When worlds collide in Uptown Dallas

by Fiona Norton

DALLAS — Uptown Dallas has undergone a remarkable transformation in the past six years that has seen it go from partial wasteland to a chic residential, retail and restaurant wonderland. It has become THE place to live and as such has attracted a diversity of residents: young professional singles and couples, couples with small children, older couples whose offspring have flown and, ahem, students or the recently graduated.

Although the area has amenities which are attractive to all these groups, are all these groups attractive to each other?

I moved to Dallas with very little knowledge of the city and the different atmospheres that were offered by the various neighbourhoods. I had initially thought that The Village might be a good place to live but quickly ascertained that it had a reputation for being a loud student party colony. I was pretty thrilled when I came upon the then nascent West Village area which boasted some attractive apartments, a grocery store, a few bars, restaurants and the promise of a wonderful new retail and entertainment complex. Unfortunately, the growing amenities have attracted exactly those people that I narrowly avoided by not moving into The Village.

I write with the irritation of one who was awoken at 3am this morning by the cacophony of drunken debauchery unfolding in the pool area opposite my dwelling. The loud, drunken and testosterone driven shouts of the young competitive male, interspersed with the piercing shrieks of the sorority girl mating call are not conducive to pleasant slumber. It certainly is not a sight for sore eyes to view the devastation that the morning light reveals of Miller Light cans and plastic cups strewn across the pool area (please note that the apartment complex has provided many trash receptacles so no one has to walk more than a few steps to dispose of their containers).

The problem is, this isn’t an isolated occurrence. It happens many times at night, and even during the day. Last Saturday was a good case in point. I had invited a friend and her fourteen year old son down to spend the afternoon by the pool. We joined couples of various ages who were quietly reading, listening to their iPods on headsets and soaking up the sun. Thirty minutes later, the party arrives: a large group of twenty somethings with 24 packs, glass bottles of vodka, a dog and a docking station for their Ipod. Immediately they are violating 4 of the pool area rules: only 2 pool guests per apartment, no glass bottles, no stereos and no dogs. They march in, shouting gleefully how long the present sunbathers would stay now they were here.

I did go and mention this to the management. The clear glass bottles being taken into the pool were of particular concern. The lone girl on duty did come out and ask them to not take the bottles into the pool. Clearly some complaints about the noise came from other residents as she came out again and very apologetically asked them to turn down the noise – a request they ignored.

This is kind of alien to me. When I was a student back in Britain, pretty much all of us, regardless of socio economic background, went through the rite of passage of living in a grotty shared student house. Most of these rental properties congregated together in the same residential area, away from civilized people. I certainly didn’t expect to find myself 15 years later sharing my expensive apartment complex with such reprobates.

I do think my friends and I had more self awareness than these youngsters though. Their level of self entitlement and disregard for others borders on the sociopathic.

So what’s to be done? I mostly love my apartment complex and the amenities the area has to offer and I don’t intend to move to anodyne suburbia anytime soon. Perhaps these Uptown apartment complexes need to look beyond the immediate dollar and think about the long term creation of communities attractive to specific groups – within the law of non discrimination of course. It can be done. For example, Gables Katy Trail leases are a minimum of 13 months which encourages a more settled and cohesive community. The manager of that community is very proactive and passionate about maintaining a pleasant environment for all, and certainly not shy about cracking down on those who violate the rules. It’s refreshing to see someone not afraid to enforce their own rules.

This story was submitted by a member of the Pegasus News community.

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