Escape from Oak Cliff

ROADWORK HAS US SLOW ROLLING THROUGH THE ’HOOD

Story by RACHEL STONE | Photography by DANNY FULGENCIO | Illustrations by EMILY HULEN THOMPSON

In the late 1960s, the city of Dallas moved to make Oak Cliff a “flythrough” area from the suburbs to Downtown and northern Dallas.

They turned Tyler and Polk into one-way streets. And they created the Jefferson-Twelfth Connector through South Winnetka.

Dangerous and deadly car accidents caused by speeding and street racing have gained a lot of new publicity recently, though it’s a problem Oak Cliff neighbors have been dealing with for decades.

“When the city thought no one should live in, or have fun in, Oak Cliff, they started to build these high-speed roads,” says Lee Ruiz of Winnetka Heights.

That mid-century traffic engineering left our neighborhood with too many unbroken stretches of multi-lane roads that encourage speed. But now we are taking it retro, slowing things down and restoring the grid destroyed by Jefferson-Twelfth and changing Tyler and Polk back to two-ways.

That is, once we get through all the other roadwork projects currently underway.

FT. WORTH TO COCKRELL HILL

JEFFERSON BLVD. WINNETKA AVE.

CLINTON AVE. EDGEFIELD AVE.

Jefferson-Twelfth Connector 1

This four-lane stretch of roadway connects the 1300 block of West Jefferson with the 1000 block of West Twelfth.

The city demolished 20 historic houses to create it in the ’60s.

That loss did have the positive effect of sparking preservation activism in Oak Cliff, leading eventually to the creation of Winnetka Heights Historic District and Heritage Oak Cliff.

But it also created a .75-mile speedway through residential streets, plus two turn-only intersections that are confusing and feel unsafe.

“It was very disrespectful to the people who lived there at the time,” says Ruiz, who is president of his neighborhood association.

A $2-million earmark in the 2017 bond will fund a project to remove the Jefferson-Twelfth Connector and restore the neighborhood grid to its original form.

Once the connector is gone, the through streets at Clinton, Winnetka and Willomet — now dead ends — will reopen between Jefferson and Twelfth.

Neighbors believe it will make their streets safer and more walkable. A few homeowners will regain their rights over square-footage lost with diagonal cuts across corners of their properties to form the roadway.

In other places, the return of the grid will open new real estate. The city can sell the 20 lots and put that property back on the tax rolls.

Any new development would have to meet the historic district’s standards, Ruiz says.

Certain roadways in Dallas, including this one, require “thoroughfare amendments” before any changes can be made to them. That requires approval from the City Plan Commission and City

Council. They are expected to take up the issue late this year or early 2019. Once approved, work could begin in early 2020, and the project is expected to take about two years to complete.