01/28/08  Are we?

When you've been in the trenches of fighting for safe and stable neighborhoods for as long as I have, d??vu is a frequent experience.  Nothing ever gets settled or resolved.  Some in politics think that is how it should be, constant turmoil.

We expected Lill to help us strategize our defense.  Boy, were we wrong! 

After hearing our concerns, Lill announced that her role as OUR council representative was to find a COMPROMISE between us and the developer.  Since the developer was asking for the galaxy, just a trip to the moon would be a compromise, but would still be something negative for the neighborhood.  The roomful of taxpayers were stunned.  With the related ward politics of 14-1, her statement meant homeowners in my old neighborhood had no voice at City Hall.  Grass roots politics was supposed to have been strengthened by 14-1, but that was just political propaganda.

Lill went on to use her influence to keep Oak Lawn split between two council districts that were and are dominated by East Dallas.  To add insult to injury, she appointed Neil Emmons to the Plan Commission, where he continues to cause problems because Councilwoman Angela Hunt has reappointed him.  Don't ask me why she keeps him on despite complaints, because Ms. Hunt will not communicate with me on the subject of Neil Emmons or the harm he is doing throughout District 14 and beyond.

So, all those meetings of the Oak Lawn Committee where we thought we were working to stabilize the area were a waste of time and just delaying the inevitable.  There was some good from those hundreds of hours in meetings.  I got to spend time with people who cared about something beyond themselves. 

This past week at the Crime Watch meeting in my current neighborhood, I had that familiar sense of time wasted.  We had a good turnout for a little neighborhood.  Unfortunately, several of the new faces were there because they are recent crime victims.  Like most of Dallas, we are being hit by burglars.  One lady said her house has been broken into twice this year.  The last time in December, they took all of her Christmas presents and other valuables.  She and the other victims had a common complaint about a lack of concern from the DPD personnel who answered her call and/or investigated the crime.  There was no effort to follow-up with her or pursue the thief.

If the burglars are minors (and most of those apprehended are), the DPD cannot arrest them as adults.  You can imagine the response from the room, when we heard that.  Even if the police arrest them, our criminal-loving DA will not prosecute them.  So, nobody investigates, nobody is arrested and no one is prosecuted or punished for invading our homes.  Our Crime Watch has become a crime reporting association.

The DPD Lieutenant in attendance suggested two options:  forming a VIP team and/or forming a PID over our neighborhood to tax ourselves for a private security force.  That just makes my blood boil.  In case you don't know, a Crime Watch VIP team drives around the neighborhood with cell phones looking for bad guys.  That's all well and good, except our burglaries are happening during the day while we are at work.  The only people who are home during the day are mothers with children or retired people -- neither of which are much inclined to become unpaid police officers.

A PID is a planned improvement district, where a group of property owners form an association to levy a tax on their property to be spent on specific things within the boundaries of the PID.  My neighborhood is not upscale by any standards, and some homeowners are barely hanging on to their property as it is.  It is very unlikely that even 30% of the homeowners would support a PID tax.  We shouldn't have to pay a second tax for security when we are already paying city property taxes for police protection.

One lady new to the group demanded that the volunteers who deliver our flyers to every home in the neighborhood only be Spanish speakers.  When reminded the flyers are bilingual, she said it wasn't enough, that the volunteers should go up and knock on every door and talk with every resident.  She didn't think an Hispanic homeowner or resident would respond to anyone who didn't speak Spanish or look like them.  Of course, she's an aging White pre-Boomer who sees color before she sees neighbor.  She told one Black homeowner "We are glad you are here."  Even though, he has been a homeowner for over 19 years, and she's a newcomer.  Her attitude brings to mind the phrase, "the soft bigotry of low expectations".

So, what's the point?  Are we making any progress in any area of our urban living?  Not much!

We aren't making the city more livable by building more apartments. 

We aren't getting a handle on crime when people can't go to work or the grocery store without their home being invaded while they are away.  We can't even expect our crimes to be properly investigated.  On the rare occasion when the police are able to apprehend a thief, the odds of the DA prosecuting are slim to none.  You can understand why the police officers' indifference when they see the futility of their efforts on a daily basis.

Right now, there's a huge scandal over Lynn Flint Shaw who chairs the DART Board -- the first African American woman to chair the DART Board.  Lots of collateral political damage is going to result from this mess, regardless of what happens to Lynn personally.  Jim Schutze has been covering it in UnFairPark on DallasObserver.com, and with his 1/24/08 article, DART's Billion-Dollar Goof.  Without going into all the background that preceded her being elected by her fellow board members as their head, it was a political disaster from the beginning.  Mayor Leppert and the new council had a right to appoint who they wanted to the DART Board.  They were determined to remove Joyce Foreman, and they got what they wanted.  Now, there's a big mess, and it is reflecting badly on Mayor Leppert and his team.

You know what?  I really don't much care if Lynn Flint Shaw gets punished or not.  She didn't break into anyone's home and take their personal treasures.  She didn't sell drugs to some little kid or a big kid, for that matter.  If drug dealers and burglars get a slap on the wrist for victimizing people, I don't see why we should demand a pound of flesh from Lynn.  Yes, she should probably resign from the DART Board.  At least, she should step down from the Chairmanship for the good of the DART system, which has its own problems just now.

Does any of this make a difference?  Of course, it should, but ...

I'm all for law and order and community involvement.  I just want it all to work, to matter.  I want drug dealers serving prison time, not probated sentences.  I want burglars of all ages serving prison time, not juvenile detention.  I want people to have a fair hearing at City Hall, rather than the fixed deals they now face with the likes of Neil Emmons on the Plan Commission.

Guess we have no choice but to keep on keeping on.  If we stop fighting back, the bad guys and crooked politicians win.  If we stop being involved, we make it easier for the bad guys and the crooked politicians.

Our efforts do make a difference, even if we do no more than stick our thumb in a leaking dam. 

sb