As Robert pointed out below, Go Oak Cliff hosted the inaugural Blues, Bandits and Barbecue street party and Better Block Redux this weekend around the Kessler, where a clay conceptual model of Stevie Ray Vaughan was on display. While I didn't see Anderson Cooper roaming around, there were plenty of notables on hand Sunday afternoon, including council members Dave Neumann and Delia Jasso and Oak Cliff leader and Sunday's DMN cover boy Jason Roberts.
Sadly, I saw Neumann getting into his BMW, so I couldn't ask him whether he knew about the Cliff Manor disaster long before he told his constituents that he was "blindsided" by the ordeal. However, I did chat briefly with a handful of Cliffdwellers, highlighted by a visit with the person I sat next to when the guilty verdicts were handed down during last year's City Hall corruption trial.
Brandon Bolin, a former Jackson Walker lawyer who had two colleagues -- Susan Mead and Suzan Kedron -- appear as witnesses in the trial, has since moved on to become a developer himself. And why not? Bolin learned exactly what not to do after hearing the testimony of former affordable-housing developer Brian Potashnik, who still hasn't been sentenced after he and his wife plead guilty more than a year ago just hours before the trial began.
Along with his new gig as a principal at GroundFloor Development, Bolin is involved in a couple of the hip movements in Oak Cliff these days -- trying to rework the city's antiquated zoning rules to promote walkable neighborhoods and bringing a streetcar system to the area. He also served as general counsel for Urban Acres, a new organic market that opened about six months ago across the street from the Kessler.
While the food may have been less than stellar this weekend, there's something undeniably kick-ass happening in North Oak Cliff on West Davis Street, with folks like Bolin, Roberts and others leading the way. If our slide show simply wasn't enough, check out more pics after the jump.
