McGough: 'Our district is thriving'

Councilman Adam McGough unveils the new pitch packet

“The state of our district is thriving,” Councilman Adam McGough proclaimed to District 10 residents assembled at Thursday night’s Town Hall. “Four years ago when I decided to run, we had a lot of potential, but it felt like a lot of things were stalled. It’s been a lot of fun seeing great things come to life.”

McGough shared success stories and plans for the future – providing he wins the May 4th election.

As chairman of the council’s public safety committee, McGough secured a pay raise for first responders and worked to get unprosecutable warrants dropped by municipal courts. He hopes to establish a park police force, especially around the city’s much-used trail system, and grow the recently-established business crime watch.

McGough introduced U. S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox, head of Project Safe Neighborhood, who said violent crime is down 29% in D10’s Forest Audelia area. More than 170 arrests have been made for serious crimes, including carjacking, gang crime, gun crime, kidnapping, robberies and assaults – and they’re just one year in.

“It’s not just an enforcement issue,” she said. “It’s a community development issue.”

McGough said he read Plano was one of America’s “happiest neighborhoods,” in part because they have so many volunteers. He’d like to establish a D10 volunteer tracking program to record the large number of hours already being logged by Lake Highlands and Hamilton Park organizations and encourage even more good works in the community. He’d like to add an At-Home Sunshine Pilot Progam, modeled after a group in Hamilton Park which checks in on home-bound seniors. He also wants to encourage Pop-Up Potlucks, with neighbors sharing meals with neighbors in the streets.

McGough wants to bring multifamily and single family communities in D10 together with continued community events, including Trunk or Treat and Hope for the Holidays.

“We have to be intentional about bridging the gap,” he said. “It is not us versus them.”

McGough unveiled D10’s new “pitch packet” – slick promotional materials which highlight what Lake Highlands and Hamilton Park can offer potential new businesses, investors and residents. He also highlighted D10’s unique status as Dallas’ only Opportunity Zone north of I-30, making neighborhood real estate more valuable to those seeking tax benefits.

Lake Highlands High’s School Resource Officer, Anna Kubeer, shared stories of successes with students, including a recent decrease from 70 to 16 incidents, despite “great diversity, including people from just about every country in the world.” She interacts closely with kids and earns their trust.

“Students need to learn to engage with first responders,” Kubeer said, “not just when they get in trouble, but also when good things happen.”

McGough pushed to increase LHHS’ SROs from 2 to 4 – 2 in each building –and he now wants to see 2 in each junior high to thwart a recent uptick in gang activity in the area.

“Everything that happens, kids know about it,” he said.

Finally, he said, there’s a need for citizens to plug in. Whether you are interested in becoming Principal for a Day at a local school, hosting a Pop Up Potluck, joining Friends of the LH Trails, nominating an interesting person to be featured in McGough’s Stories of Influence or joining his Collective Impact Team, McGough wants to hear from you. You may text “AllinD10” to 474747 to receive a response form, or you may email the councilman at Adam.McGough@dallascityhall.com.