Along a Reborn South Dallas Street in Bonton, How Does an Old ‘game Room' Still Stand?

2718 Silkwood Street, in the heart of the Bonton neighborhood in South Dallas, is not the likeliest landmark. Far, far from it. For most in this neighborhood, this place once known as JR's Game Room is little more than aging eyesore -- a cinder-block structure peeling and disintegrating in slow motion, inside and out. Roof repairs begun by its West Dallas owners look to have been abandoned; a neighbor says no work has been done in months. A back entrance, once boarded up, is wide open; neighborhood residents say kids play in there and the homeless sleep amid its rot and ruin.A man living across the street groans that it has become a dumping ground for other people's trash. The city's nuisance abatement team was out here just two weeks ago, clearing the property of accumulated rubbish after complaints were made. The city also just slapped a green "open violation" sign on a boarded-up front window.You used to see places like this scattered throughout South Dallas -- the dive bar tucked between homes, the next-door hangout. Built around 1960, by the late '70s this place was called the Silkwood Cafe, according to old beer-and-wine applications. Later, it became JR's the brand it still bears despite having been shuttered almost two decades ago.  Continue reading...