the Dallas Herald, was once one of two major daily newspapers serving the Dallas, Texas area. It won three Pulitzer Prizes, all for photography, and two George Polk Awards, for local and regional reporting...
. In 1991, Miller became an investigative reporter for the Dallas Observer
Dallas Observer
The Dallas Observer is a free alternative weekly newspaper distributed around the Dallas, Texas . At its inception, it was conceived as a weekly local arts and cinema review publication, with the credo "Advocate for Excellence in the Arts" on the cover. For a time during the early years, the paper...
and then a columnist for D Magazine
D Magazine
This article is about the magazine about Dallas. For the Italian magazine, see La Repubblica.D Magazine is a monthly magazine covering Dallas-Fort Worth. It covers a range of topics including politics, business, food, fashion and lifestyle in the city of Dallas. The first issue was published in...
.
Political life
In 1998, Miller was elected to the Dallas City Council representing Oak CliffOak Cliff
Oak Cliff is a community in Dallas, Texas, United States that was formerly a separate town located in Dallas County; Dallas annexed Oak Cliff in 1903...
and southwest Dallas. In 2002, Miller was elected as Mayor of Dallas, replacing Ron Kirk
Ron Kirk
Ronald "Ron" Kirk is the 16th United States Trade Representative, serving in the Obama administration. He served as mayor of Dallas, Texas from 1995 to 2002; he also ran for the United States Senate in 2002.-Early life and career:...
who left the post to run for the United States Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
position vacated by retiring Texas Senator Phil Gramm
Phil Gramm
William Philip "Phil" Gramm is an American economist and politician, who has served as a Democratic Congressman , a Republican Congressman and a Republican Senator from Texas...
.
She fought for and won approval of a strengthened smoking ban
Smoking ban
Smoking bans are public policies, including criminal laws and occupational safety and health regulations, which prohibit tobacco smoking in workplaces and/or other public spaces...
, an ordinance prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation
Sexual orientation
Sexual orientation describes a pattern of emotional, romantic, or sexual attractions to the opposite sex, the same sex, both, or neither, and the genders that accompany them. By the convention of organized researchers, these attractions are subsumed under heterosexuality, homosexuality,...
, a revamped public housing
Public housing
Public housing is a form of housing tenure in which the property is owned by a government authority, which may be central or local. Social housing is an umbrella term referring to rental housing which may be owned and managed by the state, by non-profit organizations, or by a combination of the...
system, a $23 million homeless assistance center, major changes to the city's Trinity River
Trinity River (Texas)
The Trinity River is a long river that flows entirely within the U.S. state of Texas. It rises in extreme north Texas, a few miles south of the Red River. The headwaters are separated by the high bluffs on the south side of the Red River....
Corridor improvement plan and a taxpayer-funded downtown
Downtown Dallas
Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District in Dallas, Texas USA, located in the geographic center of the city. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally been defined as bounded by the downtown freeway loop: bounded on the east by I-345 Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District...
redevelopment effort.
She participated in an agreement between American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
, the City of Fort Worth, DFW Airport and Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co. is an American low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas. Southwest is the largest airline in the United States, based upon domestic passengers carried,...
to revise the federal flight restrictions
Wright Amendment
The Wright Amendment of 1979 is a federal law governing traffic at Dallas Love Field, an airport in Dallas, Texas. It originally limited most nonstop flights to destinations within Texas and neighboring states. The limits began phasing out in 1997 and 2005...
at Love Field Airport, which involved: replacing geographic limitations on Love Field service with: flight caps determined by a limitation on the number of gates allowed at Love Field, restrictions on the rights of any new air carrier to service North Texas via any airport other than DFW Airport, and banning international commercial air travel at Love Field. The unique agreement and resulting oligopoly required an exemption from federal antitrust laws, which Miller also successfully helped obtain.
David Levey, executive vice president for Forest City Enterprises
Forest City Enterprises
Forest City Enterprises is a $9-billion diversified real estate management and development company based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. Its portfolio includes interests in retail centers, apartment communities, office buildings and mixed-use projects in the U.S...
, credited Miller for reviving a $250 million deal to renovate downtown's long vacant Mercantile National Bank Building
Mercantile National Bank Building
The Mercantile National Bank Building is the former home of the Mercantile National Bank, later MCorp Bank, located at 1700 Main Street in downtown Dallas, Texas . It is a contributing structure in the Main Street District. The design of the skyscraper features Moderne styling from the Art Deco...
.
During her term, the Dallas Cowboys
Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football franchise which plays in the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference of the National Football League . They are headquartered in Valley Ranch in Irving, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...
announced plans to build Cowboys Stadium and many citizens hoped it would be built in Dallas. The city and the Dallas Cowboys, however, failed to reach a deal and the stadium was built in Arlington
Arlington, Texas
Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas within the Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area. According to the 2010 census results, the city had a population of 365,438, making it the third largest municipality in the Metroplex...
.
She announced parade plans for the Dallas Mavericks
Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association , and the reigning NBA champions, having defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.According to a 2011...
championship in 2006, prior to the Mavericks losing four straight games and ultimately the NBA championship to the Miami Heat
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat is a professional basketball team based in Miami, Florida, United States. The team is a member of the Southeast Division in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . They play their home games at American Airlines Arena in Downtown Miami...
in six games.
Miller was succeeded in office by Republican Tom Leppert
Tom Leppert
Tom Leppert is an American politician who served as mayor of Dallas, Texas from 2007 to 2011, and who worked as CEO of the Turner Corporation...
.
Environmental efforts
Laura Miller serves as Director of Projects, Texas, for Summit Power GroupSummit Power
Summit Power Group is a Seattle-based power company, responsible for developing electric power plants , which are primarily natural gas-fired and wind-powered, with solar power recently added. Summit does not develop conventional coal-fired power plants without carbon capture...
, a Seattle-based developer of wind, solar and gas-fired power plants. Summit was recently selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to receive a $350 million cost-sharing award to build the world’s first IGCC (Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle) clean-coal power plant located near Odessa, Texas
Odessa, Texas
Odessa is a city in and the county seat of Ector County, Texas, United States. It is located primarily in Ector County, although a small portion of the city extends into Midland County. Odessa's population was 99,940 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Odessa, Texas Metropolitan...
. The low-emissions project, called the Texas Clean Energy Project, is projected to capture just under 3 million tons a year of carbon dioxide, which will be used for enhanced oil recovery in the West Texas Permian Basin.
Miller's other environmental accomplishments included the formation and co-leading (with former Houston mayor Bill White) of the Texas Clean Air Cities Coalition, made up of 36 cities, counties and school districts in Texas that opposed the construction of 11 coal plants (which would have used older technology) by TXU
TXU
Energy Future Holdings Corporation is an electric utility company headquartered in Energy Plaza in Downtown Dallas, Texas, United States. The company was known as TXU until its $45 billion leveraged buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Texas Pacific Group and Goldman Sachs...
, a Dallas-based energy company. Ultimately, TXU (now called Energy Future Holdings) officially suspended its plans to build eight of the eleven plants. As a result of these efforts, Miller won a 2008 Climate Protection Award from the Environmental Protection Agency
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress...
for this nationally-recognized effort, which has been memorialized in a documentary film, produced and narrated by Robert Redford
Robert Redford
Charles Robert Redford, Jr. , better known as Robert Redford, is an American actor, film director, producer, businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist, and founder of the Sundance Film Festival. He has received two Oscars: one in 1981 for directing Ordinary People, and one for Lifetime...
, and entitled “Fighting Goliath: The Texas Coal Wars.”
Personal
Miller is married to Dallas attorney and former Texas State RepresentativeTexas Legislature
The Legislature of the state of Texas is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Texas. The legislature is a bicameral body composed of a 31-member Senate and a 150-member House of Representatives. The Legislature meets at the Capitol in Austin...
Steven D. Wolens
Steven D. Wolens
Steven D. Wolens is a former Texas state Representative. Described by Texas Monthly as the "House's most dreaded foe and most welcome ally," he was best known for ushering in Senate Bill 7, deregulating Texas energy markets. He is married to former Dallas, Texas mayor Laura Miller, and he was a...
. They have two daughters, Alex and Lily, and a son, Max.
Miller was seen attending many popular rock concerts at the now closed Gypsy Tea Room during her tenure as mayor, notably accompanying her son Max to a sold-out Something Corporate
Something Corporate
Something Corporate is an American rock band from Orange County, California, formed in 1998. Their current line-up includes pianist and vocalist Andrew McMahon, guitarist Josh Partington, bassist Kevin Page and drummer Brian Ireland....
concert.
In 1998, Miller was diagnosed with breast cancer. She underwent chemotherapy and radiation treatments which effectively eradicated the cancer.