Thursday, February 1, 2024 | |
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Fellow Cliff Dwellers,
Happy February! In addition to the Super Bowl and Oak Cliff’s signature events, Dash for the Beads and the Mardi Gras Parade, City Hall is also particularly busy this month. Here’s the latest:
2024 Bond. At yesterday’s briefing, Councilmembers narrowed down the allocation categories for the upcoming bond. The meeting can be watched HERE starting around the two and half hour mark. Here is where we ended up:
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What’s next? Council will work with staff on ensuring that individual, district-specific projects are included in the bond package. For D1, I’ll fight for as much bond funding as possible for projects that you’ve been telling me you prioritize, such as the North Oak Cliff Library, Jefferson Blvd traffic calming, Sylvan-Colorado intersection, and renovations and upgrades to our many parks. Click here to view the upcoming schedule.
Housing Reform Yesterday, city staff briefed Council on housing options, including reconsideration of minimum lot sizes and gentle density, issues which the city hasn’t tackled since circa 1960. Councilmembers expressed concerns, namely regarding protecting single family neighborhoods from encroaching development. I share many of these concerns – I believe it’s essential that we carefully study the protections for neighborhoods that other cities have put in place when passing and rolling out modern reforms to provide more housing options for their workforce and aspiring homeowners. As a next step, I expect for the City Plan Commission to pick up this topic and discuss it at length.
Oak Cliff Skate Park. Last week, I was excited to announce that we hit the $100,000 fundraising milestone for the Oak Cliff Skate Park, proposed for Westmoreland Park along Illinois Avenue, a park that hasn’t seen updates or improvements since 1985. City staff, encouraged by the diligence of the fundraising volunteers, gave their blessing for us to move forward with the official engineering design plans! Thank you to neighbors and friends who continue to support this important and fun project! We are plowing forward to meet our goal of $400K in private fundraising to match city dollars 1 for 1. If you’d like to volunteer or donate, please go to www.skateparksfordallas.org.
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Dash for the Beads. The Dash for the Beads/Mardi Gras weekend is one of my favorite weekends in Oak Cliff, and this year, it all takes place on Super Bowl Sunday! I encourage you to join me and your neighbors at the Dash to work up your appetite for football. See you out there! | |
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It's with mixed emotions that we announce that our District 1 Liaison, Ever Amaya, is leaving the City for Southwest Airlines, where has has accepted a position as an Employee Engagement Specialist. Ever has been a rockstar for District 1 and we're very sad to see him go, but we're so thrilled for him! Ashley Long will be taking his place as District 1 Liaison, and we will let you know as soon as we find a new Policy Analyst. | | | |
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District 1 Board and Commission
2024 Kick-Off and Celebration
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On Tuesday, January 23rd, we hosted the 2nd District 1 Board and Commission Kick-Off and Celebration event at La Comida in Oak Cliff. We were joined by most of our current board members and commissioners, as well as District 1 leaders and task force members. We also gave special recognition to Amanda Popken, District 1's former City Plan and Zoning Commissioner, Ricardo Corpus, District 1's former Youth Commissioner, and the five members of the Community Bond Task Force members. Councilmember West provided attendees with updates on the Bond and the Oak Cliff Skatepark. It was a fun-filled evening and we're grateful to have some of the most engaged residents in the City of Dallas. Special thanks to Mario at La Comida, and his amazing staff for hosting our event! | |
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The Planning & Urban Design department is hosting two virtual Listening Sessions to provide information and receive comments about the proposed development code amendments for child-care facilities, adult day care facilities and day homes. Learn more about the proposed code amendments at bit.ly/adultchilddaycarecodeamend.
Virtual Listening Sessions
6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 30 bit.ly/codeamenddaycares013024
12 noon to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 31 bit.ly/codeamenddaycares013124
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Charter Review Commission Upcoming Meeting | The Charter Review Commission will hold a public meeting on Tuesday, February 6, at 6:30 p.m. Attached are bilingual social media infographics for the public meeting. Additional information on the Charter Review Commission is available here. | |
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Free Tax Help Available at
Dallas Public Library
| In partnership with AARP and Community Tax Centers, 15 Dallas Public Library locations will be offering free tax filing assistance beginning Monday, January 22. Days and times vary and are subject to change. A complete and up-to-date listing is available on the library's website. | |
On behalf of the Bishop Arts Theatre Center, you're invited to attend the 3rd annual banned books festival as they present THE SUM OF US ONE-ACT FESTIVAL, a collection of short plays by six local playwrights inspired by Heather McGhee's brilliant analysis, exploring the far-reaching costs of racism and the path to healing as a community. Prepare to be captivated by these powerful performances, followed by nightly talkbacks that foster meaningful conversations and a stronger sense of unity.
Made possible in part by Dallas Truth Racial Healing & Transformation. Click here for more information.
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The Office of Homeless Solutions Give Responsibly campaign encourages donations to nonprofits serving our most vulnerable neighbors to end homelessness and reduce street charity. To help, residents can text 214-740-7886 with the word CARES. Residents will then receive a direct link to the DallasHomelessSolutions.com/get-involved, where they can Give Responsibly to help end homelessness.
Learn how you can be the solution by giving to nonprofit service providers directly. bit.ly/GiveResponsiblyDallas
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Download the application on your Android phone HERE or iPhone HERE | | | | |
