Cash Loans Dealer replaces Starbucks on Camp Wisdom Road in Southern Dallas
Who in the hell left the gate open?
That’s the kicker from the above sermon by Rev. B.W. Smith (about 2:00 in) when describing a little dog that always yapped at a big dog from behind the safety of a fence. Now I’m not really drawing a parallel with the dogs in this post, but I am wondering, who in the hell left the gate open for a cash loan store to moves in next door to a check cashing place.
When Magic Johnson brought Starbucks into Southern Dallas it was a proud moment. When I moved to this part of town I often stopped by the coffee house, even though it wasn’t as cozy as most. I hated to them close, but it was never packed so I could understand.
A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the building was getting a paint job, loud red and yellow to be exact. I figured it was either going to be repurposed as an El Pollo Chicken or Williams Chicken. Not what I would have chosen, but they pay taxes so I could let that ride.
But when I was told last week that another check cashing place was moving in, I was pretty upset. Riding by this week I saw their sign up: Loan Star -Cash Loans. I would never have imagined that this would go up right next to PLS’ outfit.
The Dallas Morning News published an excellent investigative report on Sunday about pay lenders and legislators like Ft. Worth’s Sen. Wendy Davis who are attempting curtail their activities. Payday lenders are virtually unregulated here in Texas.
Read Doug Swanson’s Pay Day Loan investigation article written with research provided by students from the Mayborn Graduate School of Journalism at the University of North Texas.
As the article discusses, they are only open because people see value in their service. But their service takes advantage of people . Taking advantage of people isn’t a crime, but charging 900% on a loan should be.
And who from the community is keeping track of the type of development moving into our community? We all came together to stop the New Fine Arts building that was going in on Westmoreland, but what about these check cashing outfits?
Is anyone at the table when these outrageous lenders look to further penetrate our area? And by the way, does anyone care that the Pet Store that left the Southwest Center Parking Lot is now at $8 Fashion Outlet?
I know we’re desperate for tax revenue and business expansions in the South but seriously, does that mean we accept anybody that’s not selling porn? Or does it mean that because we’ve left the gate open for so long we get what we get? Too often we’re like the little dog in Rev. Smith’s story – yackity yack, yackity yack, yackiity yack.
