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Steve 02/26/2009 9:16:00 PM
I am so sick of this guy. Avi, why don't you cut your grass, hang some curtains on that crack house of yours and get that beater mobile bill board you call a truck off the street. I hate little nerds like you. Never got invited to any parties did you? Virgin till some fat b#$%^h took pity on you when you were 40. No one liked your geek ass so you have to ruin the party for every one else. You don't care about the neighborhood. You want to drive the value down. You already don't pay your property tax. Why don't you do us a favor and Move out and let us live our lives. One more thing...Get a freaking job you BUM!
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Steve 02/26/2009 9:15:00 PM
I am so sick of this guy. Avi, why don't you cut your grass, hang some curtains on that crack house of yours and get that beater mobile bill board you call a truck off the street. I hate little nerds like you. Never got invited to any parties did you? Virgin till some fat b#$%^h took pity on you when you were 40. No one liked your geek ass so you have to ruin the party for every one else. You don't care about the neighborhood. You want to drive the value down. You already don't pay your property tax. Why don't you do us a favor and Move out and let us live our lives. One more thing...Get a freaking job you BUM!
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HA! 08/29/2008 8:31:00 PM
I never even once thought about peeing on someones lawn near lower greenville... having read this article, I'll definitely consider it!!
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I love my neighborhood too.... 08/09/2008 6:47:00 PM
I'm in Avi territory, about the same distance from Lower Greenville as he is, but no one ever wees or poos on my lawn.
Maybe there are other reasons that's happening to Avi.
And I can't imagine anything uglier than a bulky metal sign in my lawn. It's offensive that it's becoming a requirement of the area. Yeah, I always wanted my lawn to feel like a construction site. You can clean up puke, but everyday you wake up and walk out, there will be that ugly metal structure in your grass. Day after day. Morning after mornging. This is a joke.
I have friends who have been strong armed by this "democratic" vote crowd. If you don't like their ways they threaten to kick you out of the area. You can see the vitriole in their comments.
It's not democracy, it's thug behavior.
And give me a break, Deep Ellum is not full of thugs and cops now, it's full of art galleries, restaurants, still open places like Dada and Prophet Bar. Yet again, people who don't go there are commenting on long ago issues.
There are about 50 people I know, who are always in Deep Ellum working or living, who never complain of feeling hounded by thugs and cops. They complain of the vacant live music venues that should be reopened.
But oh yeah, the parking requirements are holding that up.
Good article Pete.
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What? 08/06/2008 5:55:00 PM
Wow.... Firewater.....
Man I love watching a bunch of 30-something year olds put on make up and dress up like 'real' bands.
I can listen to a CD 320,000 times and eventually play 'just like' AC/DC too.
No matter how 'douchy' people claim Lower Greenville to be, Firewater is the capital of douchedom.
I think if Avi had a reason to shut down Firewater, there'd be more rejoicing than complaining from the music community... correct me if I'm wrong. But I'm not.
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J 08/06/2008 3:58:00 PM
Lower Greenville sucks....You cant go to Deep Ellum without being hounded by either the cops or the thugs...So now I just go to Firewater.
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Ego > Ability 08/05/2008 10:18:00 PM
"Wow, that web site is God awful. http://www.dallascreative.com/
Avi must have a real job, right?"
Yes. His real job is to sit around in his underwear at his computer all day , talking about himself on blogs, only getting up to look at himself in the mirror and think, "Wow. I'm an activist! I'm a celebrity and a bringer of change!" While his painfully worthless life withers away beneath his plump ass.
He's also put a lot of work into his myspace page. How cute!
http://www.myspace.com/dailycrimereport
I'd say his life sucks pretty bad.... whether he lives in a peaceful neighborhood or not.
I'd also say that this dude will probably find a casket and fall in a lot sooner than the Lower Greenville bar scene.
...hopefully anyway.
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Avi Adelman 08/03/2008 4:18:00 AM
Unless someone makes a truly memorable comment here, this will be my last comment...
It's amazing to see how flipped over the arguments are in this matter.
On one side you have the property owners and residents in the Lower Greenville area, many of them here for years and some recently moved in, who own property worth any number of thousands of dollars, who have kids, who have lawns, and who have dreams of a little bit of peace and quiet on their street.
On the other side you have bar operators who depend on thousands of people to come down here every weekend, buying their liquor (ain't no food to eat), paying upwards of $10 to park on spaces that should be free, and hoping their bar does not have the paddy wagon parking in front of it on Saturday night.
And in the middle you have the drunks, the party animals, the people who think god gave them the right to park anywhere they wish, make as much noise as they want, and think that any lawn would make a good toilet on any particular evening.
So after years of pissing on moaning on both sides, the residents finally get the upper hand, with Resident Parking Only. The streets are once again quiet (save for the noise of the occasional wrecker truck) and peace reigns once again.
The bar owners are too scared to do live interviews on the news to complain about the loss of parking, since they know the city would be so far up their ass for not having enough parking, let alone free parking.
So it's up to the bar patrons to carry the firebrands and pitchforks back to the residents, proclaiming to Mr, Freedman and anyone else who would listen, "These evildoers, these residents, they must be driven out. No matter that they own homes here, no matter that we don't even live in Dallas, it is THEY who must go, so WE can party way into the future."
Sorry, guys, the party is so over, and you are just (pardon the pun) pissing in the wind by trying to stop the changes coming down.
The business property owners are now your enemy. They have seen the future and it's not bars anymore. It's restaurants and it's chic little shops and it's places you can take kids to.
It ain't bars.
Go find another neighborhood to pillage, because we just raised the drawbridge on your vandals.
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Stone Dranger 08/03/2008 2:22:00 AM
Keep jumping to convulsions, Avi. I wasn't born in 1980. I was of legal drinking age (18, at the time) back when Tango, DJ's, Nick's Uptown, the Arcadia Theatre, Record Gallery, Poor David's Pub and the big Sears store all opened up for business. Chances are I've been down here longer than you have. I know where you live and I've pissed on your lawn. And you know what? I've haven't had an alcoholic beverage in almost 20 years. I did it because you are self-absorbed douche bag.
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Avi Adelman 08/03/2008 1:35:00 AM
Ah, yes the old - If you move next to an airport, don't complain concept.
Okay, take a deep breath and read very slowly.
I - and hundreds of my neighbors - have been here for years, way before the bars moved in just ten years ago (not counting legal bars like Old Crow, Harder Bar (now Sugar Shack) and Service Bar.
I have been on this street probably longer than you have been alive - like say, since 1980.
I did not need to do a drive-thru - I already knew what was here and it did not include bars 20 years ago when I bought this house.
So the question becomes not of who should move out, but why should I move out.
In your mind, I am a pain in the ass who is (pardon the pun) pissing on your party. I don't hide in my house and cower at the sounds of some drunks urinating on my property. I should thank you and your drunk friends for parking on my street, waking me up at 2am, and even occasionally beating my neighbors up in a drunken stupor.
I go outside - and down the street - and stop the problem at the source: The illegally operating bars (not restaurants) that have no food service, no parking, and no business being here. I have no problem ruining your parade because it's not supposed to happen.
And after nearly ten years of this crap, the tide is slowly but surely turning the other way. Bars are closing like crazy, restaurants are coming in (and lord knows you don't like food), and between expensive valet parking and Resident Parking Only streets, you have nowhere to park.
Too damn bad!
This was not an entertainment district ever, but the bars have no problem passing that legend out their ass. The cool bars were way north of here, and that is fine. They just co-opted the urban myth and act like they have been here forever. The average lifespan of a bar is less than five years on this end of the street, 25+ years on the other end.
And in closing, yes people will stop pissing on my lawn, or beating up my neighbors, or parking on our streets (yes, we do own the streets).
What ten years of wasted calls to City Hall could not do, in less than one year the neighborhood has done - Draw a big fat white line in the sand and said, No you can't park here anymore.
Game over!
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Stone Dranger 08/02/2008 11:32:00 PM
Question for the people who live near Lower Greenville: why the fuck do you live there? Surely you did a quick drive-through of the neighborhood before you chose to move there. Do you really expect the surrounding businesses to accommodate your need for peace and quiet when this entertainment destination district was there well before you were? Stop whining. The world does not revolve around you. Either move out to the sticks or shut the fuck up.
And Avi, if you're really stupid enough to think that having a lot of cops around is going to deter crime, get a life. Cops rarely catch criminals in the act of anything. They're there to fill out reports and to haul off crooks after a crime has already been committed. Your Jimmy Justice routine is embarrassing and infantile. Just admit it - it's all about drawing attention to yourself. Guess what? People aren't going to stop getting drunk on Lower Greenville or taking a dump in your yard. If you can't hang with that, then you should move. If you don't want to move, then I suggest putting a Port-O-Potty in front of your house.
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ArchImage 08/02/2008 2:46:00 AM
Dear Mr. Freedman,
Having lived in the lower Greenville area for less than six months, clearly, you have never fully experienced the feeling of walking out your front door after hearing someone scraping against your living room window, to find a drunken sorority girls with her pants down around her ankles, defecating on your front lawn, and her brain-dead beefy frat-boyfriend, in your face, threatening to kill you for accidently looking at the trashed slut tripping and falling flat on her face! Or, having to come out every morning to clean up the 10-20 beer bottles and a trashcan full of assorted garbage that was left behind by these wonderful patrons of the high-class music scene of Lower Greenville! (Music scene? WHAT, Music scene? That scene left Lower Greenville long ago!) Have you ever had to have any obnoxious idiot towed from parking in, or blocking your private and well marked driveway so you couldn't get out? Have you been awakened every weekend night for years on end, by the unconscious creeps that start up their cars in front of your house, after the bars close, and blast their retarded music, THUMP, THUMP , THUMP , rattling your windows, and quaking the books off your shelves? The kids smoking pot in your private laundry room How about the screaming, drunken brawls and arguments ,the lit cigarettes thrown into your yard, starting fires! And if it were only piss turning your front yard brown! What about the crap and the vomit pools on the front steps! Have you ever even come close to this much interference into your personal space and lifestyle where you�ve lived before, Mr. Freedman?
Well, I have. I have lived one block off of Lowest G'ville for 8 years now and around the Lower Greenville neighborhoods for 23 years. Oh, Mr Freedman, there are many, many more true tales I and my neighbors could tell you, some almost hard to believe!
Finally, since the RPO's were voted in by the neighborhood's residents, and the sign were put in place, with plenty of warning being given to bar-owners and neighborhood residents alike, it is the first time I have felt a peace descend on the neighborhood, a safe, secure, peade, un-invaded by the rude jerks that are too lazy to walk a block or two extra to the bars, or to broke to take the bus! I can actually sleep without being awakened at night now! I love it here, now!
It would be one thing if the common patrons of the Lower Greenville scene would grow up and act like responsible adults. If they would show the slightest modicum of respect for the neighborhoods that they come to trash on a nightly basis. Then, perhaps, the neighborhood residents might actually have been willing to co-exist peacefully with them. But the constant arrests, towing, and warnings by the Dallas Police Department just go unheeded. The majorities pay no attention, and they have consistently shown their disrespect to the neighbors of Lower Greenville for more than 20 years! Their egos are so bloated with entitlement, or they are so self-centered and unconscious as to not realize that they are encroaching in others people�s lives and homes when they scurry in to the LGA bars like so many cockroaches, only these cockroaches are LOOKING for their nightly poisons. Perhaps this comes with the ignorance of youth, or the over-abundance of Daddy�s money,or lack of education, caring parents, one cannot say exactly what drives their unconsciousness. But that is still no excuse for such blind ignorance.
So, I certainly have no empathy for people who are too illiterate, stupid, drunk, or just plain belligerent to read or pay attention to the signs that are blatantly staring them in the face, telling them not to park there!
Those signs were put there by a democratic vote, not by a greedy city council! The neighborhood has spoken. Your disrespect is not welcome here!
Had you, Mr. Freedman, been living down on the Lower Greenville strip for any length of time prior to the RPO signs being installed, you might have some room to talk, some authority from which to speak. You might also remember a time when there actually was a thriving music scene in Deep Ellum and a time when they used to charge at the parking meters there, ALL DAY, not just in the evenings! Believe me, it isn�t the lack of parking that has caused the music scene in Dallas to dwindle, but that is another topic all together!
But, since you haven't a clue as to what it has been like living in the LGA hood for the past 15 years, I suggest you move over to one of the hip and trendy condo/apartments in the Village or West End, or South Lamar, Bishop Arts, or even to the up-and-coming N. Henderson area, where you would be quite welcome, and you can be as obnoxious and unconscious as you want, Blasting your music out of the doors of every establishment falling on deaf ears! (That is, as long as you are dressed hip enough and/or have the requisite tattoos, piercings, expensively trashed clothing, all bedheaded and faux-hawked, Ed Hardy T's, expensive cars you can't afford or that your parents money bought, and the metrosexed/grunged, trend du jour over-consumptive qualities sooooo necessary to survive in that scene!) There are plenty of bars and parking, and nobody will care,, ESPECIALLY the neighborhood residents of Lower Greenville.
If we were to �brand our city� with the likes of your so-called �healthy, young creative class�, should your rference point to the regular patrons of the Lower Greenville Avenue hangouts, our city should, then, be too embarrassed and ashamed to claim such slackers as their own, let alone brand our city with their arrogance! Just one look at the arrest record statistics for last weekend, ALONE, for the LGA strip, speaks for itself, as quoted directly from the Dallas Police department report:
________________________________
Friday, July 25th
Friday was a beautiful night all the way around. A good crowd on lowest Greenville. It was warm with a gentle breeze. It helped that many patrons started to leave at about 1:30am. This led to less congestion at closing time.
�There was only one arrest on Lowest Greenville. An intoxicated individual staggered out of the Carven into waiting Dallas Police arms.
Lower Greenville however was slightly different at closing time when fight broke out at the M Street Bar. Four were arrested for Public Intoxication and one for Possession of Marijuana. There were no noise complaints.
Lowest Greenville parking enforcement rendered 8 parking citations and 3 towed. There was one Robbery reported at 1900 Greenville, with a known suspect.
Then came Saturday July 26.th...
About the same size crowd as Friday night, but you could sense something different in the air. It was warm and muggy, and at closing time several fights broke out on the West side of 1900 Greenville.
Six were arrested out of Sofrano's for Public Intoxication. There was an Aggravated Assault at Sofrano's with a suspect identified.
Again no noise complaints were reported. Parking enforcement rendered 17 citations and 8 towed.�
________________________________
And that was a LIGHT weekend! You should have seen it BEFORE the RPO�s went into effect!
Put THAT in your front yard and mow it, Mr. Freedman!
Peace Out,
ArchImage
Long-time Lower Greenville Avenue Neighborhood Resident (long enough to know the truth!)
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Mike 08/01/2008 10:27:00 PM
Wow, that web site is God awful. http://www.dallascreative.com/
Avi must have a real job, right?
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Avi Adelman 08/01/2008 8:52:00 PM
In regards to the DPD at our neighborhood's beck and call...
Yeah, don't I wish. I just love the idea of 20+ officers, many working overtime rates, are standing two deep at every corner. They are on every corner along Greenville Avenue between Alta and Belmont. But they are NOT parking in the residential areas.
They are NOT parking in the residential areas; in fact, the only reason we have officers patrolling the neighborhoods is because only a police officer can ticket and tow a car. RPO is like a giant magnet to get a few cops in the area.
They are NOT here to protect our neighborhood and in fact I wish they were not even on Greenville. The bars make this mess, let them clean it up.
The cops are here to protect the several thousand drunks on the street from themselves. Every weekend, at least 25 persons are given a free stay at the City's detox center.
They also work with the bar security, who regularly activate the Bat Signal to call cops over and clean out the trashy drunks and fights.
And let's not forget what kind of wonderful bonding you can have when gangbangers and normal people try to trash each other out at closing time.
Why do you think we have Resident Parking Only??? Because we cannot get enough cops into the neighborhoods on a regular schedule. Years ago we had Extra Neighborhood Patrols - one officer hired just to do what we wanted on our streets every weekend.
At $1200 per month, that could pay for lots of RPO streets (which is one reason we don't use that program anymore).
You are right - all we care about are clean streets, nice gardens (well, not mine since I hate yardwork), and no drunks.
And the only way we can get it is by using our money to buy the streets so you and your friends can't park here.
An earlier comment noted how our wonderful bars are attracting the lowest common denominator of customers -
"Greenville Ave. is a fucking meat market for SMU douches and idiots from the suburbs who are looking for a little drunken action in the city. Most of my friends in this neighborhood don't even hang out on Greenville because we know there are much better bars elsewhere"
Yeah, that says it rather well.
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Matt 08/01/2008 7:53:00 PM
I feel ya Pete...
As I venture out at night in Dallas I often wonder, "Where the hell is the DPD?" Not that I care... but until I visited Lower Greenville, I thought that the existence of a 'Dallas Police Department' was a myth. Then, one night, when I went to a gig in Lower Greenville, I realized... "Oh... the entire police force is at the Belmont Neighborhood Association's beck and call!" There were literally 5 or 6 squad cars visible in only about a one block radius... for many blocks. Wow DPD... thanks for defending our streets from the evil bar-goers, yard-pissers, musicians and hippies....while somewhere in south Dallas, someone's throat is being cut.
Despite the fact that I am a gigging musician, I guess I can understand where Adelman is coming from. Why should a guy like him give a shit about a music scene? He just wants what most homeowners want... peace and quiet...a green lawn... etc. etc... It's not, as he says, 'part of his world' to care about music, art, etc.... That's puzzling to me considering Avi Adleman owns a 'Creative Services' Business called 'Dallas Creative'. Alas, once you check out his website, I think you'll all get a better understanding of why Avi doesn't really have an affinity toward creativity.
http://www.dallascreative.com/
Yeah... see what I mean? Does it not embarrass you all that when people in other cities and states type the words 'Dallas' and 'Creative' into google.... Avi's masterpieces will be their first impression? Adelman� I'm sorry, but you wouldn't know what 'creativity' was if it pissed in your yard. You've bastardized creativity. But hey, congrats on the great domain name!
Anyway, as a musician, it really sucks that in situations such as Deep Ellum and Lower Greenville� the businesses and the city's residents at large really just hate creativity, and see it as a useless endeavor. I honestly think in 5-10 years, Dallas will all but completely purge any semblance of a 'music scene' it had here. There are many many talented musicians in this town. Don't get me wrong. But the sheer fact of the matter is that when you live in an ultra-conservative city where people see 'neighborhood activism' as something to be given a trophy for, and music as a childish pasttime� your music scene, your art galleries, your youthful vibrance, etc. will disappear. 'Youthful vibrance' is something that Dallas residents for some reason seem to have a lot of contempt for. The 'Dallas Mentality' is ALL WRONG for fostering creativity.
Hell... go to Fort Worth. Go to Denton, and the difference in attitude is massive. The best advice I can give to any Dallas-based musicians who want to be serious about their career is... don't be a Dallas-based musician. Get out of here. For every 10 great musicians in this city, there are 100 residents who could give two shits about supporting your scene or your act.... unless of course you're a tribute band. If that's the case, you're in the right city..... a city where creativity is looked down upon, being a mindless copycat is 'cool', and being a Homeowners Association President makes you a 'badass'.
Oh, and by the way, make sure you join us out at the Cavern in Lower Greenville tonight at 10, and support your local music.... And after that, do us all a favor and 'decorate' a few lawns while you're out!
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Avi Adelman 08/01/2008 4:06:00 PM
There are two very detailed listings of what was on Lower Greenville in different timeframes...
The businesses listed here cover the area (and homes) south of Belmont Avenue.
For example, a number of homes were torn down to make way for Safeway (pre Whole Foods) and Skillern's Pharmacy (pre Blockbuster).
Very few of the business addresses have changed in Zoning - ergo, many of them are still Community Retail. Restaurants are legal in these areas but NOT bars.
No harranguing here, just the facts!
(Sources - City of Dallas Business Database, Cole's Reverse Directory, personal memories of residents).
---------------------------
Do you remember 1987??
http://www.barkingdogs.org/news/node/279
Myth #1 - Lower Greenville has always been an entertainment district
http://www.barkingdogs.org/barkingdogs_archives/312%20Myth1.htm
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Radovan Karadzic 08/01/2008 11:44:00 AM
I'd be interested in seeing a (somewhat detailed) timeline about the progression of businesses in this 6-block street, going back 15 years. In 2008, it's wall-to-wall bars and getting more dangerous as the gangstas move in.
fictional example:
May 1991 / Joe's Pub / Bar / Neighborhood Pub / Hello
Jan 1992 / Arcadia / Theatre / Hip-Hop / Burned in 2000
Oct 1994 / Joe's Pub / Bar / Hip-Hop / Moved to Deep Ellum
rather than hear Adelman's harangues about their lives being ruined by the "scumbars" I'd like to see hard data, if it exists. If you DARE.
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FairsAreForTourists 07/31/2008 6:30:00 PM
Uh, have you ever tried to park in Austin? Seattle?
I'm am pretty damn sure that *parking* isn't the reason Dallas has a big old inferiority complex about its music scene. Stop projecting your whining on other, unrelated issues like parking.
As Ken said, if you're really a resident of Lower Greenville that lives anywhere near the venues, then the problem is clear. And it's not the city's job to do anything about it - if a parking garage is such a great idea, someone build it and charge for the parking.
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Duckman30 07/31/2008 6:18:00 PM
Avi really sounds broken up about parking for the DOMA showcases:
http://www.barkingdogs.org/news/node/511
"The increase in tows can be attributed to the Dallas Observer's Music Awards 2008, hosted at Billiard Bar, Gezelling, Sugar Shack and Stout. The music fans - most of whom could not find Lower Greenville on a map on a good day - starting arriving well before 7pm. They did not pay attention to (or ignored) all the bright RPO signs (many standing right next to their vehicles) telling them RPO started at 7pm or 9pm (depending on the street).
Note to Dallas Observer: Include warnings about not parking in the Lower Greenville neighborhoods in next year's publicity kits?"
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Ken 07/31/2008 6:00:00 PM
Re: Resident Only Parking near Lower Greenville.
What a horseshit article. Come visit the neighbors nearest to Lowest Greenville to see what a zoo it is on weekend nights. The bars/restaurants are supposed to provide adequate parking but instead use the neighborhood. There is an easy fix that has been proposed - shuttles from the DART facility at Mockingbird Station. It hasn't gained traction because, hell, we'll just park in front of these here houses. Maybe instead of blaming ROP for driving off the music scene, you should look at the lack of responsibility shown by business owners toward providing parking. BTW, I agree about Deep Ellum. The City needs to shitcan the meters.
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Avi Adelman 07/31/2008 4:44:00 PM
I just posted - and saw briefly - a very long and detailed explanation about the parking garage issue.
But for some reason, it has been removed.
Hello, anyone paying attention??
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Avi Adelman 07/31/2008 4:19:00 PM
On the subject of a garage structure...
This issue came up twice in the past ten years.
In 2000, Jeannie Terelli met with community leaders and proposed that we - Community Representatives and Business Leaders - march hand in hand to City Hall and ask the City Council to build garages all over Lower Greenville.
The City would run the garages and keep the income. No details on where these garages would go.
Why both groups?? Because "the City won't listen to you neighborhood people, but they will listen to the business people."
This proposal died for a number of reasons:
Pure arrogance on Ms Terelli's part. She was in tight with then City Council rep Mary Poss, and needed a cover to get this idea in front of the Council. We were not giving her any cover.
Funding. Do you really think the City would sink money into a specific neighborhood on garages?? Let alone, where would they go??
Parking. We countered that if the City did build the garages, then the neighborhoods would become RPO en masse. She protested, No, we need those parking spaces too.
In other words, no relief for the neighborhoods, but double the amount of parking? Not gonna happen.
As a follow-up... After 5600 Vickery went RPO (Zone #2), Terelli went to her City Council reps (she thought she owned them since she was the Queen of White Rock Lake) and demanded the RPO ordinance be modified. Since the street was now empty, she wanted her valets to have permission to park cars on the street.
That idea died a quick death.
In regards to Lower Greenville south of Belmont... the same logic (or lack of it) applied.
The property owners wanted to build a large parking lot in the area. They would charge say $10 a pop, there would be no guarantees of noise shielding, and it would operate 24/7.
Our reply... What happened to the free parking you were supposed to have on the street and would any of it apply here? Answer: No.
If we approved the idea (and since it was a zoning issue, we would have input on the process), then the whole neighborhood would have to go RPO.
Again, same argument as Terelli - Oh, no, we need ALL the parking spaces we can create.
And again, the idea died a quick and violent death.
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Matt Minyard 07/31/2008 3:48:00 PM
No mention of South Lamar? Plenty of great live music and plenty of parking.
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07/31/2008 2:37:00 PM
I still have yet to hear a good argument against putting in a parking garage (similar to Fort Worth's Sundance Square garage) in the lower Greenville area.
Avi, if you have one, I'd love to hear it. But please try and refrain from using the term "gangbanger." Not everyone who goes to lower Greenville is a gangbanger. For example, I'm a 35 year old white male who loves live music and supporting local businesses (bars, restaurants, retail, etc.). I'm unable to support those businesses if I'm not able to find a parking place.
I understand why you and some people in the neighborhood wants RPO; however, I think there has to be some sort of compromise, and maybe a parking structure could be it.
Please, Avi, write intelligently and without insult your answer about a parking garage.
Thank you.
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Liles 07/31/2008 10:16:00 AM
I won't go to shows on Lower Greenville because the parking situation down there basically boils down to legalized thievery. Besides all of the drunken idiots and Jimmy Justice doing his gangster paparazzi schtick, the tow truck drivers are parasitic and the clubs are elitist and exclusionary.
If you guys don't wanna pay ten bucks to park your car, come to Deep Ellum. For less than three bucks worth of quarters you can park on the street all night. The meters expire at midnight. (It's actually a pretty good deal, all things considered. In Los Angeles the meters on Sunset Blvd. cost twice as much and you have to pay 24 hours a day. Most of the lots there charge twenty bucks.)
Parking meters suck, for sure. But the idea that the City would get rid of them in an effort to kick start the local music scene is a very abstract concept in their eyes. It's not going to happen. You just have to get used to bringing a pocketful of change with you when you head downtown.
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jorge 07/31/2008 5:44:00 AM
sounds like that guy's a trifle too familiar with bending 'way' over. pete, even though you're not a very well regarded type, it's obvious to one and all that that guy was embarrassed he came out looking especially douchey. however, if a shoe fits...
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Belmont Resident 07/31/2008 1:50:00 AM
I agree with Avi on this one. I support the live music scene in Dallas WAY more than your average person in this city, but as a resident of this neighborhood, I have to say: Greenville Ave. does NOT make this neighborhood worth living in. It's the unique architecture (or what is left of it, thanks to the yuppie cocksuckers who are taking over our streets with tear downs) and the people who make this place what it is. Greenville Ave. is a fucking meat market for SMU douches and idiots from the suburbs who are looking for a little drunken action in the city. Most of my friends in this neighborhood don't even hang out on Greenville because we know there are much better bars elsewhere (I won't mention any names because I don't want any more assholes finding out about them) and frankly, most of us could do without 90% of the bars on Greenville and 90% of the people who hang out in them.
Helping these jock morons and sorority girls find free parking is by no means going to help promote an artistic culture in this city. I'd be all for it if it would, but since greenville caters to the lowest common denominator in just about every way, the smart people who live in and love this neighborhood will continue to protect it any way we can, and letting these shitheads use our front yards as toilets is simply not something we will tolerate.
If you want to come hang out on Greenville , fine, do it. We don't care. But don't expect us to help you out if you do. This isn't YOUR neighborhood. It's OURS. And I hope the frat boys and the tear down yuppies will learn to respect it.
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Avi Adelman 07/31/2008 12:34:00 AM
I am pleasantly surprised to see my comments quoted almost verbatim in this story.
But two points bear a properly written reply...
Item 1 - The photograph
The photo shows the Granada Theatre, from the backside of Snuffers. There are no Resident Parking Only Streets in the upper end of Greenville Avenue (yet - one petition is in process).
The large majority of those streets are one-side parking due to the narrow width of the street (less than 25 feet). In theory, if a Dallas Fire/Rescue truck were to park on this street, they need room for their balance pads.
These streets have been one-side-no-parking for about 15 years, with good reason. It took a pitched battle with one former council member who wanted to protect her bar supporters (read - money) to get the same protection on your street in the Lower Greenville area several years ago.
Are you saying we should give up our rights to protect our homes from a fire just so you can enjoy a show at the Granada?? I doubt the City will let you pull the signs out of the ground.
You write:
"If giving people the benefit of the doubt and allowing them to support the scene means a few drunk people pissing on Adelman's lawn�or mine, for that matter�then so be it. I can take a few brown spots on my lawn in exchange for a thriving music scene."
Why is it that the only people who want to negotiate something like this are the ones who want the (fill in the blank - music, bars, noise, free parking etc).
We the residents have the right - and the money - to make our streets quieter and safer at night. If that means you and your friends need to walk farther or pay high valet fees, that is your problem not ours.
The bar owners have no right to ask for any favors from the neighborhood. We tried to talk to them, and they ignored us or lied to us or just flat out told us to go away.
The bars do not make Lower Greenville a great neighborhood. The people who live here (and I can only think of one bar owner whose ZIP code starts in 752..) don't live here.
And neither do the majority of their patrons.
If the bars want to be music venues, so be it. They still have to provide free parking to their customers (good luck finding it) in the same numbers as before.
Just stop your whining, bend way over and take the valet parking fee like a man. You'll get used to it...
