4 November 23 - 29, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Month XX–Month XX, 2014 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | sonable, weren’t enough to keep plenty of members from feeling a bit hoodwinked by the sale. To them, the notion remained that the gym facility itself was of tremendous value to the community in a number of ways. Compared with many large gyms, the membership prices there were more afford- able, for one example. And few places in town, regardless of neighborhood, offered the chance for so many people from differ- ent backgrounds and statuses to conve- niently enjoy a game of pickup basketball or fitness class with one another in what was widely considered to be one of the best gyms anywhere in Dallas. By taking the gym away from the central business district, the metro board was taking something of consequence away from the people who worked and lived in and near downtown, many members be- lieved. Instead of a full commitment to keep the Y downtown in 2023 and beyond, where it has been in one form or another since 1885, Hazelbaker left open the possibility of find- ing new space in a small section of down- town or in Uptown. As of late September, a new location had not been found when the sale went under contract. There is a sense of relief among the downtown Y’s membership, but some long- time members aren’t quite rejoicing at the last-second pardon their beloved gym re- ceived. Paul Hoffmeyer told the Observer that he’s happy about the sale falling through, but he’s still leery about the future since he doesn’t trust Hazelbaker. Paul Lindenberger, who is both a longtime member of the Y and a board member for the branch, has similar feelings. He has recently cut back his support of the YMCA because of his distaste for the events of the past year and what he calls a “lack of confi- dence” in the senior Metro Y board. “It is extremely disappointing that YMCA leadership moved forward with try- ing to sell when there were so many reasons not to, particularly in this commercial real environment and no plan for post-sale,” Lin- denberger told the Observer. “If senior lead- ership would have listened to the volunteers that it appointed and the local downtown community, all of this would have been avoided.” Both Hoffmeyer and Lindenberger kept their memberships current, but that’s not the case with others. Some have described making the decision to leave the downtown Y and going through the effort and cost to join a new gym elsewhere in recent weeks, only to hear it was all for naught. Well, at least for now it seems as though the move was made for nothing. The gym staying open downtown is wel- come news, there’s no doubt, but there are scars that will take time to heal. Given the twists and turns that the story of the T. Boone Pickens YMCA has taken recently, Hoffmeyer will take the good news when it comes, but not presume it will stay that way until he has a reason to. “I have no confidence in the metro board and the real question to be answered is ‘What is the intent and direction moving forward?’” Hoffmeyer said. “I am waiting to hear back regarding that response. I do not believe I will get one.” ▼ CRIME LESS VIOLENT CRIME, MORE MURDERS STAFFING SHORTAGE GETS IN THE WAY OF REDUCING VIOLENT CRIME. BY JACOB VAUGHN D allas Police Chief Eddie Garcia had some good news last week about crime in the city. Overall violent crime is down, in part due to a reduction in aggravated assaults, and robberies are also down. However, it’s not all good news for the city. Murders are still up by more than 13% in Dallas compared to last year. That comes out to about 25 more murder victims when stacked up against 2022. According to the Dallas Police Department, the increase in murders is being driven by arguments and conflicts (no, duh). The murder rate is just one reason the city ranked low on WalletHub’s list of safest cities: No. 165 of 182 cities. As Dallas grapples with its murder rate and tries to flatten the trend, the work is showing some promise. The department’s three-part violent crime reduction plan that’s in the works includes a short-term hot spots policing strategy, a mid-term place network investigations (PNI) strategy and a longer-term focused deterrence strategy. The deterrence strategy involves reaching out to past offenders with an offer to con- nect them with resources for jobs, educa- tional information and other services. The PNI Task Force looks into high- crime areas across the city, mostly apart- ment complexes. Since July 2022, the task force has made 164 arrests, resulting in 203 felony charges. The team also took 114 fire- arms off the streets, and the department was able to get even more guns off the street with a recent gun buyback event. Dallas Police major Jason Scoggins told members of the city’s public safety commit- tee during a meeting on Monday that aggra- vated assaults are down by 15%, which translates to more than 1,000 fewer victims this year as compared to last year. He noted that gun crimes are also down by 12%. “That leads to a pretty significant drop in violent crime,” Scoggins said. But reducing murders remains an obsta- cle. “We’ve had our challenges this year, par- ticularly with murder being higher than it was last year,” Garcia said at the public safety committee meeting. “When we talk about aggravated assault, and I’ve men- tioned this before, each aggravated assault we have is literally an attempted murder.” He said seeing the number of aggravated as- sault victims down by over a thousand com- pared to last year, as well as the other reductions, is a step in the right direction. “It’s a testament to the work that the men and women are doing every day,” Garcia said. “It’s a testament to the support that we receive from all of you on council and the city manager’s office, our community.” But Garcia said the work never stops. “There’s no light at the end of the tunnel. There’s just another tunnel,” Garcia said. Dallas City Council member Cara Men- delsohn, chair of the public safety commit- tee, pointed out that these reductions come after reductions in the two prior years. “It gets harder as the years go on to keep reduc- ing,” she said. Mendelsohn asked the de- partment to name one thing that could help reduce violent crime even further in the city. “Staffing,” Garcia responded. Depart- ment personnel recently went to Chicago looking for new recruits. Mendelsohn was in attendance as well. Speaking to Men- delsohn, Garcia said, “You saw firsthand how hard our recruiters are working.” But he said the department is also trying to focus on officer retention. “It’s also ensuring that our men and women are happy here so they don’t go elsewhere,” he said. “So, we’re look- ing at ways to make working conditions bet- ter for our men and women that are here.” According to NPR, an economist at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service named Morgan Williams and his colleagues did research to determine the ef- fect of adding one officer to patrol a city. They found that adding one new officer to a city’s police department could prevent be- tween 0.06 and 0.1 homicides. That means the average city would have to hire between 10 and 17 new police officers to save one life a year. Morgan and his colleagues estimated that doing so could cost an additional $1.3 million to $2.2 million every year. Other Texas police departments are fac- ing similar staffing challenges. The Fort Worth Police Department, for example, is trying to fill 150 vacancies, according to NBCDFW. The Austin Police Department is down some 300 officers as of September, ac- cording to ABC affiliate KVUE. As of last year, the Houston Police Department was also trying to fill hundreds of positions. Gar- cia has said before that DPD is short at least 600 patrol officers. “We need to grow as a department,” Gar- cia said. “There’s no question about it.” ▼ HOUSING SHRINK TO FIT COULD REDUCING MINIMUM LOT SIZES MAKE DALLAS MORE AFFORDABLE? BY JACOB VAUGHN D allas is in an affordability crisis with rents and mortgages seemingly higher than ever. Some think amend- ing the city’s development code could be part of the solution and they’ve asked city staff to look into doing just that. Earlier this month, five City Council members signed a memo directing city staff to evaluate reduc- ing minimum lot sizes in Dallas and allow- ing higher density by right in single-family neighborhoods. Dallas City Council member Chad West is leading the charge. He said the memo is meant to open up discussions about what re- form of minimum lot size could mean in the city. He also wants to know what it would look like to allow multi-unit homes to be built on vacant lots in single-family neighbor- hoods. Additionally, the memo asks city staff to look into waiving site plan requirements for duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes. All of this could allow Dallas to build more housing units and have an impact on affordability in the city. “That’s a basic tenet of supply and demand, right? You increase supply, then the prices go down,” West said. “If we provide additional supply in the city, we should be able to slow down the rapid rise of housing costs and maybe even lower it a bit for folks.” Allowing housing like duplexes on single- family residential lots could drastically in- crease Dallas’ housing stock, he said. “If we allow just duplexes by right on lots ... you are immediately doubling your capacity in the city for construction,” he said. “And then if you go to three and fourplexes, it goes up from there.” He said building these types of properties can also help avoid bigger multi- family developments that single-family neighborhoods really don’t like. The city lacks tens of thousands of hous- ing units for lower-income people. West said this problem is only going to get worse if the city doesn’t do something about it, such as enabling additional housing units to be built so people like teachers, firefighters, police officers and servers have a place to live in Dallas, he said. Reducing minimum lot sizes could help make this happen. West wanted to file the memo now in part because the state legislature is already Unfair Park from p3 Nathan Hunsinger The T. Boone Pickens YMCA building on North Akard Street in downtown Dallas is staying put for now.
