Monday, March 31, 2008

Multiple people helping South Dallas’ Turner Courts

By Michael Davis of Dallas Progress

Turner Courts is in the BonTon area of South Dallas. It has often been maligned by the media, taken advantage of by people that mean it harm, and thugs that often don't live in the neighborhood but use it as a place to do crime and untold damage to an area.

Demetria Frank is the new community prosecutor for the South Dallas/Fair Park neighborhood, which includes Turner Courts. TC is in District Four, although most of South Dallas is in District 7. I met Dee before she started in her new position. I knew she'd do a great job. I guess the proverbial cat is out of the bag now with her Channel 8 feature story earlier this week.

She took the road that a lot of us take, which is to sacrifice time and income to make a difference in our community. Like many others, she could likely make twice the money or more in the private sector. There are many of us in this city that operate in our own zones, but we are meeting up and doing our best to have an impact.

I have been even more inspired by the citizens of Turner Courts. As I told them at one of our meetings, my mother spent part of her childhood in a public housing project, and went on to raise a houseful college students. Anything is possible. The spirit of these residents keeps me going in tough times.

Even before we got officially appointed to our respective positions, I told Janet at Central Dallas Ministries (who has been in the area for ten years) that we would do everything we could to improve the area. It's coming along bit by bit. As Jim Schutze mentioned in the article, Dwaine Caraway has pushed DART to restore nighttime bus service to Turner Courts, and moved the city to replace broken street lights and also seek code compliance crackdowns against liquor stores in the area. DHA is also stepping up to fix the playgrounds.

Yes, Turner Courts will be torn down and redeveloped in better housing at some point as part of DHA and the City of Dallas' master plan, but that doesn't mean that the residents don't deserve the best before that happens. I've also gotten word that current TC residents will be the first to get a shot at moving in when after it's rebuilt. I also got the promise in a public meeting that CDM will get comparable space to what they have now when the Bexar Street project is finished.

The code and store crackdowns in BonTon came courtesy of folks like Dee Frank, Corey Morgan in Dallas Strategic Services, and countless other people and groups. When people work together, we can accomplish a lot.

Check it out for yourself:

Larry James' blog post

Turner Courts residents blog - "Love thy Neighbors"

Janet Morrison's Community Dialogue Blog

Our ASA Family blog - Turner Courts youth

Channel 8 news coverage:

Pegasus News content partner - Dallas Progress

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