12/12/04  Casie Pierce & Vickery Meadows

Without meaning to attack Casie personally, I have the following comments about her op-ed piece in The Dallas Managed News.

Item One:
The Dallas Independent School District's bond election has allowed for the construction of four new schools ? one high school, one middle school and two elementary schools ? on former apartment properties known for their high crime.

What are apartment occupancy rates in Vickery Meadows these days? I have a feeling all that was really accomplished here was moving the residents from several apartment complexes into all the rest of them in that area.  Sure, this lowered the concentration of the "usual suspects" where those apartments once stood, but in the overall area I imagine most of those displaced by DISD are still in that same area, hence the net effect would be zero for that part of town.

Item Two:
There is tremendous potential to create a different sense of place, both for the corporate and private citizens of Dallas in Vickery Meadow. Despite the mostly low average income of the residents, most properties are still valued highly, due to their "location, location, location."

The only thing that will make Vickery Meadow's high value a reality is demolition of most, if not all, of those apartments -- a costly and probably controversial thing to try to accomplish.

Item Three:
The comprehensive land-use study can be the catalyst to re-evaluate everything from the over-taxed housing stock to the current infrastructure and street patterns and help the city design a well-planned community incorporating elements of model livable communities. Members of the Dallas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects have volunteered their time to try to help the neighborhood better show the city what needs to be done to improve the quality of life in the Vickery Meadow neighborhood.

I can only hope this kind of realistic and worthwhile study could be accomplished and then actually implemented! In an ideal world, the politicians who purport to lead would do so by listening to experts across the board and then making informed, well considered, and above all, intelligent decisions.

Item Four:
With the gradual acceptance of smart growth and new urbanism ideologies influencing Dallas' planning, we have a unique opportunity to take an example of what not to do and turn it into a modern urban renewal success story.

Which is something Dallas badly needs.  If Vickery Meadows could be "fixed", there would be hope that any area in Dallas, or anywhere else, could similarly be fixed.  It will take leadership. Sometimes forceful leadership.  Toes will be stepped on.  Enemies will be made, and more importantly, friends and allies will find each other.

Dallas needs new leadership.  More of the same has bred contempt in the minds of the leaders of Dallas for those "little people" spoken of so often.  I once stated on DallasArena.com that those leaders need to occasionally go low-brow and have a meal out amongst the rest of us.  My suggestion was (and still is) what we affectionately term "cheap cheese enchilada dinner night" at El Fenix, which happens to be a regular Dallas institution.  Doing so would be helpful, if those leaders could learn to see what would be before them in such a setting.

Urban Renewal will take far more than one success story. Lowering the crime rate in Vickery Meadows is a fine first start, but only a start. Take that process and learn from it and apply lessons learned there to every other part of the city and county and region. The influence Dallas wields extends far beyond its physical limits; a factor Dallas would do well to remember when making any kind of serious decision...