It seems appropriate that with spring approaching, we should talk about gardening. But the type of gardening the City Council spoke about recently is a little different than what you and I will be doing soon in our own yards.
The City of Dallas has designated specific areas to be targeted for the next phase of Interactive Community Policing and Weed and Seed.
ICP/Weed and Seed was first implemented in the southern and western sections of Dallas in July 1996.
Two areas were designated for ICP/Weed and Seed in District 10. The first designation was the Hamilton Park area, which covers five reporting areas: 1028, 1029, 1030, 6037 and 4525. The second area designated was the upper Ferguson area, which includes reporting areas 1101, 1102, 1115, 1258 in District 10 and seven additional reporting areas in Distict 9.
Another critical area is the Vickery area, including the liquor store intersection at Skillman and Abrams. This area is in Districts 9 and 13 and has also been included in ICP/Weed and Seed.
There are 12 new areas in East and Northeast Dallas that have been targeted as ICP/Weed and Seed, but the three I have mentioned will have the greatest impact on Lake Highlands.
The objective of ICP/Weed and Seed is to use policing to enhance economic development by concentrating resources to clean-out crime and clean-up an area (the weeding), so that the private sector will be encouraged to invest again in these areas (the seeding).
Target Neighborhoods for phase II were selected on the basis of:
- Need for improvement of the quality of life
- Importance of the area to the surrounding community
- Indicators of economic potential
- Viability of community and grass roots support
- Areas of demonstrated need such as poverty and school drop-out rates
- Input and participation by the police division commander and the community
- Narcotics, gang activity and violent crime
- Other serious crime problems
I know that Lake Highlands residents will agree that these areas could use some extra attention and will make the entire area better.
On a different topic, we can expect another Texas Department of Transportation hearing in June discussing the Buckner/Audelia/Northwest Highway project. It seems that the original citizen notification process was not long enough, since there is park land involved.
I will be sure my mailing list is once again included in the notification process. This means if you were notified before, you will be notified again. If you weren’t notified originally but want to be, please call my office at 214-670-4068, and ask Patricia Anderson to add you to our mailing list.
Last, I want to warn our under-21 crowd who may want to drink alcohol. The state legislature is currently working on a bill to suspend the driver’s license of those caught drinking under age.
I have already spoken with Chief Click, and if this should become law, I stressed that I would like to see strict enforcement. According to the current language of the bill, this law will not only affect those drinking and driving, but also any under age minor with any alcohol level.
I feel we have a problem in Lake Highlands with under-age drinking, and this law will hit minors at their prize asset – their driver’s license.
Meanwhile, let’s all start our gardening!
