The great white arc of the new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge is visible from the left side of the oddly shaped lot at the corner of Pastor Street and Canada Drive in West Dallas.
Three yappy dogs bark frantically as they run back and forth across the front yard, ignoring the rooster that’s making itself at home by the shed. Instead, the dogs seem to be distracted by the two men in straw hats working in the yard caddy-corner.
Irene Carrizales doesn’t mind all this commotion, however. It would be different if the men were clad in sport coats -returning brokers.
Carrizales’ home is one of a handful of houses situated at the foot of the bridge – a street behind Guldon Lane and two blocks away from Singleton Avenue, which now, thanks to the construction of the bridge, connects West Dallas to Woodall Rogers Freeway.
As a West Dallas resident for the past eight years, Carrizales feared the arrival of the new bridge, which opened last month. She was, and still is, unsure how it was going to affect someone like her – a property owner.
Though the bridge has only been open a couple of weeks, Carrizales said she hasn’t seen her neighborhood as peaceful and quiet since construction started years ago.
“Investors had been coming for the past three years,” she said. “But it’s been a couple of months since they’ve come around.”
Still, the fear lingers on as old warehouses are being converted into restaurants at the corner of Guldon Lane and Singleton Avenue.
On Pastor Street, there are no signs of development, except the distant sounds of bulldozers and glimpses of the cable cords of the bridge.
The homes reflect the character of West Dallas: colorful, cluttered, lived in. An owl statue sits on the front fence, welcoming visitors to the Carrizales household. Roses and other wild flowers grow up the trellis on the left side of the yard while Christmas decorations – including a prancing deer – fill the right side. Their yard is no different than the others on the street.
Since 2005, West Dallas residents have anticipated the change that would come with the new bridge as it links downtown Dallas to West Dallas.
“I remember former Mayor Laura Miller telling us to ‘get ready, they’re coming,'” Randall White, chairman of the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce, said.
The pace of change in a neighborhood depends on many factors. In West Dallas, there was an immediacy to push forward beginning in 2009. Residents were confronted by the invasion of developers. And, while they welcome new businesses, they want to preserve their neighborhoods.
Though no one can say how long it will take for investors to redevelop residential areas, city officials say Carrizales’ neighborhood, and neighborhoods similar to hers, will be left alone – at least for the time being.
However, it’s not the neighborhoods that need to be transformed. There’s something about these neighborhoods that draws in those unfamiliar to the area. The trees forming canopies from one side of the street to the other is enough to show that the area has a rich history. But there is more. From grandparents swaying in their rocking chairs watching their grandchildren play or the neighbor pulling weeds from his yard, those passing by sense the significance of these communities.
“West Dallas has the residential but it’s lacking the commercial,” Arturo Del Castillo, urban designer for the City of Dallas, said. “In terms of new activity, it’s commercial. It’s the initial activity that’s meant to bring quick interest to the area.”
City officials noticed the potential of West Dallas years ago, but it wasn’t until recent that developers made it their priority to revitalize the area.
Created in 2009 to develop neighborhoods along the Trinity, Dallas CityDesign Studio’s first initiative was to tackle West Dallas, an area bounded by the Trinity River levee at the north and east, I-30 at the south and Sylvan at the west. Brent Brown, an architect with CityDesign Studio, said the current focus is on the streets, public space and architecture. Yet, he’s not oblivious to the tension between West Dallas residents and developers.
“Residents are saying, ‘you can have Singleton, but don’t ask for the moon,'” he said.
Still, many residents believe change is good for the community.
“They just don’t want it to be at the expense of their neighborhood,” he said. “It’s a delicate balance.”
Carrizales said at first investors were planning to buy the entire neighborhood. In 2009, after multiple visits, Carrizales, like many of her neighbors, put NSO signs on her fence.
“They didn’t want to fight,” she said referring to the investors. “It was a peaceful battle. We didn’t fight long because they knew no one was going to sell.”
Antonio Matarranz, a real estate agent with the Avangard Group Inc., said investors realize they are going to have to wait another five to 10 years before knocking on residential doors again.
“Investors recognize that there’s going to be resistance,” he said.
By watching trends in neighborhood revitalizations in Dallas over the past 20 years, Matarranz believes that prices for homes will double, maybe even triple, in the next decade.
“People talk. They know someone who’s had an offer made on their home. And that person is going to tell the next person to be careful because, ‘oh, here come the conquerors,'” Matarranz said. “They wait till they know they can sell for reasonably two times what land was worth three years ago.”
Many city officials think the diversity of the old, historical neighborhoods with the new businesses will bring more people to West Dallas. Brown – though he agrees – said that this is not an insurance policy for the neighborhoods.
Though there are areas in Dallas that have benefited from development, such as the Bishop Arts District, there are many areas like Little Mexico that have essentially been erased. Similar to West Dallas, Little Mexico was landlocked, limiting its ability to grow. When the Dallas North Tollway was constructed in 1966, development in the area increased and luxury apartments and high-rises replaced the single-family homes.
“We want to preserve the community while building new communities,” Brown said. “We don’t want it to be like Little Mexico.”
White, as a member of the Chamber of Commerce, insists that the growth of this area differs from previous developments in Dallas. He, and many other city officials, don’t want this neighborhood to be forgotten.
“We are hearing and listening to what the community wants,” he said. “That’s what makes this different than what Dallas has done in the past.”
