As Tenth Street District Vanishes, a Cry for Help: ‘We Don't Want to Become Another West Dallas'

Of all the houses that make up the Tenth Street Historic District, 218 N. Cliff Street is among the least remarkable. Nothing about it says special. Everything about it shouts teardown.For many years, the rotting white Craftsman shotgun built around 1940 has been boarded up and overgrown, its facade spray-painted in giant red letters "NO TRESPASSING." On occasion, cops respond to calls there, and at neighboring properties, to deal with drug deals and assaults and ditched cars stolen from the suburbs. Five years ago the City Attorney's Office sued the old house's owner, at the time a Tyler-based nonprofit, to have the structure declared a nuisance in need of erasing. Without a single note of dissent, from the audience or horseshoe, on Jan. 5, 2015, the city's Landmark Commission approved 218 N. Cliff's demolition.Yet, it survives — that eyesore, that danger — because the city ran out of money to demo the building, and because Carolyn King Arnold, the on-and-off council member for that neighborhood, demanded a time-out to demolitions in Tenth Street. On Monday the house returned to Landmark for another go at demolition because Richardson developers are promising duplexes on several sites in Tenth Street, including at 218 N. Cliff St.And this time the commission, unanimously, said no.  Continue reading...