Irving's Tudor Lane Getting Face-Lift

Crime down, new housing project going up

A South Irving neighborhood plagued by crime for decades is undergoing a major redevelopment.

Construction is expected to begin in the next 30 days on a new housing project in Tudor Lane.

"It's going to impact generations to come. Families that move in here will not only impact generations, but they're going to impact the whole community," said Rocci Malone, principal of Lamar Middle School.

The area has had high crime activity and been an eyesore, with buildings that were falling apart, exposed raw sewage and trash.

In the next year, Tudor Lane will be completely redeveloped with new houses.

"They look great," Police Chief Larry Boyd said. "They're the kinds of houses that we believe is going to provide the opportunity to restore this neighborhood [and] bring it back to the community."

For decades, Tudor Lane, an area near Story and Rock Island roads, was known as one of South Irving's problem areas.

"We used to have Bible school, and I'd ride the bus home with the kids, and the kids said, 'Somebody was shot here last night,' and the blood would be on the streets, and my heart just went out to them," Wanda Riddle said.

Riddle said even going to the middle school was a dangerous affair.

"I was sitting up at the stands at the football games and, you know, you hear shots or something, and you think, 'My God, these kids could be shot or I could be shot,'" she said.

Malone said she has seen a lot during her more than 20 years at Lamar Middle School.

"There was domestic violence on a regular basis, drug abuse, gang activity -- generations of gang members were coming and going," she said.

The Irving Police Department has contributed to making the streets safer. Boyd said his team has worked to reduce the amount of illegal activity going on in Tudor Lane.

"Since we started this effort about four years ago, crime has gone down 75 percent," he said. "That has been sustained."

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