Dallas Neighbors for Housing Blog

If you follow us on Social Media, you have likely seen one of our "Neighborhoods that need more Housing" posts. Using census data, we have been looking at specific census tracts and how they have not been building enough housing. These neighborhoods have mostly been wealthy, white, northern neighborhoods with almost all single family homes. And while there are plenty of these neighborhoods, the most egregious of them are in Preston Hollow. Using census data from PolicyMap.com, I looked at the area outlined below and found that the amount of homes in the area has DECREASED since 2000. Yes, the amount of housing has gone down. For reference, since 2000 the population of DFW has increased by 2.5 million people. This area encompasses about 11 square miles in some of the most centrally located land in the city. You can get to downtown in 15 minutes, Love Airport in 10 minutes, DFW airport in 25 minutes, and Addison in 15 minutes. The area has tons of amenities with a high concentr...

*Important Note: all data comes from PolicyMap.com which uses Census data. I am not sure if it's 100% accurate. I am aware that the 2020 census undercounted Latinos , but the undercount isn't nearly large enough to explain the numbers detailed below. If anyone knows of any further issues with the data, please let me know.* This post is the second part looking at North Oak Cliff. For part 1: read here . Yesterday, I examined how the demolition of an entire block of apartment complexes could have been prevented as well as what it tells us about Missing Middle housing.  Since I am a big believer in increased housing supply helping to reduce housing costs, the other thing that caught my eye about Shearer's post was him talking about how the promise of more housing and density leading to affordability has not happened in North Oak Cliff. This got me to thinking about how much new housing has actually been added to North Oak Cliff. I went down the rabbit hole and decided to look ...

 *This is the first of two posts examining North Oak Cliff. Today's post concentrates on the political geography and what a specific block in Bishop Arts can tell us about Dallas. Tomorrow's will look at census data to examine North Oak Cliff.* This and tomorrow's blog are specifically inspired by  a post  by Rob Shearer, an Oak Cliff resident and the former campaign manager for Giovanni Valderas, a former city council candidate for District 1(North Oak Cliff).  It's worth it to stop now and read the post if you haven't yet. The boundaries of District 1 are roughly I-35 to the east, Illinois Ave to the south, Westmoreland to the west, and I-30 to the north. Valderas lost twice (2019 and 2021) to Chad West, and both times Valderas won many of the Latino neighborhoods in the south and west of the district but was unable to overcome West's huge margins in the more white areas of the district (Kessler Park and Winnetka Heights).  2021 City Council Results: District ...

Allow me to indulge a personal story for a minute. When I was in high school, my mom really wanted me to apply to a school with a good geography program. Even though I loved looking at maps and such, I thought that she was wrong because 16 year old boys always think their mom's are wrong. Well, fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, and I was trying like crazy to find a website I could use to get demographic info at a neighborhood level. I couldn't navigate the Census website accurately, and I almost lost hope until I found PolicyMap.com. The website is an absolute treasure trove of accessible data.  We are using it to detail how wealthy neighborhoods have not built any new housing in their neighborhoods, causing the cost of housing citywide to increase and creating displacement for poorer residents. For the first two neighborhoods that we have looked at, the number of housing units in both went DOWN in the last 20 years. Even I was surprised by that fact. You can read the full...

As the snow falls in its heaviest amounts, I am keeping fingers crossed that we will avoid the widespread and long power outages of last year. Of course, it seems backwards that Republican leadership will be able to claim success for their "reforms" even though they didn't do anything to strengthen the grid. I've been thinking about how bad weather events reveal the weaknesses of Dallas and car-centric cities.  The first and biggest way that having more people living in Dallas will help is that it's way more efficient to have people living close together than sprawled in the suburbs . This is because single family homes consume way more energy. All of that energy needed to heat homes is the primary strain on the grid during a winter storm or intense heat during the summer.  The second way is that a more dense city is a more walkable one. The days leading up to the storm saw people rushing to the grocery store in order to get food for a few days. They knew that th...

 In addition to the main website, this space will be used to flesh out issues and news. It will in large part act as a way for us to share links for relevant, Dallas-specific articles. Here are a few recent ones that we think are worth reading!  - DMagazine: Will Dallas Finally Fix Its Affordable Housing Problem in 2022? - DMN:  Dallas is failing to address racial and economic access barriers to affordable housing, report says - DMagazine:  The City of Dallas Is Putting Parking Spots in Its Crosshairs - NBCDFW: Efforts to Build Affordable Workforce Housing in Dallas - DMagazine:  Remembering Kevin Sloan, Urban Dreamer and Originator of Wild Dallas This is an older article but one of my favorites from old Dallas Observer reporter Eric Nicholson. Pay special attention to the population decline that occurred as the neighborhood declined. Will Gentrification Destroy Dallas' Public Schools, or Will it Save Them?