Hope For Dallas Residents Tired Of Blight

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Near the corner of 52nd Street and South Lancaster Road in southern Dallas sits a boarded-up, long-ago abandoned apartment complex. Neighbors said that it has become a haven for rats, a meeting place for drug deals, and a fire hazard.

Gloria Stubblefield, who has lived in the neighborhood adjacent to the complex for more than 20 years, said that the blighted property is more than just an eyesore. She said that it has increased crime in her neighborhood. "It don't take but one rotten apple to spoil a whole bag," she said.

This is an example of a blighted property in southern Dallas, Dallas councilman Casey Thomas said, that the city will target for new development.

"It is frustrating, but we have learned to just accept it and go on," added neighbor Augusta Ross. "We do feel, if it would have been a different area, they would have done more to fix them up."

Thomas does not blame neighbors for being skeptical. The apartment complex has been in this condition, neighbors said, for nearly a decade. "We have to show them -- through actions, a commitment, and a collaboration -- that we can make these things happen," said Thomas.

Monday evening at 6:30 p.m. at the Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center, 5150 Mark Trail Way, Thomas is holding a 'Fight the Blight' neighborhood meeting where he will share new, aggressive strategies that the city has put in place to eliminate blight.

Thomas pointed to the Lancaster Urban Village in Oak Cliff, a new mixed-use development where once sat two rundown motels, as an example of what can happen.

Stubblefield said that she is not getting her hopes up. "We've been waiting for a long time," she said.