I took a trip to DD’s Discounts today. Yep. Some of you are gasping in horror, I know. I report back with good news, though — the place ain’t bad. Located at the high-crime intersection of Audelia-Forest, DDs is a store marketed to lower-income families. I was in need of a new kitchen trashcan, some laundry baskets and household basics, which I’d normally get at Target. But I got everything I needed at DDs for about a third of the Target price. (Plus I got a piece of carry-on luggage — which bears a striking resemblance to a version I purchased at Nordstrom Rack a while back —for my traveling husband.) The store is clean, sells some name-brand items and was staffed with no less than three security guards.
While in the parking lot, I was reminded that the new ALDI grocery store is under construction and scheduled to open in the same shopping center in early 2010. I live in the neighborhood a block away, and I’m excited about this addition.
Don’t get me wrong, I am painfully aware of the crime problem at this intersection. In fact, I just wrapped-up a feature story about North Lake Highlands crime that will appear in an upcoming issue of Advocate, for which I absorbed much disturbing data about neighborhood crime —even rode a shift with a patrol officer. Someone broke into my husband’s car weeks ago, and my daughter recently woke up in the night because she heard gunshots in the not-far-enough distance, so I understand how infuriating it is to have crime nearby.
But the fact is that lots of people around here — police, city officials, neighborhood activists and volunteers and some apartment owners — are working darn hard to clean-up this area. Take a look at the comments posted after my last Aldi post — most of them are negative. But I like to think more along the lines of readers Suzanne and Mark — I have hope for this hood.
There are a handful of bad guys living/ hanging around North Lake Highlands — the police arrest them and the jail lets them go and they return and rob and worse.
But many of the low-income, apartment dwelling families around here are essentially like the higher-income families around here — good people, raising kids, working hard and hoping for a better safer neighborhood with nice places to shop and eat and live.
By the way, DDs is hiring … and I’ll let you know how that luggage holds up.
