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07/14/04 Mary Lou Reports on
NW/Bachman Problems
If you don't live in the immediate vicinity,
you may
think
the NW
Highway/Bachman
area is
not your
concern, that
what happens there does not affect
you.
Problem
areas don't stay isolated, they expand because they impact adjacent
neighborhoods (business and residential), and then those areas go into decline,
and so on and so on.
The greatest need for NW/Bachman is to have more
police officers.
Councilman Steve Salazar has been attentive to making sure NW Substation gets a
fair allotment of new Academy graduates.
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Late
in
June,
the owner of Tierra y Mar Restaurant (next to the
old
Baby Doll's) was threatened with a knife by a man to move out. At the time,
he was being interviewed by
Al
Dia (DMN's
Spanish paper).
Their
photographer took a picture that helped the police arrest the man. |
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On
weekend nights,
Mar y
Tierra hires someone to stand on their
roof with spotlights to make sure their customers cars are not vandalized.
Al Dia
ran the
picture as part of their story on
what measures some
NW/Bachman
business owners
take
to make
to
protect their
customers. |
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With so
many
mostly Mexican bars
in the
area,
there
are many serious accidents on NW Hwy.
One
business
owner
says
several times a month they have head on accidents
when drunk
drivers cross the median. The last one was at
Noon.
They
say
it is not uncommon to see people lying on the grass at the park waiting for
medical help after they have been hit. Business owners
want
DPD officers
out on
NW Hwy
with
radar guns to catch speeders and drunks. |
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The
Texaco Express Lube across the Bachman Park has a serious problem with
prostitutes using
one of
their bays.
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Wednesday
morning,
an employee at the Texaco Express Lube picked up four
9 mm
bullets at the Chinese Restaurant parking lot next door (which I now
have).
They
showed me where a
bullet had hit the side of the office.
Who shot
up the place? |
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Lago
Mexico Restaurant recently had a customer shot in the parking lot. After
the shooting,
the man tried to drive himself to Parkland, only to die in his car on Regal
Row. |
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Lago
Mexico Restaurant had some girls stripping one early weekend morning.
Workers
near
the restaurant could not believe what they
were
seeing.
They say
the women were taking
off
more than
their tops. They
say
they thought the topless bars were gone
and ask
how a "restaurant"
can
allow
this type of entertainment. |
There is also
good news.
Councilman Steve Salazar has been very helpful. He has been our defender
against the city using the abandoned hospital on Harry Hines as a homeless
shelter. On
June 23, 2004,
he
got
the council
to approve a moratorium on new businesses in the NW/Bachman area.
The
moratorium will require new businesses to file a request for a hardship to open.
This will give City Hall and the community an opportunity to support responsible
new businesses and discourage new bars and taverns posing as restaurants.
Councilman Salazar clearly wants to
help us turn
things around.
Some of
relevant points in the
Moratorium:
1. It
aplies
to all properties within 500 ft of W. NW Hwy.,
between
I-35 and Mixon Dr.
2.
It applies
to all building permits
and certificate of occupancy applications for non-residential
projects.
3.
It expires
October 21, 2004, subject to renewal for additional 4 month periods.
Future
efforts to improve the area include:
A.
Update recent land use and planning initiatives, including evaluation of land
use categories.
B.
Possibly
initiate a full
land use
study within
the next 6 to 9 months.
C.
Involve affected departments
(Police,
Code and Development Services/Planning.
Councilman Salazar is meeting with
NW/Bachman
businesses
and
community leaders regularly.
I am proud to live in
NW
Dallas. We have
much
to look forward to with
a
new DART rail line, the
successful
retail community
on Harry Hines, new schools, etc.
Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld
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