DRIVER’S ED

2017 vehicle crash data for East Dallas

By WILL MADDOX

East Dallasites love to keep it local, but driving on our neighborhood streets can be treacherous as well. Gaston and Garland are two of the more dangerous streets around, as evidenced by numerous meetings and arguments about the future of the Gaston-Garland-Grand intersection. And most locals know by now that Abrams is a bit more of a risk than Skillman. Neighbors may find it surprising that while Mockingbird is accident prone, it had fewer fatalities than Greenville or Buckner, which have fewer total crashes. This data doesn’t cover every street in the neighborhood, but it serves as a warning to drive safely and be a good neighbor. Anyone can access statistics like these, provided by the Texas Department of Transportation, at txdot.gov.

Tortoisaurus Rex

The Mayerhoff children, Henry, Mary and Burke, do their best to take care of Tortoisaurus Rex. “Mostly all of us like to watch him eat,” says Henry. “He has a teeny tiny tongue, and no teeth just like Triceratops.” Rex is a Russian Tortoise, and prefers hot, dry climates like Texas. Russians can live up to 40 years in captivity, but don’t get much bigger than a dinner plate, making them convenient, long-term companions. Rex is a tortoise of taste, as he prefers the more expensive wood shavings and spends little time on the discount ground cover. As Rex munches food, Henry, seeing no difference between sharing with his sister and his tortoise wonders, “Can I eat some of his kale?”

DIENER-MILLS THROUGH THE YEARS

When that hold on the latest bestseller finally comes through, or if the internet is down at the house, East Dallas still heads to its library. The Lakewood Library was built in 1938 at 6342 La Vista in the stately Diener-Mills building that today houses Kelli Slate’s dental practice and 2 Shea Boutique and Med Spa. The building is named for for Paul Diener and

Cecil Mills, who bought the property when it was scheduled for destruction in the 1980s. The library moved to Worth Street in 1970 but is still a bustling a community of book lovers. Story time is always packed, the book drive is still popular and the art show every May draws numerous neighborhood entries, as it has since 1962.