[Neighbors] Notes from Neighborhoods Meeting

[liza urso]

Gay Willis, our City Councilperson, conducted most of the meeting. Issues she covered:
1. Neighbors have complained about cars speeding through RNA, HNA and LJE. DPD reports that most of the vehicles stopped for speeding in response to these complaints have been residents.  SLOW DOWN and pay particular attention in school zones.    If you have a complaint, contact the Transportation Dept. of the City of Dallas with a specific location and time. The Dept. has an assessment program which is already monitoring problem areas.      City is considering putting in "speed cushions" rather than speed bumps, which are very hard on vehicles.
2.  DPD recruitment/retention   Big recruitment effort underway, with a floor of 250 new officers. Have raised base pay 7%, giving bonuses to current officers who bring in new officers.Also offering bonuses if recruits finish the academy.  
3. Report that DPD has "refused to cooperate with ICE".  According to GAy, that is inaccurate and, in fact, DPD has not been asked to help ICE. 
4. There is a national search underway for a new Police Chief and Fire Chief
5. Gay gives huge kudos to the new City Manager.  
6.  Response to complaint that DPD response time is too slow:  911 calls are categorized (Priority 1 et al).   Based on priority of your call and others being worked, you may have slower response.  Avg. response time of 11 minutes for a Priority 1 call.    All the more reason to JOIN ENP.  If the officer is on duty, maximum response time is 2 minutes. For a uniformed DPD officer in a marked DPD squad car.   And the more members we have, the more hours the ENP officers are on patrol.  
7.  CALL 911 BEFORE you call ENP, to make a record of the incident and to have back-up sent to assist ENP if needed. 
8. You may report a 311 issue either by phone or online.
9. Short-Term rentals-  There is currently a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) precluding the shutting down of VRBOs/etc.  Gay and the City will support fighting that TRO to the Tx. Supreme Court if necessary.    In the meantime, if you are adversely affected by activity at a short-term rental, you may contact Community Enforcement or Code Enforcement.
10.  Potholes- $33M has been allocated to repairing Dist. 13 streets from the latest bond election.  
11. Vehicles parking along streets at construction sites-  Streets are public property; can't preclude parking.  HOWEVER, if the parking would  impede the passage of emergency vehicles, contact 311 and report to Parking Enforcement.  
12.  Cliff Gillespie, Director of Sanitation, also spoke regarding the problems of picking up garbage in our alleys.  The alleys were not built for the current width of garbage trucks.  There are no "skinnier" garbage trucks available.  Europe has them, but they are not approved for use in the U.S.    Picking up garbage in the narrow alleys is causing much damage to property (which the City then has to pay for) and causes injury to the people handling the garbage.     62% of garbage in Dallas is currently being picked up at the curb, not in alleys.  There are 8,000 spots in Dallas with "alley blocks", areas where the trucks are physically not able to pass.      The Sanitation Dept. is currently on a "listening tour" to gather residents' input.  In June, the issue will go back to the full City Council.     Cliff imagines the City will begin with requiring all homeowners who have a driveway which connects their alley to the street to move their cans to the street for pick up.     If you are unable to move your cans to the street, his dept. has a Helping Hands program where you may request someone to move your cans out and back.  If you have issues or complaints, he asks that you file a report online at dallas.gov/sanitation.    There are several neighbors in our 3 neighborhoods who are up in arms about the garbage pick-up issue and pursuing solutions.   If you would like to contact one of them to show your support, let me know.  
It was a very informative meeting, with members of DPD, Fire, Northaven Trail, YMCA, Sanitation, Code Enforcement and others in attendance and available for individual consultation.  
There were at least 50 neighbors in attendance.  4 from LJE.  
Liza P. Urso214-882-9858
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