FIVE DAYS OF FRENZY

VMID, which, among other efforts, funds private security for Vickery Meadow in collaboration with the northeast Dallas police division.

“They said it was a dangerous area,” Roth says. “When I got here I had to laugh. My first thought as I drove around was that this is beautiful compared to where I came from.”

Rebecca Range, former executive director for the Lake Highlands Public Improvement District, also was surprised when she started as VMID’s executive director last year.

“Even being right next door, I had a lot of misconceptions about Vickery Meadow,” she says. “I had a perception of a scary place with a lot of crime. I could not have been more off track about what this neighborhood is about.”

Vickery Meadow is special, she says. “The strength and beauty of the people here does not match the outside,” she says, referring to potholes and infrastructure issues, “but that is what we are working on now.”

There are some 40 nonprofits that support Vickery Meadow residents — health services, hunger prevention, education enrichment, English language and citizenship courses, and refugee services among them.