2010 March Lakewood

HOMEGROWN GRUB

FARMERS MARKETS ARE CROPPING UP EVERYWHERE, FASTER THAN CITY REGULATIONS CAN KEEP UP

NEIGHBORHOOD SEED CO.

BLOGS, PODCASTS ANDMOREAT

Amateur sculptors take advantage of an historic 12-inch snowfall by building what is possibly the biggest snowman East Dallas has ever seen.

PHOTO BY CAN TÜRKYILMAZ

TEAM WHITESIDE is pleased to announce the addition of three new associates. MelissaMcSpedden-Martinek grew up in LakeHighlands and has been involved in the Lakewood Service League for 15 years. Jill Carpenter has sold real estate here in EastDallas for 5 years and comes from a corporate background. Casey Raney graduated from Texas Tech in 2006 with a degree in finance and real estate and lives in the M-Streets. We feel fortunate they affiliated with us and look forward to watching them succeed in the future.

A dietary renaissance has many looking to local farmers markets, but some say our city’s policies toward them are still back in the dark ages.

FEAT U RES

46 GARDENING 101

East Dallas students dig outdoor science classes that offer both fun and fundamentals. 50 REDEMPTION ROAD

A neighborhood improvement group has grown into the far-reaching, crime-preventing Ferguson Road Initiative.

58 A STAR IS BORN

A seventh-grader from Lakewood makes her big-screen debut. IN

department columns only in 4 / opening remarks10 / letters14 / grab-bag17 / happenings26 / food + wine28 / news + notes69 / worship70 / scene + heard71 / crime77 / last word78

advertising the goods24 / dining guide29 / health resources60

/ education guide68 / bulletin board71 / home services73

PHOTO BY SEAN McGINT Y

YOUR WEEKEND TO-DO LIST

is on every Thursday.

Search: weekend

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

Three editors and the occasional guest get a microphone and 10 minutes to talk about what’s on their minds. The result? Interesting insight and the occasional impromptu audio hilarity. Listen every Monday morning on

S earch: A dvocate radio

WATCH US SHOOT OUR FOOD

brings you behind-the-scenes video of Advocate staffers as they research and photograph neighborhood restaurateurs and their featureworthy menus.

S earch: Daddy Jacks video

ARE YOU FOLLOWING US?

Stalk us, please. If you don’t, you could be missing out on breaking neighborhood news. Get emerging East Dallas news from editor Christina Hughes Babb at twitter.com/advocate__ed.

“ The entire notion of telling the city that we’ve got storm debris that needs collecting is silly.”

—JOHN ON THE CITY’S FALLEN LIMB POLICIES S EA R CH : FALLEN LIMBS ON

MY WIFE HATES SPORTS

Our courtship suggested otherwise, and once I learned the truth, it was too late

When my wife-to-be and I were dating, our favorite activity was attending sporting events.

We sat in the upper deck at Reunion Arena watching the Mavericks stumble around the court. We checked out a polo match back when there was a field at Willow Bend. We even went to a high school football game to watch two teams neither of us cared about just because watching sports was something fun to do.

But no sporting event offered the sheer enjoyment of professional baseball, where we sat in cheap seats and bought cheap hot dogs. (My wife’s was smeared with so much mustard you couldn’t see the dog or the bun from the top.)

And then something happened that dramatically changed our lives we

were married. And only then, after the wedding gift exchange and the honeymoon and the new house, and once her name was all over my meager but still estimable assets, did I find out the truth: My wife hates sports.

It’s not that she harbors resentment toward sporting events; she absolutely, positively yawns through sports of all kinds and, as it turns out, always has. Well, I have to say that for a while, I felt duped. This revelation shook our marriage. I considered, privately and without consulting my wife, whether counseling (for her, of course) might help bridge the gap between us. But when I weighed the cost of counseling versus the number of annual sporting event tickets that would then be unaffordable, I glumly accepted my ‘til-death-do-us-part fate.

as we trudged forward with a happy public face.

And then, something happened that completely and dramatically changed our lives again: Our two sons were born, and they loved sports, too!

As the boys became older, and as their interest in sports grew, we did what any self-respecting family does when confronted with life-altering choices.

We voted on which activities to attend, and we agreed that majority ruled.

Rangers game this weekend, who wants to go? 3-1 in favor! Mavs vs. the Thunder? 3-1 in favor! Stars vs. anyone? 3-1 in favor!

Rick Wamre is publisher of Advocate Publishing. Let him know how we are doing by writing to 6301 Gaston, Suite 820, Dallas 75214; FAX to 214.823.8866; or e-mail to rwamre@advocatemag.com.

DISTRIBUTION PH/214.560.4203

From time to time thereafter, I tried to conjure the old magic, slyly leaving tickets to a particularly enticing sporting event on the kitchen table the Stars versus the Red Wings, or the Mavs against the Pistons, or the ultimate sporting event, a Rangers double-header (two games on the same day!). No dice.

There seemed to be no way back from this deep, dark hole in our lives, even

ADVERTISING PH/214.560.4203 advertising coordinator: JUDY LILES /214.560.4203 jliles@advocatemag.com

Married life is good now, but I’m becoming a little worried since we’re losing our oldest to a college out of state next year; I’m afraid the vote might start looking like 2-1 more often, and that’s a little close for comfort.

But I have an ace up my sleeve for that day when son number two inevitably hits the road and I’ll be looking at a 1-1 standoff again, harkening back to those early, difficult years after we were married.

It turns out, unbeknownst to my wife, that I don’t like shopping. Never have and never will.

advertising sales director: KRISTY GACONNIER /214.560.4213 kgaconnier@advocatemag.com display sales manager: BRIAN BEAVERS /214.560.4201 bbeavers@advocatemag.com senior advertising consultant: AMY DURANT /214.560.4205 adurant@advocatemag.com advertising consultants: CATHERINE PATE /214.292.0494 cpate@advocatemag.com

NORA JONES /214.292.0962 njones@advocatemag.com

MADELYN RYBCZYK /214.292.0485 mrybczyk@advocatemag.com BRANDI STRINGER /469.916.7864 bstringer@advocatemag.com

PATTI MILLER /214.292.0961 pmiller@advocatemag.com classified manager: PRIO BERGER /214.560.4211 pberger@advocatemag.com

classified consultants: SALLY ACKERMAN /214.560.4202 sackerman@advocatemag.com SUSAN CLARK /469.916.7866 sclark@advocatemag.com

EDITORIAL PH/ 214.292.2053 publisher: RICK WAMRE /214.560.4212 rwamre@advocatemag.com managing editor: KERI MITCHELL /214.292.0487 kmitchell@advocatemag.com

editors: MARLENA CHAVIRA-MEDFORD /214.292.2053 mchavira-medford@advocatemag.com CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB /214.560.4204 chughes@advocatemag.com

RACHEL STONE /214.292.0490 rstone@advocatemag.com senior art director: JYNNETTE NEAL /214.560.4206 jneal@advocatemag.com assistant art director: JULIANNE RICE /214.292.0493 jrice@advocatemag.com

designers: JEANINE MICHNA-BALES, LARRY OLIVER, contributing editors: JEFF SIEGEL, SALLY WAMRE contributors: SEANCHAFFIN,SANDYGREYSON, BILL KEFFER, GAYLA KOKEL, ERIN MOYER,GEORGEMASON,BLAIRMONIE,ELLENRAFF web editor: COLLEENYANCY /469.916.7860 cyancy@advocatemag.com photo editor: CAN TÜRKYILMAZ /214.560.4200 cturkyilmaz@advocatemag.com photographers: ROBERT BUNCH, MARK DAVIS, MOLLY DICKSON interns: ALEX KNESNIK, DAMION SELMON

DID YOU KNOW: The average household spends more than $2200 a year on energy bills, with nearly half of this going to heating and cooling costs! Is

“Knee replacement at Baylor got me moving again.”

“You have no idea how many steps you take until every one is painful,” says Jill Gunnels. With osteoarthritis, the cartilage in both her knees was virtually gone, and she needed total knee replacement. “I wanted to make sure the right person did the procedure,” she says. At Baylor, Jill had bilateral knee replacement, a highly technical orthopaedic procedure. Now, she says, “My life has changed. I’m going places every day. I don’t think you can keep up with me.” As for her choice of hospitals, she says, “I have one word—gratitude.”

For a physician referral or for more information about orthopaedic services at Baylor Dallas, call 1.800.4BAYLOR or visit us online at BaylorHealth.com/DallasOrtho.

3500 Gaston Avenue., Dallas, Texas 75246

BUDGET BLUES

Dallas does not need a property tax increase; we need the appraisal office to bring all homes up to current valuation [February Advocate “Last Word: Budget Bad and Getting Worse”]. I bought a new house in Vickery Place for $600k so my property taxes are high, but when I checked the records I am paying more than the FIVE homes across the street from me combined because their valuations are so low, even less than their land value. If everyone paid a fair valuation we would not be in this predicament.

—KIERAN CLIFFORD, VIA E-MAIL

The city budgeting process is deceptive.

First, in public presentations in the past two years, various city leaders like the mayor never provide apples-to-apples comparisons for the citizen to follow. We can’t really figure out what is happening without lots of extra work. Second, last year at Winfrey Point, the citizens made their points clearly. Do not hire 200 new police officers and do not issue any new bonds until we have a better understanding of how our economy would be affected by the crisis unfolding. Third, the city manager started out with a “dream budget” that needed to be cut by $190 million. The reality was that the “dream budget” was a fraud and purposely deceptive.

Finally, last year at public meetings we indicated that we did not want any tax rate increases, no tax or fee increases at all. Were we listened to? No. Will the current budget, including other services, really spend less than the previous one? Will fees for other services rise again this coming year for things like water, Love Field, gas bills as they did this year? Will they really lay off employees from all the city functions?

—EUGENE DAVIS, VIA E-MAIL

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Now more than ever before, your owning adequate Life Insurance to protect you and your family should be a very high priority. I will help you accomplish this.

13 Things That YOU Can Do to Make Your Home Remodel a Success

Once you’ve selected a professional contractor for your remodeling project, be confident and trust the decision you’ve made. At the same time, be proactive and vigilant to ensure your project’s success. With the help of NARI – the National Association of the Remodeling Industry – we’ve assembled a checklist to use no matter which contractor you choose.

List the Procedures in Phases and have the contractor explain the time needed. Plan Adequate Storage Areas for your belongings and for the working crew’s materials.

Put your project managerJs number in your cell phone for when important questions inevitably arise.

Consider the logistics in ordering and delivering all of the materials that will be used. Material deliveries can be affected by weather, and sometimes the manufacturers or distributors make mistakes with materials, quantities, or dates.

Select materials (paint color, floor tile, etc.) in advance so they’ll be ready in time for installation.

Try to stay out of the construction area to maintain safety for everyone in the home.

Expect the unexpected. Unforeseen incidents happen: late deliveries, shipment shortages, wrong parts, oversights, rain, and on-the-spot changes. Removing an older floor or a wall may uncover a problem that demands plan revisions.

Workmanship. Know what to expect in terms of industry standards of quality workmanship so that you can inspect the work as stages are completed. Ask your contractor about the stages of your project and who will be involved. Separate crews install framing, siding, insulation, masonry, finish carpentry, and roofing. Painters, electricians, and plumbers and other trades will come and go at various stages. With so many moving parts, allow for a few disruptions.

Cover furniture and carpeting. A quality contractor will cover the area for you to protect your home and belongings.

Hovering over workers can cause resentment and a loss of focus. Trust the professionalism of the crews and they’ll work better.

Limit questions to workers. Most workers are simply following orders and construction specs. Only discuss construction changes with your project manager.

Plan to do without water or power when workers shut off lines. Avoid frustration by being prepared.

Feel free to talk to us about any of these items in detail. At Bella Vista, we understand that itJs not enough to just have a

www.BellaVistaCompany.com

Lance Tyler and Darin Breedlove, CR, CGR, CGP, CAPS

LAUNCH

The Texas Irish Festival is in its 28th year, and last year, it drew some 60,000 people to Fair Park. It’s the biggest celebration of Celtic culture in Texas. MARSHA SINGER of Forest Hills has been the festival director for the past 10 years.

How did the Texas Irish Festival start?

In 1983, a group of people got together at the Nick Farley Lounge that used to be on Oak Lawn — it’s a Pappadeaux’s now — and they played Celtic music and had a good time. It was billed as the first Texas Celtic festival. And it just kind of blossomed from there. In 1984, it moved to Fair Park, and we’ve been there ever since.

So it grew pretty quickly.

It’s grown dramatically. Texas doesn’t have this gigantic Irish population like Boston or Chicago. It was a bestkept secret, and people really didn’t know very much about Celtic culture. When I first started, they were averaging 10 or 12 thousand people each year. But we’ve tried to expand our media and marketing message in the past 10 years, and last year we had 60,000 people.

What can people expect from the festival?

We have handmade or Celtic-themed arts and crafts. There used to be four stages with live music and performances, and now there are nine. People can learn to play traditional Celtic instruments and learn Celtic dances.

What about kids?

For kids, we have our ‘Urchin Street’, which is not your typical bounce-house type of element. We have art activities that are educational to the Celtic heritage.

ROBERT BUNCH

OLD TOWN

more on MARSHA SINGER

AND YOU HAVE ANIMALS?

We probably have more dogs at our festival than you’ve ever seen. The Irish love their dogs. We donate money to the SPCA, and this year, we have 18 rescue groups signed up so far, and we’ll probably cap it at 20. It started with Irish wolfhounds, but now we have rescue groups for rabbits, cats, guinea pigs — anything you can think of. One of our big things this year is horses. Horses are very important to the Celtic culture. We’ve got everything from the Dallas mounted police, a horse-riding team out of Florida, horse trainer Robert Liner, who is doing the ‘Spirit of the Celtic Horse’ exhibit. We’ve got a horse chiropractor — so horses are our new element. We try to put something different into the mix that makes people want to get out and see it.

WHAT ARE PEOPLE SURPRISED TO LE ARN ABOUT CELTIC CULTURE?

They’re surprised by how many countries it encompasses — there are seven nations — and how many people have Celtic heritage in their genealogy, if you look far enough. And just the richness of the heritage — the dance and the song and the exuberance of the whole culture — I think people are surprised to find that. We have to call it the Irish festival in Texas, even though it’s really a Celtic festival, because not everyone knows what Celtic means.

WHAT ELSE WILL WE SEE AT THE FESTIVAL?

There’s a Scottish clans village, where they display their coats of arms, and a lot of kilts. A lot of kilts. It surprises people to find out how old the culture is and how well-documented it is. You can go find your coat of arms with these genealogy vendors. It’s a very colorful history. There are large Celtic and Irish populations in Africa and South America, and a lot of people are surprised to learn that.

WHAT ABOUT THE FOOD?

Oh, you’ll find scotch eggs, Irish stew and a lot of the traditional foods. And then we have 20 or 25 other vendors selling stuff like kettle corn and hot dogs. There’s also Irish wine, mead, cider — there’s something for everyone. But this is a family event. It’s not St. Patty’s Day. It’s a Celtic festival, and it’s a family event.

—RACHEL STONE

THE FESTIVAL RUNS from March 6-8. Tickets are $15 for adults, and free for children under 12 and members of the military and police departments. Also, anyone who arrives between 6-7 p.m. on Friday, March 6 gets in free.

? My street is VERY DARK How would I go about getting a STREETLIGHT installed?

Although there is no fee for installing a streetlight in your neighborhood, the installation process can be pretty time-consuming. Here’s how it works:

1. Call the city’s service request number, 311, and tell the operator that you are requesting a streetlight installed on your street.

2. After you make the request, a work order will be issued to the district engineer within your zip code. The engineer will send you a petition request; eight signatures are needed from surrounding homeowners for your request to be considered. One stipulation of the installation process is that if you want a streetlight installed between two houses, you need the other homeowner’s consent and signature as well as your own. If you cannot get your neighbor to sign the petition, the streetlight will not be installed.

Rose

CJ Prince Chris Hickman

Spirit Award Rookie of the Year

PATIENT QUOTE OF THE MONTH:

“Thank you and your staff for a wonderful visit to a place most people dread! I am elated to have found a place where I feel comfortable and has GREAT service!! I am no longer a Dental Nomad!!”

– Eric Blomquist

3. After signatures for the petition are obtained and given to the city, the petition is then sent to Oncor, the company responsible for the city’s streetlights and electricity. The approval process may take up to 45 days to finalize, but once it receives an OK, your streetlight will immediately be installed.

4. By the way, to report a streetlight outage, call Oncor at 1.888.313.4747. Because Oncor owns all of the streetlights, the city is not involved in any repairs or maintenance, only in the initial installation request.

5.

For more information, visit the Oncor website at oncor.com, or visit dallascityhall.com/services/ transportation2.html and click on “Street Lighting”.

—ASHA GWIN GOT A MAZE YOU CAN’T FIND YOUR WAY THROUGH? Email howitworks@advocatemag.com with your question.

Another murder this weekend at the same intersection Search: fatally shot

Instead of trying to tack onto the success that the Lakewood neighborhood has had in lifting up its school, Ridgewood Park should push to make Dan D. Rogers have higher standards.

S earch: rogers attendance zone

Parts of Lakewood and East Dallas will switch from alley to curb pickup, which should no doubt irritate quite a few people.

S earch: picking garbage

PETPAUSE young at heart

Would you believe that BOB, best furry friend of East Dallas resident STEVE STEHR, is 10 years old? That’s 70 in dog years, yet he doesn’t look a day past puppyhood. What’s your secret, Bob? His owner says that though he’s been alive a decade, he has the heart of a puppy, full of love and joy.

WHAT GIVES?

Small ways that you can make a big difference for neighborhood nonprofits

TUNE IN TO THE SOUND of “Infinite Possibility: A Night of Music, Art, and Women Helping Women”. East Dallas-based singer and songwriter Jill Allison Bryan will host the event

Bryan’s “Dancing in Limbo” CD release party coupled with an art auction featuring 13 local female artists — to benefit Women for Women International, an organization that helps women in war-torn countries rebuild their lives. Another neighborhood resident, KERA “Think” host Kris Boyd, will emcee the benefit on Saturday, Mar. 27 at 7 Senses in the Dallas Design District. “Many of my friends happen to be very talented female artists, and I’ve always thought it would be wonderful to somehow collaborate with them,” Bryan says. “The idea for this event born of that notion while I was recording my CD.” Find ticket information infinitepossibilityevents.com.

OR CHUNK YOUR OLD CELL PHONE in a donation box at Lakewood Whole Foods or inside Lakewood Elementary School, Hillbrook. The contribution can help school in a big way, says member and mom Kim Schaefer, is leading the effort. “We have earned as much as $50 for one phone often get between $20 and $30 for Blackberries we collect,” she says. added bonus, Schaefer says, is that proper recycling and restoring of old phones protects our environment. “Who can argue with that combination?”

KNOW OF WAYS that neighbors can spend time, attend an event, or purchase or donate something to benefit a neighborhood nonprofit? Email your suggestion to launch@advocatemag.com.

Pictured: Holden Stedman, Jamie Hegwood, David Boyd and Paige Whiteside, Ol’ Blue (front)

THE G OOD S

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

TALULAH BELLE

Michael Aram Collection - Designer Michael Aram doesn’t merely reproduce what he finds in nature — he enhances it. Exclusively at Talulah Belle. 2011 Abrams Rd. 214.821.1927

talulahbelle.com

THE NATURAL INHALER

100% natural way to relieve the symptoms of asthma, bronchitis and allergies. Safe for all ages, including children. Inhaler lasts 5 (+) years with daily use! Available locally at Green Spot (Buckner@Northcliff). Order online at thenaturalinhaler.com.

DOWNING HILL GARDEN STUDIO

Add a touch of whimsy with a Gurgle Pot (TM). Stoneware pitcher produces a delightful “gurgle” as you pour. 3016 Greenville Ave. 214-887-1837 downinghill.com

THE STORE IN LAKE HIGHLANDS

EGGstravagant Eggs by Demdaco! Intricate details and soft, watercolor hues bring out the beauty in these heirloom stle eggs. 10233 E NWHwy@Ferndale (near Albertsons) 214.553.8850 Mon-Sat TheStoreinLH.com

YOGA MART

New! Second Nature meditation pillows sleeping pillows. Yoga mats, block, bolsters, clothing for yoga & pilates. 6039 Oram 214.534.4469 yogamartusa.com

Wonderful bedding, pillows, window treatments, fabrics, and trim on site with a workroom in back. Incredible in stock selection or design your own!

2000 Greenville (before Ross @ Oram)

TRINITY FLOOR COMPANY

Since 1934, Trinity Floor Company has served the metroplex with fine flooring. Come visit us for all your flooring needs.

214.943.1157 trinityfloors.com

SPRINGTIME AT THE ARBORETUM

$6-$9.50 For the past four years, ArtScape has been a highlight of the Dallas Arboretum’s annual floral festival, Dallas Blooms. The art show and sale, which takes place the weekend of March 20 and 21, highlights work by more than 80 artists from around the nation. All art in the show is either made of things found in nature or has nature as a theme, and the featured pieces include paintings, photographs, sculptures, jewelry, ceramics, mixed media and more. Dallas Blooms, the springtime celebration at the arboretum, features about 500,000 spring-blooming bulbs, as well as a petting zoo, and arts and crafts. Admission to the Dallas Arboretum, 8525 Garland, is $6 for children, $8 for seniors, and $9.50 for adults. For more information, call 214.515.6500 or visit dallasarboretum.org.

—TYLER TERRELL

JAZZ CONCERT FREE The New Horizons Band and UpSwing jazz ensembles will perform for the Casa Linda AARP chapter at 10 a.m., followed by a covered dish lunch. Casa Linda United Methodist Church, 1800 Barnes Bridge Road, 214.321.1705.

$15 The North Texas Irish Festival at Fair Park is in its 28th year, but this is the first time the DART Green Line can take revelers there. The festival features a horse show, music, children’s games that teach them about Celtic culture, food and more. The event is FREE to children under 12 and to members of the police or military. Tickets are available at Tom Thumb or at ntif.org.

KINDERGARTEN ROUNDUP FREE

Lipscomb Elementary School’s kindergarten roundup is from 9:30-11 a.m. Parents and children can meet the school’s kindergarten teachers and tour the school, 5801 Worth. For more information, contact Pauline Mayfield at pmayfield@ swbell.net or 214.827.5859.

IRISH FESTIVAL

AUTHOR TALK FREE Mary Mel Fench, former U.S. Chief of Protocol for the Clinton Administration, will talk about her upcoming manual, “United States Diplomatic Protocol”. Lakewood Library, 6121 Worth, 214.670.1376.

happeningsLAUNCH

VOLUME OF SMOKE $10$15 “Volume of Smoke” is a play that tells the story of the 1811 Richmond Theatre fire. When the theater burned to the ground, it held a standing room only crowd of 600, and 70 people died. Clay McLeod Chapman’s play pieces together the story based on interviews with survivors. Bath House Cultural Center, 521 E. Lawther. 214.670.8749 or bathhousecultural.com.

DASH DOWN GREENVILLE $20$30 The 8:30 a.m. 5k preceding the annual St. Patty’s Day parade begins and ends at the Lovers and Greenville Central Market. Registration costs $20 until March 5, $25 afterward and $30 on race day. The race benefits the North Texas Food Bank. 214.821.0909 or dashdowngreenville.com.

ST.

PATRICK

DAY’S PARADE FREE

This year’s parade down Greenville from Park to Mockingbird starts at 11 a.m., and the official after party is at the Granada Theater, 3524 Greenville.

GARLAND ROAD MEETING

Garland Road Vision is having a community meeting in the Bryan Adams High School auditorium, 5101 Millmar, at 6:30 p.m. The group is seeking the community’s input to create a new plan for Garland Road, garlandroadvision.org.

SHREDDING FREE The Friends of Tietze Park Foundation invites neighbors to bring documents they need to trash so that Brinks Document Destruction can throw them in the shredder, starting at 9 a.m. For more information, contact Lisa Marshall, 214.212.4257 or tietzeshred@ sbcgloal.net.

Pictured: Bouillabaisse

THEY SAYIFAIN’T BROKE, DON’T FIXIT. That’s true indeed at Daddy Jack’s. Not much has changed in its 17 years, down to the redcheckered tablecloths, and folks like it that way. “This here is Doyle Bramhall,” owner Cary Ray says, pointing to one of the photos on the wall. “He played drums for Stevie Ray Vaughn, and we snapped this one night he was back in the kitchen goofing around.” He says it’s common for couples to have their first date here, and return to celebrate anniversaries. “I say we’re providing the neighborhood a service: love and lobster.” But even if you strike out with a love connection here, you can’t miss with Daddy Jack’s whole Maine lobster, or the bouillabaisse: lobster, clams, mussels, shrimp and scallops bathed in a rich saffron fennel broth. “You don’t have to go somewhere stuffy to enjoy good seafood,” Ray says. “That’s a misconception.” —MARLENA CHAVIRA-MEDFORD

The Mexican shrimp martini here is made tableside, so you can tell the waiter how generous to be with the avocado and how heavy handed to be with the tequila.

VIEWAVIDEO go to advocatemag.com/lakewood/dining

YOUR

ANOTHER BROKEN EGG $FB Another

Broken Egg just celebrated its one year anniversary serving the most unique breakfast, brunch, and lunch in Dallas. Come try our updated menu serving oscar benedict, eggs sardou, and the first ever lobster omelette in Dallas. Every Tuesday is Seniors’ Tuesdays, 50 % off your bill. We also do private parties and banquets at night. Enjoy the unique ability to host your private function with the entire restaurant at your disposal. Locally owned by Chris Harwood and Michael Obrien. 1152 N Buckner Blvd (across from Doctors Hospital.) 214.954.7182

BACK COUNTRY BBQ $ WB Over 30 years of Texas-style BBQ. Family dining - 8 different meats, variety of homemade vegetables. Complete catering & custom cooking. Beer, wine, margaritas. 6940 Greenville Ave. 214.696.6940.

CHUBBYMS $ When looking for a restaurant to have breakfast, lunch or dinner, we all want a place that serves up variety, hearty helpings and even bigger portions of friendliness. The Touris family has developed a recipe that delivers all of the above at a good price. With four locations in the Metroplex, Chubby’s Family Restaurant provides a rustic setting with down home

TO DINING OUT

cooking. Catering available. Locations: 11331 E. NW Hwy. 214-348-6065 and 7474 S. Cockrell Hill Rd. 972-298-1270

GARDEN CAFÉ $ OD “Funky” and “off the beaten path” are the usual descriptions of this old East Dallas breakfast and lunch favorite. Fresh herbs and vegetables from the garden in the back of the Café add to the ambiance. Photography shows, book signings and poetry readings make it a favorite with locals, artists and neighborhood groups. 5310 Junius Street, Munger Square Center. 214.887.8830. www.gardencafe.net

SZECHWAN PAVILION $$FB Szechwan and Mandarin cuisine. Close to 100 items in this reasonably priced menu and buffet. Wonderful selection of grilled steak, shrimp, crab ragoon, sesame chicken, chow-mein, fried rice, egg roll and desserts. Established 1980. Clean and spacious dining room. 1152 N. Buckner Blvd. 75218. 214.321.7599. www.szechwanpavilion.com.

TERILLIMS ODFB Terilli’s, which has been open for over 20 years, continues to attract savvy diners interested in great food, live jazz, and tons of fun! Terilli’s unique Italian fare, including their signature ‘Italchos’ (Italian nachos), brightens a stressful day or provides the perfect backdrop for a romantic evening!

SPOTLIGHT

214.560.4203 to advertise in this section.

Speaking of romance, don’t miss the the opportunity to soak in some live jazz while you experience Terilli’s fine Italian fare! 2815 Greenville Ave. 214.827.3993.

TILLMANMS ROADHOUSE $$ OD WB

Tillman’s is a place for really good food, drinks, and music in a fun, casual, come-as-you-are environment. An update on the classic Texas roadhouse with regional menu favorites, familiar tunes and no-one is a stranger hospitality — all energized with a modern take. A combination of both rustic and lush in everything from the menu to the décor make Tillman’s a good-time anytime destination. Bishop Arts District 324 W. 7th St. 214.942.0988. www.tillmansroadhouse.com

PUT YOUR RESTAURANTIN THE MINDSOF 100,000+ HOMES MONTHAFTER MONTH

Join us Wednesdays for $1 draft, Live Trivia and 2 for 1 burgers made with 100% Angus beef. Bread is locally made with no preservatives. 63 HD TVs and live music all weekend.

PENNE POMODORO

WEEKLY SPECIALS

Tuesday Nights: Half Price Bottle Wine Night (with purchase of adult entree)

Wednesday Nights: Kids Eat Free (with purchase of adult entree. Limit 2 kids per adult)

Sunday & Sunday Brunch: $1.00 Bellinis & Mimosas (with purchase of adult entree)

SZECHWAN PAVILION

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GLEN ELLEN OLD VINE ZINFANDEL ($5) CALIFORNIA>

Cheap wine is all the rage in the wine business, because of the recession. National and regional retailers, the biggest wine producers in the country, have been wine that costs $5 or less a bottle for almost a decade, duplicate the success of Two Buck Chuck.

Two Buck Chuck is the nickname for the Charles that sell at California-based Trader Joe:s for $1.99 depending on store location. Trader Joe:s has sold million cases of Two Buck Chuck, which accounts petition it:s facing these days.

There are no Trader Joe:s here, but there are what the industry calls Oextreme valueQ or Osuper wines.And there will be more, when discount grocer Aldi, well-known for its $5 wines, opens stores in the neighborhoods where we publish magazines.

Do these wines offer value? Or are they just cheap? To that end, I did a tasting panel of six ordinary wine-drinking consumers W no wine geeks here, but people who actually taste wine before they judge it W to decide if wine that costs less than $5 a bottle is worth it. The results? Mostly yes, though two wines scored perfect zeros with the panels. The best-liked wines were: sold at Walgreen:s ($2.99). This California chardonnay was the surprise of the tasting. The panel gave it high marks (OI:m a red wine drinker, but I like this,Q said one), and I thought it approached the quality of some of my favorite $10 chardonnays, like Bogle.

sold at Target ($9.99 for a 1.5-liter box/about $5 a bottle). The panel liked this wine better than I did, noting its lemony flavor. And, as one noted, OYou shouldn:t discount this just because it comes in a box.Q I thought it was a little thin, though acceptable.

($9.99 for a 1.5-liter bottle/about $5 bottle). This was the best-rated red wine, Ogood aroma and wellrounded flavors.Q I liked it, too, even if it was a little softer than most zinfandels.

—JEFF SIEGEL

JEFF SIEGEL’S WEEKLY WINE REVIEWS appear every Wednesday on the Advocate Back Talk blog, advocatemag.com/lakewood/blog.

Cordon Bleu stuffed chicken

This recipe was created by Dallas Cordon Bleu chef Nikki Boddamer for a recent cookoff at the culinary school (where I was lucky enough to be on BoddamerEs team). We didnEt win the competition, but we should have. Serve this with a chardonnay, which you can also use to cook with.

Serves four, about 30 minutes

4 boneless chicken breasts, skin on

4 ounces best-quality goat cheese

1/3 c chopped, toasted pecans

2 Tbsp chopped shallots

1 Tbsp chopped garlic

¼ c white wine

olive oil

salt

pepper

1. Use a knife and carefully make a pouch in the breast, starting at the big end. You donEt want to cut through the breast, but to make a hole to stuff with the cheese mixture.

2. Sauté the garlic and shallots in the olive oil for a couple of minutes, until the shallots are soft. Add the white wine, bring to a boil and reduce the wine until itEs almost gone.

3. In a bowl, crumble the goat cheese and add the pecans, shallot mixture and salt and pepper. Mix well. Carefully, stuff the cheese filling into the chicken breasts.

4. In an overproof skillet, brown the breasts in olive oil on each side until theyEre golden, which should take a couple of minutes on each side. Then put the breasts in a preheated 400-degree oven for 10-15 minutes, until theyEre cooked.

ask the WINE GUY?

WHAT IS A BOXED WINE?

There are two kinds of wine in a box. The first comes in the same packaging as juice boxes; once you open the wine, it’s just like opening a bottle and the wine will oxidize. The second comes in larger sizes — the equivalent of two and four bottles. It has a spigot, and the wine is stored in a plastic bladder inside the box. These wines can stay fresh for as long as a month. —JEFF

SIEGEL

Michael O’Brien and Chris Harwood

Growing waistlines and shrinking budgets have many Americans rethinking their food sources, looking now to local farmers instead of mega-grocers. That national trend is sprouting roots here, which explains why in our neighborhood

IT’S A

R S E M R F A

Three years ago in Dallas, if you wanted to buy local produce direct from the grower, the downtown farmers market was just about the only option. Last summer, however, at least half a dozen independent farmers markets mushroomed all over the city.

In our urban context, however, the increased number of neighborhood markets has come with its share of hiccups. Some markets have bumped up against Dallas regulations, which havenJt changed quickly enough to keep up with the new demands.

The popularity of planting gardens and raising chickens is also increasing, with some neighbors heading straight to their backyards to find local food. >>

Story by Marlena Chavira-Medford and Rachel Stone

Photos by Sean McGinty, Robert Bunch and Can Türkyilmaz

E T K R M A OUT

THERE

FROM FROZEN TO FRESHLY PICKED: A DIETARY RENAISSANCE

)People are becoming conscious of what they eat, and if you become a student of local food, you learn that itAs not riddled with hormones and preservatives like the processed stuff you get at grocery stores,D says Brian Cummings, founder of eatgreendfw. com, an online resource for Dallasites who want to buy from North Texas farmers and ranchers.

)People are changing the way they think about food, and thatAs changing the way they shop.D

In other words, if theyAre not growing it themselves, consumers often want to buy it from local people who are. Thus the recent popularity of neighborhood markets, often dubbed )farmers marketsD. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmers markets throughout the country have grown from just 1,755 in 1994 to 5,274

in 2009. Most of that growth has been very recent: From 2008 to 2009, the increase was 13 percent. ThatAs significant because the last time the USDA charted farmers market growth, it was for the two-year period between 2006 and 2008, when the number grew by only 6.8 percent.

Cummings has tracked this trend locally, helping organize several farmers markets, including the one at Milestone Culinary Arts Center in Uptown.

)In addition to the food, people also like the social aspect of local markets,D Cummings says. )ThereAs a carnival-like aspect with all these things to take in. You get to know the people behind the food youAre buying. You get to know that great Mennonite family known for its great bread. That kind of connection means something to people.D

Ed Lowe, owner of Celebration Restaurant, instituted a weekly farmers market last summer in his parking lot on Lovers near Inwood. Lowe says his eatery serves food made mostly with local ingredients, so the weekly market was )a natural progressionD.

It was a hit, Lowe says, until the city caught wind of what he was doing.

SHOP LOCAL

These farmers markets cropped up last spring and summer, and plan to open up shop again this year, if the city changes its regulations.

Bolsa

614 Davis at Llewellyn

First Sunday of the month

Five vendors who sell produce, meat and locally made gourmet items

Celebration Market

4503 W. Lovers at Elsby

Every Saturday

12 vendors who sell produce, meat, locally made gourmet items and crafts

Milestone Culinary Arts Center

4531 McKinney at Knox

Third Sunday of the month, May through November

16 vendors who sell produce, meat, specialty food items and crafts

Mockingbird Station

5300 E. Mockingbird at Central Expressway

Every Thursday evening, April through May

Eight vendors who sell produce, meat, specialty food items and crafts

North Haven Gardens

7700 Northaven west of Central Expressway

First Sunday of the month April through August

Seven vendors who sell produce, meat and specialty foods

White Rock Local Market

702 N. Buckner at Northcliff

Second Saturday of the month, March through December

40-50 vendors who sell produce, honey, meat, specialty foods, crafts, bicycles/repairs, plants and apparel

Source: City of Dallas memo to Transportation and Environment Committee, December 2009

Exceptional horse farm with stately two-story brick home. Fabulous windows, great storage, walk-in closet, large covered patio, tranquil country home setting. Almost 32 acres with rolling terrain, pastures,

)A customer had complained that we had a dog on a patio, and I was not aware that we needed to have a permit to have a dog on a patio. So [city officials] came out to notify us of the complaint on a Saturday. They came here on a Saturday, something thatGs never happened in my 38 years of being in business.K

And because it was a Saturday, Celebration was holding its farmers market.

)At first, we didnGt think it would be a big deal because weGd contacted the city twice to tell them what we were doing, and they said we didnGt need any special permits because weGre already running a restaurant here.K

But it turned out to be a big deal. Officials told them they would have to start paying permit fees or shut down the entire operation.

)First off, they said we could only have a farmers market quarterly, and we were having them weekly. Then they said that they wanted us to start paying about $150, and we had just been charging the vendors $10.

So that was the end of the market for us.K Cummings says this is precisely the problem facing budding farmers markets throughout Dallas.

)One of the issues around farmers mar-

225 S. Houston School Rd. (lancaster)

8231 San Cristobal

16124

kets is that municipals really don;t know how to deal with them = Dallas, for example, doesn;t have a permitting process specifically for them,D he says.

Right now, the city offers temporary food vendor permits, which are valid for only two weeks and can be used only once every three months. The permits cost $190, plus $5 for every additional booth.

KSure, that kind of permit is great if you;re working at a food festival or the State Fair because you;re making a killing,D Cummings says. KBut it;s different for someone at a small farmers market. On a good day, these vendors make $200, maybe $300. If you;re asking them to pay that much, you do the math: It;s not proportional, and it doesn;t make sense.D

Sarah Perry, who runs the White Rock Local Market, says her vendors are happy if they can make $100 in a day.

And Bruce Bagelman, who owns Green Spot Market & Fuels, which sponsors the White Rock Local Market, says city officials should consider that local markets bolster budding entrepreneurs.

Pastry chef Katherine Clapner is one such success story. She started selling her unusual handmade chocolates at markets such as the White Rock Local, and her business gained enough steam that she opened a retail space, Dude, Sweet Chocolate, in the Bishop Arts District last year.

KIt gives family-owned and small farms an outlet,D Perry says. KMost of them don;t grow enough to sell to a wholesaler.D

White Rock Local Market has its first meet of the season March 13, and Perry says it;s operating under the same guidelines as last year. The market applies for a special event permit and makes sure that all the vendors have the appropriate permits, such as certificates of inspection and state licenses.

Perry is planning to hold two local markets a month this year, as opposed to just once a month last year, because the market was so popular.

KThe idea is to bring fresh and nutritious and locally grown food to our community and thereby strengthen our community,D she says. KA lot of people walk to our market and push strollers or ride their bikes. It creates a townsquare type of feel.D

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by the Lake

WILL SMALL FARMERS MARKETS BE ABLE TO SPROUT ROOTS IN DALLAS?

City officials are now reconsidering the way the city treats farmers markets.

Assistant city manager Jack Ireland is heading a committee of farmers market stakeholders who are brainstorming possible ordinance changes, specifically to help out small vendors who want to sell regularly in our city.

That committee has its work cut out for it. City spokesman Frank Librio says the city must iron out a host of wrinkles before moving forward H zoning, enforcement of health codes, and payment of sales tax, just to name a few.

LSome [of the markets] are not allowed based on the current zoning,P he says.

For example, sometimes zoning prohibits the outdoor sale of food.

LThe group thatQs charged to work on this is trying to come up with a permit process that allows them to override the zoning temporarily,P Librio says.

And the city wants to make sure that the markets are safe from a health standpoint. But by and large, Lthe city isnQt trying to control what happens at local markets,P Librio says. LThe city fully supports the neighborhood farmers markets.P

Part of the regulatory initiative comes from a fear that the local markets could compete with the downtown farmers market. The City of Dallas owns and operates the nearly seven-decades-old market, and city officials set aside $6.6 million in 2006 bond dollars for infrastructure and improvements to the market.

It doesnQt appear that the city will see a payback on its investment in the near future: The 2010 budget for the market includes $1.7 million in revenue, but $1.8 million in expenses.

Cummings says even though the Dallasarea grocery business is an extremely competitive industry, neighborhood markets donQt negatively impact the main Dallas market.

LSure, we will have to spread those markets out so thereQs not an oversaturation H after all, we have got to protect the granddaddy [downtown farmers market],P Cummings says. LBut given our cultural shift toward shopping local, I think thereQs now room for multiple farm-

BACKYARD VEGGIE GARDEN BASICS

If the thought of picking your own vine-ripened tomatoes makes you salivate, but your thumbs are brown, take some advice from the Dallas Arboretum’s senior horticulture manager, Susan Morgan. Her tips will help neighbors who are ready to turn their backyards into fertile ground for vegetables.

Soil is the foundation

Morgan was emphatic about potential vegetable growers using only the quality stuff. “Soil is probably the key ingredient to any garden. It’s often the most overlooked as well.” She suggests adding compost, which can be purchased at any garden center, or made in your backyard. (For a how-to, Morgan suggests turning to local experts Neil Sperry, neilsperry.com, or the “Dirt Doctor” Howard Garrett, dirtdoctor.com.)

Morgan also strongly recommends taking soil from various spots in your yard, bagging up the samples, and sending them to the Texas A&M extension center (urbansolutionscenter.tamu. edu or 972.231.5362). For a small fee, the center will analyze the soil and make recommendations based on the results.

Location, location, location

Choose an area of your yard that receives “full sun” (six to eight hours a day). Morning sun is best, Morgan says, because the “Texas afternoon sun can be brutal.” Less than six hours, she says, and “you’re going to be strapped for any kind of vegetable production.” Rent a tiller

from your neighborhood garden center, or break up the soil “the old-fashioned way — a pitchfork and shovel,” Morgan says.

Start small

“It’s easy to have grand, lofty ideas about a half-acre garden, but it’s best to start small and experiment,” Morgan says. “Once you get that first year under your belt, you’ll have learned what you can and cannot do. Maybe you just want to experiment with tomatoes and get that under your belt, and next year experiment with peppers.” The process will also provide time for more research and some Q&A with garden center professionals. “The nice thing about being a gardener is everybody has some experience, whether killing their plants or having a flourishing garden,” Morgan says. “Talk to people and gather information. That said, everybody has their own opinion on what they think works best.” When researching online, Morgan always adds “Texas” to her search engine phrase. “Texas tends to be a whole different ball o’ wax,” she explains. “I like to have [advice] tailored to the Texas growing conditions.”

Pick your plants

Don’t let temptation get the best of you, Morgan says. “It’s easy to buy everything because everything just looks so beautiful at the store or on the seed packets,” she says. Find a garden center with a good plant selection because that will lead you to knowledgeable people who can help you. Ask them what they recommend, and whether you should start with seed packets or transplants, or live plants that are past the seeding stage and have fairly developed root systems.

What you plant will depend on what season it is, the cool season (fall/winter) or the warm season (spring/summer). When starting out, good bets in the cool season are mustard greens, collard greens and lettuce, and radishes are one of the quickest seed starts, Morgan says. In the warm season, “tomatoes and peppers are the good standbys,” she says, and squash is another fairly easy vegetable to grow. The North Haven Gardens website (nhg.com) has a great resource on what to grow when, Morgan says.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 41>>

ers markets to survive.J

According to a memo from city staff to the Transportation and Environment Committee, drafted guidelines on the table allow for no more than 10 neighborhood market locations per year, and they would have to be at least three miles apart from each other. The markets would be allowed to open up shop weekly for a six-hour period, with a limit of 24 occurrences per year. It would also be required that all of the produce sold be grown within 150 miles of the downtown farmers market.

Of course, all of these are just ideas at this point. After reviewing input from city staff and stakeholders, the Transportation and Environment Committee will submit its proposal to city council. The hope is to have a policy in place by late spring.

Ultimately, neighbors having more options for local produce will be a win-win situation for both neighborhood markets and the downtown market, Cummings says, because it creates healthy competition.

ILike they say, rising tides lift all ships: The more farmers markets we have out there competing,J he says, Ithe better they:ll all get, which will ultimately improve the quality of life for all of us in Dallas.J

Shopping for local produce isn:t the only back-to-basics trend on the rise. Some neighbors may be just as likely to grow their produce as they are to buy it.

When A.L. Nickerson was a kid, almost every backyard had a vegetable garden, and nearly everyone kept chickens for eggs and poultry. His mother canned peaches from their peach tree, and they traded fruit with neighbors who had apple and fig trees.

IWe had all kinds of vegetables all summer long,J Nickerson says. IEvery square inch had something edible. We:d have things coming up from early spring until the first freeze.J

That was life in the 1940s. With our nation in the midst of World War II, these backyard Ivictory gardensJ were encouraged by the government as a way to make sure civilians and troops had enough to eat. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted her own victory garden on the White

>>CONTINUED

FROM PAGE 39

Let them drink

Ample watering of your veggies is “crucial” the first few weeks, Morgan says. They need a “good, deep watering” once a day and perhaps twice in the heat of summer. If you’re a lazy gardener, as Morgan professes to be, drip irrigation can help. Buy a soaker hose, which has a porous lining and slowly oozes water. Hook it up to your water spigot, and situate it along the base of your plants for an hour or two. This method is “slightly better than overhead watering,” Morgan says, because too much water on plants’ leaves makes them more susceptible to rotting, mildew and disease.

Mulch also helps plants retain their moisture. It can be made of anything, Morgan says —straw, hardwood, newspapers, compost, etc. — but with a vegetable garden, it’s especially important to make sure that the mulch doesn’t contain any compounds. “Think about it — whatever you put into your soil, whatever you’re feeding your plants, you’re eating that later,” she says. “These are veggies, not just beautiful flowers you’re looking at.”

Have fun

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by the details of gardening, Morgan says, but it’s most important to simply enjoy the process without worrying too much about the results. “I’m a horticulturist, and if you came to my house, you would not be able to tell that somebody who works at the Arboretum lives here,” Morgan quips. “I have some dead plants in my backyard.” It’s all about what you’re able to accomplish in your yard with the time that you have, she says. “The actual act of doing it and talking to people and seeing what happens is part of understanding how your garden is going to work for you.”

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5 DO’S

1. Use compost. (it adds life and energy to your soil)

2. Pull weeds. (it aerates the soil, burns calories and some go great in salads)

3. Disinfect and sharpen all landscape tools. (grass is supposed to be cut not beaten to death)

4. Mow higher. (the roots will grow deeper and you will water less)

5. Plant at least one edible plant in your garden and release beneficial insects. (it helps connect you to the earth)

5 DONT’S

1. Don’t use salt based chemical fertilizer. (it burns the life and energy out of your soil)

2.Don’t use herbicides. (they kill trees and pollute our water)

3.Don’t use pesticides. (if you touch or smell it, it starts causing metabolic mayhem)

4.Don’t over-water. (you are wasting money and stressing your plants)

5.Don’t scalp your lawn. (sun’s ultraviolet light destroys the microbes in your soil)

House lawn. Fast forward six decades, and vegetable gardening has returned the White House, courtesy of first lady Michelle Obama.

Nickerson now teaches a class called FThe Modern Victory GardenJ, and advocates for community gardens throughout the city.

Little Forest Hills resident Leslie Halleck tends a garden in her backyard, and because she has a chain-link fence, it offers her the chance to get to know her neighbors well. Farmers markets arenMt the only places where people should see their neighbors, Halleck says.

After all, thereMs something about fellowship with oneMs neighbors and certainty about oneMs food that fosters a feeling of community and independence that many find comforting.

FWhen you start a garden, youMre outside all the time,J Halleck says. FIt helps bring neighbors back together. It brings people back in touch with the earth, with their food and with their neighbors. And it feels good.J

A.L. Nickerson has spearheaded multiple garden projects in the White Rock area.

CRITTERS THAT AREN’T PETS

Raising backyard hens for fresh eggs is also becoming more common. For proof, simply pick up a copy of Backyard Poultry magazine or drop in at the next Dallas Backyard Poultry Meetup Group, which is more than 120 members strong and meets monthly at North Haven Gardens.

KI totally take blame for the chicken thing here M that was all my doing,N jokes Halleck, the general manager at North Haven Gardens.

She began a push to sell backyard hens at the garden center last year, but much like the farmers markets, the plan hit a roadblock in terms of city regulations.

KIt all came down to a zoning issue,N Halleck says. KWhen North Haven Gardens first opened, it was out in the country. But as the city expanded, it annexed this area, and we were zoned as residential.

KYou can go sell live chickens in

APPLES TO TOMATOES?

Here’s a look at how we stack up compared to other Texas cities also dealing with neighborhood farmers markets:

Fort Worth

front of Walmart because it1s zoned for retail, but we weren1t.7

The city ultimately agreed to change North Haven Gardens1 certificate of occupancy, recognizing hens as garden-related accessories. And the law for homeowners remains the same: We can keep hens, but roosters are

Rob

Houston

outlawed due to cockfighting.

Austin

Jim

Interest in backyard hens remains high, Halleck says, with 50 to 100 people showing up every time North Haven Gardens offers a workshop on how to care for the birds. Whether you1re growing your own veggies or buying them locally, whether you1re keeping your own hens or getting fresh eggs at a nearby farmers market, it all boils down to a better quality of life, Halleck says.

JIt1s really about controlling your own food. There1s really no reason why us urban dwellers can1t do that. Just because we live in the city, that doesn1t mean we don1t have a right to that.7

The only issue she takes with the back-to-basics trend is the fact that

anyone is calling it a 5trend8.

5I;m always amused when people call this a trend, like it;s some new concept. People have always grown their own food, and there used to be chickens all over Dallas. It was a very common thing. It was only in recent decades as Dallas became more urban that the practice stopped. It;s certainly not a new thing for Dallas.

5I mean, after all, we are in Texas for Pete;s sake. This lifestyle is our roots.8

Many of us have strolled through the Dallas Farmers Market, at the corner of Harwood and Marilla downtown. But did you know that ... its attendance is estimated to be 2 million per year, according to data released by the City of Dallas?

its local farmers roster has grown from 50 in 2008 to 150 in 2009?

its non-farmer vendors include 47 produce (38 retail and 9 wholesale), 20 food, 7 non-food and 2 floral/plant?

For more information, visit dallasfarmersmarket.org.

The renovated Women and Children’s Center at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas is now complete. And its front entrance will really set the tone. Featuring tile, hardwood floors, and a dramatic slate wall fountain, you might get the idea you’re checking into a high-end spa—except for the clinical expertise that’s evident immediately. The renovation will include amenities like beautiful private rooms, tiled bathrooms with a warming light and warming towel rack—even a sleep area for dad. Everywhere you’ll see soothing colors and ambient lighting, designed to create a calming, relaxing environment—and thoughtful technological touches like flat-screen TVs with DVD and a work area with wireless Internet.

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It promises to be a pretty relaxing environment for you, too.

WEEDING, WRITING AND ARITHMETIC

With the right leadership and support, learning gardens can help schools cultivate a relationship with nature while learning fundamental lessons.

It isn't the best day for gardening " overcast, windy, cold and just a few days removed from a hard freeze " but that doesn9t squelch the first graders9 enthusiasm as they stand ankle-deep in dirt, examining broccoli and cabbage leaves.

A student wonders aloud about tiny green bugs swarming the plant, and soon, his instructor leads the class inside, where they take a closer look.

This wasn9t on the day9s lesson, explains Mark Painter, a white-haired, suntanned, bespectacled man whose dirt-filled fingernails tell you his isn9t typically an indoor classroom.

EDepending on what they find out when we go outside each day to collect data, the curriculum will change,G he says.

So the students spend the first part of class bent over a microscope studying leaves crawling with aphids, which first-grader Aresemaa Tsegaye describes as Elittle plant-eating microorganisms.G

EThere9s one crawling on the desk,G her classmate Sophie McCauley says.

EThese two look like they are dancing,G muses Daniel Riemer, giggling and you remember that they are first-graders.

Students at Stonewall Jackson Elementary come in from the cold to take a close look at plant microbes. PHOTO BY CAN TÜRKYILMAZ

After discussing microbes and the bugs that eat them (mostly ladybugs, which aren?t always girls, Daniel tells me), the class moves on to a controlled experiment comparing peppers growing in manmade fertilizer to the same growing in fertilizer made, naturally, from worm poop. (Amazing. Not one child snickers at Painter?s mention of Kworm poopL.)

Everything the children learn in the garden and its corresponding class is based on science curriculum. For 15 years or so, the Dallas Independent School District supported the garden classroom and paid Painter to operate it as a science lab for kindergarten through fifth-grade students at Stonewall Jackson Elementary in East Dallas. The principal, teachers, parents and the greater community took pride in the outdoor laboratory where students tend crops, study the ecosystem, and conduct hands-on scientific experiments.

They use math, keep journals, and conduct science in the garden, teacher Barbara Uskovich says, but one of

READ daily gardening journals at stonewallgardens.com. FIND VIDEO AND MORE PHOTOS with the online version of this story at advocatemag.com.

Marlee Stephens and Dallas Redmond are poised for planting PHOTO BY CAN TÜRKYILMAZ

the most important things they learn in the garden is to be comfortable with nature.

“You’ll see these children get noseto-nose with a honeybee because they are interested — it’s like the Lakota [Native American] saying: ‘To touch the earth is to have harmony with nature.’”

In 2007 the school district, in financial distress, enacted a large reduction in force, which led to the loss of many DISD programs and staff. Included in the so-called “RIF” was the learning garden program. The district offered Painter a job in a classroom where he could replace a newer teacher, but he said “no thanks”, and walked away from his post of more than a decade. “I’m not really an inside person,” he says (though he seems to be OK inside as long as there’s dirt on the desks).

Stonewall parents led the charge to get Painter back. “When the RIF happened in 2007, we lost all sorts of valuable programs and people,” parent and garden volunteer Kate Cromwell says. “Our sign language program, which we were known for, in fact, was cut. Everyone was upset. But of all the things lost, the loudest outcry here was for Mr. Painter and the garden.”

Cromwell organized a group of parents who petitioned the school board, insisting that the garden curriculum leads to better test scores, school recognition and, thus, increased sur-

rounding property values.

“We wrote hundreds of letters in protest, contacted every media outlet, and had a good case, but we got nowhere,” Cromwell says.

DISD just didn’t have the money. So she and fellow parents launched the nonprofit organization Stonewall Gardens, which in just two months, from November 2007 to January 2008, raised $30,000. They used some of that to bring Painter back on board part time, and thanks to a tremendous amount of support from parents and the East Dallas community (Stonewall has a section of public plots, too) the school has been able to maintain the program, for now. They could still use help funding the garden next year and beyond, Cromwell says.

Stonewall has seen so much success with its garden program that other schools in the neighborhood are aiming to emulate it, and some of them have garnered grants to grow the idea. A Fort Worth-based charity called REAL School Gardens is actively supporting learning gardens at three East Dallas elementary schools including Hexter, Robert E. Lee and Sanger. REAL School Gardens gives grants to schools that serve predominately low-income families, spokeswoman Jennifer Fitzgerald says.

“We usually choose schools that have 70 percent of the students on free or reduced meal plans. We can’t

Noah Norman studies microorganisms that attack leaves. PHOTO BY CAN TÜRKYILMAZ

support every school, but this helps us determine where the resources are most needed,> Fitzgerald says. CWe look for schools with strong leadership, supportive principals and a supportive surrounding community.>

That sort of support foundation will be vital when it comes to maintaining a learning garden, says Painter, who is partnering with REAL School Gardens to advise the grassroots efforts of school communities starting their own gardens.

With help from master gardener Glen Farmer and, naturally, a bit of advice from Painter, Lipscomb Elementary School, though it has yet to receive any significant amount of startup funding, is implementing a garden program, too. A little more than a year ago, Tim and Mandy Allen launched efforts to get the Lipscomb garden growing. The couple, who has a daughter, Madelyn, at Lipscomb and a son, Joe, who will attend Lipscomb next year, felt it would complement the revitalization the school has seen over the past few years. Tim Allen watched his wife, as

PTA president, struggle with ways to help the students have a richer experience at Lipscomb, he says.

CI believe the learning garden will

day-to-day curriculum.

In REAL School Gardens-supported programs, teachers are not necessarily doing extra work, Fitzgerald says. CThe curriculum is TEKS (Texas education standards) based, and a hands-on way of learning things they are learning already. It is teaching through doing, and scientific concepts come to life in the garden,> she says.

Painter says gardening should be not only a part of the lesson plan, but also a way of life, beginning with the youngest students.

help improve education and strengthen the school,> Tim Allen says.

It hasnQt been easy irrigation problems stalled progress for some time R but soon, Allen says, CThe fun part will begin, and we will start to see the fruits of our labors.>

A school learning garden is no doubt a bonus, but the experts concur that in order to be successful, the garden needs to be incorporated into

Because it captured the studentsQ imaginations, StonewallQs garden has grown from a tiny patch of dirt and beans occupying a clandestine corner of a schoolyard into a 20,000-square-foot outdoor science lab, says Cromwell, who now serves as president of the Stonewall Gardens nonprofit.

And what first captured a few young minds, Painter says, might someday reach a larger population.

CWe can change the culture, starting with the kids,> he says.

—CHRISTINA HUGHES BABB

TAKE A WALK ON HER STREETS

Vikki Martin is the force behind the crime-fighting Ferguson Road Initiative, which has become a national model for community building

In 1992, someone stole Vikki Martin9s bike out of her garage in the Claremont neighborhood.

AIt ticked me off, so I started a crime watch,D she says.

That neighborhood crime watch eventually blossomed into the Ferguson Road Initiative, the crime-fighting, community-building organization in East Dallas that has become a national example of how to build a community.

Since the Ferguson Road Initiative was established in 1998, violent crime has dropped 70 percent, and overall crime has dropped about 40 percent in the area that now includes 20 neighborhood associations, including Little Forest Hills and Enclave at WhiteRock.

Crime reduction has accelerated especially since 2000, when the group received a Department of Justice grant for a Weed & Seed program.

AWe9re way ahead of the rest of DallasD on crime reduction, says Kerry Goodwin, the Ferguson Road Initiative9s Weed & Seed coordinator.

The federal Weed & Seed program AweedsD out crime and filth, and AseedsD beds of hope in the community.

AWe identify crime trends and address them before they get out of hand,D Goodwin says. AWe clean up trash in the schools, and make an effort to let schools know we9re there.D

Vikki Martin fights blight surrounding Ferguson Road. PHOTO BY CAN TÜRKYILMAZ

VIEW A VIDEO with the online version of this story at advocatemag.com.

After nearly three years of battling developers, the Claremont neighborhood and the Ferguson Road Initiative finally saw the Rosewood Apartments demolished.

is now the favored spot to become the White Rock Hills recreation center and library.

What was the Rosewood Apartments

Martin and the Ferguson Road Initiative have fought absentee landlords and the owners of sleazy, drugand prostitute-infested motels in the area surrounding Buckner from Oates to Interstate 30, which is known as HTwo PointsK.

When Martin notices that a motel or apartment complex has become a boil on the community, she will go after it for code violations, and make sure that police are training their attention on it, using grant money to pay police overtime.

Crime has gone down in the Two Points area for the first time in 10 years, thanks to their efforts.

HEveryone has a right to live in a clean, safe place,K she says. HYou shouldnQt have to be afraid to go out after dark. You shouldnQt be afraid to walk in the park.K

Martin has fought developers, who wanted to build apartments in the area, because the elementary schools are crowded R Truitt Elementary is at 200 percent capacity, for example R and the community cannot support new family populations.

Some developers have worked with the Ferguson Road Initiative in finding a compromise. One developer, who wanted to put in an upscale apartment complex, for example, wound up restricting the residential development to seniors only so that it wouldnQt stress the schools. And the complex is 100 percent leased.

Southwest Housing, the company that was at the center of a corruption scandal at City Hall a few years ago, bought the White Rock Town Homes on Ferguson Road just before that scandal

broke. The property was abandoned, the windows were boarded up, and it looked like the property might be doomed to become a haven for unsavory activities. But then Wolcott Development bought the complex and invested in it.

“They were completely committed to our effort,” Martin says.

Now the Ferguson Road Initiative has its offices in the complex, which is home to 300 low-income families, mostly women and children.

Deputy Chief Tom Lawrence of the Dallas Northeast Police substation says he “would like to take credit” for crime reduction in the area, and officers have put in a lot of work there, but it’s really been the work of Martin and the community that has cleaned it up.

Improving the neighborhood really comes down to residents taking responsibility for their own neighborhoods, Martin says.

“You can’t have a police officer behind every stop sign,” Martin says. “But you can have residents who are vigilant.”

Martin recently won the “community motivator award” from the Annual Governor’s Volunteer Awards for her success in rallying neighbors to get behind her cause.

She’s proud of the award, and she’s proud of the changes that the Ferguson Road Initiative has spawned. But there’s still work to do, and she wants everyone in the White Rock Lake area to know it. Individuals and businesses should donate and get involved, she says.

“We need their help,” she says. “We always look at the pretty side of the lake, and we’re not paying attention to what’s happening on the other side.”

—RACHEL STONE

Kerry Goodwin is the Weed & Seed coordinator for the Ferguson Road Initiative.

PHOTO BY CAN TÜRK YILMAZ

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Matthew Glenn, who grew up in East Dallas, traveled with a film crew from Morocco to South Africa.

PHOTO BY CAN TÜRKYILMAZ

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Matthew Glenn grew up in East Dallas and went abroad as soon as he could.

The 2003 Woodrow Wilson High School grad went to Shanghai after college and explored as much of the continent as possible in the two years he was there, including Thailand, Tibet and Korea. But last summer, he got the chance of a globetrotter’s lifetime. Having just been accepted to the South Texas College of Law, he heard about a film project in Africa.

The crew, sponsored by a nonprofit organization called What Took You So Long?, would travel for several months throughout Africa, documenting grassroots organizations fighting against poverty and for change in health and education. They would

use public transportation, working and eating with the locals and living as much like them as possible.

“I was about to start law school, and I realized that my life was going to be boring and repetitive for many years to come,” he says.

So he decided to go for it.

The director asked Glenn to come on board, and he recruited a photographer friend, Jessica Sherrell, who lives in East Dallas.

There was a general plan to move

(near Monticello & McKinney)

north to south, but day-to-day, it was spontaneous, Glenn says.

>We were constantly moving because the goal was to go from Morocco to South Africa in a few months,F he says.

>So every day was a new place, a new food, a new language spoken.F

The diversity of cultures was one surprising aspect of the trip. Every town

had its own culture. And the food varied wildly from place to place. In one town, the crew ate sandwiches filled with a concoction made from beetles.

>One guy on our team loved it,F Glenn says. >He kept craving these bug sandwiches.F

The trip was hard, and the travelers often would be tired, dry, hungry and unwashed. Their vehicles often broke down, and they hopped trains, hitchhiked and camped in the desert. But everywhere they went, people were eager to show hospitality and exchange ideas.

>The people we stayed with all gave us free housing, free food,F Glenn says. >The hospitality in Africa is on another level. So we wanted to give back by telling their story. WeNre producing and editing film from the Africa expedition, and we hope to make a feature-length movie.F

The goal is to create awareness about what Africans are doing to improve their neighborhoods, cities and nations in hopes that they will gain access to money and other resources they wouldnNt otherwise get. The film also

could be a chance for grassroots organizations in Africa to see how others are dealing with similar situations.

?We would ask everyone pretty much the same questions,G he says. ?And it was really interesting, when you were traveling constantly, to see how those answers changed and see the similarities and differences. And hopefully there will be some answer to these pressing problems in these communities.G

Even though the Africa trip was lifechanging for Glenn, he says he rarely talks about it because most Americans

have no interest in Africa, and even if they do, they have no idea what the continent is really like. And itJs hard to change peopleJs preconditioned ideas aboutAfrica, he says.

?It was really hard. A lot of people wouldnJt want to do it. But thatJs how people there live every day,G Glenn says.

—RACHEL STONE

This page / The film crew documented ways that Africans work to improve their communities.

Opposite page / They used public transportation and ate with the locals.

PHOTOS BY JESSICASHERRELL

ON A ROLE

Preteen makes her movie debut at Sundance, SXSW

Several months ago Caroline Horn was just another cute and brainy seventh-grader at Travis Elementary School, but since being plucked from obscurity by Dallas-based movie producer Brandon Freeman for a role in his film ISkatelandJ, the 12-year-old Lakewood resident has been rubbing elbows with HollywoodLs young celebrities.

IAshley Green [most famous for her role in PTwilightL] was in the movie, but I didnLt get to actually meet a lot of [the other actors] until the premiere,J Horn says.

Because ISkatelandJ premiered at the world famous Sundance Film Festival, she had her fill of Gen Y star sightings.

II saw America Ferrera [PUgly BettyL], Zoey Deshanel [PAlmost FamousL and PElfL] and Jessica Alba,J recalls Horn. IIt was so much fun. I

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had to go to a cast party and I had to get these paparazzi photos taken the flash was really bright.”

H er small role required her to take just a couple days off of school to shoot in East Texas.

“The movie is about this guy, R ichie, and it’s sort of a coming-

Both H orn and her mom, Shawne H orn, say that it was a little strange seeing a younger C aroline on the big screen.

“She was barely 11 when they shot the movie, so it was bizarre. She has changed so much since then,” Shawne H orn says.

C aroline H orn agrees with a laugh, “I looked like a chubby cheeked little kid.” Though it was one of the best experiences ever, C aroline H orn says, she doesn’t plan to pursue acting as a career, necessarily. “If I get another opportunity to act, I would take it, but for now I am just concentrating on making good grades.”

of-age film … I play a kid whose babysitter throws a party at the house, and my line, I’m talking to my brother, and I say, ‘What about me?’ A nd then, ‘Mom thinks it’s too dangerous!’ That’s it.”

The movie, which will screen this month at South by Southwest film and music festival in A ustin, was a great work, Shawne H orn says.

“Brandon (Freeman) did such a great job — for anyone who lived in the late ‘80s roller rink days, they did a fantastic job of capturing that.”

CATERING TO THE NICHES

A newfound theater troupe performs for pleasure’s sake

When members of theater troupe Level Ground Arts brainstorm for ideas, their focus rarely is on what the masses will think of it.

DWe kind of do the shows weEre interested in doing,H says Bill Fountain, the White Rock area resident who founded the troupe last year. DThe best thing we can do is what weEre passionate about.H

That philosophy is working out pretty well for them so far.

Their production of DPlan Nine from Outer SpaceH, based on the awesomely bad Ed Wood cult classic, received excellent reviews from Theater Jones and the Dallas Observer. And the troupe is nominated for 23 awards from the Column, Texas theater critic John GarciaEs website.

Amid its first official season at the Dallas Hub Theater in Deep Ellum, the troupe is performing DCannibal! The MusicalH, written by DSouth ParkH cofounder Trey Parker, through March 20. And then DDark of the MoonH, a Romeo and Juliet story set in 1920s Appalachia, opens April 2.

Fountain, a middle school theater arts teacher, took his first part in a Dallas play when he was 3 years old, and heEs been acting ever since. A few years ago, he started directing and writing plays, and a few of them were published and produced.

DI kept wanting to do my own shows, and I developed a group of actors that I really enjoyed working with,H he says.

)And we came up with the idea to do 8Julius Caesar=, and take it on tour to a bunch of theaters.C

The four or five actors who were in )JuliusCaesarC had such a good time that they decided to form the Level Ground Arts theater troupe last January. Now there are about 38 people in the troupe from all over the Dallas area.

In December, the troupe decided to create an entire season schedule of performances.

)We=re doing shows that no one else is doing,C Fountain says.

In June, troupe members will perform )Poseidon! The Upside Down Musical!C, a send up of the )Poseidon AdventureC. And in August, members will stage )LysistrataC, an ancient Greek comedy, but the troupe is setting it in Bollywood.

Paying royalties for plays and producing them is expensive. Not every show turns a profit, and troupe members scrape up all the cash they can to put on their shows. But Fountain hopes the troupe can obtain nonprofit status and move into its own theater space next year.

The troupe=s members are dedicated, and even when they=re not cast in shows, they work to build sets, make costumes, sell tickets, serve as ushers and anything else that needs doing.

)It=s been pretty awesome because we=ve been pretty successful at it,C Fountain says. )It=s truly a labor of love.C

—RACHEL STONE

THE LEVEL GROUND ARTSTHEATER troupe performs at the Dallas Hub Theater, 2809 Canton. Tickets are $20 per show, or $50 for a season pass to all five, and available at levelgroundarts.com.

Bill Fountain devotes his leisure time to Level Ground Arts. PHOTO BY ROBERT BUNCH

TURNING OVER NEW LE AVES?

For three years, the Urban Forestry Advisory Committee, with members appointed by mayors Miller and Leppert, has been meeting regularly to discuss updates to the Dallas Tree “Preservation” Ordinance. Recently, the committee presented its proposed revisions.

A number of recommendations would significantly improve the ordinance. One of the most important is that control over tree decisions would

rather than to Development Services, as is currently the case. Although city officials have discussed creating an Urban Forestry Department, budget considerations have always prevented it. With a grim budget outlook for next year, too, it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.

The proposal contains two new categories of trees: heritage and historic. Heritage trees include protected trees with calipers of 24 inches or more, large post oaks, or groves of trees that have reached unusually large sizes for their species. A historic tree would be one that has a “significant cultural connection with the citizens of Dallas, past and present, and those cultures living in the area prior to the mid1800s, and would include trees that are the only living witnesses to historic events.” Removing heritage or historic trees would be much more difficult, and replacing them much more costly.

change from the city’s building official to its chief arborist. That makes a great deal of sense because the arborist’s role is to protect the city’s tree canopy, but the building official is part of the Development Services Department, which promotes development in Dallas. An official whose role is to both make development easier and also protect trees has a major conflict in job responsibilities.

Another recommendation is to establish a Department of Urban Forestry, with arborists assigned to this department

When new homes are built in established neighborhoods, the root zones of existing large trees are sometimes covered by concrete for foundations and driveways, or have heavy construction equipment or supplies placed on them. These practices compact the soil and cause the trees to slowly die. Proposed regulations would require that root zones be protected by galvanized chain link fencing rather than the flimsy orange plastic fencing currently allowed. Other proposals include protecting the critical root zones of trees on neighboring properties, and adequately watering new and existing trees on the development site.

An intriguing new idea contained in the proposed revisions is the creation of neighborhood tree conservation districts. These districts would be request-

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ed by neighborhood residents to help preserve the existing tree canopy and significant single trees.

The committee is still working on incentives that could encourage developers to preserve more trees on their sites. Up next is a Development Services Department review of the proposed revisions.

Some major problems are still not addressed, however. One of the worst is clear-cutting of trees, or what some people call “weekend massacres”. Others include weak enforcement of the ordinance, too many exceptions to the regulations, exemptions of parcels less than two acres from any tree controls, and no provisions to control the spread of tree diseases.

Look for next month’s column, which will elaborate on these problems.

LIVE LOCAL

THE LOWDOWN ON WHAT’S UP WITH NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESSES

It’s been a favorite of neighboring Lake Highlanders for years, and now White Rock Coffee 1 (located on Northwest Highway near Ferndale) is adding another location in these parts. The second location is opening next month at the northeast corner of Abrams and Mockingbird (behind Chase Bank) and will be under the name White Rock Coffee Express. Added bonus: The new location will have a double drive thru.

Lakewood resident Candy Hearne, owner of Dulces Sueños (Sweet Dreams), is bringing Mexican artistry and life to Dallas through her line of colorful embroidered pillows. Inspired by a pillow embroidered with the words “Sweet Dreams”, given to her as a child by her mother, Hearne started out having a few made here and there for gifts and baby showers. From there, demand grew, and so did her business. All pillows are hand-embroidered in Mexico with messages in English or Spanish. Custom pieces with children’s names, date of birth or special passages are also available. You can find Hearne’s pillows at La Mariposa, the Mexican Import Shop at 2813 Henderson, where she also works part time. Or contact her at 214.228.5201 to have a custom gift created. Advocate readers can receive 20 percent off of Hearne’s goods (even at the import shop) — just mention the Advocate “Live Local” column.

Boyd Wallace, owner of Dallas Bike Works 2 , has raced bikes for more than 14 years, and his bike retail and repair shop has been located at Skillman and Abrams for more than 20 years. This month Wallace is opening his second store near White Rock Lake in what was formerly PT’s Gentleman’s Club (Lawther Drive). Renovations have been underway for several months, and Wallace reconfigured the interior to include lots of retail space for bikes ranging from hardcore mountain bike to strolling-leisurely-around-the-lake bikes — plus, of course, bike repair bays. For store hours visit dallasbikeworks.com.

North Dallas-based Kitchen Designs

Concepts recently purchased Kitchen Distributors of America (KDA) 3 to expand their biz into the East Dallas area. Located at 6322 Gaston, just west of Abrams, the purchase meant an expansion of the company’s turn-key kitchen remodel offerings to include kitchen cabinetry and other components that allow updating without a complete makeover. One of Kitchen Design Concepts’ clients was featured on HGTV’s “Bang for Your Buck”, a show that pits three remodels against one another to see which project adds the most home value for the money. Designer and host Vern Yip deemed the makeover a “winner” that added $72,000 (an 80 percent return on investment) to the value of the home.

Little Forest Hills residents Frank and Debra Cortese are the owners of the endurance and triathlon coaching company TriNow Endurance 4 . Four years ago, after losing their jobs on the same day, Debra says, “we knew we had an opportunity to make a choice between being unhappy for money or go on faith and pursue our dreams. It has been an experience addressing the many challenges of starting from scratch but we wouldn’t trade it for any amount of money!” The Corteses recently kicked off their Team Tri-Now Club, with most of the workouts in this area. They also recently launched Punch Buggy Productions, so they could produce their own triathlons and 5ks. Check out their training programs at tri-now.com.

3 2 4 1

JOINTHEDISCUSSION visit advocatemag.com/lakewood/blog

Erin Moyer is a local entrepreneur (progenyinc. com) and marketing consultant whose monthly @Live LocalC column features the latest scoop on neighborhood businesses. Send Moyer ideas and feedback at livelocal@advocatemag.com.

Co-educational Kindergarten through High School

June 7 - July 30

Academics * Arts * Computer Technology

Cooking * Drama * LEGO * Nature Exploration

Outdoor Education * Photography * Science

Spanish * Sports * PSAT/SAT Boot Camp Morning, afternoon, and

Online Summer Camps Guide: www.lakehillprep.org/parents_summer_camps.html

MARK CROTTY is the new head of school for St. John’s Episcopal School, beginning July 1. Crotty served for 20 years at Greenhill School and for seven years at the Episcopal School of Acadiana before that. He chaired the Board of St. Christopher’s Montessori School in Dallas, where his daughter and son attended. He and his family are members of St. Christopher’s Episcopal Church, where his wife, Sallie, is a vestry member and he has taught in the Christian education program.

J.L. LONG MIDDLE SCHOOL’S SEVENTH GRADE GIRLS’ BASKETBALL TEAM recently clinched the DISD District 2 co-championship with its 24-2 victory over Hood Middle School.

THE GREATER LAKEWOOD REPUBLICAN WOMEN’S GROUP (formerly Westlake Republican Women) is looking for new members. Their next meeting is March 22 at 6:30 p.m. at Commonwealth Title, 6465 E. Mockingbird Ln. Guests are welcome. For more information, contact Kelly Nolan at (214) 728-7301 or kellynolan@ebby.com

Please submit news items and/or photos concerning neighborhood residents, activities, honors and volunteer opportunities to editor@advocatemag. com or online at advocate.com/submit_ed_news. Our deadline is the first of the month prior to the month of publication.

B A P T IS T

GA STON OAKS BAPTIST / Greenville Ave & Royal Lane

Sunday Worship 10:45 am / Bible Study 9:30 am

www.gastonoaks.org / 214.348.0958

WILSHIRE BAPTIST / 4316 Abrams / 214.452.3100

Pastor George A. Mason Ph.D. / Worship 8:30 & 11:00am

Bible Study 9:40 am / www.wilshirebc.org

CH U R C H OF CHRIS T

SKILLMAN CHURCH OF CHRIST / 3014 Skillman St.

Sunday School 9:30 am / Sunday Worship 10:30 am

Grace Café & Bible Study Wed. 6:00 pm / 214.823.2179

DIS C IPLE S OF CHRIS T

E A ST DALLA S CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street

Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 & 10:50 am 214.824.8185 / Rev. Deborah Morgan / www.edcc.org

EPIS C OPAL

CHURCH OF THE INCARNATION / 3966 McKinney Ave / 214.521.5101

Sunday: Traditional 7:30, 9:00, 11:15 am and 5:00 pm

Contemporary 9:00, 11:15 am and 6:00 pm / incarnation.org

ST. JOHN’S EPISCOPAL CHURCH / 848 Harter Road, 75218

Sunday Worship: 8:00 & 10:30 am / Christian Ed. 9:00 am 214.321.6451 / www.stjohnsepiscopal.org

THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST. MATTHE W / 5100 Ross Ave.

Sunday Traditional: 8:00 & 10:30 am / Adult Education 9:30 am

Hispanic Service 12:30 / 214.823.8134 / www.episcopalcathedral.org

IN TE R- DE NOMIN AT ION AL

GRACEHILL COMMUNIT Y / www.gracehill.cc

10:00 am @ Dallas Children’s Theater / Skillman & NW Hwy.

Awesome Kid’s Ministry / Use Entrance Facing Home Depot

L UT H E R A N

FIRST UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH / 6202 E Mockingbird Ln.

Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am / Call for class schedule. 214.821.5929 / www.dallaslutheran.org

ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH & SCHOOL / 6121 E Lovers Ln.

Sunday: Sunday School 9:15 am, Worship 8:00 am, 10:30 am, & 6:00 pm / 214.363.1639 / www.ziondallas.org

M ET HODIS T

WHITE ROCK UNITED METHODIST / wrumc.org

1450 Oldgate Lane / 214.324.3661

Sunday Worship 10:50 am / Rev. George Fisk

NON- DE NOMIN AT ION AL

WHITE ROCK COMMUNIT Y CHURCH / 9353 Garland Road

Sun. Bible Study 9:00 am, Worship 10:45 am / 214.320.0043

Wed. Bible Studies 10:00 am & 7:30 pm / www.whiterockchurch.org

P R E SBY TE RI A N

NE W ST. PETER’S PRESBY TERIAN CHURCH / 214.438.0120

Meet at Dallas Children’s v – Skillman at NW Hwy

Worship: 9:30 am / www.newstpeters.org

NORTHPARK PRESBY TERIAN CHURCH / 214.363.5457

9555 N. Central Expwy. / www.northparkpres.org

New Pastor: Rev. Brent Barry / 8:30 & 11:00 am Sunday Services

ST. ANDRE W ’S PRESBY TERIAN / Skillman & Monticello

Rev. Rob Leischner. www.standrewsdallas.org

214.821.9989 Sunday School 9:30 am, Worship 10:45 am

UNI T Y

UNIT Y CHURCH OF CHRISTIANIT Y / www.dallasunity.org

11:00 am Sun. Worship & Sunday School; 9:30 am adult class. 3425 Greenville Ave. @ McCommas Blvd. 214.826.5683

WONDER LAND

ALLOW YOURSELF TO BE ASTONISHED BY THE EVERYDAY

Poet Mary Oliver is fond of three things.

She is actually fond of many more than three things, if you read her poetry. Nature, for one. Grasshoppers, for another. This grasshopper more than any other.

Poets move from the particular to the universal, from this to all. They understand that you don’t love marriage, you love being married (if you are and if you do) to your husband and not just any husband (we hope), but yours, the one named Joe who wrinkles his nose just so when he looks at you over the morning paper, at which point you notice the hairs growing out of that same nose that need clipping before the rest of the world outside your house will notice it, too, and wonder if he has a wife.

Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it. These three things are part of her instructions for living from the multi-part poem “Sometimes”. They are good reminders to preachers and writers that we should get out of our heads and look at the world as it is before we speak of it or write about it.

They are good cues for all of us who live in the world. God tends to speak to us through things rather than going around things and avoiding them in order to get straight to the brain or the heart of people. We don’t live on the world; we live in it. Nature and people are living things, all of them capable of surprising us and astonishing us if we are paying attention.

We won’t ever be astonished by something if we think we already know that thing. Friendships grow stale when one friend knows the other so well, he thinks, that his friend is a hardened conservative or liberal and always must act from that label. Why should he have to speak or think anymore? He’s a category now.

The same is true with adult children and their parents. Will your mother always and only be that woman who nagged you about cleaning up your room when you were 9, or might she be a person who could teach you about listening to your own daughter if you took time now to listen to her? She is not

just mother, in other words, she is a woman named Trudy who has a thing to tell you because she herself has paid attention and been astonished by life.

In her poem “In Blackwater Woods”, Oliver has three more things to share after, and only after, she has looked at trees turning their bodies into pillars of light and smelling the fragrance of cinnamon coming from them, and being astonished at the long tapers of

cattails on the blue shoulders of the pond.

“To live in this world/ you must be able/ to do three things:/ to love what is mortal;/ to hold it/ against your bones knowing/ your own life depends on it;/ and, when the time comes to let it go,/ to let it go.”

Nature teaches us these things if we are paying attention. God teaches us these things through nature, to be more exact. And when we learn these things, we ought to step back and sigh, rejoicing that we ourselves are alive and can see it all and get just this part of it.

Then we must tell about it, which I am doing now after paying attention to these words and being astonished by them. I have held them close to my bones, because I do think that somehow my life depends upon it. And now I am letting them go to you, and to God, for safekeeping.

Tell someone today about what you have seen and been astonished by.

George Mason is pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church. The Worship section is a regular feature underwritten by Advocate Publishing and by the neighborhood business people and churches listed on these pages. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

SNOW PLAY

Young neighbor Sylvie Jenkins takes advantage of snow, with help from shutterbug mom Alison Fechtel , by building a loveable Frosty with two eyes made out of, er is that blue chalk?

GOOD SPORTS

J.L. Long Middle School girls’ basketball team — Jayln Brown , E rin C hoi , Yirasema Garcia , Leslie Scherger , Abby Smith

C aitlin Nealy , Greer Lambert , Shelby Patterson , E lena D oss , Lauren Jimenez , Nazanne Smith recently earned the DISD District 2 co-championship. The team clenched the coveted spot with an end-of-season victory over Hood.

EVENTS

BOOK CLUB Needs New Members. Meets 1st Tues, 11:30am, at Lkwood Cntry Club. Enjoy Lunch & Conversation. 214-328-3631

TUTORING & LESSONS

A+ PIANO TEACHER WADE COTTINGHAM Super Refs. LWood Res. wadewademusic.com 214-564-6456

ART: Draw or Paint. All Levels. L. Highlands North Rec. Ctr. Jane Cross. 214-534-6829, Linda 214-808-4919.

DALLAS COLLEGE & TEST PREP Tutoring: SAT, ACT, THEA, TExES, Math, English. www.dallastestprep.com, 214-341-0076

DRUM & PIANO LESSONS All Ages/All Styles. Your location. UNT Grads. Betty & Bill 972-203-1573

GUITAR, PIANO, YOUR HOME Fun/Easy. 9-Adult. UNT Music Degree. Larry 469-358-8784

MATH TUTOR Certified. 5th-12th Grades. 10 Years Experience. Kenny. 214-535-6707. kennygoldman@sbcglobal.net

VOICE TEACHER with 37 years experience. MM, NATS, MTNA www.PatriciaIvey.com 214-324-5625

Spanish Immersion Classes in East Dallas

Private and Small Group Classes for Adults & Children Spanish Immersion Preschool Mon. - Fri.

5740 Prospect Ave. #1000

DallasSpanishHouse.com 214-826-4410

Where every child is special!

Accredited private school with small classes, certified experienced teachers and outstanding academic curriculum. Indoor pool, gym, computer lab and large outdoor playground.

Call White Rock North School to schedule a tour 214-348-7410

CHILDCARE

EXPERIENCED OVERNIGHT CAREGIVER FOR INFANTS, including multiples. References. Kendell 214-346-9220

LOVING, CHRIST-CENTERED CARE SINCE 1982

Lake Highlands Christian Child Enrichment Center Ages 2 mo.-12 yrs. 9919 McCree. 214-348-1123.

CHILDCARE

EMPLOYMENT

ALL CASH VENDING Do you earn $800/day? Local Vending Routes. 25 machines+candy. $9,995 800-807-6485

MYSTERY SHOPPERS! Earn up to $150 daily. Get paid to shop pt/ft. 800-690-1272

SALES & MARKETING PROFESSIONAL needed for growing promotional marketing business. Applicant must be a self starter and have sales or sales related experience. Job is commission only and work hours are flexible for the right candidate. Located in Lakewood. Email resumes to resumes@gizmogroup.com

TEACHER - East Dallas Developmental Center (eddc.net) now hiring for two’s class. eddcad@gmail.com or 214-821-7766

AD SALES REPRESENTATIVE

Advocate Magazines is hiring! Full Time Magazine Sales Rep — experience in print sales is required. Please email your resume to kgaconnier@advocatemag.com subject line: Resume

SERVICES FOR YOU

AFFORDABLE INSURANCE SOLUTIONS Life, Health, Dental, Vision. For individuals & Families. 214-628-0605. InsphereIS.com/damon.kearns. The Solutions you Need. The Service You Deserve. Insphere Insurance Solutions, Inc. 11s000024

AT ODDS WITH YOUR COMPUTER? Easily Learn Essential Skills.Services Include Digital Photo Help.Sharon 214-679-9688

BUSINESS BOOKKEEPING Yearly Tax Prep, Monthly Service or Quickbooks Set-Up Robyn Young, CFP 214-564-8171

CONFUSED? FRUSTRATED? Let A Seasoned Pro Be The Interface Between You & That Pesky Computer. Hardware & Software Installation, Troubleshooting, Training. $60/hr. 1 hr min. Dan 214-660-3733 or stykidan@sbcglobal.net

SERVICES FOR YOU

CUPID WITH A CUISINART www.romancefortwo.com Personal Chef Service 214-212-3188

NEED A VACATION? Great Customer Service For Cruises, Family vacations, Honeymoons & More. Worldwide Cruises and Tours mariannewoody.wwtravel@yahoo.com 214-929-2069

YOUR COMPUTER GEEK Let me Solve Your Computer Problems. 25 Yrs. Exp. Hardware/Software Issues/Install. Network Setup, Home & Small Business. $50 per Hr. Mike. 214-552-1323. mikecomputergeek@gmail.com

Pearl... A “Precious” find in Quality Dry cleaning! Now Offering FREE Dry Cleaning Pick-Up & Delivery in Your Area! p y

PEARL

DRY CLEANING & LAUNDRY

Mon-Fri 7a-6p Sat 8a-3p 1332 S. Plano Road Suite 100, Richardson,TX, 75081 972.690.1171 pearldrycleaning@sbcglobal.net

RENT-A-DAUGHTER

LET THEM EAT LUNCH

Lakewood resident Pauline Mayfield at the 2009 Lipscomb PTA Auction won lunch with City Councilman Angela Hunt , which she recently celebrated, along with Matt Wood, at Fearing’s restaurant.

ORGANIZING

A DESIGNERS TOUCH FOR ORGANIZATION

Declutter & Organize. Sue Benson 214-349-9064

making your spaces successful!

Home Organization Declutter Rooms Filing Home O ce Set-up Unpack

For rates, photos and testimonials, visit www.neatnellie.com or call 214.499.4387

Organize and Rejuvenate

Linda Strobel, Professional Organizer 972 816-8004

Residential Organizing Solutions

Enhancing your Living Spaces to Work for YOU!

Home Offices All Rooms & Living Spaces Feng Shui

For rates or more info., call or email: organizerejuvenate@att.net

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

ACCOUNTING, TAXES Small Businesses & Individuals, Chris King, CPA 214-824-5313 www.chriskingcpa.com

BOOKKEEPING NEEDS? Need Help Organizing Finances?

No Job Too Small or Big.

Call C.A.S Accounting Solutions. Cindy 214-821-6903

CUSTOM RESUMES Any Level or Field. Invest in your career. Katie. 214-499-4289, katie_shahan@yahoo.com

Licensed Insurance Provider PROTECT

Flexible major medical, HSA’s, dental, life, critical care. Specializing in individuals, families and small businesses. Call your local agent Lori Hu at 214-738-4783

Website Design Flash Demos Graphic Design

RibbitMultimedia

MIND, BODY & SPIRIT

FOR WOMEN ONLY In Home Fitness Training. Cooper Certified Personal Trainer. 214-802-8932

MIND, BODY & SPIRIT

HEALTHY WEIGHT LOSS Motivational, Compassionate & Confidential Sessions Offered To Those Wanting To Lose Weight & Gain A Healthier Lifestyle. Dr. Nicole Mangum, Health Psychologist. 214-692-6666 ext. 311

LASER THERAPY Stop smoking, lose weight, reduce stress Anne Penman 214-503-7955 www.annepenman.com

WWW.TRAINWITHJEAN.COM Train On Line Using Your Web Camera. $15 Per Session. 214-886-1459

PETS

BIRDDOGCATFISH Caring For Pets In Their Own Home With Familiar Sights, Smells & Routines. Dog Walks, Vet Trips, Overnights. Beth. 469-235-3374

JONATHANS FRIENDS Complete Pet Services. Your House Or Mine. 17 Yrs Experience. CPR Trained. 214-660-8993

K9 POOP PICK UP Love your dog, but hate the mess? Let us pick it up for you. You’ll love it. Call 214-341-1557 today!

POOP SCOOP PROFESSIONALS Trust The Experts. 214-826-5009

THEPETNANNYDALLAS.COM In-home TLC for cats, dogs & birds. Bonded & insured. Ask for The Pet Nanny. 214-244-4330

PETS

In-Home Professional Care

Customized to maintain your pet’s routine In-Home Pet Visits & Daily Walks

“Best of Dallas” D Magazine

Serving the Dallas area since 1994

Bonded & Insured www.societypetsitter.com 214-821-3900

BUY/SELL/TRADE

A NEW COMPUTER NOW. Brand Name. Bad or No Credit, No Problem. Smallest Weekly Payments Available. 1-800-838-7127

TEXAS RANGERS SUITE Share this prime suite with other neighborhood small businesses. We lease Suite 218-B behind home plate (check out the location online at texasrangers.com) overlooking the entire field. We’re looking for partners to buy 10game shares in for the 2010 & 2011 seasons. The suite includes three parking passes, 12 tickets for each game and a $300 credit per game (first year only) for food and beverage service in the suite. Games will be allocated in a lottery process prior to each season, with each shareholder selecting games and receiving an equal chance for Yankees, Red Sox, weekend and other premium games. Email rwamre@advocatemag.com or call 214-686-3595 with questions.

WEIMARANER PUPPIES Available. March 2010. dallasweimaranerpuppies.com

ESTATE/GARAGE SALES

ESTATE SALES & LIQUIDATION SERVICES Moving, Retirement, Downsizing. One Piece Or A Houseful. David Turner. 214-908-7688. dave2estates@aol.com

REAL ESTATE

DUPLEX FOR RENT Charming 1914 Prairie Style Home. 5426 Alton Avenue. 1 bedroom/1 Bath + Study. Newly Remodeled. 828sf. $765 + Utilities. Call 214-460-1667

FOR RENT 2/2/2 + Guest House. Updated. Unique Property. 1 Block from White Rock Lake. $1,600pm. 214-328-3631

LOOKING TO BUY/SELL A HOME Call A Professional. Tax Credit & Knowing The Market Makes a Difference. Century 21. Tommy Kirk. 972-533-2872

SAVE THOUSANDS $$ Selling Your Home With 1% Listing Fee. Locally Owned Full Service Residential Brokerage At Reduced Rates. One Real Estate Group. www.onerealestategroup.com. For A Free Consultation Contact Jeff Mauser. 214-642-3856

APRIL DEADLINE MARCH 10

CARPENTRY & REMODELING

G&G DEMOLITION Tear downs, Haul. Interior/ Exterior. 214-808-8925

HANDY DAN “The Handyman” To Do’s Done Right! www.handy-dan.com 214-252-1628

PREVIEW CONSTRUCTION INC.

HardiPlank 50 Yr. Cement Siding, Energy Star Windows. Kitchens-Baths-Additions & More. 214-348-3836. See Photo Gallery at: www.previewconstruction.com

REMODEL FOR LESS 972-822-7501 www.CuttingEdgeRenovationsLLC.com

SOUTHERN CROSS CONSTRUCTION

Residential & Light Commercial Renovation. Kitchens, Baths, Studios & Additions. Call Ben at 469-360-8886

SQUARE NAIL WOODWORKING

Cabinet Refacing, Built-ins, Entertainment/ Computer Centers. Jim. 214-324-7398 www.squarenailwoodworking.com

TK COMPLETE REMODELING Carpentry, Doors, Drywall, Paint. 972-533-2872

$10 OFF 1ST CLEAN A CLEAN SWEEP We Do It All Pet Sit Also 469-951-2948 214-938-4284

$20 OFF - MAID 4 YOU Bonded & Insured. Park Cities/M Street Refs. Joyce. 214-232-9629

CLEAN FREAKS Since 2005. Free Estimates. Bonded & Insured. Call Today! 214-821-8888

JANITORIAL SERVICES Commercial/Residential Cleaning. Home/ Office. Hector. 214-489-0635

KDR SERVICES Residential and Vacant Property Cleaning. 214-349-0914

Service & Luxury Auto Detail.

Cleaning

MENAGE CLEANING Since 1981. Also Pet Sitting*References 214-226-6439

MESS MASTERS Earth friendly housecleaning. 469-235-7272. www.messmasters.com Since ‘91

THE MAIDS 4 Person Teams. Bonded & Insured. www.maids.com Free Estimates. 800-843-6243

WANTED Houses To Clean & Windows to Wash 20 Years Exp. Reliable, Efficient, Excellent Refs., Sunni 214-724-2555

WINDOW MAN WINDOW CLEANING.COM Residential Specialists. BBB. 214-718-3134

Doors, Cabinets, Etc. Plenty of Refs. Paul, 214-893-3648

BO

Kitchens, baths, doors, cabinets, custom carpentry, drywall & painting 214-437-9730

FENN CONSTRUCTION CO Complete Remodels. www.dallastileman.com 214-343-4645

S & E LE C TRO N I CS

COMPUTER

A+ CERTIFIED COMPUTER SERVICE

Business/Home. Repair, Data & Networks Call a PC Pro: Rusty 214-912-0885

BILL’S COMPUTER REPAIR Virus Removal, Data Recovery. Home /Biz. Network Install. All Upgrades & Repairs. PC Instruction, No Trip Fee. 214-348-2566

CONFUSED? FRUSTRATED? Let A Seasoned Pro Be The Interface Between You & That Pesky Computer. Hardware & Software Installation, Troubleshooting, Training, $60/hr. 1 Hr. Min. Dan 214-660-3733 Or stykidan@sbcglobal.net

HOUSE PAINTING

1 AFFORDABLE HOUSE PAINTING and Home Repair. Quality work.

Inside and Out. Free Ests. Local Refs. Ron 972-816-5634 or 972-475-3928

#1 GET MORE PAY LES

85% Referrals/Estimates 214-348-5070

A TEXTURE & FINISH SPECIALIST

Since 1977. Int/Ext. Kirk’s Works 972-672-4681

A TONY’S PAINTING SERVICE Interior & Exterior 972-234-0770 mobile 214-755-2700

ABRAHAM PAINT SERVICE A Women Owned Business 25 Yrs. Int/Ext. Wall Reprs. Discounts

On Whole Interiors and Exteriors 214-682-1541

BENJAMIN’S PAINTING SERVICE Quality

Work At Reasonable Prices. 214-725-6768

MANNY’S HOME PAINTING & REPAIR Int./ Ext. Sheetrock , Manny 214-554-1327

RAMON’S INT/EXT PAINT Sheetrock, Repairs. 214-679-4513

VIP PAINTING & DRYWALL Int/Ext. Sheetrock Repair, Resurfacing Tubs, Counters, Tile Repairs. 972-613-2585

BRIAN GREAM

PAINTING & RENOVATIONS LLC

PayPal ®

214.542.6214 WWW.BGRONTHEWEB.COM BRIANGREAM@YAHOO.COM

Residential. Interior. Exterior. Call today for a FREE estimate 214-346-0900 www.certapro.com

INTERIOR DESIGN

CIELA DESIGN 832-428-3857 Residential/Commercial Interior Design Services. cieladesign.com

HOME DECORATIONS Spice Up Your Home For Spring. Home Shopping.Redecorate. Home Stylist. Lupe. 214-801-3542

INTERIOR DESIGN / CONSULTING

Carolyn Contreras ASID

Licensed/Exp. 214-363-0747

KIM ARMSTRONG INTERIOR DESIGN www.interiorsbykim.com

Licensed/CID/ASID 214-500-0600

LILLI DESIGN Residential, Commercial. NCIDQ Cert.10 Yrs Exp. www.lilli-design.com

Katie Reynolds 214-370-8221

WINDOWWORKS BY REBECCA

Shop At Home For Custom Window Treatments. 214-215- 2981

Specializing in Custom Blended Colors and Decorative Applications

Italian Plaster Hand Painted Designs Color Washes Design & Decor

KITC

H /

L AWNS, G A R DENS & TR EES

Tubs,

214-631-8719

REPLACE IT? PERMAGLAZE

IT!

MULTI-SURFACE RESTORATION

TUBS/TILE/COUNTERTOPS

972.323.8375

WWW.PERMAGLAZENORTHDALLAS.COM

GREENSKEEPER Fall Clean Up & Fall Color. Sodding, Fertilization. Lawn Maintenance & Landscape. Res/Com. 214-546-8846

HOLISTIC TREE CARE

A Full-Service Tree Care Company

Chuck Ranson, Certified Arborist c.ranson@sbcglobal.net 214-537-2008

HOLMAN IRRIGATION

Sprinkler & Valve Repair/ Rebuild Older Systems. Lic. #1742. 214-398-8061

LAKEWOOD TREE SERVICES

Total Tree Care - feeding, trimming, removals Free Estimates. Insured. 214-442-3165

MOW YOUR YARD $27 White Rock Landscaping 214-415-8434

ORTIZ LAWNCARE Complete Yard Care. Service by Felipe. Free Est. 214-215-3599

PARADISE LANDSCAPES www.ParadiseLandscapes.net 214-328-9955

INSULATION/ RADIANT BARRIER

EFFICIENT INSULATION Radiant Barrier Foil. Energy Efficient Pro. Free quotes. 214-577-0534

ENERGYSMARTIMPROVEMENTS.COM

Radiant Barrier Insulation. 469-358-8137

INTERIOR DESIGN

A CLEAN SLATE Bring Life Into Your Home

This New Year. Interior & Event Design Services. Tablescapes, Artful Details. Don Moore Interiors and Event Design. For A Free Consultation. dpm0202@mac.com 270-993-0782

A LADY’S TOUCH WALLPAPERING

Texture, Paint & Repair. 27 yrs. exp. Free Call Martha 972-712-2465; 972-832-3396

Amy Christensen 214.693.8556

Trompe L’oeil Distressed Finishes Wood Grains Color Consultation www.fauxgetaboutit.com

Time to refresh your nest?

Cheryl Stephens Interiors

Complete decorating, redesign and organizing services.

Cheryl Stephens, CID 214.351.6676

T I L E / G R O U T

FENN CONSTRUCTION Any Tile Anywhere www dallastileman com 214-343-4645

HANDY DAN “The Handyman” Remodel’s Done Right. handy-dan.com 214-252-1628

METRO CUSTOM CABINETS Kitchens, Offices, Entertainment Centers. 214-538-5600

STONE AGE Granite, Marble, Tile. Kitchens & Baths. Counter Tops. Jody “The Granite Girl” 469-328-8440

25% OFF TREE WORK IN MARCH Roberts Tree Svc Insd.10 yrs exp. 214-808-8925

Complete tree services including Tree & Landscape Lighting! Call Mark 214-332-3444

A&B LANDSCAPING Full Lawn Care, Landscaping, Tree Trimming, Fireplaces & Stonework. Lic #0283917- Degreed Horticulturist 214-221-4421 - 214-534-3816

ALTON MARTIN LANDSCAPING Spectacular Curbside Appeal! Excellent refs. 214-893-2420

ARTHUR’S SPRINKLER REPAIR Serving E. Dallas for 20 yrs. LI 3449. 214-660-4860

AYALA’S Landscaping & Tree Service

Call Land & Tree Expert Today! 214-773-4781

B.J.’S LANDSCAPING Complete Lawn & Garden Maintenance. Seasonal Color/Perennials. Certified. 16 Yrs. Exp. Res/Com. 214-336-4673

BARTON SPRINKLER REPAIR & INSTALL

3 Yr Warranty. Free Rain & Freeze With New Installation. Lic 6158. 214-878-8123

BEACHSCAPE Lawn Maintenance & Landscaping. Stonework. Seasonal Color and Perennials. Free Ests. 214-287-3571

BLOUNTS TREE SERVICE Winter Tree Service Special. 1st Tree Regular Price, 2nd Tree 1/2 Price. 44 Yrs Exp. Insured. Grady. 214-275-5727

BUSSEYS LAWN CARE $30 Weekly. Hedges. Clean ups. 214-725-9678

CASTRO TREE SERVICE Quality Work at Great Rates. Free est. Insured. 214-337-7097

CHUPIK TREE SERVICE

Trim, Remove, Stump Grind. Free Est. Insured. 214-823-6463

COMPLETE LANDSCAPE & DESIGN

Drainage, Stone Work, Sprinklers, Design. Free Estimates. 972-898-6197

Lawn Service & Landscape Installation

DALLAS TREE SURGEONS Tree Trimming, Removal & Sales. Free Estimates. 972-633-5462 www.dallastreesurgeons.com

DAVID’S COMPLETE LAWN CARE And Tree Service. 214-459-7404

SPRINKLER REPAIR SPECIALIST $20 Off. 972-226-1925 www.rainmakertx.com LI#7732

SPRINKLERS, LANDSCAPING, Stone Work, Drainage. Installed and Repair. Call Kevin at 214-535-3352,Lic#7840. www.bigdirrigation.com

TAYLOR MADE IRRIGATION

Repairs, service, drains. 27 yrs exp. Ll 6295. Backflow Testing Cell-469-853-2326. John

THE POND MAN Water Gardens

Designed & Installed. Drained & Cleaned. Weekly Service. Jim Tillman 214-769-0324

TREE WIZARDS Trim Surgery Removal. 15 Yrs Exp. Insured. Free Est. 214-680-5885

U R LAWN CARE Maintenance. Landscaping. Your Personal Yard Service by Uwe Reisch uwereisch@yahoo.com 214-886-9202

www.TexasXeriscapes.com 469-586-9054

A Better Tree Company

JUST TREES

Your Trees Could Look Like a Work of Ar t, I Guarantee It. Free Estimates Work Guaranteed Best Prices on Tree Removal Insured Commercial & Residential Tree & Landscape Lighting Call Mark Wittlich 214-332-3444

Colorful Impressions, Ltd.

Dan Coletti’s

JUST NATURAL DESIGN

Landscape Design Installation Maintenance 214-654-0202 http://colorfulimpressions.com

Xeriscape

Native Plants & Grasses Perennial & Annual Color Butterfly and Herb Gardens

Dan Coletti 214-213-2147

www.JustNaturalDesign.com

PEST

PLUMBING

M-36580

Astro Plumbing 20Years in the Plumbing Business Full Service Plumbing Company

Call Michael 214.566.9737

Lorenzo and Son’s Plumbing

Remodels,Additions, NewConstruction, Service & Repairs NO JOB TOO SMALL 972-804-7348 M38042

MPL36677

PLUMBING SERVICES

Prices Start at $68 +Tax for GeneralTreatment

AverageHome,Interior,Exterior &AttachedGarage Quotes forOther Services

214-328-2847

LakewoodResident

PLUMBING

A2Z PLUMBING 214-727-4040 All Plumbing Repairs. Slab Leak Specialists. Licensed & Insured. ML# M36843.

# M37740 Insured. All your plumbing needs.

ARRIAGA PLUMBING: Repairs, Remodels, Water Heaters, Stopages. Ins’d. Lic 20754 214-321-0589 214-738-7116

ATCHISON PLUMBING

Running Toilets / Lack of Hot Water Driving You Crazy? Call Bruce! 972-726-9323 Lic. # M-23486

BLOUNTS PLUMBING REPAIR Rebuild or Replace. 43 yrs exp. Insured. 214-275-5727

214-808-9262

POOLS

LEAFCHASERS POOLS Service & Repairs. Insured. APSP Cert. Local Resident Jonathan. 214-729-3311

MICHAEL’S POOL SERVICE Maintenance & Repair 214-727-7650

PLAYMORE POOLS CO. Design, Construction, Consulting & Renovations. 214-823-0169. www.playmorepools.com

THE POOL LADY Personal/Affordable/Quality Pool Care since 1982. Marsha 214-553-1974

WHITE ROCK POOL CLEANING Friendly Service & Repairs. 20 yrs experience whiterockpools.com David 214-769-8012

ROOFING & GUTTERS

Clean Out, Repair/Replace. Leaf Guard. Free Estimates. Lifetime Warranty

Roof Replacement / Insurance Claims

ROOF LEAKS? LATHAM ROOFING

JUSTIN’S PLUMBING SERVICE

For All Your Plumbing Needs. ml#M38121 972-523-1336. www.justinsplumbing.com

M&S PLUMBING Quality Work & Prompt Service. Jerry. 214-235-2172. lic.#M-11523

REPAIRS, Fixtures,General Plumbing. Senior Discounts. Campbell Plumbing. 214-321-5943

SHEFFIELD PLUMBING We do it right the 1st time. Repairs, Rmdls. Insd. 214-941-8600

SPECK PLUMBING Licensed & Insured

All Types of Re-Roofing and Repairs. Res.& Com. Since 1973. 214-340-3500

WHITE ROCK ROOFING AND REPAIRS

ADVOCATE PUBLISHING does not pre-screen, recommend or investigate the advertisements and/ or Advertisers published in our magazines. As a result, Advocate Publishing is not responsible for your dealings with any Advertiser. Please ask each Advertiser that you contact to show you the necessary licenses and/or permits required to perform the work you are requesting. Advocate Publishing takes comments and/or complaints about Advertisers seriously, and we do not publish advertisements that we know are inaccurate, misleading and/or do not live up to the standards set by our publications. If you have a legitimate complaint or positive comment about an Advertiser, please contact us at 214-560-4203. Advocate Publishing recommends that you ask for and check references from each Advertiser that you contact, and we recommend that you obtain a written statement of work to be completed, and the price to be charged, prior to approving any work or providing an Advertiser with any deposit for work to be completed.

Q: I

ASK A COP

It could be either. If the helicopter is circling a large area, it could be because we are patrolling. You might be more likely to see that when crime has increased in a particular reporting area. If the helicopter appears to be low and hovering, chances are that we are looking for a suspect.

CAR BURGLARY IS A QUI C K C RIME,

and someone committed several.

Marianne Martin woke up ready to start a day of work for Dallas ISD. She left her home and walked to her car parked in the driveway, which is in back of her house.

What Martin found shocked her.

“I walked out to go to work and the window was smashed,” she says. “I’d heard my dogs bark during the night, but didn’t think anything of it.

The Victim: Marianne Martin

The Crime: B urglary of a motor vehicle

Date: Tuesday, Jan. 19

Time: B etween 4 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Location:

“I’ve always heard that this was a high car break-in area. I guess that’s just the thing to do around here.”

Approaching the car, she found debris and glass strewn everywhere inside. The thief had ransacked the glove box and storage compartments.

According to Dallas Police reports, nine car smash and grabs took place in Martin’s neighborhood from Jan. 19-23. Among the items stolen from victims were two pairs of expensive sunglasses, cell phone accessories, a laptop computer, GPS system, a wallet with cash and credit cards, CDs and clothes. Add to this the cost of window repairs, and the crimes are an expensive hassle for the burglars’ victims.

Luckily for Martin, the crook got away with very little.

“There was absolutely nothing in there worth taking. They literally got $2 in change that’s going to cost me $200 to get repaired. It’s a pain to get the window replaced,” she says. “The police said the chances of catching the [burglar] were slim to none, and recommended I get a motion sensor light.”

Officer Bervin Smith with the Dallas Police Northeast Patrol Division says thieves often hit several cars, but it is uncertain whether these crimes were committed by the same crook.

“There is a possibility that this is the same person committing all of the offenses, but there is nothing definite to report,” he says. “It is very common that the same thief will hit several cars in the same area.”

Police regularly take fingerprints, assign extra police or a crime watch patrol, and use cameras to catch this type of criminal, he says. Police also believe motion sensor lights deter crooks from breaking into a car.

“Anytime extra lighting can be utilized will deter that criminal element. Thieves love to operate in the dark.”

—SEAN CHAFFIN

RUBBISH

This month marks the end of an era in Dallas, as the city cuts garbage collection from twice to once a week. Dallas, for decades, has picked up the garbage two times a week, and as one commenter on our blog noted, we do garbage better than almost any city in the country.

In one respect, though, the change makes perfect sense. Once a week pickup, combined with once a week recycling, is cheaper and more environmentally friendly, and we certainly need both of those.

But I’m reminded of one of the first lessons I learned when I started writing about politics, back in the typewriter and carbon paper days: People may not vote. They may not pay much attention to budgets or city council meetings. But they do notice when their garbage doesn’t get picked up.

Which raises the question: Despite all the travails and crises we’ve had over the past several years, and despite the seeming lack of concern from most residents, what happens if once a week pickup doesn’t work? What happens if city officials, eying the budget, follow through on a proposal to eliminate monthly bulky trash pickup? Will

those changes finally send voters to the polls? Will they be the triggers that change the city’s political landscape?

In fact, garbage pickup is a sensitive issue in cities around the country, budget woes or not. New York City still picks up garbage two to three times a week, despite its fiscal problems (and

But what happens there when the city converts its pilot recycling program to full-time, and then cuts back on regular pickup? I’d imagine we’d hear the howls up here.

it has had a mandatory recycling program since 1986). In Chicago, where I learned the importance of garbage collection, the city has long resisted using the automated trucks that we use here, and still has three employees to a truck to provide what it calls “better service” — despite massive budget cuts elsewhere.

I also learned, in researching this story, that Chicago, which has one of the largest Polish-speaking populations outside of Warsaw, offers garbage pickup instructions in Polish, and that Los Angeles provides curbside horse manure pickup for $10 a month. I’m telling you — garbage deserves much more attention that it gets.

The point, of course, is that garbage doesn’t get much attention until it is a problem. No one in Houston, which collects garbage once a week, probably thinks the city is underserved.

Will we hear them here? Consider garbage pickup in Los Angeles, which seems to be the model that city officials are studying. L.A. residents have once a week collection and mandatory recycling, and it seems to work. It’s often held up as an example of how to do garbage more cost effectively, and city officials say they lead the country’s biggest cities with a 65 percent recycling rate. Dallas, by comparison, is sixth at 44.6 percent.

What L.A. doesn’t have is regular bulk pickup. Rather, it’s divided into three parts — bulk pickup, an annual “yard trimmings” pickup, and something called “Move In-Move Out” service. In each case, pickup is by request only and the instructions are not always simple. You need to call ahead of time, fill out forms, and, for some services, present a list about the pickup. And woe unto those who don’t take the garbage out on the correct day.

Finally, there is this, which will send a shudder through anyone who does yard work: “All yard trimmings must be bundled and tied, no longer than 4 feet long and no heavier than 30 pounds.”

That would be ironic, wouldn’t it, if that was the shot that launched a revolution? We overlook closed rec centers and potholes, but don’t mess with grass clippings.