2017 July Oak Cliff

oakclif.advocatemag.com/survey

ON THE COVER: West Dallas, 1948.

(Photo courtesy of the History and Archives Division, Dallas Public Library)

OPENING REMARKS

By RICK WAMRE

Death by 1,000 bites

If the constant computation of our culinary choices doesn’t kill us first

Ifirst learned about killer foods on the Fourth of July in our backyard as I sweated over a sun-soaked grill cooking hot dogs and hamburgers for hungry party guests.

“You know that charring on the hot dogs causes cancer, right?” asked a helpful attendee, smiling as he twisted his verbal knife.

“No, I didn’t know that,” I said, parsing my words as carefully as James Comey, just in case some of the guests were recording my response for their class-action lawsuit.

He yammered on, explaining in detail about how a chemical reaction during the grilling process somehow turned a normal hot dog into a deadly tube of poison. Or something like that.

I have to be honest here: My consumption of grilled hot dogs and hamburgers diminished decisively as I pondered whether any hot dog (even an all-beef one hand-fed in its formative years by Nolan Ryan) was worth expediting my personal expiration date.

Eventually, I concluded that if eating an occasional charred hot dog was going to shorten my life by 15 minutes, I would accept that penalty.

And over time, that decision has led me to pull out my calculator any time I consider consuming one of the many foods on the “death” list.

Diet soda, for example: A new study determined it accelerates dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. I learned this only after consuming literal tanker-trucks full of Diet Dr Pepper over the years, so what to do? Was I so far gone already that continuing to slurp diet drinks was inconsequential to my future? Or like quitting smoking, would my body attempt to heal itself if I gave it better hydration?

One or two diet sodas a week, I fig-

ured, probably wouldn’t cause much more damage.

Burgers: I don’t eat that many, anymore, and if the meat stays away from the grill, maybe each patty only knocks 10 minutes from my life. Adding cheese, though — that’s another 10-minute subtraction, since my doctor says I’m one of those people who absorbs cholesterol from the atmosphere.

Same with cheesecake and key-lime pie — who knew each slice bursting with cholesterol and calories is probably costing me 30 minutes of life?

I started eating quinoa before I knew how to pronounce it because I heard it was good for us; I’m hoping every helping adds 10 minutes to my life.

I mentally weigh the pluses and minuses of substituting tater tots for french fries (minus 15 minutes) at every opportunity, and I’ve concluded that skinny fries are less deadly than the fat ones (skinny fries have less surface area to absorb grease) but that tater tots are probably 10 minutes more deadly still because their tasty protective batter seems even more absorbent.

Add in some milk (five minutes of fat), orange juice (10 minutes of brain shrinkage), red meat (20-30 minutes less life, depending on the cut), as well as the occasional salad (20 minutes to the good), fruit (I can’t decide if the sugar negatively outweighs the antioxidants) and the occasional alcoholic beverage (five minutes of good blood-thinning versus 10 minutes of worthless calories).

Time for a tally, I guess: One hotdog (-10), two beers (-10), a double-order of tater tots (-50 minutes) and some cheesecake (-30), and a meal I can consume in about 20 minutes may be shortening my life by 100 minutes.

Multiply that by 52, assuming I only step out of line once a week, and it turns out I’m only hastening my demise by about four days a year.

By my calculations, I can live with that.

Rick Wamre is president of Advocate Media. Let him know how we are doing by emailing rwamre@advocatemag.com.

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Readers react to New homes on Stevens Village Drive to start in the $400,000 price range

“I wonder who will be able to afford these homes. Not the average current resident.”

DIANA TREJO

“I’m all for new construction. But why can’t they build something that’s affordable?”

CARLA CENATIEMPO

“Starter homes for our friends from California.”

CONNIE MARTIN

“Thank god it’s not more apartments.”

ANTOINETTE GONZALEZ

Momentous Institute demolishes old buildings on Beckley for park

“This shows that not all property owners in Oak Cliff are out there to make tons of money and alienate existing residents.”

JESSICA SALCEDO RALAT

“What great news! The Salesmanship Club and Momentous Institute always do the most wonderful things for kids and families.”

ANGIE EPKER

“And another one bites the dust. I don’t see why they could not keep the facade. At least a park is going in and not Sonic.”

JAMES ANDREW MITCHELL

SEE PAGE 24 FOR MORE ON THESE TOPICS

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L A UNC H Out & About

JULY 1, 8, 15

SAFARI NIGHTS

Artists and musicians fill the park for a concert from 6-9 p.m. Bring a blanket or reserve a cabana while you enjoy the zoo at night.

Dallas Zoo, 650 S. R.L. Thornton Freeway, dallaszoo.com, $7-$15

JULY 2

COPPER JEWELRY WORKSHOP

Participants learn to create unique copper jewelry and make their own bracelet and pendant.

Oil and Cotton, 817 W. Davis St., oilandcotton.com, $75

JULY 5, 12, 19, 26

CROCHET FOR A CAUSE

JULY 13

BASTILLE DAY

Celebrate everything French in Bishop Arts during Bastille on Bishop. Wine, food, music and merriment. Don’t forget the beret. Bishop Arts District, 400 N. Bishop Drive, bishopartsdistrict.com, free to $25

Join the crochet club to make blankets and sleeping mats out of plastic bags for those in need in the community.

North Oak Cliff Library, 302 W. Tenth, 214.670.7555, dallaslibrary.org, free

JULY 13-14

RAY WYLIE HUBBARD

Come see Oak Cliff native and Texas Country legend Ray Wylie Hubbard play his classic Americana songs. Kessler Theater, 1230 W. Davis, 214.272.8346, thekessler.org, $22+

JULY 16

PSYCHIC AND HOLISTIC

The Universal Unitarian Church of Oak Cliff’s annual Psychic and Holistic Fair is from 3-6 p.m. and includes psychic readings, Reiki, massage, crystals and more.

Universalist Unitarian Church of Oak Cliff, 3839 W. Kiest, oakcliffuu.org, free, 15-minute sessions cost $20

JULY 21-23

X-MAS IN JULY

Christmas comes early to Bishop Arts with a forecast of snow, Christmas carols and photos with Santa.

Bishop Arts District, 400 N. Bishop Drive, bishopartsdistrict.com, free-$25

PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO

There also was a leak at one point, which someone patched up with silicone adhesive, leaving a permanent chemical residue on the tiles it touched.

Art conservator Callie Heimburger, who is from Oak Cliff, was hired to clean the tiles.

Another conservator photographed every 6-inch square of the piece. The photos serve as a roadmap for where the tiles should lie.

“You have to have an O.C.D., love puzzles and be kind of a magpie,” Richey says of her work.

The goal is to make it look like it was never repaired. The St. Jude’s mosaic has a slice right in the middle that looks like it’s discolored.

“I know people are going to say they can tell it was restored because of that,” she says. “But it’s original.”

Richey plans to offer workshops and “mosaic happy hours” from her Oak Cliff studio. She’s also doing a restoration on a 1914 prairie foursquare on Montclair Avenue.

Above: The Downtown chapel is an “oasis on Main Street.” Opposite page: Conservators are cleaning all 800,000 of the mosaic’s tiny tiles and putting them back just so. (Photos by Danny Fulgencio)

The Downtown setting of the St. Jude’s restoration has been quite a scene, Richey says. New characters show up every day, adding to the regular cast of passersby.

“It’s not just for Catholics,” Richey says of the chapel. “There are tourists, neighbors, homeless people. It’s an oasis on Main Street. It’s an important link for the city.”

“You have to have an O.C.D., love puzzles and be kind of a magpie.”

DELICIOUS Roasts and toasts

Cultivar Coffee is Jefferson Boulevard’s hip coffee spot

By RACHEL STONE

Photos by KATHY TRAN

DID YOU KNOW:

Cultivar also offers its beans by the bag.

Cultivar is a coffee nerd’s paradise.

Here you can take time to enjoy the nuances of coffee the way a wine connoisseur ponders layers of flavors.

But it’s not just for coffee snobs.

“We take it very seriously, but we try to do that as approachably as we can,” says Cultivar co-founder Jonathan Meadows. “Whatever cup of coffee makes you happy, that also makes us happy. Specialty coffee can be fun, and it doesn’t have to be serious.”

Cultivar started roasting beans in East Dallas in 2009, opening a shop on Peavy and Garland roads. Later they opened a shop off the square in Denton.

The Jefferson Boulevard location is their third and most ambitious shop.

It’s the only one that doesn’t share space with another small business. So it’s the first opportunity the company’s had to show a little more personality.

“For a long time people have said, ‘You have really great coffee, but you don’t have that coffee shop vibe that we want.’ ” Meadows says. “This location definitely represents that kind of space.”

Along with coffee, Cultivar also offers beer, wine and food. There are breakfast toasts and sandwiches for lunch, all made with Empire Baking Co. bread and fresh ingredients.

“We try to keep things very approachable and simple,” Meadows says.

CULTIVAR COFFEE

Ambiance: Coffee house

Price range: $5-$12

313 W. Jefferson Blvd.

972.982.0719

cultivarcoffee.com

Opposite page: An almond croissant and cortado. Left: A capppuccino with a cinnamon roll.

Below: Green tea with honey.

Our weird and wonderful neighborhood is full of fascinating history, and much of it remains tangible. We set out to map a few of the places that made Oak Cliff and West Dallas what they are. We’ve also put them into a handy interactive map at oakcliff.advocatemag.com/historymap.

Cliff dwellings

MAYOR’S HOUSE

1 635 N. Zang Blvd.

It’s possible Franklin Delano Roosevelt sipped lemonade on the porch of this house.

The first Dallas mayor from Oak Cliff, George Sergeant, built it in 1910.

When the President and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt visited Dallas for the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration, Sergeant was their host. Legend has it that after a tour of Fair Park, they stopped for a beverage in Oak Cliff.

While the “mayor’s house” of Oak Cliff currently looks dilapidated, and cranes and bulldozers are taking over nearby, Jim Lake Cos. has plans to turn the old house into a restaurant space.

EL SIBIL

2 122 E. Fifth St.

One of Texas’ greatest artists made his home in Oak Cliff, and it’s still standing.

Frank Reaugh, who was born in Illinois and moved to Texas in 1876, first

ed to the culture of Dallas and Oak Cliff, offering art lessons throughout the 1920s and ’30s. He also brought students along on legendary en plein air painting trips to West Texas, influencing a younger generation of artists. His home has housed several film production companies in recent years, and it has a local owner.

Oswald and outlaws

THE TEXAS THEATRE

3 231 W. Jefferson Blvd.

The Texas Theatre is a survivor.

Built amid the Great Depression in 1931, it once was owned by Texas tycoon Howard Hughes.

Now it’s the home of the Oak Cliff Film Festival, a hub for historic Jefferson Boulevard and a center for art and culture in our neighborhood.

But the Texas Theatre always will be famous as the place where presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald sneaked in without a ticket, leading to his arrest.

After the Kennedy assassination, “an urgency to hide, deny and destroy it tore its way through Dallas,” according to a history of the theater.

The theater’s original “Venetian” interior was covered in stucco, and the façade was covered in a “six-flags-ofTexas theme.”

“The front stairwell was turned 180 degrees, to prevent others from sneaking in without a ticket,” the history states. “The box office was moved inside the theatre — another local first.”

The theater closed in 1989. The following year, director Oliver Stone had the façade remodeled for the film “JFK” to look similar to the original.

lived in a house near where Adamson High School is now. In 1928, he built his home and studio, El Sibil, on the edge of Lake Cliff Park.

Reaugh, who is known for his pastels of longhorns and Texas scenes, contribut-

The building sat vacant for years in the late ’90s until the nonprofit Oak Cliff Foundation bought it in 2001 and owns it to this day. A group of filmmakers took over operations in 2010, giving it a whole new life.

“H

istory cannot give us a program for the future,” Robert Penn Warren wrote. “But it can give us a fuller understanding of ourselves and our common humanity, so that we can better face the future.”

The impressionist Frank Reaugh was known especially for his paintings of longhorns in West Texas. He lived most of his life in Oak Cliff and had a studio near Lake Cliff Park.

JOHNSON ROOMING HOUSE

4 1026 N. Beckley

In October 1963, a man identifying himself as O.H. Lee rented a room in this house for $8 a week.

After Oswald was arrested for the assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of Dallas Police officer J.D. Tippit, police turned the house upside down.

Oswald had returned briefly to his room there following the assassination, apparently to retrieve a pistol, which he used to shoot Tippit.

Gladys Johnson, who had purchased the house 20 years previously, was humiliated that the assassin had lived there. The house was the target of unwanted attention from reporters and the curious public immediately following the assassination and for decades after.

Johnson’s granddaughter Pat Hall now owns the house. She tried to sell it around the time of the assassination’s 50th anniversary. But now she runs it as the Rooming House Museum, offering tours of the house, virtually unchanged since 1963, for $20.

THE BACKYARD PHOTO HOUSE

5 214 W. Neely

Conspiracy theorists went wild after the infamous “backyard photo” of Oswald was published in 1964.

Slight discrepancies in how the photo looked in Life magazine and the Detroit Free Press provided fodder that the photo

had been “doctored.”

Oswald’s wife, Marina, took the photo of her husband with a pistol in his pocket and holding a rifle and communist newspapers in the backyard of their Oak Cliff duplex.

The house is still standing, and it looks virtually the same, although its condition, proximity to the Bishop Arts District and lack of historic protection could put it at risk for demolition in the future.

THE BARROW 6 FILLING STATION

1221 Singleton Blvd. Henry and Cumie Barrow moved their shotgun house from Muncie Avenue to this site on what was then called Eagle Ford Road.

They added on a filling station with proceeds from an insurance settlement and lived in the attached house.

The Barrows of West Dallas did their share of neighborhood brawling.

In 1938, a “23-year-old Dallas hoodlum” named S.J. “Baldy” Whatley threw a Molotov cocktail onto their roof.

Whatley had been feuding with Clyde’s brothers Jack and L.C. for years. One night, after a barroom fight with them that involved broken chair legs and beer bottles, he drove by firing shotgun blasts into the filling station and injured Clyde’s 65-year-old mother. She lost an eye and almost died. Whatley was given 12 years for aggravated assault.

Slight discrepancies in how the photo looked in Life magazine and the Detroit Free Press provided fodder that the photo had been “doctored.”

Above: Lee Harvey Oswald in the backyard of 214 W. Neely, the duplex where he lived with wife, Marina, who took the infamous photo. Below: The Barrow filling station on Singleton Boulevard.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE TEXAS PANHANDLE PLAINS MUSEUM, THE DALLAS PUBLIC LIBRARY AND THE DALLAS MUNICIPAL ARCHIVES

WESTERN HEIGHTS CEMETERY

7 Neal Street at Fort Worth Avenue

By the time Baldy Whatley was convicted in the drive-by shooting, Jack Barrow already was in prison for murder in an unrelated case.

The lesser-known Barrow brother shot 25-year-old Otis Jenkins through the heart in broad daylight during a petty argument at the Dreamland Cafe on what is now Singleton. He was given 99 years; he died in 1947 and is buried here.

Clyde and his brother, Buck, a fellow gang member, also are here, along with their parents and one sister, Artie A. Keys.

Visitors have left whiskey and coins for the outlaws. But you could also leave flowers for early West Dallas settlers and veterans of the Civil War, World War I and World War II who are buried here.

School served generations of children from Cement City and Ledbetter, many of whom were Mexican American. There were separate company villages for Anglos and Hispanics, but the schools were mixed.

The Dallas Landmark Commission and the Dallas Mexican American Historical League earlier this year began the two-year process to make the school a designated historic landmark.

Remnants of bygone Dallas

TRINITY PORTLAND CEMENT 9 CO. CEMETERY

5300 Singleton

Cement City is gone, but there are still bones in the ground near where it used to be.

Beginning in 1909, the Trinity Portland Cement Co. was work and home to thousands of laborers. Many of the original workers were immigrants fleeing the Mexican Revolution.

After the flu epidemic hit Texas in 1918, the company donated land for use as a cemetery for Hispanic employees and their families.

The last burial at this cemetery was Eladio R. Martinez, who was killed in action in World War II and buried in the Philippines. His body later was reinterred here.

10

LA REUNION CEMETERY

3300 block of Fish Trap Road

Imagine: A utopian socialist commune on the banks of the Trinity River in Dallas.

That was the dream of Victor Prosper Considerant’s La Reunion colony, which planted in what is now part of Dallas from 1855-58.

EAGLE FORD

8 SCHOOL

1601 Chalk Hill Road

Bonnie Parker is not buried in West Dallas.

Although she wanted to be buried with Clyde, she’d married Roy Thornton in 1926; they were still married at the time of her death. She’s buried at Crown Hill Memorial Park off Webb Chapel Road.

But Bonnie was from Cement City. She and her mother moved there when Bonnie was 4, and she attended the Eagle Ford School.

Built of poured-in-place concrete in the gothic-revival style, the Eagle Ford

Some 300 colonists, from France, Belgium and Switzerland, intended to follow the ideals of what is now called “utopian socialism.” Considerant had hoped to create a network of agrarian socialist colonies throughout the Southwest.

The colony lasted on its socialist ideals only about 18 months and eventually fell apart because of financial struggles. Considerant couldn’t secure enough investors, he spent too much on real estate, and costs in Texas were higher than expected.

Some of the colonists stayed in Dallas, including the Loupots, Remonds, Reverchons and Santerres. There’s nothing tangible left of La Reunion Colony except for this cemetery.

The old Eagle Ford School on Chalk Hill Road educated thousands of Cement City schoolchildren. The building could be headed for historic landmark status.

BILBO JITNEY LINE 11 Sylvan Avenue and Seale Street

One descendant of La Reunion settlers, Victor Clifford Bilbo, was born in 1894.

In 1915, Bilbo began operating a jitney line from Downtown to Cement City and other locations west.

Back then streetcars circulated in Oak Cliff, Downtown and Lakewood. But there was no public transportation for West Dallas.

Jitneys were the shared rides that picked up the slack.

The Bilbo Jitney cost 5 cents and consisted of Model T Ford touring cars. Passengers squeezed in and sometimes rode on the running boards.

The line closed in 1927, replaced by city buses. But a Texas State Historical marker was placed near the site of Bilbo’s home in 1989. The marker later was stolen, but it was replaced a few years ago.

LANCASTER AVENUE

12 COMMERCIAL DISTRICT

Jefferson and Marsalis

This strip of early 1900s retail buildings is a last remnant of the original Oak Cliff commercial district. Most of the original town of Oak Cliff was torn down to build Interstate 35 in 1957. These buildings, which now contain a hive of jam-packed thrift stores, have been listed in the Old Oak Cliff Conservation League’s most-endangered architecture list.

TENTH STREET HISTORIC

13 DISTRICT

This is the oldest intact freedman’s town in the nation, and it’s one of the few left.

The neighborhood consists of mostly wood-frame houses that were built by former slaves in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The neighborhood is adjacent to the 1846 Oak Cliff Cemetery. And it’s built into the sloping terrain between Clarendon and East Eighth.

Don’t allow the “historic district” title to ease your preservation worries. The City of Dallas recently demolished several shotgun houses in the district because they were not up to code.

City Council passed an ordinance in 2010 to allow the City Attorney’s office to order demolition of properties 3,000 square feet or less in the district if they are non-code compliant.

The district enjoys no blanket protection from demolition, and none of its buildings is specifically protected.

Old-Time religion

OAK CLIFF UNITED

14 METHODIST CHURCH

549 E. Jefferson Blvd.

Tenth Street in Oak Cliff at one time held the “Ripley’s Believe It Or Not” record for the most churches-per-mile in the world.

There were at least 28 within a 3-mile stretch.

Historically, there were a lot of churches in Oak Cliff.

This one is just off Tenth Street, and it’s one the few properties in our neighborhood that enjoys historical landmark protection from the City of Dallas.

Sanguinet and Staats architects, who also designed the Wilson Building in Dallas and the Flatiron Building in Fort Worth, planned this building in 1910. The classical revival building was completed in 1915.

It was a very popular church. The 1926 membership reached 1,649.

By 2015, it was the home church of only about 200 souls, and the congregation merged with Tyler Street United Methodist Church.

The building currently is for sale.

TRINITY PRESBYTERIAN

15 CHURCH

901 N. Zang Blvd.

This is the site of John F. Zang’s own home.

It was the highest point in Zang’s Crystal Hill Addition, and he built a two-anda-half story house there in 1906.

He didn’t live there long. By the time Trinity Presbyterian bought it from Zang in 1943, it had been used as an apartment building for decades.

The congregation, initially established in 1890, tore down the Zang house around 1950 to build a modern new church. By 1957, Trinity Presbyterian had the second-largest congregation in Dallas.

A developer who currently is building 70 new apartments on the site agreed to keep and reuse the church’s sanctuary.

Find all of these points on an interactive map at oakcliff.advocatemag.com/ historymap.

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow grew up in West Dallas and became world-famous outlaws.

PAGE: PHOTO BY DANNY FULGENCIO; ABOVE: PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DALLAS HISTORY AND ARCHIVES DIVISION, DALLAS PUBLIC LIBRARY

The Bilbo Jitney cost 5 cents and consisted of Model T Ford touring cars. Passengers squeezed in and sometimes rode on the running boards.

POPPING THE BUBBLE

How an Oak Cliff entrepreneur edged into the beverage business

Story by RACHEL STONE

Photos by DANNY FULGENCIO

Bryan Wilder starts talking about high-fructose corn syrup and doesn’t stop for a good 3 minutes.

He says some stuff about nutrition and chemistry, but the bottom line is this: High-fructose corn syrup just doesn’t taste as good as cane sugar.

It’s cheaper, which is why the big soda companies started using it in the 1980s at the expense of quality, Wilder says.

“I don’t want to go out and compete with Coke or Pepsi,” he says. “I want to go out and do something that they can’t compete with me on.”

Enter Real Sugar Soda. That’s the company Wilder started in 2009. Because of the logo, most people think it’s called

Above: Boxes of Real Sugar Soda syrup. Opposite page: Bryan Wilder in the lab.

Oak Cliff Soda, and that’s fine.

That perception, in fact, is part of the concept: Craft soda made with the best ingredients possible and branded to local markets.

In our case, it’s very local. Real Sugar Soda started in Wilder’s East Kessler kitchen. It later took up in the Design District and recently moved to a much larger space in a West Dallas industrial park.

The company makes about 20 soda flavors, including ones that taste like Coke and Dr Pepper. (Don’t argue unless you’ve tried it.)

“We knew it was time for craft soda, but we knew we couldn’t get into it unless we had something close to Coke and Dr Pepper,” Wilder says.

He gives taste tests to prospective clients to prove the point.

With the new space, the company plans to start bottling its sodas. Currently Real Sugar Soda is only available on fountains at Twisted Root, Baker’s Ribs, Velvet Taco, Off-Site Kitchen and about 75 other North Texas restaurants.

“We’re growing,” Wilder says. “We can grow as fast as we can fund it.”

Wilder is a career beverage man.

He started in the business in the early 1980s with a company that pioneered the disposable bag-in-box setup that every soda fountain uses today. At that time, they were using them for juice machines in nursing homes.

After his company downsized in 2005,

Real Sugar Soda makes about 20 flavors that can be found in restaurants all over North Texas.

Wilder worked for a few other beverage companies before starting his own with cash, no loans or investors.

From 2009-13, he paid another company to manufacture the soda, Wilder says, and “it wasn’t very good.” But about three years ago, he’d raised enough money to take over manufacturing and distribution. The bubbles began to rise from there.

“We’ve found our niche, and we started with nothing,” he says. “We’re growing out of cash flow.”

He hired Eric Lovell, a former co-worker of Wilder who also created his own bottled soda line, Frost Creek.

Along with plans for bottling, expected to start this year, they’d like to move

Real Sugar Soda into other markets, with logos branded to the locals. A Boulder Soda in Colorado, for example.

Wilder also plans to offer stock options to employees, which currently number about seven.

Sweet Leaf Tea, which was founded in Beaumont and is now owned by Nestle, followed a trajectory that Wilder wants to emulate. That company started in the late ’90s and grew with its largest client, Whole Foods.

Wilder has landed Velvet Taco, which has locations in Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and Chicago. Their parent company already has funding in place to expand even further.

And although it might have a different logo, we know that all of those vendors will be serving Oak Cliff’s own Real Sugar Soda.

“We knew it was time for craft soda, but we knew we couldn’t get into it unless we had something close to Coke and Dr Pepper.”

NEWS & NOTES

EDUCATION

The Sunset High School’s robotics team took a top prize at the University Interscholastic League state championship last month. The team won in the 5A6A First Tech Challenge division, for teams in ninth-12th grades. They were challenged to design, build, program and operate robots to compete head to head. The team members were Karen Garcia, Valerie Alvarez, Maria Diaz, Jennifer Servilla, Samantha Morales, Ana Palomares, Ivan Martinez, Nick Moncada, Jesse Estudillo, Allan Cruz and Alexander Alonzo. The coaches are Gary Dimanh, Jacob Soto, Lakisha Farrow and Calvin Harris.

TREES

The owner of a 4-acre property in Red Bird hacked down 70 trees without the city’s permission in June. The property, on Ledbetter at U.S. Highway 67, was a buffer between residential neighborhoods and the highway. Now that the trees are gone, neighbors say they have less shade, more highway noise and an increase in critters near their homes. The trees were protected under the city’s tree ordinance. The city’s chief arborist, Phil Erwin, told The Dallas Morning News that he is working with the property owner, SNSA Group, to mitigate the damage.

A JOB THAT

WHAT’S UP WITH NEIGHBORHOOD BUSINESSES

GROWING OAK CLIFF

There are plans for 57 new homes to be built on an 8-acre lot near Stevens Park Golf Course The site of the former Stevens Village apartment complex will contain what David Weekly Homes is calling Kessler Heights, with prices in the $400,000 range. David Weekly also is building 53 new homes on Stevens Forest Drive, behind St. Cecilia Catholic Church.

The Momentous Institute , a charter school that serves children at risk for poverty, is building a park on Beckley, in the space that once housed a 1922 retail strip and a 1950s service station. When the school heard that a Sonic was considering that location, they bought the land to create something more in line with their mission.

After years buried under construction, the City of Dallas located the spring at Kidd Springs Park, and plans are in the works to make it flow into the pond via a visible rill coming off the hill.

FOOD NEWS

Garnish Kitchen will begin offering cooking classes starting as early as August on West Davis. Aaron Hubbard, a former instructor for Le Cordon Bleu cooking schools, will be running the new project. Garnish will offer culinary, baking and pastry classes, from basics to advanced techniques, as well as wine-pairing instruction. Classes will cost $50-$100.

Lockhart Smokehouse has been named to Texas Monthly’s “Top 50 best barbecue joints in Texas.” It is one of just three places in Dallas to make the list, along with Cattleack Barbecue and Pecan Lodge.

PHOTO BY ELLIOTT MUÑOZ

students at Dallas ISD magnet schools live outside of the district

Pulling back the curtain on serial cheating at Dallas magnet schools

By KERI MITCHELL

o one likes a cheater.

But as it turns out, Dallas ISD has tolerated them for years.

Families of students who cheat their way into the district’s top magnet schools have been excused and even encouraged in some cases.

Over the past few months, magnets have been under the magnifying glass as Advocate reporting and trustee questions have pressed administrators for numbers on who is getting in and how. At issue is whether Parkies and suburbanites are taking spots that should be given to students who live within DISD boundaries.

When administrators took a closer look, a pattern emerged of families applying with a DISD address and moving within the school year, coupled with a “lax” approach to the board policy that requires DISD to check magnet students’ residency from year to year. One trustee spoke anecdotally about a welcome session where new parents were told, “If you move, we don’t want to know about it.”

Principled principals make a point to check a student’s address when they see a utility bill with scant activity or notice a similar suspicion. Notarized affidavits of residency, however, which are designed for homeless students who find shelter with extended family or friends, were considered legal documents and couldn’t be questioned.

A discovery that affidavits were be-

ing abused at popular and overcrowded neighborhood schools, such as Woodrow Wilson High School, led us to ask the district for numbers and copies of affidavits at several DISD schools, including magnets. The district couldn’t provide them, however — at least without us forking over more than $23,000 — because DISD doesn’t track affidavits or keep them on file from year to year.

All of this adds up to gaping loopholes that savvy parents have been able to worm their way through. Most of the incoming students are rich and white, DISD admin-

of them attend seven magnet schools where qualified in-district students are waiting to be admitted: Townview Science and Engineering, Townview Talented and Gifted, Harry Stone Montessori, Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Irma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School, Dealey Montessori and Travis Talented and Gifted

istrators say, and infuse diversity into a district that is overwhelmingly poor and minority. Some trustees welcome the outsiders in the name of enrollment and financial growth; others want to ensure that Dallas students have first dibs.

We want to know what you think. Read the full series at oakcliff.advocatemag.com/magnetcheaters, then give us — and DISD — your feedback.

total DISD students are on waitlists to attend these seven magnets

out-of-district students at these popular magnets are the children of DISD employees

*These numbers may be inaccurately low, as Dallas ISD admits it has been “lax” in checking magnet students’ residency from year to year, as board policy requires, and anecdotal evidence points to some families using falsified affidavits or uninhabited apartments as proof of residency.

Principled principals make a point to check a student’s address when they see a utility bill with scant activity or notice a similar suspicion.

WORSHIP

By BRENT MCDOUGAL

The cost of walls

Once there was an astounding castle owned by the Castlereagh family, one of the most princely residences in Ireland. But the ancient home fell into decay. The usual happened. When peasants wanted to repair a road or even construct a pigsty, they scavenged stone from the old dwelling. The stones were already craftily cut, available without digging and carrying for long distances.

When the descendant and heir Lord Londonderry visited his castle, he determined to immediately end the theft of the stones. This was not only his legacy, but also one of the greatest glories of Ireland. So he gave orders to his agent that the castle be enclosed with a six-foot wall, believing this would keep out the thieves.

Years later he returned. To his astonishment, the castle was gone, vanished into thin air. In its place, there was a huge wall enclosing nothing. He sent for his agent and asked why his orders had been ignored. The agent insisted that the job had been done.

“But where is the castle?” asked Londonderry.

“The castle? I built the wall with it, my Lord! Why should I go for miles to get materials, when the finest stones in Ireland are beside me?”

Sometimes the walls we build ultimately destroy the very thing we want to protect.

We live in a vulnerable world. It’s tempting to withdraw. The last thing many people want is to feel unprotected and emotionally exposed. So they put up walls to shield against threats or even uncomfortable conversations.

Churches can be guilty of putting up buildings and creating subcultures that seem remote from everyday life, in spite of Jesus’ approach — living among the most vulnerable. Our buildings can be-

come walls that corrupt the way within, which was never really about church, but always about being a blessing to the world.

Vulnerability is openness to the possibility of being wounded. Paradoxically, it’s essential to reconciliation and healing.

In “A Different Drum,” M. Scott Peck wrote, “There is no way that we can live a rich life unless we are willing to suffer repeatedly, experiencing depression and despair, fear and anxiety, grief and sadness, anger and the agony of forgiving, confusion and doubt, criticism and rejection. A life lacking these emotional upheavals will not only be useless to

WORSHIP

DISCIPLES OF CHRIST

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185

Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel

10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

EPISCOPAL

ST. AUGUSTINE’S /1302 W. Kiest Blvd / staugustinesoakcliff.org

A diverse, liturgical church with deep roots in Oak Cliff and in the ancient faith / Holy Eucharist with Hymns Sunday 10:15 am

METHODIST

GRACE UMC / Diverse, Inclusive, Missional Sunday School for all ages, 9:30 am / Worship, 10:50 am 4105 Junius St. / 214.824.2533 / graceumcdallas.org

NON-DENOMINATIONAL

ourselves, it will be useless to others. We cannot heal without being willing to be hurt.”

Our world needs healing. I need healing, and so do you.

Jesus taught that the only way to be healed — the only way to salvation — is through vulnerability.

In north Oak Cliff, people are constantly remodeling. Walls are torn down, new structures built up, fences growing higher. As our community engages in this remodeling process, what walls need to come down? How do racism, classism and fear keep us from being good neighbors?

What about in your life? What brave thing do you need to do?

Brent McDougal is pastor of Cliff Temple Baptist Church. The Worship section is a regular feature underwritten by Advocate Publishing and by the neighborhood business people and churches listed on these pages. For information about helping support the Worship section, call 214.560.4202.

KESSLER COMMUNITY CHURCH / 2100 Leander Dr. at Hampton Rd. “Your Hometown Church Near the Heart of the City.” 10:30 am Contemporary Service / kesslercommunitychurch.com

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF OAK CLIFF / oakcliffuu.org Sun. Worship 10am / Wed. Meditation 7pm / 3839 W. Kiest Blvd. Inclusive – Justice Seeking – Spirited – Eclectic – Liberal – Fun!

UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST

PROMISE UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST / www.promiseucc.org

Worship: 10:30 am Sundays / 214-623-8400 / 2527 W. Colorado Blvd. An Open and Affirming Church where everyone is welcome!

SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION

When self protection means a ‘life lacking’

Sometimes the walls we build ultimately destroy the very thing we want to protect.

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CABINETRY & FURNITURE

JD’S TREE SERVICE Mantels, Headboards, Kitchen Islands, Dining tables. Made from Local Trees. www.jdtreeservice.com 214-946-7138

CLASSES/TUTORING/LESSONS

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FLOORING & CARPETING

FENN CONSTRUCTION Manufactored hardwoods. Stone and Tile. Back-splash Specials. 214-343-4645

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Code compliance

A look at the old city of Oak Cliff’s ordinances

By RACHEL STONE

Photo by DANNY FULGENCIO

The city of Oak Cliff incorporated in 1890 and was its own municipality for 13 years.

The original handwritten Oak Cliff city ordinances in the Dallas Municipal Archives show a slice of life in Victorian-era Oak Cliff.

The sale of alcohol was legal as long as a business was licensed with Dallas County. And drugs were legal, with a prescription:

“That it shall be unlawful for any

person to have filled a prescription for cocaine, morphine or opium, except for actual use where needed as medicine.”

Vagrancy was punishable by up a fine of up to $10 if convicted. The ordinance offers eight definitions of vagrancy:

1. Any idle person who lives without any means of support and makes no exertions to obtain a livelihood by honest employment.

2. Any person who strolls idly about

the streets of Oak Cliff having no local habitation and no honest business or employment.

3. Any person who strolls about to tell fortunes or to exhibit tricks not license by law.

4. A common prostitute.

5. A professional gambler.

6. Any person who goes about to beg alms who is not afflicted or disabled by a physical malady or misfortune.

7. An habitual drunkard who abandons, neglects, or refuses to aid in the support of his family.

8. All suspicious persons. A “tramp,” defined as any vagrant illegally entering an Oak Cliff home or building, could be fined up to $100.

Livestock and pets were a big part of life back then.

Residents and businesses could keep a maximum of 30 head of cattle, hogs or other stock at a time. And those animals were explicitly protected by ordinance. It was illegal to leave any animal tied up or to “cruelly maltreat any dumb animal in the City of Oak Cliff.”

“… to willfully or wantonly kill, maim, wound, poison or disfigure any horse, ass, mule, cattle, swine, dog, or other domesticated animal, or bird, or beast of any kind or to mutilate or cruelly kill, or over-drive, over-ride, or over-load, or unnecessarily confine or in any manner oppress the same, or to unnecessarily fail to provide the same with proper food, drink or shelter …”

Dog fighting was illegal, and there were rules about roaming dogs. It cost $1 to register a male dog and $2.50 to register a female. It was legal for the city marshal to shoot and kill any female dog in heat that was found to be roaming the town.

There are quite a few laws about vice.

Gambling, for example, was illegal. Ordinances specify there’s to be no gambling on pigeonhole or Jenny Lind tables, which were types of billiards tables. Betting on bowling also was expressly forbidden. Other unsavory gambling games: Poker, dice, jackpot, high dice, low dice, crack-o-loo, dominoes or muggings. The fine for gambling was a steep $25-$100.

Prostitution takes up several articles: “If any male person within this city walk or ride in the streets with any commonly reputed prostitute or lewd woman, he shall be fined in any sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.”

Prostitutes themselves, or “bawdy or lewd women, or any female inmate of a bawdy house or house of prostitution,” could be fined between $5-$25 if they were found “wandering about the streets ... in the nighttime.”

Before indoor toilets and a sewer system, keeping one’s “privy” tidy was part of an Oak Cliffer’s civic duty.

One’s privy or “necessary house” could not be located within 3 feet of an adjoining lot or the street. Any outhouse found to be offending, because of odor or filth, could incur daily fines until it was removed.

Oak Cliff employed a “city scavenger” to inspect and clean all of the outhouses and haul off the waste. For this, the scavenger was paid 15 cents per cubic foot. He could also be hired to haul off the carcasses of horses or cows ($2), hogs ($1), dogs (50 cents) and chickens or cats (10 cents).

This being not so far removed from the Wild West, there were laws about firearms. It was illegal to shoot a firearm across a public street or square. And there were limits to how much gunpowder could be carried.

Gunpowder had to be kept in “secured kegs, boxes or canisters sufficiently close to prevent the grains there of from falling out,” and they had to be covered in a sheet of canvas or other cloth.

The maximum that could be carried through Oak Cliff was one 25-pound keg of gunpowder.

In the old days of Oak Cliff, churches were the center of life, and Sundays were sacred. No commerce of any kind was allowed on Sundays, including stores and street vendors. Theaters and “any amusements” were not allowed to open. And you had to keep it quiet on the Sabbath.

“That if any person or persons shall on Sunday, engage in any game of baseball, football or any similar noisy game in any public or private place, lot or lots within this city, except in the baseball park, he, she or they shall each be fined not less than two nor more than ten dollars for each offense.”

After a losing legal fight from Oak Cliffers (that’s a whole other story), the City of Dallas annexed Oak Cliff in 1903.

“Prostitutes themselves ... could be fined $5-$25 if they were found “wandering about the streets ... in the nighttime.”