Lakewood

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by Trebor Snillor
My kitchen is still under construction and the house is torn apart as I write this. I won’t bore you with my list of complaints – I’ll just try to be optimistic about it all.

Mayberry in North Texas

When I moved to Dallas in 1983, I was 25 and fairly naïve. I came from Austin which was a sleepy college town at the time; I arrived here in Dallas which was somewhat intimidating with its giant sprawl, and its multiple town centers (e.g. Downtown, Las Colinas and the Galleria complex).. I missed the down-home simplicity of a smaller town.

In 1983 Dallas also had the image of J.R. Ewing plastered on it. The city had a button-down preppy image which Park Cities and SMU did little to dispel. I longed for the bohemian, liberal, diverse and yes, crazy attitude of Austin.

In my exploratory Sunday drives, I quickly discovered Lakewood and Old East Dallas. These neighborhoods are adjacent and blur into each other. The whole area extends from Central Expressway over to White Rock Lake, just south of Mockingbird. This area was and still is a find – it’s very much as if a piece of liberal quirky Austin were grafted onto Dallas.

How Do We Love Thee?

East Dallas / Lakewood is ethnically, historically, financially and culturally diverse. We have the stately mansions of Swiss Avenue, the Arts-and-Crafts bungalows of Lower Greenville and the gingerbread cottages of Upper Greenville. We have every manner of duplex, apartment, townhouse and condo in between. We have the decadent rich in Lakewood and much ethnic diversity in the lower M-Streets. We have many college students as well as recent SMU grads. We have the whole age spectrum well represented.

Somehow we escaped the type of zoning that gives an area an identity crisis. There are few tall buildings except maybe a Wells Fargo on Gaston that “soars” to eight stories. Commercial areas are well-contained on Mockingbird, Greenville and Gaston. There hasn’t been much of the zoning creep that turns houses into Hot Wings franchises.

Amenities and More

We have Glenco and Tietz Park withing walking distance to my house. We have White Rock, one of the nicest parks in the US, a stone’s throw away. We have neighborly businesses at Casa Linda and Skillman-Abrams. We have several award-winning public schools as well as a generous selection of private schools. We have block parties, May Day, Saint Patrick’s parade and many other festivities. Lower Greenville also has some of the best pubs and restaurants in the Southwest.

You might just live here and forget that you live in giant, confusing metroplex. There is a small-town aura that infuses the air. There is also a liberal acceptance (not merely tolerance) that gives a welcome feel. I think that variety is indeed the spice of life. I personally don’t ever want to live in “Beige World” – a suburban monotony conjured on Third Rock from the Sun. I want to live where freedom isn’t just a word on a political flash card but a personal way of living. And that place -- is Old East Dallas and Lakewood.

© 2015 Snillor Productions