“Bringing Balance” Back to Lowest Greenville: Hunt on Zoning, Rebuilding

Angela Hunt’s Web site is having similar issues to the city’s — the Internet, clearly, is having a case of the Mondays, as we’re also having our own server issues. Nonetheless, I asked her to send her account from last night’s fund-raiser at the Double-Wide, held to help those workers who lost their jobs Tuesday morning when an electrical fire at Terilli’s torched four businesses all at once. It’s after the jump, in its entirety. She also took some photos, available here — that’s one at right as well.

The District 14 representative to the Dallas City Council also addresses issues raised in Jim’s column this week concerning zoning issues on Lower (and, mostly, Lowest) Greenville. Writes the District 14 rep, “This outpouring of support got me thinking: Would we have seen the
same response if a block of Lowest Greenville — say, south of Bell
Avenue — had suffered a similar fate?”

Last night, I went to the Double-Wide’s benefit concert 
for the businesses and employees who lost their jobs as a result of
last week’s fire on Lower Greenville. The Double-Wide was great to host
this, and Chelsea Callahan did an outstanding job organizing the five
bands in such short order, helping raise funds for these
newly unemployed workers.

The neighborhood support for these restaurants and pubs — Terrilli’s,
Mick’s, Greenville Ave., Hurricane — has been amazing. Neighborhood
associations are selling T-shirts to benefit the employees, a local
bank and other business owners have set up a fund to provide financial
support, and a facebook page has been created to highlight other job
opportunities.

I’ve gotten so many emails from people — lawyers, planners, historic
preservationists, architects — offering their services to the building
owners free of charge, so the building can be rebuilt and the
businesses (and their employees) can get back on their feet as soon as
possible.  (I’m passing along this info to the owner, who pledged to
keep the historic facade and rebuild quickly.)  A testament to the
community support for these businesses can be seen in the many flowers
now adorning the chain link fence surrounding the burned-out property —
letting the owners and employees know that we are deeply saddened by
their loss, that their departure has left a hole in our community, and
that we wish them well.

This outpouring of support got me thinking:  Would we have seen the
same response if a block of Lowest Greenville — say, south of Bell
Avenue — had suffered a similar fate? 

I don’t think so.

It’s not that the loss to the business owners or employees would have
been any less traumatic or worthy of the neighborhood’s generosity. But the businesses we lost last week were just the kind that we want on
Greenville Avenue — restaurants and pubs that attract mostly
neighborhood folks, that are family-friendly, and that have patrons
visiting throughout the day not just late at night.

We see too few such businesses on Lowest Greenville — too few
restaurants, neighborhood pubs, and retailers and too many bars. Way
too many bars. All crammed into the middle of a residential area. They’re open only late at night and cater to a mostly non-local
clientele of frat boys and gangbangers, all itching to get their booze
on. We waste a lot of police time and resources and taxpayer dollars
baby-sitting these bars and their drunks, dealing with the aftermath of
bar shootings and murders and assaults that take place within half a
block of people’s homes. The police do their best to manage the
traffic and parking problems, the noise problems, the litter and
alcohol problems. But this area was never, ever intended to house so
many bars in a six block area surrounded by homes.

These bars are supposed to be getting special permits and go through a
public process, but they don’t. They skirt the rules and exist on the
edge of legality. The legal process the city has at its disposal just
isn’t enough to fix the problem. When we are lucky enough to audit a
bar, win in court and close it down, another bar just takes its place. This piecemeal approach to enforcement isn’t ever going to fix Lowest
Greenville.

So Councilmember Pauline Medrano and I have proposed a special zoning
district for Lowest Greenville that would require businesses that want
to stay open past a certain time — say 11:30 p.m. or midnight – to get
a special permit. That’s it. The permit can be granted for several
years for known businesses that haven’t caused problems, or it can be
granted on an annual basis for those businesses that are new, unknown
quantities. Or it can be denied for bars that cause problems weekend
after weekend. And even those bad operators won’t have to shut down;
they’ll just have to close their doors at 11:30 p.m. or midnight.  We
believe this will bring some balance back to Lowest Greenville and
encourage a better quality and mix of businesses.

There are a couple of news articles highlighting this proposal. One by
Jim Schutze in the Dallas Observer (“Not Easy Being Greenville: The
Neighborhood Isn’t As Bad As Some Think, But Can New Zoning Rules Make
It Better?”) and the other by Nancy Visser in the Dallas Morning News (“Dallas
seeks to control St. Patrick’s Day party scene on Greenville Avenue“).  I was so pleased to see that Chris McGuinness, owner of Dodie’s
Seafood Cafe, is supportive of this proposal. Again, his is just the
type of business we want to encourage on Lowest Greenville – a great,
family-friendly, community-oriented restaurant that appeals to locals.

I can’t wait to see Terilli’s, Mick’s, Greenville Ave., and Hurricane
come back to Greenville Avenue in the near future. I also can’t wait
to see their brand of community-oriented, family-friendly businesses
take root in Lowest Greenville and bring some balance back to this area.