Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway didn’t waste time making things happen in District 4, giving an Oak Cliff neighborhood hope by tearing down two drug houses that have been boarded up since 2000. Caraway said he first heard about this problem when Essie Guthrie, who lives on the same block as both houses, told him she couldn’t put her shades up to enjoy God’s sunshine.

“Our neighborhoods should be able to belong to us. They should belong to the people that live here and not the people that want to come in here and destroy us,” Caraway said. “Unfortunately, too often they’ve been taken over by the criminals and illegal activities that we’ve seen going up and down this street -- Crest -- and throughout this entire community. Today we’re standing up to say it won’t be like that anymore.”

Members of ACORN (The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), Mayor Tom Leppert, City Manager Mary Suhm, City Attorney Tom Perkins, Councilmember Linda Koop, Councilmember Jerry Allen, Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez and Dallas Police First Assistant Chief David Brown joined Caraway and members of the neighborhood in a countdown to the demolition of the houses.

Mayor Leppert said Dallas will be as aggressive as any city in the nation, pushing time limits to make sure these houses are eliminated. He said this action sends two messages. The first one is to law-abiding citizens saying the city is simply not going to put up with it and will take strong action. The second is to the landlords who are allowing things like this to happen.

“We want to tell you that there’s going to be a cost attached to it,” Leppert said. “We’re going to bring you out in the open and we’re going to deal with it because it’s the only way that we’re going to get at this.”

Caraway said the two houses, 2523 and 2515 Crest Avenue, were notorious for drug activity because they were boarded and unwanted houses. He said the houses were used to stash drugs and then the criminals would take over the neighborhood and terrorize the community.

“My duty and dream has been to tear these suckers down,” Caraway said.

Betty Henderson lives across the street from one of the houses and said she was very satisfied with Caraway and she wishes she could have voted for him twice. When I asked her about Dr. Maxine Thornton-Reese, who was the District 4 council member before Caraway and served for eight years, she said she’s never seen her.

“I wouldn’t know her if she walked up here right now,” Henderson said. “I’ve lived here 40 something years and it doesn’t make sense that I’m a senior citizen and I pay taxes and I can’t get any action out here until Mr. Caraway got in office.”

Henderson said things started getting bad in her neighborhood approximately 15 years ago. She said the city would board up the house across the street, but people would simply remove the boards. Henderson said she became afraid to leave her house, seeing drug people coming and going as if they lived there.

Henderson told me she talked with Caraway shortly after he was elected and he told her the house would be gone in 30 days. She said Caraway did what he said he would do and it didn’t even take that long.

Henderson’s daughter, Sandra Harlin, was there to see the house go down and when I asked her about her level of satisfaction with Caraway she said, “On a scale of one to 10, I would say 15.” Henderson followed up and said, “20.”

Clearly happy and enthusiastic with Caraway, I asked Henderson how she felt about Mayor Leppert. She said she voted for him, but wasn’t sure right now.

“My hope is in the Lord. I just hope that the people in office will do what they say,” Henderson said. “It’s like with Maxine [Thornton-Reese], she gave me hope. So I learned to put your hope in the Lord. That’s the only thing that counts.”

Councilmember Caraway emphasized that the entire community needs to stand behind this effort and be part of the success and rebuilding. He also said he’s fulfilling his commitment to community of Dallas, not just Oak Cliff.

Comments (6)

Comment	smaller | bigger
Name
Write the displayed characters
Subscribe via email (Registered users only) I have read and agree to the Terms of Usage.
	Add Comment