BIZ BUZZ

WHAT’S UP WITH NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESSES

LANDLORD BLAMED FOR ‘NUISANCE’

One corner convenience store, EZ Trip at Forest Lane and Audelia, is rife with drug activity and other crime, and our city wants to hold property owners and tenants responsible.

The City of Dallas, on March 3, filed for a temporary and permanent injunction against Bent Creek Shopping Center and owner Rooha Realty, Inc. and its registered agent Mohammed Hanif Khanani, citing that since he purchased the property in 2015, there have been 66 drug-related arrests, seven aggravated assaults, seven arrests for unlawfully carrying a weapon, two for the reckless discharge of a firearm and two robberies. Note: the area was crime infested long before that.

After a drive-by shooting of a teenager in July 2015, the Dallas Police Department placed the property in its S.A.F.E. program a police initiative that, officially, “forges vested partnerships with cooperative property owners to combat common and public nuisances.”

But it did not have a satisfactory impact.

If the court finds for the City in its temporary injunction request, the property owner would be required to pay a bond of between $5,000 and $10,000 ensuring that it would not “knowingly maintain a common nuisance on the property,” according to the lawsuit.

Violations could then mean the City of Dallas would be allowed to cut off utility services at the property. A permanent injunction could force the entire shopping center to close for one year from the date of said judgment. Several other businesses including a dry cleaners, a nail salon, a dollar store and a shoe store occupy the property.

The city attorneys’ actions are small pieces of an entire “toolbox” of items northeast leaders are throwing at crime issues at the intersection as well as the surrounding area, city officials have said.

Those efforts include a proposed northern Lake Highlands Public Improvement District, which needs buy-in from owners of 60 percent of the commercial property within the PID boundaries; they would pay a set assessment to a nonprofit associated with the North Lake Highlands PID. You can read more about that and other efforts on advocatemag.com (search “PID” and/or “Forest-Audelia”).

KAZY’S, IS THAT YOU?

Kazy’s off I-635 just east of Greenville underwent a makeover, complete with a new navy blue and white façade and an updated interior, sushi bar and sitdown areas. The Japanese grocery store prepares fresh sushi and sells wholesale to the area’s best restaurants.

Happy 15th To A True Local Biz

The Store in Lake Highlands celebrated its 15th anniversary this March. Charismatic owner Cheryl Calvin founded the E. Northwest Highway boutique in 2002.

TELL YOUR VISITING

RELATIVES...

Hampton Inn & Suites opened at 10370 N. Central Expressway at the edge of our neighborhood.

Nonprofit Profits

Pamper Lake Highlands received $33,500 in donations from the members of 100 Women of Lake Highlands. Founded in 2014, Pamper Lake Highlands provides diapers to young mothers, as well as parenting classes, bible studies, financial training, medical needs and other services. “This is the answer to many prayers,” founder Caren Bright said. “We now have 335 more women and families who are believing in [our organization], and we will continue to try to make you proud.”

REPLACE THE MEMORIES

Hoodlums, possibly for the scrap metal, in March stole some 33 memorial plates from the Celebration Tree Grove at White Rock Lake, a project of For The Love Of The Lake, which uses money from plaque sales to reforest the park. The cost of the theft equals about $6,500 worth of reforestation funds, members say. They have set up a fundraiser to replace the lost plaques without dipping into the existing budget.

Donors can mail a check to FTLOTL, PMB 281 – 381 Casa Linda Plaza, Dallas, Texas, 75218.