Monday, March 16, 2009

Pegasus News content partner interview: Barking Dogs

By Alex Bentley

Avi Adelman of Barking Dogs is one of the few Pegasus News content partners to have a singularly local focus. In his case, that focus is the neighborhood surrounding the Lower Greenville area of Dallas and how the businesses in that area affect the residents in the neighborhood. Adelman is extremely passionate about this topic, whether it's writing about the annual St. Patrick's Day celebration on Lower Greenville or exposing the shenanigans of a local towing company, and that passion has been known to raise the ire of more than a readers of this site (and others).

Pegasus News:: When did you start Barking Dogs and what were your reasons for starting it?

Adelman: The site started as an email to a small group of neighbors in the Lower Greenville area in 1998. I started walking crimewatch after a neighbor was assaulted by three drunks he caught pissing on his own porch (the gall of him to tell them to go away). This was when places like Dragonfly and Moonshine Cafe were experimenting with the concept of superbars - large facilities, large crowds, and no parking. This was way before things like Resident Parking Only, and assaults on residents by drunks was spiking.

The timeframe was important - Web 1.0 was hot, and email was super cool to use to spread information. I figured if I used email to update everyone each weekend on what I saw - arrests, car tows, fights and assaults - I could reach more people cheaper than printing and distributing a newsletter.

The first emails went out to 25 people, then 50 then 100 and on and on and eventually I had to create a website to get the information out. It was sooooo ugly... thank god those files are gone.

Pegasus News:: You've gotten some pretty harsh reactions to your posts on Pegasus and elsewhere – does this surprise you or does it just come with the territory?

Adelman: It's a combination of both attitudes. I knew from having a PR / Journalism background that anytime you "bring the light of truth on an issue," the reaction will be harshest from those who either were exposed or, in this case, found their party being upset. After nearly ten years of writing the stories, being on the street and participating in the meetings, that has become even clearer - the ones who stand the most to lose tend to flame me the loudest (or harshest).

But when you sit down and read the content, you find out they (for the most part) do not live in the neighborhood, own a house anywhere near here, and are completely misinformed about the purpose of the site and my work out here.

My two favorite statements (and answers) are, 1) "Didn't you know this was an entertainment district when you moved here?" They ignore the fact (repeated often) that I have been on or near Lower Greenville for almost 30 years (except for a few years living near Woodrow), and in this house - 1000 feet from Greenville - for 21 years. When I moved here, there were just four bars in the area, and the majority of the bars/restaurants we deal with are less than 10 years old.

2) "Why don't you just move out?" Why should I - or any resident - move out? We are not the problem. The problem is the number of bars and restaurants compressed in a very small area and their impact on our quality of life. The residents are not the bad guys, unless we complain, and god knows we are not allowed to complain.

Pegasus News:: One of the big things you write about on your blog is the annual St. Patrick's Day parade and celebration on Lower Greenville – what were your impressions of this year's event?

Adelman: Let's say it very clearly - The parade is NOT an issue, since it's north of Mockingbird. The party on middle Greenville and then the post-party events on lower Greenville are the problems. It's not that we oppose drinking, since I don't (Note - I don't drink, but I have a large wine collection).

The problem is the impact of such a big, for-profit event, for the benefit of a small group of business owners, on a residential community of nearly 35,000 people spread out over just a few square miles. After 1999, when the neighborhood went into gridlock mode, all the neighborhood groups got together and told our Council Rep (Veletta Lill) that this was not going to happen again. Until that time, the party never had a special event permit (one officer told me over the weekend they only needed a few squad cars and one paddy wagon for the party until then).

And every year, the impact of the event spreads out further and further, especially the no parking zones. Eventually it will require no parking zones on the other side of Skillman Avenue (Lakewood Heights). And that is just crazy.

We don't put in the parking restrictions to keep the party people out. We wanted them so we the residents could have free access to our streets, emergency vehicle access, etc. We wanted the neighborhood to be cleaned up of bottles and trash by Sunday morning, which it wasn't. We wanted port-o-lets, we wanted controls on the alcohol (none brought in to the party zone). And we got them.

This year, according to the bar people and regulars I spoke to, the event was NOT as crowded as last year. By 4 p.m., my street is wall to wall pedestrian traffic - this year, it was dead. That tells me things are not going to look good in the cash register come Monday morning.

Pegasus News:: Do your neighbors and your interactions with them affect how you approach your blog?

Adelman: This is such a new medium - blogging was not a word we used in 1999, but that's what we were (Mike Orren called me an original placeblogger and I had to look it up) - that there are no reference points in the past. I like to say a blog/website is like paper on glass, but even now that glass is two inches square on your phone, which requires tighter editing of concepts.

The site created a forum for a discussion of many issues that heretofore were not ever seen online. By focusing on local content - zoning cases, bar arrests, traffic and noise and crime - many of my neighbors came together on a regular basis to trade and collect information.

About five years ago, those of us in the area south of Belmont Avenue sat down to review the issues and what was being done (or not) to fix them. We finally concluded that our neighborhood association - Lower Greenville NA - was ignoring all our requests for help (noise, traffic, bar permits, etc). The LGNA was doing everything it could to keep the bad bars south of Belmont Avenue while they had the good restaurants north of Belmont Avenue. We concluded the only way to control our destiny was to create our own association (BelmontNA.org) and take back control of the area. I called this a natural evolution but to be honest, we were way out on the gene pool of activism.

When you look at why neighborhood associations form, you usually point to a crisis - a serial rapist, a murder, car thefts - and when the crisis is over, the neighborhood association peters out. We have a crisis every weekend - seven thousand people come down here and invade our territory. That drives a lot of energy into the residents.

I admit that my persona as a barking dog is how I am perceived, and I don't mind it. People will come up to me and thank me for my efforts, ask me for help, etc. and a few will take issue with me (but the guy who verbally blasted me at the Kroger vegetable counter went too far, I think). But again, that goes with the territory.

Pegasus News:: Do you have any favorite posts that you've done? Any posts you wish you wouldn't have done?

Adelman: Favorite: My best writing comes when I am severely sleep-deprived, like about 3 a.m. on Sunday after St. Patrick's Day. My favorite post is actually not text but my first real jump into flash animation to present an issue. For months our crimewatchers collected pics of people whizzing in public, which every once in a while I would post based on the how funny it was.

About 3 a.m. one morning, one of our guys said, "You know, those pictures are absolutely priceless." A light went off over their heads (I think I fell asleep in my chair) and they all looked at me, like I knew what to do. All I knew was I was gonna get real deep in trouble in a fun way.

That led to the infamous Priceless Whizzers - ten pics of people pissing in public, with various size blue spots (or none at all, which is really sad). We used the MasterCard priceless theme - $10 to park, $50 for drinks - then ran the pics and closed with "a photo of you whizzing on the parking lot on lower Greenville - priceless"

That put the site on the map - and we crashed the hosting server in 24 hours. Fox put it on their news feed and I had people who I went to high school with calling to ask, "What the hell are you doing in Dallas?" (I grew up in Philly and spent three years in Israel before moving to Dallas).

To this day, people will come up to me and talk about the video like we posted it yesterday but it's been ten years.

My second favorite was written after we brought Resident Parking Only to many of our streets. I promoted the free parking on streets north of Belmont, much to the consternation of those residents who really thought we would put up with this kind of rowdy behavior so they have quiet nights (Every time a Belmont resident gets assaulted, a Lower Greenville residents sleeps better).

It was a spoof, but someone took it too seriously. Next thing you know, there is a flyer being sent to every house on the streets I listed telling those neighbors that I had the gall to push bar parking to their streets, and that was just plain wrong. So they had to boycott all the places I patronized or mentioned on the website. They listed places that would not let me in the door, but also forgot my morning cup of coffee at 7-11.

Least favorite: Anything about a crime or event where someone got hurt - for example the one-eyed bandit spree about five years ago, the recent murder at Sekret's, the death of a friend's mom due to West Nile fever (she was infected while living in a facility just a block away from the end of Greenville Avenue)

Regret: I have written in the past about new restaurants that come down here, boasting of cool interiors, great menus, and caring about the local residents.

About three months later, they catch what I call the Lower Greenville Fever. They find there is no lunch traffic, great menus cost too much to maintain, and the bar reputation overwhelms their white cloth goals. In about six months, they trash the kitchen, fire the chef and turn into a bar.

I hate those stories for two reasons - One, I feel like I was slimed by their lies, and Two, I regret promoting them. Very very rarely will write a promo piece, just so I can avoid getting caught up in that emotional ride. (I feel no sympathy for the owners - most of the time they had no idea what they were doing, and let their emotions overwhelm the spreadsheet and business plan).

I think these stories are still important, but you have to really make sure these guys are legit. And I might create a site that keeps it away from BD due to needing a different style, like video interviews and ask the chef stuff (restaurants only - no bar stories)

Pegasus News:: What would you like your readers to get out of your blog?

Adelman: In no particular order - stories about the community (business and residential) trying to find its way towards the walkable urban environment it should be, important information like local crime alerts, and an occasional good laugh at the antics of bar owners and neighborhood association leaders, stuff you just won't find anywhere else written in a unique style (I hope).

Pegasus News:: What do you see as the future of your blog?

Adelman: To be honest, I have no idea. I have been focusing my time on some new business concepts that spun out of BarkingDogs. My concern with quick access to crime reports led to creating DailyCrimeReport.com. That site led to a business focusing on the new c-store convenience law.

I have been experimenting with video journals to show the story in all its glory and that is really getting attention. I don't know if I will go to the reporter style (standing on the corner with a microphone) but I would like to post more sit-down interviews with neighborhood folks (I have done a few crime victims after the incident stuff and that had a good reaction).

As to the writing, I will still post crime stories, code issues, and zoning stuff. But after then years, I have learned how to work behind the scenes with city staff and do all the research and post it in one shot, not in little pieces that get lost. Those stories take more time, but they are more fun too.

See more stories in:

• Holidays > St. Patrick's Day
• Lower Greenville

Comments