gen·tri·fi·ca·tion • jen-trə-fə-ˈkā-shən • noun
the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often displaces poorer residents.

What is happening in Deep Ellum is hardly gentrification. There is no displacing of a lower economic class by affluent people who are capitalizing on low property values for their own financial gain. In fact if you were to shop around the neighborhood you would find that a lot of the property in Deep Ellum is quite expensive. The property owners of Deep Ellum are doing what any good capitalist does, and that is simply getting a return on their investment. There really isn’t a lot that anyone can do to stop someone from selling something that is theirs.

Organizations like the Deep Ellum Association, Deep Ellum Foundation and the Deep Ellum Enrichment Project serve a key purpose of trying to keep the culture of Deep Ellum intact as we move into this new era promising big change. I think the spirit of Deep Ellum is more vital than the physical complexion of the area.

If a few large retailers end up moving into the neighborhood I think that will be really great for the independent businesses that are already here. Large retail, residential communities and restaurants generally come with budgets to advertise. This will ultimately draw new people to the area that might not have come here otherwise. Once they are here they can walk around and discover the O.G. businesses who are foundation of the neighborhood.

This isn’t an after school special where the big developer’s soft spot is touched when he sees the neighborhood kids playing on the playground he is about to tear down for his latest mixed use development, and the climax occurs when he tears up the contract while his investors stand their shaking their heads.

This is commerce not gentrification, and the above scenario will almost certainly never happen. So since this is inevitable at this point, playing ball sounds like a good idea. It is better than the alternative of being confrontational and resistant to change, you’ll get less referrals from your gigantic new neighbors.

If you want to see what gentrification looks like, Oak Cliff is a 10 minute drive from Deep Ellum.

It seems that Dallas still has this 1980’s mentality that grafitti is connected to street gangs. So in the process of “cleaning up the streets” from grafitti, then they are thinking that they are discouraging the gangs from being attracted to those areas and robbing and shooting them up. So in the plea to clean up Dallas, they have convinced corporations and volunteers to contribute their money and time to feel like that have “made a difference” in their community just because there is fresh paint on a wall…ha…it’s the same notions that compelled those art kids from the suburbs to paint there too!!! To make a visual change. To make a personal contribution. To be seen and heard.

Dallas Police Chief Knuckle recited a little story at the Deep Ellum town meeting where he stated that he has made it a personal mission to clean up the grafitti in Dallas because he didn’t like seeing it on his jogging route. So you got a man holding the scissors to the red tape, and only when it’s his personal mission will he start chopping away with a vengance while at the same time holding them back at his disgression. So good for him. His favorite jogging route is getting a fresh coat of paint, and all those suburban art kids are behind bars or paying thousands of dollars in fines, all now with criminal records. Good job. I can’t wait to walk down my newly painted street and get heckled by homeless people who need shelter and psychiatric care, or see all the businesses in my neighborhood close down because they are competing with the stripmall-subsidized-supercenters that keep spreading like the plague in this town…or how bout being forced to drive a car in this city, paying outrageous amounts in gas, because there is no mass transit system in place that can get me to and from places like the airport…or how bout biking….

I’m glad people want to clean up this city, make a difference in their community, etc., it’s just that I feel that things like cleaning up grafitti should already happen by the community members. If someone doesn’t like the grafitti on their jogging route, then get some paint and cover it up. Save the corporation money, and the red tape scissors for the things that really need major first-aid in this city.

After that we went to the Lakewood Landing and got my boyfriend good and drunk. They were nice enough to give him a free shot of SoCo for the occasion. Too bad he got sick on the way home. LOL

Today was kinda fucked up. This guy called the office like 12 times today, saying he's calling from our tech support in NYC and he is testing our phone lines, and could I transfer him to this or that extension. I transferred him several times, thinking nothing of it-the lady who is my backup on the phones tranferred him a couple of times as well. He was calling from a 212 number, which is the area code all our corporate office numbers originate from.

Sooo fast forward to this afternoon around 4...and it's all "hello, this the DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY, sup?" on my phone. WTF?

Oh yah, and the FBI called as well.

They (homeland security) tell my office manager that our office number has come up on a FEDERAL WATCH LIST because a call was made to the United Arab Emirates for a half an hour this morning. They said that the call had been attempted 12 FUCKING TIMES.

WHAT THE HELL. I got jacked by a fucking TERRORIST. They hacked our outside line when I transferred the calls [no, I really have no idea how] . The only managed 1 actual call before Verizon blocked them, but goddamn. I felt like such a dummy, even though I had no way of knowing and was doing what I have been trained to do. People call our office all the time asking them to patch them through to this extension or that outside number. That has changed after today’s events

Ugh. I just feel weird. o_0 Used or something. And dumb, did I mention that?

First, anyone who has been out and about with my circle of friends knows we get loud, profane and boisterous. We argue silly and inane points, yell at each other from across the bar, and garner enough looks from the uninitiated to make anyone skeptical. This is regardless of how much alcohol has been consumed.

Last night, after picking my roommate up from the airport, we went to No Frills Grill. Since I’m still boozeless through Lent, I didn’t have one sip of alcohol — but if a field agent uses the same criteria they used when they arrested Burton Byers, the guy in an Irving hotel bar, I would have so been in jail Tuesday night.

Second, Our Fearless Mayor Laura Miller actually signed off on this operation. At a time when Dallas is already trying to mend fences with the convention business — after a decade of twiddling their thumbs and watching millions of tourism dollars fly elsewhere — the city is now the laughingstock of the nation. Again. Never mind that “Operation Last Call” is state-wide: the perception is that it’s happening primarily in Dallas because of the Byers story. Yeah, we need this.