Kirby Warnock questions services available in Southern Dallas

Last week Kirby Warnock continued to make the case for improved services in Southern Dallas via a thoughtful Dallas Morning News.  Here are some highlights from Mr. Warnock's column:

• What has become painfully obvious to me is that there are two Dallases, and I'm not talking about the racial divide. I'm speaking of basic city services: roads, parks and code enforcement. The city cannot do anything about the demographic makeup of my neighborhood, but it can do something about the roads and parks.

• First, our roads. They are in worse shape than our northern neighbors'. Oak Cliff has more streets that require resurfacing, more that lack curbs and sidewalks, and more without street lights than north Dallas. These statistics come from the city of Dallas' Web site, under "unfunded needs." Why can't the city pave and repair our roads with as much vigor as it does the northern half?

• Second, our parks. A visit to Kidd Springs Rec Center in Oak Cliff should be contrasted with a visit to the Churchill Rec Center in North Dallas. Don't our children deserve a decent, well-maintained rec center, too? A quick check of the Dallas Parks Web site shows that of the seven parks with Wi-Fi access, only one of them (Kidd Springs) is south of the Trinity River. The other six are all in North Dallas. There are three tennis centers in North Dallas, but only one in Oak Cliff.

• Third, our public schools. Results from the DISD show that W.T. White and Hillcrest high schools (in North Dallas) had 34 and 46 students, respectively, pass the college-level AP exams. In Oak Cliff, Sunset, the high school nearest me, had 10. (Please don't tell me to consider private schools in my area, as I am a longtime public education advocate.)

• Don't minority families in Dallas deserve a decent road, a decent park and the junked cars to be removed from the neighborhood eyesore?  After all, they – and I – have children and a yearning for a decent quality of life.

See Mr. Warnock's entire column by clicking here.