6 May 1 - 7, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents about 150 days to receive after entering emergency shelter and 47 days to receive af- ter entering enhanced shelter.” When reached for comment, a represen- tative for Our Daily Bread said the group will be discussing the audit’s findings and may have a statement from its board of di- rectors later. Tracy Duckworth, also known as “Mama T,” a vocal advocate for Denton’s homeless population, spoke at the meeting, according to the NT Daily report. “The audit even showed that there’s three times the beds for men that there are for women,” Duckworth said, according to the NT Daily. “And are we talking about holding anybody accountable at all? [...] It sounds like everybody that has a contract with y’all and having anything to do with the homeless re- sponse system has broken said contract, and all we’re doing is rewriting contracts.” Another part of the city’s homelessness response that has been lacking, in large part, due to a lack of coordination among city de- partments, is how Denton engages with homeless encampments. “While the city has established guidelines to address encampments on city property, these are not clearly followed, and the en- campment response has generally been reac- tive,” Rorsharch said during the meeting. Historically, there has been no central- ized list or coordinated monitoring of large encampments or places of interest, despite street outreach staff regularly visiting these areas. “Site inspections were not docu- mented, and initial report inspections were conducted by law enforcement,” Rorschach noted, “which may not have always been the most efficient use of resources.” Kent indicated that an encampment sup- port solution is already in the works by ex- plaining that “all of these different routes to identification are concentrated in the Com- munity Services Department.” Of the 19 recommendations issued by Ror- schach’s audit, the city agreed to 15, partially agreed to three, and disagreed with one. The agreed-upon recommendations include ef- forts to centrally track and regularly monitor all large encampment locations to inform clo- sure and cleaning decisions and the creation of a process to allow for increased diversion of mental health calls that minimizes the in- volvement of law enforcement officers. Formalizing a coordinated procedure for offering assistance to people experiencing unsheltered homelessness during inclement weather events was also among the recom- mendations the city agreed to. This audit will be subject to a formal fol- low-up review in 2027 unless the council di- rects the auditor to perform one sooner. ▼ NEIGBORHOODS THE COUNCIL THAT STOLE CHRISTMAS CITY LEADERS MIGHT BECOME ‘GRINCHES’ AFTER VIRAL CHRISTMAS CHAOS. BY EMMA RUBY I n December, a social media storm sur- rounding a dazzling Christmas display in a Preston Hollow neighborhood was swift and unrelenting. When that storm transitioned into a real-world whirlwind, neighbors, Dallas police and city code en- forcement officers were left with little re- course. There was hardly an inch of the 9,000 square-foot home that wasn’t covered in twinkling white lights, and social media ex- ploded in adoration for the display. One Tik- Tok posted by local influencer Chris James Kahle received 43,000 likes and was shared nearly 20,000 times. Instagram reels show- ing off the display garnered hundreds of thousands of views. North Texans flocked to see the home for themselves, leading to a holiday season full of congested car and foot traffic, litter, noise and light nuisance. After receiving reports of property damage and individuals running across lanes of traffic to see the home, coun- cil member Gay Donnell Willis asked the Dallas Police Department to step in. Once the holiday season passed, Willis announced that the police resources needed to squash the hubbub cost taxpayers $25,000. Last week, the Dallas City Council’s Quality of Life, Arts and Culture committee discussed adding “some teeth” to a city ordi- nance that would prohibit the “extraordi- nary neighborhood event” from happening ever again. “At the core of this, though we’re calling these extraordinary neighborhood events, it’s really about extraordinary neighborhood disruption,” Willis, whose district includes the Deloache Avenue mansion that caused a Christmas season stir, said. “What I was working with definitely looked very com- mercial in nature. It was extraordinary. It was really cool, but not in the middle of a neighborhood street.” According to a briefing from city officials, Dallas’ city code addresses permitting for outdoor events on public and private prop- erty. Gatherings requiring permits include home tours, small neighborhood parades and running events such as the Dallas mara- thon. What the code doesn’t address is spon- taneous crowds like last December’s. According to reporting by The Dallas Morn- ing News, the Deloache Avenue home re- ceived a citation for noise and light glare violations at one point, but a follow-up in- spection found the issues had been fixed. After that, the city’s hands were tied. In the briefing, city staff suggested up- dating the Dallas city code to consider ex- cessive light a nuisance. This change would give the city the ability to flip the switch in the event of a display leading to “sustained gatherings, traffic congestion, or blocked emergency access.” Not every council person seemed to think that cracking down on light displays is the path forward. Council member Jaynie Schultz urged city staff to consider the tradi- tion of families driving around Dallas to look at lights during the holiday season. She asked city officials to consider volume when defining what an extraordinary neighbor- hood event is, stating that even 100 cars driving past a home at night may be enough to bring a display into disruptive territory. Council member Paul Ridley agreed with the sentiment. After city staff told the coun- cil that a code enforcement officer’s discre- tion is a “big piece” in determining what constitutes a neighborhood nuisance, Ridley encouraged the city to propose “some objec- tive criteria” to the suggested light nuisance amendment. “I’m concerned that we end up becoming Grinches, stamping out anyone’s holiday displays in an excess of zeal here,” Ridley said. Staff also encouraged the council to con- sider introducing a land use amendment for event venues that would “provide a clear definition and threshold” to enforcers cracking down on gatherings or large parties taking place in residential neighborhoods. The council voiced concerns about nui- sance enforcement, something that Chris Christian, director of Code Compliance Ser- vices, said the department is not able to han- dle on its own. In the event of large gatherings or parties where a criminal cita- tion could be issued to the homeowner, code enforcement officers cannot detain a person or force them to identify themselves, Chris- tian said. Further complicating the discus- sion is that many of the types of gatherings or parties the council hopes to address through a code change take place at night. Noise or disruption complaints that take place after hours are typically “a Dallas Po- lice Department concern,” Christian said. Dallas Police Department data shows that noise complaint calls are averaging a four- and-a-half-hour response time across the city. “If we move in a direction of modifying the code to give code [enforcement] a safer and more efficient way to enforce noise after hours in residential neighborhoods, then we’d have to have a whole other conversa- tion about staffing and resources to do so,” Christian said. Christian told the council he’d be open to discussing a partnership with the Dallas Po- lice Department to help crack down on nighttime enforcement effectively. The committee will pick up the issue again in June. “We’re the ninth largest city in America, and I feel like we’re a 24/7 operation. A lot of the issues we have, and I know that you all have worked to staff greater hours, over- night, etc., but I really think we need to go into this year’s budget looking at our city as a 24-hour city,” Willis said. “I just do not want to give up on this. Because this happened to me, but this can happen in any district.” ▼ IMMIGRATION A STUDY IN FEAR RECENT VISA REVOCATIONS SPARK FEAR IN LOCAL STUDENTS. BY GREGORIO OLIVARES GUTIERREZ O n April 9, students across North Texas entered a state of panic as the news hit that 77 students across the University of North Texas, Texas Wom- an’s University, the University of Texas at Arlington, and the University of Texas at Dallas had their visas revoked. Last week, the total number of Texas revocations has surpassed 300. Accompanying the revocations was an announcement that the Trump Adminis- tration introduced new social media screenings for antisemitic activity by stu- dents seeking visas and those already in American universities. UT Dallas sophomore Alexander Law- less, a business major who enjoys photogra- phy, was doing a photo shoot outside with his friend Wadi, a UT Dallas senior who came from Saudi Arabia to study computer information systems. As Lawless and Wadi were in the middle of their shoot, they started to receive a flurry of messages as news broke across campus that 19 interna- tional students had their visas revoked. “The moment he [Wadi] pulled out his phone and saw the coverage our school pa- per had put out, I saw a visceral ‘oh shit’ re- action hit him,” Lawless said. “I saw his heart just fully drop. That is the first time I had ever seen him feel actual fear.” The Observer contacted Wadi to confirm his identity and ask for comment. Wadi re- quested we use a pseudonym out of con- cern for his student visa status. Unfair Park from p4 Adobe Stock Should there be another viral Christmas light miracle in Dallas (not pictured here), the city council hopes the city will be ready for it.
