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FROM CLASSIC ROCK COVER BANDS AND UNCONVENTIONAL CRIME-CURBING MEASURES TO THE LIKES OF SCANDALOUS SHOPS AND RENTAL BIKES, HERE’S AN UPDATE ON SOME OF THE MOST INTRIGUING NEIGHBORHOOD STORIES OF THE YEAR.

Story by ELISSA CHUDWIN | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO

Are bullets still flying over Bent Creek?

The City of Dallas took a no-nonsense approach to curbing crime at Forest and Audelia in the past few years. The Dallas Police Department implemented Project Safe Neighborhood, a nationwide program designed to reduce crime rates. The City of Dallas filed a nuisance lawsuit against the owner of Bent Creek shopping center and established the North Lake Highlands Public Improvement District, a targeted tax district whose funds are used for bettering specific areas.

After the city filed suit, Bent Creek principal Mohammed Khanani spent $250,000 to pay oduty cops, and increase security lighting, cameras and fencing. The measures shu ed crime down the road, but Bent Creek hasn’t yet lost its reputation as a haven for drug dealers and gang violence.

Want to knock out crime? Open a boxing gym

Another unconventional idea for curbing crime at Forest-Audelia has seen just as much success: A place for teens to practice boxing. The North Lake Highlands Youth Boxing Gym opened its doors in September 2017, and it appeared in the Advocate in March, when 35 kids, including Olympic hopefuls Joshua and Jordan Jenkins, were learning to box after school. Now 100 children come through the gym’s doors during the week. The Jenkins twins are entering USA Boxing’s elite category in hopes they can compete in Tokyo in 2020. The gym is a public-private partnership that relies on donations. Visit lakehighlands.advocatemag. com/2018/12/pay-it-forward-december/ to see how you can help.

Zoe Hastings honored with a lot of love and creativity

After 18-year-old Zoe Hastings was murdered in 2015, her mother, Cheryl, became a sexual-assault nurse examiner, a position that allows her to examine women who were raped, preserve evidence and even testify as an expert witness. Zoe’s father, Jim, found solace in art and drew hundreds of portraits of family members since his daughter’s death. He and sculptor Art Wells created a memorial piece in Zoe’s honor that now hangs at the White Rock YMCA pool, where Zoe was a lifeguard.

Rock out like it’s 1969

You’ve probably spotted these seven retirees and lawyers having a good time at the bar — except they’re typically holding instruments instead of beers. The Catdaddies’ first gig was a Lake Highlands Elementary talent show, and they’ve performed classic rock tunes the past 20 years. We covered the band’s anniversary set at Lone Star Roadhouse in September, and the band has kept busy since then. The Catdaddies serenaded runners at BMW Dallas Marathon in December and will do the same at Attorneys Serving the Community Heart & Sole 5k this February.

Risky business

First came Moss Farm neighbor Alkos Giagtzis with plans to open a topless club on Petal Street. Then came Hustler Hollywood to LBJ Service Road. The opening of a few sexually oriented businesses in Lake Highlands highlighted how di cult preventing them from opening is. The Dallas Police Department is required to approve a license request if the business complies with zoning laws and owners and managers don’t have criminal records.

Strategically placed pocket parks haven’t yet stopped sexually oriented businesses from coming to our neighborhood. The only significant change in the past year is who approves their licenses. A detective in the recently reinstated police vice unit now reviews requests.

Wheelie oversaturated

They popped up like pimples on what seemed like every corner of Dallas. Green Lime Bikes, orange Spin bikes, yellow Ofos and all the others.

So many dockless rental bikes hit the Dallas market in 2017 that we were knocking them over, moving them out of the way and imagining them as sentient robots here to destroy mankind.

Residents demanded something be done, so last summer, City Council placed fees on bike-share operators in Dallas, including annual licenses and a per-bike fee that gave companies incentives to keep the flood of bikes at bay.

After that, Beijing-based Ofo pulled out of the Dallas market, abandoning hundreds of its yellow bikes in our city. Most of them are garbage. Some have been claimed by homeless residents or made over with spray paint and Bedazzlers.

Just when rental bikes started clearing the streets of Dallas came another convenience/menace: electric scooters.

While whizzing around with little e ort in the Texas heat is a cool idea, scooter accidents are resulting in serious injuries and deaths across the country.

The evidence so far is anecdotal, gathered from news stories and trauma-center reports. Soon there will be an accounting.

The Centers for Disease Control currently is conducting a study of scooter-related accidents in Austin.

—RACHEL STONE

“The only language is the sound of bullets, and if you miss, you risk your life.”

From Child Soldier To Entrepreneurial Advocate

THIS LAKE HIGHLANDS RESIDENT ESCAPED THE CONGO, BUT THE U.S. WASN’T ANY EASIER

We’ll help you achieve a healthier lifestyle, whether you’re starting an exercise program, recovering from injury or training for competition.

Knights of Columbus 10110 Shoreview Dr.

Tickets $30 per person

Tables and Sponsorships Available Awards

Small Business of the Year

New Business of the Year

Business of the Year

Non-Profit Agency Legacy Award

(Individual that has contributed to the success of Lake Highlands)

For more information and to purchase tickets go to www.lhchamber.com

Evariste Emmanuel survived the unimaginable. His parents were killed; he was a child soldier; he was homeless; he saw his uncle murdered; and he lived in a refugee camp far from his hometown for years.

And yet, when the current Lake Highlands resident made it to the United States as a refugee in 2007, he wanted to return to the camp after a few days. Resettlement isn’t the rosy process that many believe it to be.

When Emmanuel was 8 years old, the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo took the life of both his parents, leaving him and his brother Kaskile to fend for themselves in about 1998. Homeless for two years, they eventually found shelter, food and something close to family in a militia, where he became a soldier at 10.

“You don’t know what you are going to do until you put yourself in that position,” he says.

He was trained to operate an AK-47, to take part in battles and to kill, he says.

“With what you have, you have the power,” he says. “The only language is the sound of bullets, and if you miss, you risk your life.”

He fought in militias for two years. Then he came across his uncle, who was a double agent. The uncle moved between militias, trading information for favors, and found his two nephews in one of the groups. He took them home with him, but there, deliverance would not last.

One of the groups that Emmanuel’s uncle double-crossed came to his house. Emmanuel hid under the bed while the group murdered his uncle in the room. “I saw everything that happened,” he says. “Number one there is a silence [when someone dies]. You can see everything, but you can’t move.”

Traumatized, he didn’t know what to do next.

Fearing the men would return to kill the two boys, a neighbor put them on a fish truck headed to Kenya. For three days, they rode with the iced-down fish in the back of the truck, which let them off at Kakuma, one of the largest refugee camps in the world.

The two brothers slept outside of the camp for seven months, unsure of how to access it. A security guard helped them figure out how to register, and they eventually moved into the Congolese section of the camp.

They lived there for seven years, finding safety and education, but they were without their family or much to eat.

The brothers received food twice a month and rationed it.

“You eat once a day, and you don’t fill your stomach, or you are going to end up hungry before 15 days,” he says.

Eventually, Emmanuel and his brother qualified for resettlement and headed to Dallas. He thought the United States would be “half-heaven.”

But when he arrived, things weren’t what he expected.

A refugee settlement agency placed him in a warehouse working in shipping and receiving. The summer heat in Texas and stuffy warehouse took its toll during 12-hour shifts: “I asked myself, ‘Am I going to die right now?’ ”

He became depressed.

Out of sheer frustration, he asked his agency to return him to Africa.

“I felt lost, and I didn’t know where to run or where to go. If I’d had the money, I would be in Africa right now,” he says.

After finding another job and meeting a mentor from the agency, his outlook slowly changed. He began community college, found translating jobs and eventually began working as a mentor coordinator for

Lung Cancer?

a refugee advocacy organization, Seek the Peace.

Emmanuel still lives in Lake Highlands, where he has several entrepreneurial endeavors. He prepares taxes for individuals and businesses, and many are refugees and immigrants who need help navigating America’s complex financial institutions. Someone took advantage of Emmanuel early in his time in the United States, and he says he wants to make sure that doesn’t happen to others.

He also invested in a farm in Africa and is starting a shipping logistics business.

Despite the heartbreak, Emmanuel’s faith helps him be a strong example for others. “To inspire someone, you have to tell people where you came from compared to where you are now,” he says. “We all went through some stuff. How did you overcome that?”