Break in. . .

The back door to our Resource Center warehouse includes a faulty locking mechanism.  As a result, a stiff slam or a hard kick can be necessary to engage the latch. 

On Wednesday evening I received a call that the alarm was sounding at the building.  I went to the building, disarmed and rearmed the security system and performed the obligatory slam to secure the door. 

As I drove away from the building, I noticed a person--at the time I thought it a woman--walking slowly up the street away from the corner bus stop.  I've experienced these kinds of after dark encounters countless times.  Normally I would have lowered my window and engaged in a bit of conversation.  But, it was Thanksgiving Eve, we had grandchildren at home.  I was in a hurry. 

Mistake.

About an hour after my first call, I received a second reporting that the front door of the building had been smashed and numerous items stolen from the upstairs office suite and kitchen.  The person who broke in had been apprehended, cuffed and given a seat in the back of a squad car.  When I caught a glimpse of his face, I realized the prisoner was none other than the person I had seen less than an hour before crossing the street as I left for home. 

As we fixed the door to secure the building, one of our guys commented, "Well, he probably didn't know where he was going to spend Thanksgiving, but now he does." 

Sad deal.

I wish I had talked to him.  Asked him what he needed, if anything.  Responded to him like I would like to be treated had I been all alone on the dark night.  I know.  I know.  He broke in.  He was the person responsible for the mess. 

But, still.   I wonder how much happens in the city simply because people like me just pass on by?

Community organizing paying off

For several months now, Janet Morrison and her team inside Turner Courts in the Rochester Park neighborhood have been working to organize neighbors and city leaders to crack down on the really sub-standard "food stores" in the community.

As I've said here repeatedly, the lack of access to even marginally adequate grocery markets remains a big problem in South Dallas.

Neighbor response to the community organizing efforts has been good and growing.

Now comes this report from WFAA--TV Channel 8 news on the latest results of these efforts.

Take a look at this link.

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Crime, Fear and Community Reality

Crime in the streets unsettles a neighborhood.

We've lived in inner city East Dallas since 1999. For the most part our eclectic community has been free of crime, especially the violent sort. A few petty thieves, the normal run of drug mules and low-level dealers, gangs in the park--that sort of crime.

But now we have a ring of thugs who are smashing in front doors when people are at home. The latest wave of crime is very violent, incredibly brazen and very disturbing because of what appears to be the desperate nature of the criminals.

A couple of nights ago we observed the latest, and by far the clearest, evidence of the serious nature of what's going on here in our neighborhood. A block over from our street the police set up a check point. I don't think I've ever seen one in a residential neighborhood here before.

They were stopping every car and pedestrian moving up or down Fitzhugh Avenue between Junius and Worth Streets. Their purpose: to establish a visible presence in our neighborhood to send a clear signal to the "bad guys" that they needed to go away.

I'll have to admit that it made me feel good seeing them out there in full force. Must have been 6 or 7 squad cars and a full contingent of officers stopping cars, talking to everyone and letting everyone know they were here to stay, at least for a while. What we observed was obviously a well-planned "operation."

As I thought about it, my mind turned toward another neighborhood located in far South Dallas.

It is a very poor community. Crime has been widespread and expected in this area for a long, long time. The neighbors are working hard these days to turn out even a fraction of the police presence we observed in our area this week. I know because some of my friends and work associates are deeply involved.

Our neighborhood is poor, but not as poor as the South Dallas community I have in mind. Ours is very mixed, diverse in about every way. The South Dallas area is all minority and extremely poor, populated mostly by renters. The crime there is much worse, just as violent or more so than our recent eruption, and enduring to the point of being a community tradition.

The desires of the vast majority of the residents of both communities are clearly the same.

We want safe, clean, healthy, kid-friendly neighborhoods.

A few bad apples attempt to ruin it for both areas.

Sadly, the public response to these problems is quite different from one neighborhood to the other.

These differing responses speak clearly to the sorts of problems we still face here in Dallas.

Unfortunately, race, class, income, property values, home ownership rates and reputation still carry far too much weight in terms of how our city invests its limited public safety resources. And, I'm convinced it is the same in many other aspects of our public life and how we divide our assets.

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"just like a penthouse. . ."

We sat in one of the meeting rooms in the community center located in the middle of the oldest public housing development (known as "the projects" to locals) west of the Mississippi River--at least, that is the common folklore in these parts.

The room was packed.

Folks were expecting to meet with all seven of the leading mayoral candidates now vying for that office here in Dallas.

Only two candidates showed up--Sam Coats and Gary Griffith.

One thing I know. The folks in that room will remember who showed up for them.

I was impressed and encouraged by the conversation and the give and take that took place so easily between voters and candidates.

One woman who lived in another housing development in far South Dallas, located in one of the toughest, most neglected parts of our city, stood up to ask a question.

"You know," she began, "it's not where you live but how you live that matters most."

"Amens" filled the room.

"My apartment is just like a penthouse to me, 'cause God gave me a roof over my head and my children's. I'm grateful for what we have. But, we want what everyone wants. We want to be safe and we want good things for our children."

There it is.

Everything that matters, found in one room in an East Dallas public housing development: quality of life, safety, opportunity for children, respect, dignity and fairness.

I've decided we need to spend more time listening to one another.

And, we need to accord more respect and value to those who know poverty and its challenges best.

Not in our neighborhood—role reversal

Almost twenty years ago, Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price caused quite a stir when he began a campaign to drive liquor billboard advertisements out of South Dallas. Mr. Price whitewashed a number of billboards himself as a way to call attention to the inordinate number of such signs in his district. He also pointed out the presence of far too many establishments with licenses to sell alcohol in his part of town. As a minister in far North Dallas at the time, I remember cheering him on, to the chagrin of some of my own parishioners.

More recently, protest efforts, community organizing and legal action have combined to focus attention on the area around and between Lincoln High School and Pearl C. Anderson Learning Center. The area immediately around Pearl C. is home to 10 liquor stores.

Not long ago, one of the stores lost its license to sell alcohol. The community celebrated the decision by Dallas County Clerk Cynthia Calhoun to close Buy N Save Discount Beer & Wine. Unfortunately, her decision was overturned last week by a Dallas County judge who cited “procedural errors” in the ruling and sent the case back to the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission (TABC). The TABC could decide to renew the store’s license or call for another public hearing on the matter.

Since the mid-1990s, neighbors, school leaders and students have been working to get the stores closed due to their proximity to the schools. In 1995, their efforts paid off as the Dallas City Council passed an ordinance that established a 1,000-foot alcohol free zone around specified schools.

Unfortunately, the existing stores were “grandfathered” and allowed to continue business inside the zone around Pearl C.

All sorts of negative activities have been reported and documented as occurring in and around stores like Buy N Save that do business in the Lincoln/Pearl C. area, including prostitution, selling alcohol to minors and drug trafficking. For years, students walking to and from school have been subjected to all sorts of negative experiences, influences and harassment.

Neighbors and school leaders have been vigilant in their protests and watchfulness, but the stores remain.

I’m reminded of Mr. Price’s earlier actions on behalf of some of the same families, and his entire district.

Why should South Dallas be subjected to such influences? Folks in North Dallas wouldn’t put up with such circumstances even for a moment. What's more, they would be heard. Folks in South Dallas don't seem to get the same sort of hearing, attention or responsiveness from public officials as those who live up North.

If you live in Dallas, write your Council Member, as the Council is considering the creation of more alcohol-free zones around other public schools in the city.

[For more details, see “Move against beer store near school reversed,” by Scott Goldstein, The Dallas Morning News, Thursday, March 22, 2007, page 8B.]

Taking the long view on battling crime

According to recent polling data gathered by The Dallas Morning News, the number one concern on the minds of Dallas voters as they approach the mayoral election?

Crime.

Not much new there, I'd say.

Over the past several years Dallas has received lots of bad news concerning its national ranking as a leading center for urban criminal activity. One report called Dallas the nation's most dangerous city. Crime statistics have not been going down around town over the past decade, that's for sure.

Naturally, folks from every quarter and sector of the city are concerned about public safety.

It is sort of amusing to watch and to listen to the candidates react so quickly to the latest information about voters' concerns and thoughts.

What to do about crime?

Just about every candidate, with the exception of Dallas City Council Member Don Hill, has laid out aggressive plans for beefing up the size and quality of the Dallas Police Department. One candidate is even talking about, God forbid (!), increases in sales or property taxes to fund the force growth. Others claim that the economic growth of the city can handle the cost of the additional officers that the city needs.

Dallas probably does need more officers on its force.

But, I think Mr. Hill is correct when he argues that the most viable, sustainable, high-impact way to really "take a bite out of crime"will involve the city in addressing issues not normally associated with crime at all.

Want to reduce crime and criminal activity in the city? Consider these steps that take the longer view:

1) Commit significant, continuing public funds, that in turn leverage private investment dollars, to comprehensive, strategic economic development in the poorest parts of the city. The level of funds needed will not be in the tens of millions, but in the hundreds of millions in the near term with total investments beyond the billions over the next two decades.

Part of the plan would include a genuine and thoroughly robust land bank nested in the City's Department of Housing. The Office of Economic Development would also be strengthened beyond recognition as it now exists. Tax incentives of every kind would be utilized to the fullest extent possible from start to finish in the process of targeting low-income, high-crime neighborhoods.

2) Require mixed income developments and affordable, workforce housing "set asides" for every new development in more affluent parts of the city. Payments into the City's housing trust fund in lieu of the required set asides should be a limited option for developers.

Retail development in the "easier," wealthier parts of town would be contingent on comparable development in the "harder," poorer sections of town. The development of grocery stores in the "food deserts" of Dallas would be mandated and developed strategically with the City even issuing RFPs for their construction.

3) Surround our public school system with the support, resources, accountability and unyielding attention provided by a new partnership drawn from across the city, involving every public and civic institution.

4) Develop and market a new, aggressive and appropriate range of workforce development opportunities so that labor in Dallas could actually rise to a skill set level that commands a livable wage.

5) Add additional police officers to the force while shifting the focus of their work to "community policing" that includes the proliferation of police store fronts and coordination of efforts with the Community Prosecutors initiative. At the same time, expand the Community Prosecutors program.

6) Add much needed staff to the city's Code Enforcement Department. Attention to quality of life issues in our poorer neighborhoods will have a positive, long term impact on crime.
Dollars invested to improve the lives of all of our citizens will have a greater, longer lasting effect on crime than by focusing all of our attention on punitive measures. By targeting the city's high crime "hot spots" for these investments, our community will realize great returns both now and over the longer term.