Dallas city leaders are working on what they term a new public safety initiative aimed at cracking down on crime in the Mill City neighborhood of South Dallas near Fair Park.
Announcing the new endeavor, leaders pointed out the abandoned houses, blighted properties, and trash that has plagued the neighborhood, one that has become more of a renter community than the homeowner area it once was.
Blight has become synonymous with abandoned vacant lots because the tall grasses that grow in those lots provide a safe haven for criminals. A prime example of one of these overgrown vacant lots can be found on Jamaica Street.
Robert Randall, a local resident who lives across from the lot on Jamaica Street, told NBC 5 that criminals hide in the overgrowth.
“There used to be a drug house on this street and the police busted it a couple of years ago, and some of the guys were hiding in those bushes right there.”
The Dallas Police Department said Mill City records lots of criminal activity. Since 2017, the neighborhood has documented over 400 theft offenses, over 100 robberies, and over 550 assaults. It has also had close to 300 burglaries and almost 200 motor vehicle theft cases.
However, the neighborhood was not always like this.
Resident Alendra Lyons, who also grew up in Mill City, told CBS News that it used to be a beautiful place. “When I came back 30 years later it was different, it wasn’t good,” she said.
“We have criminologists that will tell you that across the country, the common dominator in these areas is … decay,” Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said.
The same cleanup tactic is used in Philadelphia, and according to Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson, it is working. For Lyons and others who call Mill City home, the plan represents hope for a better future.
“I want the kids that I work with that live here to stay here but I want it to be a place of safety and beautification,” Lyons said.
With this new initiative, leaders plan to make Mill City a safer place for people to live and visit as they hope to attract new development in the older areas of neighborhoods like the one on Jamaica Street. They also intend to expand the plan to more neighborhoods in the future.
“We want to bring people back to the city. We want people living in South Dallas and all these places. But even before we get there, we’ll see a benefit from just cleaning these areas up,” Johnson said.
Johnson claimed that crime has gone down over the past three years in parts of the city where blight reduction has taken place. It is the mayor’s hope that Mill City will see the same improvement as other areas where the initiative has been carried out.
The plan is going to be funded by a $100,000 grant through Mayor Johnson’s Safe Communities Fund, along with tax money from Councilman Adam Bazaldua. The Safe Communities Fund is a private philanthropic fund sponsored by the Communities Foundation of Texas. Established in 2020, it was created to support strategies developed by the Mayor’s Task Force on Safe Communities.
The funds are being handled by Builders of Hope Community Development Corporation, which aims to address abandoned lots and buildings through a block-by-block remediation approach.
“It is a two-year plan to remediate blight,” said President and CEO James Armstrong. “In order to build strong communities, those communities have to be safe. Those communities have to have a decent quality of life.”
Police Chief Garcia added that the effort to clean up the neighborhood will assist his officers in their bid to reduce crime in the city.
