The East Side Neighborhood Association (also known as Asociacion del Vecindario Eastside) formed recently to improve conditions for neighborhood residents in Old East Dallas.
“At our first meeting,” says association president Jonathan Sterling, “we took a walk around the neighborhood. We had listed the trash problem as the number one item on our agenda but then we saw the park.”
“There were children playing in the midst of broken glass from beer bottles. In order to use the slide, they had to place a piece of carpet at the bottom to avoid landing on glass.
“I’m not a parent myself, but at that moment I knew we had to make the park and our children’s quality of life a priority.”
The park, which runs between Munger and Fitzhugh Avenues alongside the Santa Fe railroad tracks, was created by the city in 1980 on the edge of a residential neighborhood. A basketball court, a small shelter with two picnic tables and some playground equipment are the extent of the amenities.
Across the street from the park is a tent city occupied by a number of homeless men on a vacant lot. Until they are able to locate the owner of the lot, Sterling says, the association can take no legal action to remove the squatters.
However, there is much the association can do. Members have asked the city for new playground equipment, because they fear the old equipment is dangerous. They are also hoping that the park department will build another basketball court and bring in some trees. The city has drawn up three separate plans for park improvements over the years,Ó Sterling says, “the first in 1980. All of the plans included trees and landscaping, but for some reason none have ever been planted.Ó Currently the park property has no trees at all; when the dwellings on the property were razed in the 1970s, all the native trees were bulldozed as well.
Already, thanks to requests from the association, the City is performing regular maintenance and picking up trash. There is less broken glass. And the parks department has affirmed that there is money in the budget to plant trees in the park.
We understand that we may have to do some watering and fertilizing, Sterling says.
But if we can just get some landscaping put in, we’re more than willing to do our share of the maintenance.
Sterling, who came to Dallas from New Hampshire in 1989 and has since bought a home in the neighborhood, is excited about the potential of the association. “I hope that one offshoot will be a Crime Watch group similar to those that other neighborhood associations have formed.”
“Right now, though, we don’t have a system in place to raise funds. We’re so new we are just now at the point of getting to know one another and saying hello when we meet on the street.”
District 2 Dallas City Councilman John Loza attended one of the association’s first meetings and says, “I’m very glad they’re forming. Historically that neighborhood has gotten less attention than many others, and the park is an example of that.”
“One of the things I’m going to be doing is forming a neighborhood advisory council, with one or more representatives from each neighborhood in District 2, meeting once a month. That will help me to know what the needs are in these communities.”
Overall, though, Councilman Loza says, “Nothing takes the place of a well-organized, active neighborhood association.”
Association president Jonathan Sterling agrees.
“As a community, we have not made demands on the City in the past. But that is changing.”
