6 April 3 - 9, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents includes numbers through March 18 and shows a 45.6% reduction in homicide of- fenses year-over-year, which comes out to 25 fewer victims across Dallas. The year-to- date improvement is especially “shocking,” council member Cara Mendelsohn said, in light of the cumulative improvements the Dallas Police Department has made each of the last four years. Dallas police reported 183 murders in 2024, an improvement from the 248 victims recorded the year prior and the city’s lowest victim count since 2018, when 159 murders were reported. “It’s not just a reduction of one year, it’s on top of every year before it. When you start looking at the reduction in the number of victims, number of incidents, we clearly still have crime, but it is much lower than it had been,” Mendelsohn, who chairs the committee, said. “We have to at least cele- brate that. … It’s the officers who have done this work. It’s [police] leadership that has made it happen.” Nathan Swyers, major of the Dallas Po- lice Department’s Violent Crime Division, added that murder case clearance rates cur- rently sit above 53%, a 10% improvement from this time last year. Assault data has also been improving this year. Over 150 fewer people have been vic- tims of aggravated assaults year-to-date, with police recording a 17.5% reduction. The only category measured in the city’s vio- lence crime reduction plan that has in- creased year-over-year in 2025 is business robberies, which also follows a trend that started last year. The Waiting Game P olice dispatch call and response times are behind last year’s, in some cases by nearly an hour. Dallas police sort 911 reports into four ranking levels, with top-priority calls receiv- ing the quickest dispatch and response times. Priority one calls include reports of shootings, robberies in progress and kidnap- pings, and they are averaging an 11.29-min- ute response time so far this year, DPD data shows. This time last year, however, those calls averaged a 9.74-minute response time. Priority 2 calls, which include reports of suicide, major car accidents and animal cru- elty in progress, now average a 91.62-minute response time compared with 68.38 minutes last year. Random gunfire, drug houses, prostitution and dead person calls are sorted into the third priority level, which averages 234.56 minutes, or nearly four hours, for a response. Last year, priority three calls were generally answered within 196.10 minutes. Priority four calls have seen the most sig- nificant increase in wait time. Now, calls re- garding noise complaints, vehicle burglaries or fireworks receive a 275.09 response time, compared with 219.36 minutes in 2024. Interim police Chief Michael Igo told the council that the police department is conducting several internal reviews to shorten response times. The department is reevaluating the types of calls sorted into the priority one category, and a third-party vendor is sorting through division-specific call data, Igo said. He added that the third- party review should be completed within a few weeks. “I will just point out that while the num- ber of sworn officers is up, actually the num- ber of patrol officers is down,” Mendelsohn said, referencing staffing data that shows 25 fewer DPD officers are in patrol units com- pared with a year ago. “That’s who’s actually answering the calls … people are still waiting for an officer to show up, I think that’s the tension.” In closing the briefing, Igo said he had temporarily halted department transfers to ensure “proper and adequate staffing across the patrol divisions.” ▼ HOUSING OVERPRICED AND OUT OF ORDER 72,000 RENTAL UNITS IN DALLAS ARE ‘INADEQUATE.’ BY ALYSSA FIELDS F inding an affordable apartment in Dallas is challenging, not because there are not many available apart- ments but because there are not many that do not cost an arm and a leg. But even if you find a reasonably priced apartment, you may have to sacrifice the luxuries of modern liv- ing, like an insect-free environment or reli- able electricity. According to a study, many Dallas renters live in “inadequate” condi- tions. The report, produced by Instant Roofer, found that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) ranked 72,254 rental units as inadequate. HUD cat- egorizes rental properties based on reports of pest infestations, water leaks and heating issues. In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, 23,000 units were classified as “severely inade- quate,” lacking necessities like electricity or a complete bathroom. The most common complaint in North Texas is cockroaches; 26% of rental units re- ported an unwanted presence of the arthro- pods. The region has a higher rate of cockroach reports than the national average of 18% of all rental properties. Other wide- spread complaints from renters are apart- ments without power, which affect 15% of rental units, and uncomfortably hot apart- ments, which affect 13% of rentals. “With the average renter spending 31% of their income on housing, they should not also be dealing with maintenance issues such as cockroaches and water leaks,” said Sam Wilson, a spokesperson for Instant Roofer. As bad as 72,000 inadequate units sounds, it’s not nearly as bad as it could be. Compared with other major metropolitan areas, Dallas has a low percentage of inade- quate properties, and the rate has lowered from 6.1% in 2019 to 5.9% in 2023. New York City has the highest rate of inadequate rental properties, 13.9%, or 533,391, and has risen 3% since 2019. In Texas, renters are protected by the “warrant of habitability” law, which requires landlords to maintain rental properties in safe and livable conditions. “If you are facing issues with the condi- tion of your rental property, make sure you’re documenting everything thoroughly with photos, written descriptions, and dates,” said Jacob Petrosky, founder of In- stant Roofer. “Communicate your concerns to your landlord in writing, and keep copies of any correspondence. If your landlord doesn’t address the issues, you can file a complaint with Dallas’ Code Compliance Services.” ▼ TEXAS POLITICS EPIC SHOWDOWN ABBOTT, PAXTON TARGET PROPOSED MUSLIM DEVELOPMENT IN NORTH TEXAS. BY ALYSSA FIELDS A proposed real estate development project 40 miles northeast of Dallas is drawing the attention of Texas’ most powerful politicians and thousands of internet critics for allegedly planning a “Sharia city” in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The 402-acre property, close to the small town of Josephine and nestled between the far north edges of Collin and Hunt Counties, was purchased by one of the region’s largest mosques, the East Plano Islamic Center, or EPIC. It is set to be managed by Community Capital Partners, an entity formed by the mosque and headed by its former president of the board of directors, Yasir Qadhi. The prop- erty blueprints, dubbed “EPIC City,” were in- troduced in October and include over 1,000 homes, a K-12 religious school, a community college, a mosque and shopping centers. “EPIC City is more than just a neighbor- hood; it’s a way of life,” says the announce- ment video from the East Plano Islamic Center. “It is a meticulously designed com- munity that brings Islam to the forefront, a community that blends with nature, crafted to elevate your living experience.” Instantly, the development plan garnered scrutiny, with the most extreme critics ac- cusing the community of being cult-like and attacking the legality of creating a Muslim- only community. However, those involved in the project have gone on the record to clarify that religion is a non-factor in community involvement. “It’s an open community,” Qadhi said to KERA News. “Anybody can come in. We’re welcoming people of all backgrounds and diversity, and we’re offering them facilities that we think would be very, very useful.” Since 1968, the Fair Housing Act has pro- hibited discrimination in housing based on race, gender, nationality, familial status and religion. Perhaps giving some credence to their critics, becoming a part of the commu- nity isn’t as simple as plunking down the money for it the way anyone can for a stan- dard lot in most new developments. “Realizing that many responsible citizens of other countries might be interested in our properties, our offering is open to any per- son we approve within the property and in- vestment laws of the United States,” reads the project’s website. “[We] will limit sales to only persons we believe will contribute to the overall makeup of our community and are legally eligible to invest and buy property in the United States.” Paxton and Abbott Respond The original video showcasing the elabo- rate master plan for the community imme- diately caught the attention of far-right critics of Islam. Amy Mekelburg has been one of the most outspoken voices, tweeting about the project and its coordinators ad nauseam. Mekelburg heads the RAIR Foundation, which bills itself as “a grass- roots activist organization comprised of ev- eryday Americans leading a movement to reclaim our Republic from the network of individuals and organizations waging war on Americans, our Constitution, our bor- ders and our Judeo-Christian values.” The online outpouring of dissatisfaction with the plan eventually drew the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney Gen. Ken Paxton. “To be clear, Sharia law is not allowed in Texas,” Abbott wrote on X in a response to a now-deleted tweet from Mekelburg. “Nor are Sharia cities. Nor are ‘no go zones’ which this project seems to imply. Bottom line. The project as proposed in the video is not al- lowed in Texas.” Sharia law is a body of religious law de- rived from the Quran and forms the guiding principles of Islam. Observing Sharia law in religious practice is protected by the First Amendment. However, excluding Unfair Park from p4 Mark Graham The kitchen of a West Dallas rental home has gaping holes in the floor from pests. >> p8
