More donations for CityWalk

BY NAQUANNA COMEAUX

Since the opening of CityWalk@Akard, the donations we’ve received for our residents have not only continued, but they have increased. A very special thank you goes to Colleen Lujan and Rose McElyea for their diligence in collecting donations from their co-workers and friends. Because of these two ladies, we have received several items of furniture and lots of clothing to help get our residents started.

Also, we’d like to send a big thank you to Andrew Foster, and Scott and Lori Beth Harrison for purchasing CityWalk Home Packages.

If you’d like to purchase a CityWalk Home Package to help furnish one or more of our 142 studios at CityWalk, please contact me at ncomeaux@centraldallascdc.org or 214.573.2570 ext. 2133. If you’d like to donate household goods, food (non-perishables) or toiletries, please let me know when you’d like to bring your items by 511 N. Akard and we will be happy to receive them!

Photo: Colleen Lujan carries donations to CityWalk as Naquanna Comeaux and Rose McElyea sort the rest of the items.

The CDC and Me

BY NICK SOWELL

I have been working for Central Dallas Community Development Corporation now going on one full month and currently have several different projects in the works including purchasing artwork for the new building, revamping the Central Dallas CDC web site, and creating a new pamphlet for the CDC.

Prior to this I had been living in Los Angeles for the past five years working as both an actor and an Independent film producer. However, I am thankful to be back in Dallas and consider myself lucky to be a member of such a great team with great people like the folks at the CDC.

They’re Taking Building Restoration to New Heights

BY FRANK RICHARDSON

For the record – the highest roof on CityWalk is 17 stories above the ground.

One of the “biggest” things about the building are the two 511 signs at the top. One is 14 feet tall, the other is 8 feet tall. I have heard that when they were lit, they could be seen for miles. Being a historic building, it has become a given that we will restore these signs to their original splendor and operation.

Today, two workers from Chandler Signs had the pleasure of examining these numerals close-up.

They had to remove the existing glass neon tubing so that exact replicas could be made for re-installation in a few weeks. At that time, all of the 50 year-old internal wiring and transformers will be replaced as well, and the faces will be repainted. This will all be done while the 511 signs remain on the building.

Now, being 17 stories above ground, it means that the only way to get to them is from the roof. This requires that they tie-off to something (hopefully) substantial and secure on the roof and lower themselves over the edge.

It is all in a day’s work for them (they’ve done this on taller buildings), but it scared the heck out of me just watching it. Ronnie, the one going over the edge, said the important thing is not to think about it, just do it. That’s easy for him to say!

Gladly, it was completed in several hours without incident. In a few weeks, our 511 signs will shine brightly once again!

Oh, and by the way, we learned that the original neon was turquoise (how 1950’s).

Oh Canada, Oh Canada

BY LORI BETH LEMMON

OK – truth. I know almost nothing about Canada, and have never really given a lot of thought to visiting Canada. However, my husband was sent to Calgary recently on business, so I met up with him late in the week, and we went to Banff for a long weekend. I now know only a little more about Canada than before, but here is what I learned/observed on my winter vacation.

1. The Canadian Rockies are different than the Colorado Rockies. The peaks seem much steeper and more jagged. Picture the mountain in the Paramount pictures intro, or the rock of Gibraltar in the Prudential ads.

2. If you take the gondola to the top of Sulphur Mountain, you really do feel like you are on top of the world. And, from the top of Sulphur Mountain, you can get to Houston, Texas by traveling in a southeasterly direction for 1,807 miles, or 2,908 kilometers. Please refer to picture if you want to know the same information about Buenos Aires.

3. What we call pitchers of beer here in the US are referred to as jugs of beer in Canada. Not that we had any, I’m just sayin’ I saw it on the menus.

4. Last, but not least, snow tubing is great fun! I am not sure you could really call it a sport since there is no skill required, but definitely an awesome snow activity. Especially if some aspects of snow skiing don’t appeal to you – you know, the awkward, uncomfortable boots; the need for some amount of skill just to stand up on skis, much less go down a mountain on them; the drain on your energy level and the severe pain inflicted on those muscles that you never use any other time; and of course, the dreaded ski patrol sled. I can almost guarantee you that you do not have to worry about any type of injury or being rescued from the slopes by the ski patrol while snow tubing, even though you go really, really fast!

When We Were Young

Relatively young, that is, compared to now. Almost exactly 11 years ago Ken Koonce and I left the private practice of law to start Legal Action Works, Central Dallas Ministries’ public interest law firm, about the time this picture was taken. Ken is the handsome looking fellow on the right who, besides running Legal Action Works, is also the General Counsel for Central Dallas Ministries.

When we started our new law practice we were new not only to each other but also to working in low income communities. Over the years we learned a lot—mostly to be less naïve, but many other things as well. The time has passed so quickly. When we started his older daughter was just beginning elementary school and now she is driving. My daughter was just beginning middle school and just this month she was accepted to law school.

Lisa Goolsby in CDM’s Development Department discovered this picture as part of our move to CityWalk and was kind enough to pass it on to us. I don’t feel any older than I did back in the last century when we started this work, but looking at this picture makes me realize the time that has passed. I do feel that we’ve made good use of the last 11 years; worked hard; helped a lot of people; enjoyed life.

It’s only because I feel that way that I am at peace with the passing of the years.

“The World Is Too Much With Us”

Last week I was driving home as the sun was setting. The new moon was the slightest sliver cradling the old moon in its arms. The sun reflected in waves of pink and mauve off the clouds and I could dimly see white birds flying in the night sky. This poem came to mind:

The World is Too Much With Us
by William Wordsworth

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.–Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

One side effect of the decade I spent studying English poetry (most of my twenties) is that fragments of poetry or sometimes whole poems often come unbidden to my mind. I think that when they do I am being told something. Here, I think it was simply that I am too caught up in my work and the excitement of opening CityWalk. I am missing the great world going by while I concentrate too much on finances—on getting and spending.

For example, a bald eagle has been spotted at Sunset Bay (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/012310dnmetsunsetbay.a39ece60.html) and the white pelicans have returned to White Rock Lake to winter over, but I haven’t been out to see either of them.

Soon they will be gone for another year and if I don’t want to miss them then I need to take at least a few hours to go look.

White pelicans are enormous, prehistoric-looking birds. I benefit, perhaps anyone would, from spending some time watching them and contemplating their place in creation. Time spent like that makes me more in tune and less forlorn.

bcCorps in Dolphin Heights

If you follow this link, then you can read a bit and see a short video about the work of the bcCorps in the Dolphin Heights neighborhood of South Dallas: http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/01/as_bcworkshop_moves_into_dolph.php.

The work is also ours; we’re funding the building of the nine homes through a grant we got from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program; and it’s also Central Dallas Ministries’ work as well; most of the people you see in the video are AmeriCorps members working in Dallas through the program administered by CDM. Finding a way to pay for a project isn’t always the most glamorous part of a partnership—and usually doesn’t get you in the news, but nothing can happen without someone footing the bill.

In any event, our work isn’t limited to helping fund this project. We spend a lot of time working on budgets, cash flows, compliance, legal requirements and all the nuts and bolts of the work that are necessary. Sometimes we even get to participate in the fun.

Last Friday I was one of two reviewers to which the bcCorps presented the penultimate version of its presentation of its home designs—the final reviewers will be the community in Dolphin Heights. The designs were excellent, which doesn’t mean we didn’t have a lot to say about them. As a real estate developer I always have to think of the end use and the bottom line—a house doesn’t become a home until someone buys (or rents) it and moves in. Thinking that way gives you a different approach to a project. Some of the designs were brilliant as designs, but probably would not appeal to the target community.

Architecture is an applied art (except perhaps for museum projects) that always has to compromise between beauty and use. Most young designers are more concerned with beauty—even Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs are infamous for problems with constructability and livability. So part of the job of the reviewers is to put a reality check in front of the designers.

If you can’t build a design, and if nobody wants it, then nothing else matters. Fortunately, the real critique is yet to come. Community members know what they want, and if the designs presented to them don’t fulfill their needs, then it will be back to the drawing board.

AmeriCorps Visits CityWalk@Akard

BY LORI BETH LEMMON

On Monday, January 18, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we were blessed with a group of about 50 AmeriCorps members who were providing a day of service. We all met in the basement of 511 N. Akard, and then after a short presentation about the project, they all got busy working. We had bags and boxes of clothes, children’s games, books, and toiletries that had been generously donated for the new residents of CityWalk. In addition, we needed 200 Welcome Home bags assembled.

It was a great day. The Reverend King’s memory was definitely honored by this awesome corps of volunteers all working together to make our community a better place for everyone.

The Word Is Out

BY KEVIN FLAGG

People are still coming to 511 N. Akard to sign their names on the waiting list for an apartment. When the first residents moved into 511 N. Akard all the television stations covered the event. With the publicity came a greater interest from potential residents. In the two days after making the evening news, there were lines of people trying to sign up.

There isn’t a line anymore, but people are still stopping by to place their names on the list. When they sign up, there are usually a thousand questions – “How long before you call me?” “When will the building be completed?” “How long is the waiting list?” “Can I see the apartment?”

People are in desperate need to call some place home and CityWalk is a great opportunity. People are excited about CityWalk. The location is ideal. You are in the heart of downtown Dallas and close to social services, the trains and buses. It is a great place to start over.

The reality is there is only so much space available at CityWalk; therefore, many of the people on the waiting list will not be afforded the opportunity to live here. But CityWalk can be the starting point for other initiatives for affordable housing for low income residents. There is certainly a need. The waiting list is evidence of that fact.

Unsung Heroes Part II – A Dream Becomes A Reality

BY LORI BETH LEMMON

There have been literally thousands of men and women who have worked on the rehabilitation/construction of the 511 N. Akard building. Since there is probably not any practical way to thank them all individually, this shout out goes to them –“Thank You!” Every single person who has taken part in this project has been part of making history in Dallas and they have also been part of making a dream come true for our community.

The staff of Central Dallas Ministries and Central Dallas CDC began working on this project in December 2005, but the dream goes back much further than that. I can remember when I first began working at Central Dallas Ministries in December 2000, and the dream was already taking shape back then – a dream to build a community in Dallas that would be unlike anything else – a place where people of different ages, from different backgrounds, and from all walks of life come together to live and create a unique community.

So thank you again to everyone – every single one of you who hammered a nail, painted a wall, laid a brick, welded some steel, installed plumbing, swept debris, and worked through heat, cold, snow, and rain. You have had a hand in making a dream a reality in Dallas, Texas.

Next Page »