Q&A: Get to know the new Lake Highlands representative on Dallas City Council

What are you most excited about with your upcoming term as the Lake Highlands representative?

I am excited to see some of the projects that started years ago just as ideas begin to come to fruition, [such as] the completion of the LBJ-East highway project and the beautiful bridge to create a gateway into Lake Highlands from Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway.

I’m excited to continue the journey of the Forest-Audelia area and bring some resources to that neighborhood. When I began working there in 2014, there were very few city resources—not a library, not a recreation center and not a park. We are making some big strides in bringing the park in relatively soon and then some resources with library services, arts and culture services and [Dallas Police Department’s] presence. The city will have a presence in that neighborhood, and there will be opportunities for kids to have some positive things to do with their time and for everybody to enjoy some green space. We desperately needed some green space there.

How do you plan to engage with the community in that area?

You’ve got to engage with the community. We can have community meetings, and I know we will, but I’d also like to work with the North Lake Highlands [Public Improvement District] on finding ways to work with the actual residents there. It’s hard sometimes to get residents to come to meetings, so I would love to go to them in their apartment complexes and visit with them about what needs they have. I think the park will be welcomed there, so we just need to do a good job of listening to the community and understand what kind of resources they would like in the center.

How do you plan to approach your new role?

I will focus primarily on building relationships. I think what I’ve learned in my public improvement district work is that a lot of work gets done when you can work with people, and there is trust and respect. I plan to work with the residents, the constituents of District 10, and listen to their concerns. I pledge to work with city staff and to be respectful and kind as we work together on projects. I look forward to working with my colleagues on City Council and supporting their work and their goals and dreams for their districts, and I hope they will support me and my dreams and goals for District 10.

You previously mentioned public safety, homelessness and economic development as your top priorities. Why these three issues, and how do they relate to District 10 specifically?

Public safety is a quality of life issue. It’s something I learned by researching crime stats and working with some of our apartment complexes where low-income families live. Issues there create fear and anxiety. Many times, the families won’t use public spaces because of fear and anxiety. All of our residents [deserve] to feel safe and secure.

The next concern in listening to [community feedback] is [people experiencing homelessness]. My approach that I’ve said before and will continue to use is enforcement and compassion. We do need homeless encampments to be decommissioned and cleaned up, but we also need to make sure those who are homeless have the opportunity to find housing and have the opportunity to find the services they need. We have a good opportunity with that with the possibility of St. Jude’s coming in to the Vantage Point property, and I support that project.

Lake Highlands is ready for economic development. The new highway coming in with the continuous frontage roads will bring opportunities along LBJ. The bridge, as I said before, is a beautiful gateway and will improve property values around the bridge. I see those as opportunities for economic development, and I am excited to work on those projects.

One of the main topics regarding District 10 at City Council lately is affordable housing. How do you plan to address the need for affordable housing in your district?

First of all, I point to a city housing department memo from May 2021 that shows the number of low-income housing units by district. They looked at affordable housing ... and District 10 has 36,000 low-income housing units, which is 5,000 more than [any other] district.

We have to start there and understand what we already have. So when you look at affordable housing, there is affordable housing in District 10. There’s a lot of affordable housing in District 10. We have to start from that point.

I support the county’s project at 8350 Forest Lane, and I support the St. Jude’s project on Vantage Point Drive. I haven’t supported Cypress Creek at Forest Lane. I think it’s very important that we look at where we’re putting the affordable housing because I don’t want to make the mistake of concentrating it in one area. I’d rather have it scattered across the district.

You’ve previously talked about the lack of public art in District 10. Do you have any plans beyond the traffic box beautification project to try to bring other public art to the neighborhood?

Yes, I would love to work on that. For example, the Willie B. Johnson Recreation Center had a lot of bond dollars from [the 2017 bond program] spent there, and as a part of those dollars, we are going to have community art at the recreation center. One of my first things to do is touch base with the Office of Arts and Culture and see what the status of that public art is and make sure it happens soon. I definitely want to continue with the transportation boxes. There will also be some art at Church Road and White Rock Trail that will probably go in by the end of the summer. I think there are all kinds of opportunities for art in our parks and public spaces. I know we’re going to look at streetscape changes on Skillman Street, so if there are any ways to incorporate public art into that plan, that would be good.

We talked about the Forest-Audelia area specifically, but how do you plan to engage District 10 as a whole?

There are a couple of things. One would be to continue McGough’s All in D10 meetings, and those are monthly meetings on a Thursday morning. I will continue to do those. There was a time when we had more of the homeowner association presidents involved in those meetings, and I’m going to try to re-engage them. I was president of my neighborhood association for years, and I know they [can be a source] of good information about what’s happening in the neighborhood. I would also like to see the government action team brought back. That was something that involved community prosecutors, Dallas Police Department neighborhood patrol officers and Code Compliance. It brought in a lot of city resources to see what the challenges were and how we could all work together. That’s not necessarily engaging residents, but that’s engaging people working in the district, and I would like to see that again.