If you’re like me and live in a house, you may wonder why it’s important to read this month’s cover story about City code enforcement and, in particular, code enforcement of apartment complexes.
After all, people living in substandard conditions – as long as they aren’t living next door – really don’t affect most of our daily lives.
But imagine living next door to a neighbor who doesn’t mow his or her lawn, or keep his or her house painted properly. It’s not a pretty sight. But it’s a memorable one.
There are a few neighborhood streets that come to mind where the most noticeable house on the block is the one that isn’t tended properly.
For some reason, the eye tends to linger on extremes – the really good and, more likely, the really bad.
Then the dominoes start to fall: My yard isn’t edged as often, but it still looks better than the one next door. Or the peeling paint on my house doesn’t look nearly as bad as the neighbor’s next door, so I put off scraping and painting for yet another year.
Pretty soon, this attitude can spread throughout the block, and then the street, and then the neighborhood.
So what started as one neighbor not caring becomes an epidemic – suddenly, more and more people don’t care as much.
It’s the same problem with apartments – as block after block falls victim to shabby maintenance and lackadaisical tenant selection, people who want to live in a “nice” place move a few blocks father down the road.
And as demand for these now declining apartments diminishes, the owners have less money to spend on repairs, resulting in even shabbier units and even lower rents and, well, you get the picture.
Pretty soon, the apartments that used to be blocks and blocks away from our homes have creeped closer and closer to our homes.
It only takes a little crack in the protective armor of a neighborhood to turn a Lakewood into a Pleasant Grove.
That’s why code enforcement, and our cover this month, is important.
Our New Alliance for Progress
I had the opportunity recently to attend the inaugural meeting of the East Dallas Alliance for Economic Development.
A lot of the neighborhood people you tend to read about in the Advocate were there, as were a lot of City employees. The stated goal of the meeting was to develop a workable plan to help rejuvenate and promote our neighborhood.
To be sure, a disproportionate amount of “organizational theory” and “flow-chart boxes” were discussed at this first meeting, as opposed to any real meaty issues.
And neighborhood lawyer John Cochran’s question about how, or whether, the City intended to fund this City-sponsored initiative drew a few chuckles, even from the City employees.
But the group’s intent is good: Overall, we’ve got a lot to be proud of here in our neighborhood, and we need to work a little harder to let the rest of this City know about our growing list of accomplishments.
The East Dallas Chamber of Commerce will be coordinating the effort, and I encourage you – whatever your stake in our neighborhood – to become as involved as your time permits.
The group is open to all neighborhood residents, so contact the Chamber at 321-6446 if you have questions or would like to become a part of the East Dallas Alliance for Economic Development.
How to Win a Free Cruise
A final, selfish note: We at the Advocate have worked pretty hard this past month to set up the first of what we hope will be an annual cruise vacation giveaway for our readers.
Those of you reading this column have an excellent chance to win a seven-day Royal Caribbean cruise for two, including airfare to Fort Lauderdale, simply by turning to our special cruise promotion insert and visiting the neighborhood businesses who are helping us sponsor this giveaway.
We offered the opportunity to participate in this promotion to many more businesses than ultimately decided to take a chance on our first big giveaway. Like any new project, many people tended to take a wait-and-see attitude, so we’re especially appreciative of the businesses who stuck their necks out and took a chance on this idea.
And I hope you’ll take the opportunity – as you’re filling out your registration form at each of these neighborhood businesses – to thank their owners for participating.
We told these businesses that participating would be a great way for them to attract new customers, as well as reward the faithful customers who stop by every day.
And think about it: Someone in our neighborhood is going to win a cruise, and I guarantee you the odds you might be the winner are a lot better than those of the Texas lottery. And you don’t have to pay anyone a buck or two for your chance to win.
Good luck, thanks in advance for your support, and check back with us in May as we announce our winners.
