Granny Geek

Coombs Creek is a rough, uncut gem in our neighborhood. In other parts of Dallas, Coombs Creek has been cleaned up and trails have been built.  Here, the creek itself is barely visible from the street because of dense foliage:   trees, bushes and shrubs have gone untrimmed for many years. And the recent monsoons in Dallas have left very high weeds growing wildly along the street.

Can you see the creek in the photo below? I didn’t think so. Follow this link to see how other parts of the creek in South Dallas have been cleared, and include walking trails.

Yesterday, a City crew appeared to mow and trim weeds along our section of Coombs Creek. Hooray! When the weeds get high, people drive along the creek in our hood and throw out their trash: garbage, old tires, TV sets, cats and dogs they no longer want. Sometimes the cats and dogs are just turned loose along the street. Then, local residents have to call animal control to pick up strays.  Sometimes, small kittens and puppies are stuffed  into plastic yard bags while they’re still alive and thrown along the side of the road. You read that right. Suffocation seems to be a popular way of disposing of unwanted animals.

Here’s the scene yesterday before the crew started mowing.

What a difference ten minutes makes.

The Code Department did its job well. The crew chief told me that cleaning up the creek bed isn’t the responsibility of Code: it’s the responsibility of Dallas Flood Control. Who knew?

Sharpen your pencils, Cliffies. Here’s one of those tricky word problems that we hated in high school.

A woman unloads 400 girls’ dresses, 200 pairs of girls’ shorts, and 4 rotating racks from her truck onto city property at the end of your street.

Assume that 5/6ths of the items have the original price tags still attached.

Given this information, calculate how much time has elapsed since a pallet of clothing was heisted from a loading dock at K-Mart.

These Bandit signs have been placed all over Oak Cliff ILLEGALLY on medians, street corners, and along sidewalks.

Gentle Ben and I have rounded up 11 of them. How many do YOU have in YOUR collection?

Well, it’s hot today in Dallas: temperatures should rise to about 104 this afternoon. The heat doesn’t deter the independent businesses that set up shop along some of the city’s major streets, though. They’re commonly called Garage Sales, and the vendors were out bright and early today, competing with Lowe’s, Home Depot, and anyone else who is LEGALLY in businesses and collecting sales tax.

Here in Oak Cliff, we’ll be surrounded by this chaos for the next couple of days: it’s payday weekend.

The current ordinance relating to Garage Sales obviously isn’t working. The city needs to add a requirement that Garage Sales be held by permit only. Perhaps the city can use the money from the sale of permits to fund programs and activities with the Parks and Rec Department.

Well, isn’t this just too sweet for words?

In a true spirit of community, folks in the neighborhood have erected their very own NO PARKING signs in front of their house. Talk about taking the law into your own hands!

In our neighborhood, as in most of Dallas, trash is picked up twice a week and the recycle cart is picked up twice a month. Earlier this year, though, some neighborhoods in the city were switched to one-per-week trash and recycling pickup.

For our household, this once-a-week pickup would work. Our recycle cart is almost always full when it’s collected: bottles, cans, jars, paper, newspapers, magazines, styrofoam. The trash can, however, is almost empty on pickup day.

We’re not enthusiastic about switching to once-a-week trash pickup, though.

Here’s why.

The trash cart outside a house in our neighborhood looks like this twice a week. It’s always overflowing. The household does not use a recycle cart.

According to the Dallas Central Appraisal District, DCAD, the house measures 1089 square feet. We know that at least seven adults are living in the house. That’s because seven cars are parked in the driveway and on the street in front of the house at night. On weekends, three or four more cars regularly appear. In addition, two small children, preschoolers, seem to live in the house. We don’t know if all the people who live in this house are related. It’s possible. Another neighbor tells us, though, that the owner of the house, who also lives there, rents out “sleeping space” so that she can make her mortgage payments now that she’s been laid off from her job.

We can only imagine the mess we’ll have to endure if trash pickup goes from twice a week to once a week in this part of the city. The only positive factor in the above photo is that the stray dogs haven’t torn up the plastic bag and spread the contents all over the sidewalk and the street. YET.

The city needs to find a way to deal with boarding houses that have been established in residential districts before they even THINK about changing trash pickup.

End of hissy fit for today.

Why on earth would anyone want THIS in their back yard? Besides being a butt-ugly eyesore, it’s a haven for rats and other vermin. AND it’s a dangerous temptation for curious children.

Junk Motor Vehicle (Section 18-20)

Motor vehicles that are inoperative and/or partially dismantled and have expired license tags or safety stickers are considered “junk motor vehicles”. These vehicles are in violation of the City Code. Owners of the vehicles and all lien holders will be notified of the violation by certified mail. Should the owner fail to remove the junk motor vehicle from the property or prove the vehicle operable, the vehicle will be towed and sold for salvage. Owners may store inoperable vehicles in a garage to avoid towing. Please note: Code Compliance only addresses vehicles on private property. If the vehicle is on the street, the Dallas Police Department has jurisdiction.

Gotta go. Time to call 3-1-1.