Mayor Mike Rawlings says southern Dallas is headed in the right direction.
The mayor Thursday delivered the annual progress report for GrowSouth. For the last six years, the initiative鈥檚 been working to jump-start growth in southern Dallas.
Rawlings pointed to some promising numbers: The population has grown by about 7 percent. Per capita income and real estate values are up, and median home sales have increased by 146 percent.
The mayor said developers are paying attention.
鈥淪ix years ago, they didn鈥檛 even know where southern Dallas was. It was like, 鈥榃hat are you talking about?鈥� Now they understand what we鈥檙e doing and they鈥檝e seen other people make some investments,鈥� he said.
Developers are interested, but grocers are not
Rawlings said grocery stores have still been slow to come to the area. are considered food deserts, in which a community doesn鈥檛 have a grocery store within a one-mile radius.
鈥淸Grocery stores] have picked up a little bit, but they鈥檙e still the last thing to come because they鈥檙e still not convinced there鈥檚 enough heads with money in some of these areas,鈥� Rawlings said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen bigger box stores be successful and smaller box stores, but the traditional grocery stores? There are a couple but not as many as I would like.鈥�
Rawlings added that improving schools and adding more middle-class housing would lure grocery retailers.
Crime and public schools
Property crime dropped in southern Dallas by 17 percent, but violent crime ticked up 2 percent. Public school enrollment dropped by almost 9 percent.
Four areas that are the game changers for southern Dallas: Red Bird Mall area, Dallas Executive Airport, Fair Park and Pleasant Grove.
— Mike Rawlings (@Mike_Rawlings)
City Council member Kevin Felder represents District 7, which includes Fair Park. He pointed to some factors for the decline in enrollment.
鈥淚 think affordable housing is one of the factors, I think crime is another factor so those are the things that we have to work collectively on to combat that,鈥� he said.
The City Council which is designed to address the growing affordable housing problem in Dallas.
Four areas that are the game changers for southern Dallas: Red Bird Mall area, Dallas Executive Airport, Fair Park and Pleasant Grove.
— Mike Rawlings (@Mike_Rawlings)
As for GrowSouth, the initiative鈥檚 focus areas in the next year will include the area around Executive Airport, Red Bird Mall, parts of Fair Park, and Pleasant Grove.
