Dallas Council Member Wants to Stop Destruction of Historic Tenth Street District ‘by Any Means Necessary'

A possible savior has emerged in the difficult, ongoing fight to spare Oak Cliff's Tenth Street Historic District from becoming history itself. And I must admit I did not see this coming.Late Monday, Dallas City Council member Carolyn King Arnold sent to almost-former Mayor Mike Rawlings a proposed resolution that would stop the city from spending any more time or money demolishing ramshackle residences within the Oak Cliff district that is considered one of this country's largest — and last — surviving settlements for freed slaves. Her resolution must now go on the council agenda because she used a procedure known as a five-signature memo. It bears her signature and those of four of her council colleagues: Adam Medrano, Tennell Atkins, Mayor Pro Tem Casey Thomas and the outgoing Sandy Greyson. Arnold also sent City Manager T.C. Broadnax a letter asking him to "direct staff not to use any resources of the city to do any more demolitions."That's a blunt and firm command from someone whose early days on the council felt as if she was using a dulled hacksaw to navigate through fog.But it's now or never for Tenth Street, which only days ago was added to the National Trust for Historic Preservation list of Most Endangered Historic Places in this country.   Continue reading...