Friday, January 11, 2008

Oak Lawn finds fewer parking problems than Lower Greenville

By David Webb of Dallas Voice

Dallas City Councilwoman Pauline Medrano, left, Councilwoman Angela Hunt both note that residents in Oak Lawn seldom complain about bar patrons' parking habits.

Patrons of bars in the Oak Lawn entertainment district apparently are not causing the kind of problems residents in the Lower Greenville Avenue area are seeing.

Dallas District 2 City Councilwoman Pauline Medrano, who represents the area between Cedar Springs Road and Maple Avenue, said she has seldom had complaints about parking problems, except for on special occasions like parade day. The bars have provided sufficient parking, she said.

"I think the people that planned where the parking would be for the bars really planned accordingly," Medrano said.

Medrano added that bar personnel in Oak Lawn tend to clean up after their patrons.

"When you have businesses and residences so close together, you have to work together as a team," Medrano said. "It's a good neighbor policy."

Neighborhood activist Nancy Weinberger, one of the coordinators of Oak Lawn Apartment Managers and Stakeholders crime watch group, said patrons of the bars on Cedar Springs Road rarely park deep into the neighborhood.

"The only time we have bar patrons parked in our neighborhood is on Halloween and for parades," Weinberger said. "It's not an every weekend sort of thing."

Weinberger, who lives in the neighborhood between Lemmon Avenue and Cedar Springs Road, said the only parking problems she hears about in her immediate area are the ones arising from visitors to Craddock Park parking on Hawthorne Street and overflow from condominium complexes in Oak Lawn parking on single-family home residential streets in Perry Heights.

The residents who complain about those parking problems have never taken any action to correct the problem, Weinberger said.

"People really like to complain, but people don't want to have to do anything," Weinberger said. 'We would be happy to support them and help them do it, but they haven't done anything."

Weinberger noted that residents in the neighborhood between Lemmon Avenue and Cedar Springs Road directly next to the entertainment strip secured help to control and limit parking several years ago. Bar patrons who park on streets rather in bar parking lots tend to park in the neighborhood between Cedar Springs Road and Maple Avenue, she said.

Nancy Weinberger

"People are always complaining about it, but as far as it being a gigantic, sticky issue -- it's not," Weinberger said.

Still, Medrano cautioned that bar patrons need to be mindful of the impact they have on the neighborhood.

"You've got to be quiet about it -- no rabble rousing," Medrano said.

Weinberger said the few people who do complain about parking problems are the ones who oppose the construction of more parking lots.

"There are people who have lived in Oak Lawn a long time who would rather die than have a parking lot," Weinberger said. "If you don't like cars parking in front of your house, let them get some land zoned to make a parking lot and screen the lot and go on with it."

District 14 City Councilwoman Angela Hunt said that she has not received complaints about bar patron parking in Oak Lawn as she has in the Lower Greenville Avenue area.

"We really don't see that," Hunt said. "I think that's partly a function of the fact that the bars along Cedar Springs are very actively involved in the community, and they have deep roots in the community."

That's not the case in the Lower Greenville Avenue area, she said.

"One of the things we've seen along Lower Greenville is a turnover again and again and again of these bars, Hunt said. "That often makes it difficult to develop relationships and for them to feel a sense of cooperation and camaraderie with the neighborhood."

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The community newspaper for gay & lesbian Dallas.

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