8 June 22 - 28, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents pay the city’s hotel occupancy tax. Sievers says she sees the registration and tax as a contract of sorts between her as a business owner and the city, but again, the defini- tions of what a short-term rental is and is not seem to be fluid, depending on which side of the debate one is on. Over the past year, the story that resi- dents and City Council have gotten about the properties in Dallas has been full of twists and turns. A short-term rental impact analysis released in November leaned heav- ily into the idea that short-term rentals weren’t much of a problem in terms of caus- ing extra trouble or draining city resources any more or less than the average resident might. But that data was based on the prop- erties that were registered, and as a result, is woefully incomplete. In December, the City Plan Commis- sion recommended the city define short- term rentals as “lodging use,” a move that would facilitate the de facto ban in resi- dential neighborhoods where hotels are prohibited. A presentation on the recom- mendation noted that “Appx. 95% of prop- erties operating as STRs and paying HOT are within Residential zoned areas” and “these properties will be in violation for il- legal land use upon effective date of the ordinance.” A last-minute, official recommendation by Planning Director Julia Ryan and the city’s Planning and Urban Design Office leaned toward allowing short-term rentals to remain in residential neighborhoods. In the City Council briefing on June 7, when Ryan introduced her concerns over zoning the properties as lodging use to the council, she did so by offering her “personal opin- ion,” as she described it. It was then, for the first time during this entire process, the council asked Ryan to provide a formal rec- ommendation to consider before the scheduled vote one week later. The idea to “grandfather in” current rental properties was introduced by council members including Chad West. After more than three years of debate, the City Council seemed hesitant, still, to make a decision. The same night the council voted 12-3 to kick short-term rentals out of residential neighborhoods, another vote to allow cur- rently operating rentals that pay the hotel occupancy tax to remain active failed by an 8-7 vote. Another key element keeping anything relating to how to handle short-term rentals in Dallas from being simple is the fact that the city’s police and code enforcement de- partments have been thus far incapable of handling the complaints relating to party houses. The Valley Ridge Road fiasco men- tioned earlier? Police didn’t show up for hours. Of course, there’s no one from code enforcement to handle such calls on nights and weekends. The city has “required” short-term rent- als to register and pay the hotel occupancy tax for some time now, but again, there’s been no way to crack down on the suspected thousands of owners operating without meeting the city’s rules. For now, Sievers and other hosts in Dallas must decide what to do. She does know she’s not taking her properties off the Airbnb platform just yet. Unless something changes, perhaps because of the litigation almost cer- tain to come, enforcement of the new zoning will begin in December. “It’s fair warning,” Sievers said. “It’s like, we know this is coming, so we have to plan accordingly. It’ll be up to everyone to make their own decisions, but I don’t believe that this issue is done for a moment.” ▼ SCHOOLS SEE-THROUGH SAFETY ARE CLEAR BACKPACKS THE ANSWER TO STOPPING SCHOOL SHOOTINGS? BY SIMONE CARTER L ast year’s Uvalde school massacre, during which 19 students and two teachers were killed, prompted dis- tricts across Texas to ramp up safety mea- sures. Some officials floated ideas of “hardening” campuses by introducing metal detectors or even arming teachers. Others have unveiled another policy en- tirely: see-through backpack requirements. Shortly after Uvalde, Dallas ISD man- dated the use of clear or mesh bags for kids in sixth through 12th grades. And of- ficials announced late last month that they’re expanding the directive for the up- coming school year to include all district students. The idea is that see-through bags will make concealing a gun more difficult, but some education advocates say the measure creates only an illusion of security. Sheila Walker, president of the National Education Association-Dallas, said she hasn’t heard complaints about the edict. But, she added, the bags are “no substitute” for sensible gun reform. “Requiring clear backpacks does make some families and students feel that they’re being blamed for the state’s inaction on guns,” Walker said. Many politicians refuse to tighten lax firearm laws despite the country’s serious mass shooting problem. Conservative Texas officials like Fort Worth state Rep. Nate Schatzline and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz have in- stead proposed one-door schoolhouses, an oft-criticized solution. Walker wants to see more funding for mental health services in schools, noting a sharp spike in pandemic-induced mental health issues. She argued that if a kid is be- ing bullied and wants to bring a gun to school, it won’t necessarily matter if the dis- trict requires see-through bags. Some stakeholders have indeed pointed out that clear backpacks wouldn’t have stopped the Uvalde shooter from using an assault-style weapon during the attack. The same can be said for the person police say murdered 16-year-old Arlington Lamar High School student Jashawn Poirier out- side the school building before classes began for the day. The assailant who shot and killed six people inside a school in Nashville in March was also not a student. That per- son shot through a glass door to enter the building. Still, Walker gives credit where it’s due. She thinks that Dallas ISD Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde, who was chosen by trustees for the role last year, has ushered in positive changes to ensure buildings are safe and presentable. Several other Texas districts have previ- ously adopted clear bag measures, like nearby Lancaster ISD and Cleveland ISD, close to Houston. Yet other districts across the U.S. have implemented — and then scrapped — such policies. In 2018, 17 students were slaughtered in a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. After- ward, kids in that district were made to don clear bags, but officials soon reversed course. Students there had reportedly plastered their backpacks with decorations like pris- oner ID badges and SpongeBob SquarePants memes as a form of protest. “They really took issue, understandably, with being surveilled and the invasion of privacy and sort of being blamed for the epi- demic of gun violence as opposed to ad- dressing the root causes of that issue,” said Paige Duggins-Clay, chief legal analyst with the Intercultural Development Research As- sociation, a nonpartisan and education-fo- cused civil rights nonprofit. And the root cause of mass violence in schools? Guns, she said. “The ability for all kinds of people, in- cluding young people, to access them so eas- ily is a significant problem,” she said. “We will never solve this problem until we ad- dress that issue.” Clear bag policies are something that “a lot of districts are entertaining,” Duggins- Clay said. School shootings are still rare but increasing in prevalence, and when they do occur, they’re traumatizing. The phenomenon has led to a rise in hardening measures over the past decade or so, she said. Clear bags and metal detectors, as well as armed guards, are visible invest- ments that demonstrate districts are taking action. Do see-through backpacks work? “Unfortunately, I’m not aware of any evi- dence that supports the efficacy of clear bag policies specifically,” Duggins-Clay said. These rules may be well-intentioned, but they reinforce the notion that schools aren’t safe, she continued. Conversely, there is re- search that backs the idea that hardening policies are ultimately detrimental to stu- dent success and well-being. It’s not fair to strip kids of their privacy and dignity when it’s really up to adults and policymakers to address gun violence, Dug- gins-Clay argued. Hardening campuses may also work to sow a climate of fear. “When we tell students that we don’t trust them or respect them, it makes it very hard to have that go both ways and prevent what could be behavior that could be inter- vened in early on — and stopped — [from es- calating] into something really, really unsafe,” she said. Investing in mental and behavioral health in schools is a worthwhile safety effort, Dug- gins-Clay believes. One bill mandating armed guards on campuses was recently sent to the governor at a time when half of Texas school districts lack mental health services. That dichotomy is something that strikes Duggins-Clay as a “gross misalignment in priorities.” Walker, with NEA-Dallas, believes that districts generally aren’t spending enough on security nor on ensuring staff are Brandon Bell/Getty Images School districts around Texas have begun requiring students to use clear backpacks following the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. 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