Many moons ago, I was a student at the Talented and Gifted Academy at DISD’s Spence Middle School. One of the academy’s current students, Quinn Torres, is putting any and all of my accomplishments there to shame.

Quinn’s mother, Mommy’s Wish List blogger Lea Ann Stundins of Kessler Park, said he took the ACT college-entrance exam in February “for fun” — even though he is only in the seventh grade. Apparently, seventh-graders across the country do so through the Duke University Talent Identification Program.

Quinn got a composite ACT score of 25. (The DISD average in 2008-09 was 17.2.) His score of 26 on the science portion of the test means that he will be honored during the Grand Recognition Ceremony at Duke’s famed Cameron Indoor Stadium on Monday. Congratulations, dude!

Josh previously reported that former Lola chef David Uygur is planning an Italian restaurant on Eighth Street. According to D Magazine foodie Nancy Nichols, the place will be called Lucia.

I was one of about 15 people who sat down with state Rep. Rafael Anchia in the Rosemont Primary School library last night to discuss the prospect of creating an open-enrollment charter high school in North Oak Cliff.

Anchia asked the parents what their dream high school would look like. Here are the bullet points:

• It would have a rigorous curriculum, including honors and AP courses.
• The student-to-teacher ratio would be low.
• Students would have extracurricular options ranging from sports to the arts.

There seemed to be a hunger for what Anchia is proposing. One dad said, “We have to have something like this, or we’re going to leave someplace we love.”

On the other hand, there’s the mom who told the group about her eighth-grade daughter who has applied to the music program at Booker T. Washington. “If she doesn’t get in,” the mom said, “I’m fine with her going to Sunset.”

We’ll have more on this topic in next week’s edition of Oak Cliff People.

After another marathon session, the City Plan Commission approved the Bishop/Davis study in an 11-2 vote. Commissioner Mike Anglin, who represents the District in questions, made the motion for approval, along with 15 minutes or so of amendments too minor and arcane to list here.

Supporters turned out in force–I guesstimate that 75 percent were wearing “I support/Yo aproyo Bishop/Davis Plan” stickers and broke into applause when the vote was announced– but there were a few opponents who asked for traffic, parking, and density studies. The consensus, embodied by Anglin, who called the proposal a “vital vision for the future” was, said it wouldn’t do the area any good to drag the Plan Commission process out any further.

The plan will go before the City Council for a final say. More in next Friday’s edition of Oak Cliff People.

A little birdie tells us that state Rep. Rafael Anchia, D-Kessler Park, is hosting another community meeting regarding the establishment of a charter high school in North Oak Cliff. Our source says the meeting starts at 6 tonight at Rosemont Primary School. See you there?

Why is Gary Huddleston — Progress Dallas spokesman and Kroger’s director of consumer affairs — off to the left and out of focus in this photo?

Well, it may have been because I was taking the shot with an iPhone that lacks auto focus, but it’s also because I’m trying to direct your eyes to Progress Dallas’ poster of featured “supporters.” File that image in your brain and we’ll get back to it in just a bit.

The poster was a silent but significant partner for the press conference that announced Progress Dallas’ gathering of 217,777 signatures. That number is a combination of the 108,943 signatures for a petition that aims to allow beer and wine to be sold at stores in dry parts of Dallas and 108,834 signatures gathered for a petition that seeks to remove the “private club” designations for Dallas-area restaurants that offer alcohol to their customers in a dry area.

Progress Dallas only needed 68,846 signatures from verified Dallas residents to get a city-wide election on both matters this November. If all signatures are certified by the city secretary, then those numbers are record breaking for Dallas petition drives, Huddleston said.

So, why such a record turnout for an issue that if I’m reading correctly already failed in 2006?

Some may point to a theorized shift in morals or a change in the demographics of Dallas residents, but the answer is likely far  simpler:

The city is faced with a reported  $130 million-budget shortfall. Last year it was a reported $190 million-budget gap. Robert Wilonsky, over on Unfair Park, is reporting that City Manager Mary Suhm and Councilman Ron Natinsky are counting on that sales-tax revenue — Huddleston estimated it at a possible $10 million in revenues and — and a projected increase in the commercial tax base from restaurant and grocery store chains that previously avoided dry spots in Dallas to eat up some of that budget deficit in the future.

Some of the same businesses on that poster hosted petitioners and encouraged their customers to sign both petitions. The more surface area canvassed by petitioners, the more likely they were to get their signatures.

Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce President Bob Stimson put it this way:

“It’s huge for the restaurant industry in Oak Cliff. Restaurants, on average, spend between $20,000 and $25,000 in private-club-related expenses. It will effectively help to stabilize the restaurant industry in Oak Cliff.

The important part for Oak Cliff when it comes to grocers carrying beer and wine is it creates another revenue stream that allows grocers to come into the market.”

We’ve had Albertsons close down a bunch of stores recently. I have parts of Oak Cliff that don’t have a [grocery] store within five miles of a residence,” Stimson said.

The call for convenience and the promise of untapped revenue are nothing to shake a stick at.

Huddleston also said that Kroger would be more likely to increase security and improve conditions at their crime-plagued Wynnewood Village Shopping Center store if voters decided to make the area wet in November.

We’re headed to City Hall for what is expected to be a 1 p.m. press conference from Progress Dallas announcing they’ve collected the 68,846 signatures needed to bring a city-wide wet/dry election. Stay tuned for all the who’s who and what fors to follow.

By now you should know the rules: Write a funny, not racist or mean, caption for the above photo in the comments section of this post and we’ll give the winner their very own post on this here blog.

This one should be easy. Oak Cliff Bicycle Company’s Jeremy Ordaz hangs on for dear life to a mechanical bull (with his feet hooked under the horns no less), while Jason Roberts and Matt Spillers stare and guffaw from beneath their cartoonish-cowboy hats.

It’s sad to say, but things ain’t A-OK over at The Quinn. Photo Courtesy of The Quinn’s Myspace page.

As strange as those four words may sound, we’re being told there’s no fiction to them. Landlord Joe McElroy, of Square Foot, Inc., said ownership at The Quinn decided to close the neighborhood lounge yesterday.

“Beyond that you’ll have to ask the owner,” McElroy said. “He’s still paying the rent.”

Which is paid on a month-to-month basis, McElroy said.  While that means there still might be some glimmer of hope for the bar that opened almost three years ago, I’m hearing things aren’t so bueno on the cash-money front.

“I know they hadn’t been making ends meet. So, they are out,” said a neighborhood foodie source.

UPDATE 12:40 p.m.: The Quinn announced it’s own closing via Twitter around noon yesterday.

“The Quinn Bar closed down today. I would like to thank all of our customers and staff who made it such a fun place… http://bit.ly/aGYqwD” – @quinnbar

Vitto Italian served its last batch of pesto chicken pasta about two weeks ago, according to landlord Jim Lake, owner of Jim Lake Companies.

Lake said he decided not renew the restaurant’s lease because the owner had become “absentee” and it affected the quality of the service.

“We are going to have another great restaurant there in the Bishop Arts District,” Lake said.

Lake expects to have a new tenant signed within the next 30 days. He said he’s considering five different restaurant concepts for the location next to Tillman’s Roadhouse in the Bishop Arts District.

“They are all very high quality,” Lake said. He declined to comment further.

The 2,100 square-foot space currently leases at $18 a square foot annually, Lake said.