Lower Greenville Neighborhood Association

A Peep at the Coops

lgnauser24 — Thu, 17 May 2012 16:05:19 +0000

Stonewall Jackson has another event coming up this weekend. Two food trucks will be there: Easy Slider and Rockstar Bake Shop.

This year 13 eggs-traordinary backyard coops will be on the self-guided tour through the area surrounding White Rock Lake. Tour maps can be purchased for $5 at headquarters, and along with the map visitors will receive a goody bag packed full of magazines, coupons, and other valuable information and giveaways. Last year, there were 2000 visitors and a great many who lingered at headquarters (the Stonewall Garden) for all the great things happening there. Many just enjoyed the garden, but also the 4-H chickens, chicken care seminars, and of course the garden itself. We also have vendors, like the Honeybee Guild and Texas Worm Ranch. Enter a raffle to win your very own mobile chicken coop! This year, a couple food trucks will be on site for really great eating too! It is a really fun event that attracts folks from all over, not only in our neighborhood but certainly many East Dallasites.

A Peep at the Coops
Urban Coop Tour
Sunday May 20th
11:00 – 5:00
Headquarters: Stonewall Jackson Elementary
5828 East Mockingbird Lane
Dallas, TX 75206

For more information, visit www.apeepatthecoops.org

Filed under: Events and Meetings, Neighborhood Information

Annual LGNA Meeting – Tuesday May 15

lgnauser24 — Mon, 14 May 2012 23:03:41 +0000

Mark your calendar for 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, May 15. The annual meeting of the Lower Greenville Neighborhood Association will be held at the exciting new Sundown at Granada, 3520 Greenville. Come and sample selections from their menu courtesy of LGNA and Sundown at Granada.

As well as providing a forum for news and discussion of recent changes on Greenville and Skillman, including an update on the new Walmart planned on Lowest Greenville, the Lower Greenville Neighborhood Association annual meeting also includes election of two Board of Director posts. Both candidates are nominated for reelection to the board.

Ken Lampton has served on the LGNA board since 2010. Ken lives on Llano and is well-known for his support of our area’s community projects and for his knowledge of zoning matters. He’s ever ready to offer support and energy to improving our neighborhood.

Patricia Carr has served on the LGNA board for nine years. A resident on Vanderbilt, Pat served as treasurer for four years, and has held the post of president since 2008.

Ballots have been mailed to LGNA voting members. At least one-third of the membership must vote, so each ballot is important. Promptly marking and returning your ballot to PO Box 720067, Dallas 75372 will be appreciated.

A more indepth discussion about the Walmart development will take place at the meeting, but for those unable to make it, Pat Carr provides this update:

In March LGNA asked for your opinions and received responses from 150 of our area’s residents, including 68 residents within three blocks of the location. Thank you! We’ve been meeting with our sister neighborhood associations along Greenville Avenue – Lowest Greenville West, Belmont, Greenland Hills, and Vickery Place. Led by Melissa Kingston, a resident of our area, the presidents of the five neighborhood associations are working to negotiate with Walmart.

We met with Walmart representatives last month to review their plans and discuss neighborhood concerns and how their store will affect our residents. Neighborhood concerns were centered on landscaping, lighting, traffic, noise, and security. We made specific requests regarding those issues. Walmart is currently evaluating our requests and doing cost analysis. We are expecting to have the next level of discussions this month.

This is a slow process, and we don’t really have anything definite yet. As soon as we have more information, we’ll certainly let you know. We appreciate your interest and welcome your thoughts and concerns. Please know that LGNA and the other neighborhood associations are working diligently to get the best results we can on this matter.

Filed under: Events and Meetings

Lowest Greenville Avenue Parking Experience

lgnauser24 — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 20:06:45 +0000

Parking has always been a big issue in the areas around Greenville Avenue. Our residents often wonder why LGNA takes a hard line on this issue. Our friends at Vickery Place posted this blog on their website earlier today in response to a proposed parking garage near the Lakewood Shopping Center. It captures, in a clear and succinct way, the concerns we face when dealing with parking issues. We thought it would be good to share with our residents.

The Lowest Greenville Avenue Parking Experience – Adding New Parking Creates a Larger Parking Problem

posted Apr 17, 2012 10:42 PM by Mark Rieves

Attention Lakewood businesses and residents: One lesson the neighborhoods along Lower Greenville Avenue have learned is that adding new business parking does NOT solve the traffic congestion and parking problem. In fact, it makes it worse.

I know that sounds counterintuitive, but it is true. When parking is limited, there has to be a blend of daytime and nighttime businesses because those businesses must share the same parking lots – i.e., a daytime business uses a parking lot during the day and the nighttime bar-restaurant uses the same lot at night. There is not enough required parking for both businesses to be open at the same time. Thus, the property owner – the landlord – is forced to balance the nighttime/daytime business use because they have no other choice.

When additional parking is added, the daytime/nighttime business mix is thrown out of balance since business property owners charge higher rents for nighttime use. Thus, business property owners are financially incented to replace their daytime businesses with nighttime bars and bar-restaurant businesses.

Want proof? Look no further than the debacle that was created on Lowest Greenville Avenue (the portion of Greenville Avenue that is south of Belmont Avenue) that we are painstakingly trying to clean up today. Fifteen to twenty years ago, there was a good mix of vibrant daytime and nighttime businesses. Then residential lots in the surrounding neighborhoods were rezoned into parking lots and the daytime businesses were quickly replaced by bars and bar/restaurants, beginning the downward spiral of a once-vital area.

So you think this is only a Lower Greenville Avenue problem? Think again! Take a close look at the proposed parking garage on Paulus behind the Lakewood Theater. Current zoning allows a surface level parking lot to be built, but the land owner is requesting a zoning change that adds 35 extra parking spaces on a new lower level. With valet service, that easily increases to 50-55 spaces. Current nighttime bar-restaurant parking code requires one parking space per 100 square feet of business space. That means this additional parking level will allow 5000-5500 square feet of new nighttime bar and bar/restaurant space. Adding this much new business does not make the parking situation better.

The “Lowest Greenville Avenue Parking Experience” has proven that an over-saturation of nighttime bar/restaurant business will quickly lead to additional traffic, parking, alcohol, and crime problems. The new parking lots that were originally promoted by the property owners as a “help” to the neighborhoods quickly became a “hurt,” and thus ultimately harmed the residents as well as the good nighttime businesses that once operated here.

We residents on Lower Greenville Avenue sincerely hope Lakewood area residents don’t learn this same parking lot lesson the hard way.

-Mark Rieves

President, VPNA

Filed under: Current Issues

March / April 2012 Newsletter

lgnauser24 — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 17:19:08 +0000

In this issue:
March Meeting
St. Pat’s Update
Marathon Alert
Teitze Shred Event
Volunteer Appreciation

You can download the January 2012 newsletter here.

March April 2012 Newsletter

Filed under: Newsletters

February 2012 Crime Reports

lgnauser24 — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:29:27 +0000

Last year, February was a good month for us, it was the lowest number of crime incidents in years with 35 incidents. This year, February was even better to us, with only 20 incidents. (See below) That’s with no ice storms and an extra day thrown in for leap year. That’s a record shattering great month for our residents, with only 7 total incidents across our 2500+ households. In fact it took me a little longer to get this report out this month, because I was certain there was a mistake in the data. But after triple checking everything, we were right on. According to Officer Keith, this was unique to our LGNA neighborhood. He tells me the number of crime incidents were actually slightly up in adjacent neighborhoods. Next month is yet to be seen, but let’s keep looking out for each other and keep this trend going!

Robbery in the Parking Garage

The car break-ins at the parking garage under 24-Hour Fitness have slowed but not stopped. Last month someone caught a burglar in the act of breaking into his car. When he walked up, the bad guy had broken out the window and was halfway into the car. The victim grabbed him and pulled him out of the vehicle and a fight ensued with the bad guy swinging at the victim with the metal object he’d use to break the window. The bad guy then jumped into a cream colored Nissan pick-up and sped away. Fortunately the victim wasn’t injured and the bad guy didn’t get anything. But I would discourage anyone from engaging a bad guy this way. The outcome could have been much worse. If you see a crime in progress, whip out your cell phone, take a picture and call 911. And use the words “in progress” with the 911 operator, that makes it a Priority 1 call and ensures the quickest response time. Police have a much better chance of catching him, and you have less risk of harm.

Another Scam To Look Out For:

An elderly woman was driving along Mockingbird and was flagged down by a car beside her. They pulled into the Walgreen’s parking lot where they told her something was wrong with her tire and proceeded to pretend to repair it. After fiddling with the tire for a few minutes they told her the bill was $500. They convinced her to go inside and purchase a VISA gift card for $500. She took her car to the dealer where she was told nothing had been done to her tires or wheels. People who commit crimes like this tend to repeat the scam over and over. If you know somone who might be vulnerable to this type of scam, let them know about it.

Why the Lowest Greenville PD Matters:

As you know, we were successful in getting Lowest Greenville rezoned to require businesses to get a special use permit to stay open past midnight. The goal was to get rid of the criminal element that several businesses were attracting. One of those, Yucatan – among the worst offenders, filed a lawsuit and received an injunction allowing them to stay open until the case is heard. On Feb 17th, a fight began inside Yucatan. The victims were asked to leave the club. They were then attacked in the parking lot by the same guys inside the club, who then stole their car. Rather than recap the details, I’ll let the police report speak for itself:

ON LISTED DATE AND TIME, COMP STATED HE AND THE LISTED WIT WENT TO THE YUCATAN BAR. WHILE INSIDE COMP AND WIT BECAME INVOLVED IN AN ALTERCATION WITH UNK PERSONS INSIDE THE CLUB. COMP AND WIT WHERE ASKED TO LEAVE THE BAR, AND WHERE JUMPED IN THE PARKING LOT BY THE UNK B/M’S THEY HAD AN ALTERCATION WITH INSIDE THE CLUB. COMP FOUGHT WITH THE SUSPS, BUT THE SUSPS TOOK COMPS KEYS AND FLED IN THE AP’S VEHICLE IN UNK DIRECTION. THEWIT WAS HIT IN THE HEAD AND STATED HE SAW A B/M IN A RED HOODIE APPROX 6’1″ 170 LBS WITH A GOLD TOOTH ARMED WITH A BLACK PISTOL, AND A SECOND SUSP A B/M APPROX 6’1″ 170LBS IN A BLACK HOODIE. WIT FLED CAUSE HE WAS IN FEAR FOR HIS LIFE. COMP AND WIT REFUSED MEDICAL TREATMENT, AND DECLINED PES. R/OS OBSERVED A KNOT ON WIT’S HEAD AND THE COMP HAD A CUT ON THE KNUCKLES OF HIS RIGHT HAND FROM THE FIGHT.

We don’t make this stuff up, this is Yucatan’s clientele. This is exactly the type of behaviour that prompted the PD and why it is important that the city win its lawsuit to protect the PD. It’s in the hands of the city’s lawyers now, but I’ll keep you updated on the outcome.

Filed under: Crime Information