The only name you’ll have to remember when voting for Dallas City Council..

Judy Liimatainen is a mother. Judy is a grandmother, a volunteer, a business woman and a community leader. For years, Judy has worked to better East Dallas and brings a passion for our section of Big D. Judy is also a listener. A doer. And one who can get people to work together. She’s running because she cares about Dallas and not her next political office.

Judy is also fiercely independent. She is not beholden to any corporation, political action committee, or big spenders. Her grassroots campaign has not taken money from any organizations outside the district, like so many other candidates have.

It’s time we, the people, had a voice at city hall instead of special interests. Vote for Judy. Your voice at City Hall.

and in its place, Winslow hoped to build a Southern California-style commercial building. The prospective two-story building would have included about 2,750 square feet of space, with about 2,375 square feet on the ground floor used for a commercial operation and about 375 square feet on the second floor divided into two small office spaces.

Documents filed with the Plan Commission listed several options for what Winslow’s property potentially could have been; possible uses ranged from a library or museum to office buildings or a retail store or restaurant without a drive-thru. (Note: Directly across Abrams next to Lakewood Veterinary Clinic, plans to build a Chipotle have stirred concern from some neighbors worried about chain encroachment in the neighborhood.)

At first, the reaction was rather muted. During the first days of April, commission vicechair Gloria Tarpley, a neighborhood resident, said the Plan Commission had yet to receive feedback from neighbors — positive, negative or otherwise — but she said the CPC wouldn’t make a decision about the request until after they talked with immediate neighbors, as well as any other Lakewood residents who have an opinion.

“The Planning Commission in general is fairly resistant to make a change from a property that is residential to a property that is commercial. In general, we don’t want to disturb areas that are long-standing and well-established as residential,” Tarpley said.

She also pointed out a key factor: Just because Winslow provided a rendering of what he hoped the building would look like, doesn’t mean that’s what the property would actually look like once it’s all said and done. Zoning simply defines the nature of the property; it in no way mandates or controls the architecture.

“Although it’s in a neighborhood, it does have commercial around it,” Tarpley said at the time. “The Planning Commission will have to balance a lot of factors here. We generally try not to disturb neighborhoods, but there may be compelling circumstances.” immediately after Tarpley’s comments were published on advocatemag.com, surrounding neighbors of the property rallied and made their thoughts known: They weren’t happy about the plan, not one bit. a small group gathered to discuss their concerns on april 2 at the home of next-door neighbor Carl Dreher. The primary concern was the devaluation of the surrounding properties, said John isaacson at 6411 Richmond. Of course, the influx of traffic and noise were also a concern.

“Everyone i’ve talked to, so far, is 100 percent against it,” said Belinda Cardwell, the neighbor at 6406 lakewood, across the alleyway from Winslow’s new property.

Winslow met with Dreher and his wife, Charlotte Bristow, to discuss the rezoning request. He also met with Tarpley on april 8 to discuss the possibilities for the property.

On the evening of april 8, Tarpley met with about 20 of the surrounding neighbors to get their thoughts. The opinion was unanimous: They wanted residential only and would not consider any other options.

“They were very united in the feeling that the only kind of zoning they could support for that property, would be to keep the residential zoning with the conservation district in tact,” Tarpley recalled.

On april 9, alex Winslow announced he had withdrawn his rezoning request for the property at the northeast corner of Richmond and abrams.

“it’s off the table,” Winslow said. ”i told everybody that if it didn’t get support i’d pull it. and it didn’t, so i am.” next, Winslow said he plans to renovate the home and rent it out as soon as possible.

— Brittany nunn

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Q&A: Ken Lampton

In 1972, the Lakewood Community Library staff launched an oral history project called, “The Lakewood Project,” through which, a group of volunteers talked with dozens of Lakewood residents about life in Lakewood in the early to mid-1900s. In 1984, Ken Lampton discovered the collection of recordings in the Lakewood Branch of the Dallas Public Library. “I was just thrilled. I listened to many of the tapes and thought, ‘This is totally wonderful.’” At that time, people could walk into the library and ask to listen to the tapes. They were kept in a drawer, so people could sit down with headphones and listen, he explains. Later on, however, they ended up in a closet somewhere. For the last several years, the Lakewood Library has been seriously considering getting them digitized into MP3 format before the tapes deteriorate. When Lampton was nominated to be on the board of directors for the Lakewood Library Friends, he knew exactly which committee he wanted to be on – archives. “That’s when I led the effort to figure out what it would cost to digitize them,” Lampton says.

Tell me a little about the project: (In the 70s, the Lakewood Library staff) were trying to get all the old people around who were in some way prominent in the development and the history of Lakewood, they were trying to get ahold of them before they died, and let them tell their stories about what it had been like to live there, and what had drawn them there. They made about 145 tapes in an eight-year period – most of them made in about a four-year period.

What we’re doing now, the Lakewood Library Friends is getting the tapes digitized that have gone from being in the front of the library to somewhere in a closet. So what we’re doing right now is we’re paying out of our own funds to digitize all this, so that it will last longer and the tapes won’t fade away and be gone. We want to put the ability to stream MP3 off of our website, so that people can listen to the tapes, or to sections of the tapes.

Where does the book ‘Reminiscences’ play into all this?

The big (downtown) library said, ‘You make the tapes and we’ll hire one of our staff to make a book.’ His name is Gerald Saxon, and so he took some of the more interesting material and put it together, along with photos from the library. It has some of the most interesting stories. When you read it, it really gets you excited about the project.

And that has lead to the continuation of the project?

And as we’ve gotten involved in getting that done, we’ve gotten kind of enthusiastic about the idea that we need to go through the whole process again to cover the 60s, 70s, and 80s, because in 1970 nobody wanted to tell stories about the 60s; they were all there. Now those people are all 40 years older, so we need to start talking to that next generation and put out a whole new bunch of tapes. Ultimately we need money to do that. We’re trying to raise funds.

How much is it going to cost? $20,000.

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What will that pay for?

That is for the part beyond this first digitizing job. We will have to buy the equipment. What you have to do, is you have to get a core of perhaps 20 people, and they will have to take training on how to do oral history – it’s a field of its own with it own little rules. We can get help from Baylor University on that. So there will probably be some fees for getting trained, some fees for buying some good quality digital recorders – $100 a piece. So if you have 20 recorders, there’s $2,000. If we pay $1,000 for the courses, there’s that. And then what we want to do is get some kind of publicity campaign going that will let people know they can volunteer, either to be interviewers or be interviewed.

Which step of the process are y’all in right now?

We really want to get the word out that we want to rev this thing up again. Get people excited about the fact that the older material is going to be there for them. Then, ultimately, if we have any money left after doing another 150 tapes, we want to start to edit a bit, so that you could go in and not just listen to an entire tape, which isn’t very exciting, but listen to a recording that has been edited down to the things that we think most people want to hear about. Or separate it, so that this part deals with schools in the area, or this part deals with political figures in the area. And then we would cut apart the other tapes -- we’d have the originals of course – but we’d edit them together into a little story about a particular school in the area, or a particular geographical location or business. Someone suggested we do one about all the Italian families in Lakewood that’ve had such a role.

So we’d like to categorize them, but first we’ve got to save these, create a whole bunch of new material, and then we want to have it edited in a way that will really excite people and make it be used.

Brittany Nunn

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What gives?

Small ways that you can make a big difference for nonprofits

Ride your bike… on the first-ever Santa Fe Trail pub crawl on May 4. The event will benefit the Friends of Santa Fe Trail, so a $20 donation is encouraged. The pub crawl will begin at 11 a.m. at the start of the Santa Fe Trail at White Rock Lake. Along the way, there will be beer specials at The Lot, Craft & Growler, and Deep Ellum Brewery. Register online and bring a friend or two or three at friendsofsantafetrail.org.

Rummage…

through The Magdalen House community garage sale to benefit women who are seeking sobriety. The Magdalen House is a free, non-medical detox center that provides women with a safe environment to withdraw from alcohol abuse. They accept women on a first come, first served basis, regardless of disabilities, religious affiliations or ethnic backgrounds. The garage sale is at 1302 Redwood on May 3 and 4, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. They also welcome donations of new or gently used items. To donate or volunteer your time, call 214.324.9261. Check out magdalenhouse.org for more.

Stop and smell the flowers… during the White Rock Garden Tour and Artisans. With a $10 ticket, you can help support the tour as well as the beautification of Forest Hills, Little Forest Hills and Casa Linda Estates. Stroll through nine of the most beautiful gardens in Dallas from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on May 19. Purchase an entry card at 8539 Forest Hills, 8706 Forest Hills or 1418 Bella Vista. Visit whiterockgardentour.com for more.

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.

paws & claws

Riding in style

Snickers is the long-hoped-for pup that became a Christmas surprise. After that, she became a constant companion and queen of the Horton house. Snickers’ people, Mary Grace and her sister Mercy, love to treat her like their baby doll, says their mom, Kim Webb Horton.

COMING SOON…Seriously???

Dallas Real Estate 2013 - It’s Wild out there!!! Clients keep asking “Why this has happened so fast”. Well, my answer is… We didn’t all die on December 21, we all got through the crazy $600 billion Presidential Election, there is currently a backlog of 6 years of buyers, interest rates are at their lowest, the Dow Jones is the highest its’ ever been, and we live in Dallas, Texas… The Best City in America. CONFIDENCE!!!

It’s amazing to me that Real Estate agents are promoting all this hype about “COMING SOON” listings and cheating their clients out of potential thousands of dollars, not to mention probably violating equal Housing Law and well as Anti-Trust regulations.

This is the most important time to enter your home in MLS, basically exposing your home to the world. Real Estate is a numbers game . If you deny letting everyone…I mean EVERYONE, know about your home, how can you obtain multiple offers and receive the highest price possible? My last six sales have all received multiple offers…allowing the seller to be in the driver’s seat of the transaction and obtain the highest price possible. This Real Estate Market is a gift and it will not last forever!!!

Last year this “COMING SOON” gimmick was confusing to the buyers. They would see a sign and try to find the home in MLS. With no luck, they would call me and we would track down the company. If the company would say this was an office exclusive, we would then have a discussion that we would go knock on the sellers door informing that seller that the listing company wouldn’t let it be shown. Not Good!!! Every time I represented my buyer on a “coming soon” transaction, I knew they were getting an amazing deal …due to not being in MLS and no competition. Our great Country is based on a free and open market called “capitalism”. So why would you sell yourself short???

When you’re ready to sell your home…make sure you call Scott Carlson Real Estate, Inc. We will develop a strategy specifically designed for your needs and enter into the Lakewood Real Estate market with a bang.You will receive all the benefits of working with a Broker who has 30 years of experience in all markets. We always put our clients’ needs first.

Yo-got it!

These days the word “yoga” usually conjures up images of young women in tight pants twisting themselves up like human pretzels. It’s chic, sexy and full of estrogen. But in March, Lakewood’s Lotus Yoga began teaching a free one-hour class every Wednesday that’s hardly your girlfriend’s yoga — although it could be, if your girlfriend is a badass. In January, Lotus partnered with the Florida-based Connected Warriors program and committed to a full year of free classes for U.S. veterans and their families. The price of admission is service to the country. The rest is Lotus’ service to veterans. Believe it or not, yoga practices actually lend themselves to veterans, particularly veterans battling post-traumatic stress disorder, says owner Jennifer Hensley. “Yoga is about the mindbody connection, understanding that the emotional body affects our physical body. That’s why breathing exercises are so important,” Hensley explains. The Connected Warriors program is a nonprofit created as a joint effort between yoga instructors and war veterans to help service members embrace the healing power yoga can offer. The program has become nationwide since it began in 2010. Last year, the founders reached out to several Dallas yoga studios, hoping to bring the program to the Big D. When Hensley learned about the program, she knew it would be a perfect fit for her studio, so she and her staff took the training in mid-January and began the class in March. In today’s world, people are used to giving 110 percent, Hensley explains. That’s the kind of mindset she hopes people will check at the door. “Our big thing is health and wellness. I tell my students all the time, ‘Use this as a time to give back to yourself,’” Hensley says. “To actually mindfully give back to ourselves, we don’t always know how to do that.” This class is an hour of doing exactly what you want to do, she says. “My goal is that when they leave, they feel better than when they started. Period. Whether that’s from lying on the mat or trying out some poses. It’s about teaching yourself balance.” For those interested, the class is every Wednesday at 4 p.m. at Lotus Yoga at 6337 Prospect. It’s for service members and their families. —Brittany Nunn