18 Years In Oak Cliff
I was invited to speak at a campaign event for Giovanni Valderas, a candidate running to represent Oak Cliff on the Dallas City Council for District One. The following were my remarks.
When I moved to Oak Cliff nearly 18 years ago, the neighborhood was a little different. I was a little different too.
For one, I had hair. I was still in my 20s. I was kidless. And I viewed Oak Cliff not for what it had, but for what it lacked. I thought it lacked restaurants, and coffee shops, and places to get a beer or cocktail. But not so coded in my thinking was the thought that what Oak Cliff had wasn’t good enough.
Thank God my perspective has changed.
In that time I’ve lost my hair. I’ve had four kids. And I now recognize the problem with seeing Oak Cliff through a deficit lens. Our community doesn’t need another fancy restaurant or swanky mixed use development to have value. Our community has value because of the intrinsic value of our people.
Oak Cliff doesn’t need to be fixed. And it definitely doesn’t need to be saved. But we do need policy that actually works for all of us and not just some of us.
A national study came out last year that looked at how the 274 largest cities in the country recovered from economic downturns over the last 30 years. Researchers measured things like housing affordability, job availability, and racial disparities. And they found that out of 274 American cities, Dallas ranks dead last.
Some in Dallas are surprised to hear this. And for many, many others this is not news. This is the reality of everyday life.
The challenges that Oak Cliff families face — safe and affordable housing, access to convenient and reliable public transportation, access to good jobs that don’t require driving for more than 30 minutes- these are all challenges that have been created in large part by bad policy at city hall.
Now I don’t believe that everyone goes to city hall with the intent of making bad policy decisions. But their perspective, their lived experience, and their blind spots make it very difficult for them not to make bad policy. Because their approach to the challenges is too often informed by reading a report and not based on how they grew up. Because they look at a place like Oak Cliff as lacking. As an area ripe for investment and growth. But that vision of investment and growth doesn’t start with questions like, “How will this positively impact ALL of the families that live in the area? And are there any possible unintended negative consequences?”.
And that is why I’m so excited about Giovanni’s decision to run for city council to represent all of Oak Cliff. I believe Giovanni will start by asking how a policy impacts all of the residents of the neighborhood. I believe Giovanni’s lived experience growing up in Oak Cliff allows him to create policy that builds on the strengths of our vibrant neighborhood, and will benefit everyone — from Zang to Westmoreland, from Illinois to Kessler Parkway.
As you may know, Giovanni served on the City of Dallas Cultural Affairs Commission for 4 years, in roles including the Vice Chair and the Chair of Allocations. While on the commission Giovanni was a key voice in pushing city staff to stop doing business as usual and sending all of the arts money to organizations like the AT&T Performing Arts Center, and instead investing that money into arts opportunities in our communities. Giovanni helped to start a program that allowed artists to apply for grants to create arts programming in their neighborhoods, to make art (and our city art budget) impact more than just the folks that can afford an expensive ticket in the arts district.
It is that sort of leadership and advocacy and voice that our neighborhood needs at city hall.
There are approximately 36,000 registered voters in District One, but we rarely have more than 3000 show up to vote. It is my strong belief that when you have candidates that all start to look and sound the same, most folks don’t think voting makes any difference in their day to day life. And sadly, I think they are right.
But Giovanni is not more of the same. Giovanni has the experience, the passion, and the perspective that we need in city hall, and I’m thrilled to be here tonight in support of him. But for him to win, we need your help. We need to knock on neighbor’s doors. We need to show up and speak out at neighborhood meetings. And we need to make sure that when it is time to vote, we get everybody to the polls.
This campaign isn’t just about Giovanni. It is about the future of Oak Cliff, and the future of our neighbors, our friends, and our kids. I believe that together we can build a people powered movement that will take Giovanni to City Hall, and will make representation in Oak Cliff start to look and more importantly feel a lot different.
