CITY COUNCIL

STATE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

New council member Gay Donnell Willis talks infrastructure, education, development and alleys — her goals for our neighborhood and city

Gosh, I was born in Dallas and raised in Fort Worth … I went to Texas Tech, moved back to Dallas and actually lived on Victor (Street in East Dallas) for a while. Then I was married, starting a family and wanted space and trees and good neighborhoods and that sort of thing. So we just got plugged into Preston Hollow in 2002, and I was working at the time and had a lot of travel going on and it just didn’t work with being the mother of a toddler, so I ended up trading that professional life for big Junior League roles and president of the Preston Hollow Early Childhood PTA. I think that honestly, in the seat that I’m sitting in now, all of those types of experiences are just even more enriching and mean a lot more.

LET’S TALK ABOUT CRIME: HOW WORRIED SHOULD PRESTON HOLLOW RESIDENTS BE ABOUT CRIME?

I think they already are worried about it. Because even though it’s more prevalent in other parts of the city, it can still occur. It does occur closer to Preston Hollow. And I know you’re talking with me with regard to Preston Hollow Advocate, but District 13 also includes west of Webb Chapel and Vickery Meadow. So it’s that convex barbell, I guess. There are issues at either end of the district that are of concern, (Dallas Police) Chief (Eddie) Garcia’s plan for violent crime is in its infancy, and I sit on the Public Safety Committee, and we just got a two-month report last week. And there’s a little movement in the right direction on that.

One thing I would really like for people to think differently about, and I’m working to communicate with them about, is really expanding our notion of what public safety is. Last year there was a lot of rhetoric, a lot of a lot of things flying around that just were not helpful in getting people to think about public safety as something a little more broad than just an officer with a gun.

WHAT IS THE SINGLE BIGGEST PROBLEM FACING PRESTON HOLLOW?

You know, beyond the hot button issues of public safety and concerns around homelessness, it goes back to the thing I’m hearing most frequently about streets and alleys. So this is quality of life. I mean, quality of life is not necessarily the theater and museums and beautiful parks. It’s are you rattling your fillings loose as you drive down the street just to go to work or the grocery store. So I think there is now a program, however, I don’t think there has always been a really great program in place to take care of a street. Once we create something, they tend to just deteriorate. Now, there’s a program in place that’s kind of like the oil change in your car so you don’t burn out the engine before you decide to go get a new car. You actually take care of the street along the way. This is something that I hear about frequently: Why is that street being taken care of when mine is in such worse shape? And oftentimes, it’s because part of the program is about maintaining what we have, and part is about, you’re on a list for a very expensive reconstruction. So there’s a balance, but people know what they see. And it doesn’t always make sense to them. And when you explain it to them, sometimes it makes sense, but they still don’t like it. But you know, there is a program in place that I think can help get at this.

ONE OF THE THINGS YOU MENTIONED IN THE CAMPAIGN WAS GROWING THE TAX BASE. YOU PROBABLY SAW THE INITIAL U.S. CENSUS NUMBERS THAT CAME OUT SHOWING DALLAS IS NOT GROWING MUCH. DID THAT CHANGE YOUR THOUGHT PROCESS ABOUT HOW WE CAN

There are opportunities within the district. And I think what we need is, “vision” is kind of the headline. You’ve got Vickery Meadow, you have the Preston Road and Northwest Highway area, you also have Marsh and Walnut Hill that was destroyed in the tornado. So there are opportunities in each of these areas to take a step back and look at an overall vision. You have a lot of property owners who are very interested in their own assets. And rightly so. I think in this chair, it’s looking at the interests of the City of Dallas, which is also an investor in each of these areas. And you’re taking a lead on what that becomes. I mean, these

One thing I would really like for people to think differently about ... is really expanding our notion of what public safety is.

are 50-year decisions or greater. So there are those who kind of like to push ahead in one way or another, to look at growth in pockets, but I think we need to step back and look at it from a bigger picture of: Who’s going to live here? What are the jobs in this area going to be like? What can you do for entertainment? What does life look like? What do we want it to look like in the next 10-20-30-40 years? And also involving the right partners? You know, sometimes I’m learning that there are some folks who haven’t necessarily been involved, and I want to be sure we pull the right people to the table.