WHAT MAKES LAKE HIGHLANDS LAKE HIGHLANDS IS

such as [former councilman] Donna Halstead creating groups, and after-school programs for the kids, to plug them in. The Audelia Creek Elementary principal has more than 90 percent apartment families, yet she has managed to get these parents engaged. Are they a part of the community? Yes. Are they as engaged [as homeowners]? No, but Bryan hit the nail on the head. They have a lot going on. I doubt there are a lot of stay-at-home moms in the apartments.They deal with issues some homeowners don’t. The reality is:They are paying taxes. They pay rent, [therefore] they pay taxes.

EDITOR: Forest-Audelia and Vickery Meadow, respectively in and near Lake Highlands, are known violentcrime hotspots. Does a feeling of inclusion or lack thereof relate to crime?

WALNE: Steve, you’ve been in the hotbed of activity at Forest and Audelia

WAKEFIELD: I got involved because of frustration. I live near Forest and Audelia, and there was a point in time where there was open and obvious prostitution on the streets, gang bangers flashing signs, convenience stores blatantly selling drug paraphernalia The city, especially with the economy going the way it was at the time, got behind on police and code inspectors. Apartment landlords become completely irresponsible there were murders every month or so in some of the worst complexes. But in recent years, with [Police chiefs David]

Kunkle and [David] Brown, we saw an increase in code inspectors. We had a community prosecutor who is gone now

EDITOR: Will we get a replacement?

WALNE: [District 10 Councilman Jerry] Allen is fighting to keep it in the budget.

WAKEFIELD: But, you know, back to the question, when you are worried about being assaulted and your first issue is your personal safety or your kids’ safety, then it doesn’t give you a whole lot of time to become involved in the community.

BLAYDES: Was it you or one of your neighbors who found the pickup in their driveway, walked up to the door, and found a prostitute doing her business?

WAKEFIELD: Yes, but it has gotten better.

GREENBERG: It has changed a lot; I wouldn’t have moved to the same neighborhood with a 2-year-old if it hadn’t.

WALNE: What makes Lake Highlands Lake Highlands is that you have people like Steve [Wakefield] who isn’t an elected official, but he basically came forward and said “I’m going to make a difference,” and spent countless hours attacking this problem, getting on a first-name basis with the police so when you did have additional dollars in the budget, this was an area understood to deserve attention. It’s not necessarily a councilman doing the work. It took a yeoman’s effort to make these changes begin to happen. And that’s the thing when you start trying to define boundaries. t echnically speaking, someone may say s teve’s in Woodbridge. From my point of view on the council and so forth that is very much a part of Lake Highlands and this man is obviously invested in the Lake Highlands community.

School S

Editor: How far does District 10 reach?

Blayd E s: Northern to Buckingham and to the g arland city limits on the east.

Gr EE n BE rG: It includes Liberty Junior High and north to Berkner.

Blayd E s: And White Rock Creek is our western boundary.

Mc c rory: s heffie Kadane [District 9] has the area north of that and part of my neighborhood, Highland Meadow, east of Plano, which is partly served by DI s D. t he part that is served by RI sD is District 10 and the DI sD part is District 9.

Editor: What about Old Lake Highlands and the Peninsula neighborhood [south of Northwest Highway and east of White Rock Lake]. Do we consider them part of Lake Highlands?

Waln E: More importantly, I don’t think they consider themselves a part of Lake Highlands.

[Laughter]

Mc c rory: Mainly they don’t associate with Lake Highlands because of the different school districts. My neighborhood is split between Wallace, part of RI s D, and a DI sD school.

Gr EE n BE rG: Hamilton Park* is also split — three ways —Richardson, Berkner and Lake Highlands.

Waln E: I was in high school at Lake Highlands when they shut down Hamilton Park High s chool, a desegregation effort. t he Hamilton Park subdivision was designed in 1974 as a black neighborhood. In my opinion, when they split them up, it was one of the worst things that could happen to them. LHH s resulted from a 1985 class action lawsuit brought by seven african-american women over segregated and inferior public housing for low-income Dallas residents. The Dallas housing authority since has fulfilled mandates geared toward ending segregated public housing.

—Dallas housing auThoriTy

* h amilTon Park

in may 1949 karl s. J. hoblitzelle, theater magnate and philanthropist, told the trustees of his charitable foundation about “the desperate need of the negroes of dallas for housing” and proposed a large development. The hoblitzelle Foundation lent the dallas citizens’ interracial a ssociation $216,872.93 in 1953 to purchase 233 acres of land southeast of i-75 for hamilton Park.

had some minority students, but Hamilton Park was designed as a black community with an elementary, junior high and high school. the buses drove up and started taking them off to Lake Highlands High school — they said “we’re going to split you all up” which is unfortunate because, you talk about a sense of community, they had it. Hamilton Park is very much a part of Lake Highlands and needs to be treated as such and be included in everything that is going on. At the same time, they are very much their own community.

Blaydes: Families, professionals, moved into Hamilton Park, raised their families and when the children grew up, they moved away from Hamilton Park to other parts of Dallas in many cases. But today you have a neighborhood in which the seniors are dying, the children are spread out and now the majority of Hamilton Park is for lease ...

Walne: and they are dealing with similar problems to the apartmentrelated problems in other parts of Lake Highlands.

Blaydes: that community center over there, the park, is a true jewel. It is the pride of that section of Lake Highlands … it is very much a part of the fabric of Lake Highlands.

Origins

e ditor: When did Lake Highlands become Lake Highlands?

Blaydes: What you saw was that Lake Highlands may have been part of the City of Dallas, but it was part of the Richardson school system, so the city kind of pulled away because the school district was strong, and Richardson kind of ignored us because we were part of Dallas, and so we became the red-headed stepchild of both e ditor: And some of the individual neighborhoods have Lake Highlands in the name and some don’t Walne: I can tell you about the name of the L streets — the builder, Charles C. Ladenberger, who still lives around here, didn’t want a street named after him, so the designers just had every street begin with L instead. e ditor: Was the neighborhood named after the high school, then?

As to the name, there was a time when White Rock Lake came almost all the way up to Flag Pole Hill — it was then literally lake highlands.

Mc c rory: Well, when did they decide to name the high school Lake Highlands?

Walne: the interesting story about the high school is that the PtA president, Jean Evans, and her husband, former Dallas mayor Jack Evans, had a ranch on Audelia — horses and all. Jean had gone to Woodrow, as my parents had, and when they had the meeting to determine what Lake Highlands’ colors and mascot would be, Jean said, “Well, I’ve always been a Wildcat, and we’re going to be Wildcats, and we’ll be red and white.” Jean said that’s the way it’s going to be, (chuckle) and that’s the way it was.

Green Ber G: No, the elementary had been there; Lake Highlands was Lake e ditor : You were going to secede? e ditor: How close did we get to that?

Highlands long before.

Walne: And back then, like now, RIsD had a better reputation than DIsD, and you found people, like my parents, wanting to move up here.

Blaydes: In the very early ’90s, there was an upheaval here in our part to pull out of RIsD and become Lake Highlands, t exas.

Blaydes: there was a move for secession.

Walne: Not very close (laughter)

Blaydes: Not real close, but we had the right size, industrial mix — t exas Instruments was in District 10 at that time — and we had the population. We found we would not be able to sustain an educational system, police force and fire stations. But we went all the way to Austin. We had guys that were attorneys who volunteered their time

Walne: Be careful with that “we”.

(Laughter)

Blaydes: I was part of that movement, not you, yes.

Walne :there was some serious discussion from a school district perspective. Lake Highlands’ ninthgrade center came out of this process. We were going to have to build a new junior high but the freshman center was constructed instead. Once we did it, everyone wanted to build a ninth-grade center. Richardson High school built a ninth-grade center because Lake Highlands had one. Everything had to be equal, so Lake Highlands wasn’t getting more than the other RIsD schools.

Mc c rory: I do understand RIsD’s perspective of treating all of the high schools equally. I get that. Everyone wants quality facilities for your kids. We’ve lobbied for a pool at Lake Highlands High school ...

You can look at l ake HigH lands and saY, w H ere are we going? The success s Tory To Be Told is T he you Th Move M en T.

—Walne

Blaydes: there was a bond package in the ’80s that would have built a nanatorium at LHHs Walne: OK, here we go.

Blaydes: ...but it wasn’t approved because Richardson would not allow Lake Highlands to have the football stadium and the pool, pure and simple.

Future

Walne: You can look at Lake Highlands and say, where are we going? the success story to be told is the youth movement.

Blaydes: they are coming home.

Green Ber G: Our friends and people who haven’t lived here before are moving here, too.

Walne: Not solely our kids moving back, but I also hear Downtown folk, law firms and so forth, when they have new people coming in, they recommend our neighborhood. Lake Highlands is affordable. the routes to Downtown are easy and diverse. You can put your kids in the public schools. Reality is that even though we thought the school attendance would dwindle after the closing a few years ago of thousands of apartment units, RIsD this year had more students in every elementary school than the year before. these are neighborhood kids that have moved back home with young children. that is why you have a clamoring now for more — shopping, restaurants … Mc c rory: We have built a community on the foundation your parents built. I came here for the school district, but on top of that is this incredible community culture — people get engaged. Not just individuals but strong groups. Women’s League, Exchange Club, homeowners’ associations — they create the

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For parents, back-to-school season means it’s time to stock up on school supplies. But it can also be a good time to think about how to save for your child’s future education.

Add An ImportAnt Item to Your BAck-to-school lIst.

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For parents, back-to-school season means it’s time to stock up on school supplies. But it can also be a good time to think about how to save for your child’s future education.

To learn more about your education savings options, call today.

good time to think about how to save for your child’s future education.

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Developing a strategy for achieving your education savings goal – or other savings goals – can help you stay on track.

For parents, back-to-school season means it’s time to stock up on school supplies. But it can also be a good time to think about how to save for your child’s future

Developing a strategy for achieving your education savings goal or other savings goals – can help you stay on track.

To learn more about your education savings options, call today.

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To learn more about your education savings options, call today.

Anson V Sobers, AAMS® Financial Advisor

7215 Skillman Suite 310 Dallas, TX 75231 214-342-0696

Anson V Sobers, AAMS® Financial Advisor

7215 Skillman Suite 310 Dallas, TX 75231 214-342-0696 success story that is bringing people into the neighborhood.

GREENBERG: I am part of that generation that moved back. My grandparents and parents live here, and my sister just bought a house in the area. What we are looking for is the quality public schools and the rich diversity and for our children to grow up in the neighborhood that feels like home — like a small town.That is what I came back to after leaving for the University of Missouri.That is why I didn’t stay in Kansas City or St. Louis but came back. Now what we need, this era, is retail and restaurants. We had a free afternoon and went to Rusty Taco, on Greenville. We would have spent our dollars in Lake Highlands had there been something similar.

MCCRORY: From a retail perspective, because I work for Brinker [International, owner of Chili’s and Maggiano’s], I can say some of the difficulties. We — and that is us, including me — want to reach for the stars, but we also need to nurture the places we have — Highlands Café, for example. Our challenge as a community is to put our words to action and support the businesses we do have — Atomic Pie, Picasso’s, Mi Cocina and give credit to these guys at Mi Cocina. They stuck it out, and they made it work. And Picasso’s was basically created here in Lake Highlands.

Conclusion

EDITOR: So everyone agrees, Lake Highlands is the Lake Highlands HighSchool attendance area, with many exceptions?

WAKEFIELD: I don’t think everyone will agree on anything, but that might be about as close as we’ll get.