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LOOPING CULTURES THROUGH SOUND
DJ Richie explores genre and identity through her recurring event series
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
Photography by AMANI SODIQ
Tania Vitela says that the streets of Oak Cliff remind her of her hometown neighborhood in California. She was drawn to our area because of the compassion toward your neighbor and passion for preserving what is.
With a background of Chicano culture and as a first generation Mexican-American, walking streets like Jefferson Boulevard is very reminiscent of her youth on Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles. Her life is surrounded by music with musicians in her family and having played guitar herself since age 12.
“I’ve just always been in the scene and I’ve always loved it,” she says.
The strong cultural presence of Latino heritage in our area is part of what inspired her to create Loop Culture, a recurring event series that celebrates community and inclusiv -
ity by spotlighting different music genres and cultural expressions. Her partner, Christa Egusquiza, helps with the venture, handling the business side of things as the two have started to make this more than just a hobby but a true communal project.
“I’ve always said that if I could have it my way, I’d do music for a living immediately,” she says.
Vitela always had the desire to make music but never really felt optimistic in her ability to produce. Over the last year and a half, she has become DJ Richie.
“I took up DJing, learning on my own and as soon as I started getting a little bit more confident in it, I’ve been wanting to play for people,” she says.
She longed to find a place to play music, even without being the center of the show. She felt like
if she kept waiting for the opporunity, she would only wait and never get to perform for others.
“If I don’t also make the effort to reach out because of my social anxiety or whatnot, it won’t happen,” she says. “So I told myself, ‘Why don’t you just create, even if it’s out of my own pocket, just create a space where you can just play music?’ Have people hang out, maybe some drinks or dance or whatever they feel like. Just have fun doing what you want to do, play music and let people enjoy it.”
Her first performance DJing was in May in the Cedars, filled by mostly co-workers, but fulfilling her goal of playing for others. The Y2K throwback set explored hip-hop, R&B and a bit of freestyle in the mix, she says.
Bringing both old and new school to the performance, she drew from East Coast rap to West Coast, tying it to Atlanta and the Bay Area.
“And I wanted it to snowball more, so I wanted to become a little bit more of a recurring thing,” she says.
With the first hurdle out of the way, Vitela recently held her largest event yet at Fine Print, a newly opened magazine shop on South Madison Avenue near the Texas Theatre. Owner Crystal Cobb happens to be a friend from college and took Vitela up on her desire to spotlight music in the shop.
Loop Culture: Vol. 2 took place in September, this time expanding Vitela’s audience and sound with the incorporation of new genres to her performance.
“It was house music, so I wanted a little bit of all types of house,” she says. “A little bit of deep house, a little bit of jazz house, a little bit of techno house.”
Guests were able to flip through magazines and nod their heads to the beat, bringing different forms of art and community together. Vitela says her sets as DJ Richie tie in those pieces of community she has found in Oak Cliff.
“If you take a walk down the street, you see a lot of Latin American-inspired imagery and culture, but the people that come here are what makes it blended, and so that’s kind of how I draw inspiration with playing here,” she says.
As Loop Culture continues to expand, Vitela is hoping to do another event soon where it’s accessible to her and the communities she is highlighting in her sets.
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MOR JUST ORC
E THAN
AN
SHow Young Musicians is bridging the gap in music education
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
by LAUREN ALLEN
tudents make a beeline to the right of the Trinity Basin Preparatory Ledbetter Campus, their black bulky cases traversing up to knock and enter the portable door.
Since it’s late into the afternoon, prime time to hurry home for a snack or to watch cartoons before grinding on homework, you may expect the hustle to be leaving the campus. But these students aren’t done for the day. They’re getting ready to learn even more.
As you enter the portable, the acoustics fill with a variety of music from woodwind and brass to strings and percussion. The portable building holds less than 10 classrooms, dividing students into sectionals based on their instruments. The strings spill out into the main hallway to make space for all the students, a pair of flutists work on a duet in the middle of the hallway as well taught by a teaching artist.
Music education is not readily available for every student, but thanks to a collaboration with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, students from first to 12th grade have the opportunity to learn and perform in an orchestra through the Kim Noltemy
Young Musicians program in our neighborhood.
Established in 2019, Young Musicians provides music and arts education programs in southern Dallas schools that lacked the funding to include music education in their daily curriculum, serving over 2,150 students.
“Young Musicians is one of the most comprehensive and intensive programs we offer,” DSO Director of Education Jen Guzmán says. “We pay for the instruments, we pay for the teachers to provide the services, and in return, the school provides the spaces for us to use and the support that we need to function on site.”
The program provides orchestral music education, instruments, performance experience and mentorship opportunities at no cost to students and families throughout two southern Dallas schools, Owenwood Farm & Neighborhood Space and Oak Cliff’s Trinity Basin Preparatory Ledbetter Campus.
The Ledbetter Campus hosts two orchestras with 165 students total — the beginner and advanced orchestras. During the week, Tuesday through Thursday, all student musicians meet
HESTRA
Photography
after school. The advanced orchestra participates in the same rehearsals with beginners, with advanced students attending additional Friday night and Saturday morning practices.
Young Musicians is inspired after El Sistema, a program from Venezuela that provides intensive musical training to bring radical social change, Guzmán says.
Jorge Milla previously worked in Venezuela for 25 years and now serves as the Young Musicians Site Leader for Trinity Basin Ledbetter campus, along with several teaching artists that help to train the student musicians.
He says he continues this type of work here because it is his passion to teach and decided to join the program in Dallas after meeting with Roberto Zamrano, the artistic director of the Young Musicians program.
“I love seeing the progress that you can see the first (day) you know them and see (them) probably three, four months later, and you can see that they are playing like a musician. They are strong. They are more secure about themself. I think this is the most amazing work. I’m really inspired about seeing how to grow this program,” Milla says.
Young Musicians is more than just playing in an orchestra or learning to read treble clef, but impacting the students overall wellbeing.
“Personally, you made better citizens,” Milla says. “You are doing a social program. You are taking the kids from the iPads, the cell
phones, the TV, and they are learning a new language that not everybody knows.”
The students feel that difference, too. Veola Johnson, an eighth grade violin player in the orchestra, joined the program last year.
She says her mom was looking through different music programs in the area because of Johnson’s interest, but many of them came with a hefty price tag. Once she found Young Musicians, Johnson quickly joined and has been involved ever since.
“I just love it. I love all the teachers. I love the students,” she says. “I love being able to play in an orchestra and really try my best. It’s helped me personally with my confidence especially because I second guess myself a lot, and it’s helped me to not do that so much.”
Seventh grader Graciela Doan has played the French horn for three years. She joined the program after seeing her friend practice the violin at home.
“I always loved music, and I always wanted to play music,” she said. “So she said that I could come and see their practice, and I decided that I really liked it. I wanted to come and join.”
Doan is now entering her fourth year with Young Musicians and aspires to play professionally, specifically to make the French horn more well known. She has not only gained skills with this local opportunity, but national experience as a horn player at the Youth Orchestra Los
Angeles National Festival, a 14-day intensive summer orchestra program, where she was joined by two other Oak Cliff student musicians.
“They invite all the best musicians from around the country to play in LA for two weeks and learn music and play in Walt Disney Hall,” she says. “That was a really fun, really, just big experience for me.”
Like Johnson, Doan says she has grown through this experience in more ways than one. She serves as a mentor for students just starting out, just like other advanced students did for her when she was a beginner and says it has helped her become better at speaking and finding her voice.
“I just remember being in their shoes, it’s a strange new program,” Doan says. “You don’t have your parents here to help you, and you’re just like, ‘Oh, no, I don’t know how to do this.’ And I just really needed someone to help me,” she says. “I like knowing that I can be someone there to help them.”
The Ledbetter Campus orchestras are working on literature for upcoming performances for the year. The first of six for the year took place Nov. 1.
“This is music that you, a few years ago, just can hear when you go to the Dallas Symphony concerts, or the Chicago Philharmonic, or pretty high levels of orchestra,” Milla says. “And now, you can see a group of young musicians playing Beethoven.”
Left: Site leader Jorge Milla works with a student in the front of the violin and viola sectional. Right: Graciela Doan and one of her peers play the music to the beat of the conducting teaching artist.
Dancing in the sun as a teenager, Samantha Peña has since found a new way to love her former passion. (left) Stills from Peña’s 2021 production ATTACK. (right) Photos courtesy of Samantha Peña.
AT THE BALLET
Local school roots for a New York City production
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
Samantha Peña got her start in the arts through dance at Rosemont School.
Now, she’s pursuing her first post-graduate short film At the Ballet , inspired by her unique public school dance experience in Oak Cliff.
“I had danced only at school so I didn’t go to really any companies within the city like many dancers usually do. I’ve only done public school and so it was like a lot of after school dance stuff,” she says.
The opportunity from Rosemont and the Dallas ISD summer dance intensives, where students could train with professional dancers for ballet, hip-hop, jazz and modern for free, opened her into the world of the arts without the monetary barriers.
Through the summer experience, she gained the opportunity to train on scholarship at Dallas Black Dance Theatre a few times, even furthering her knowledge to learn technical skills that she probably wouldn’t have been able to had she not been there, she says.
“A bunch of students that went to these dance intensives and that I met through different Dallas ISD things for dance, they all came from similar background,” she says. “Dallas has a conclave of people from all over, but majority Hispanic or Black community, like Latino communities, we’d come together and I think for me was the switch up was from when I started high school.”
As a teenager, she joined dance at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. While there were many students who had a public school dance background, there were also several others who had extensive outside studio experience. This new understanding was the shift for her view of dance.
“There was some people that had more access to opportunities outside of even what I did so some of them could’ve done some sort of dance intensive as well,” she says. “But then, they also had the means to go to studios after school every day.”
Peña says that gap in access pushed her to work harder, but
toward the end of high school she began to have a sour stance toward dance, eventually quitting. Now, reflecting back on those younger years, she acknowledges that the comparison of herself to others got in the way of her prior passion.
After graduating from high school, she moved to New York to attend Pace University, where she went in undecided but two years ago graduated with a bachelor’s of arts in film and screen studies with a minor in art. She has been working in the city since through behind the scenes videography and photography and also production assistance. Now, she is revisiting the dance world through At the Ballet.
“Like many jobs these days, it’s really hard to find a job in the field that you want to do and sometimes you have to create opportunities for yourself, and that was kind of my spark,” she says.
Having now secured her first paid job within the industry at an audio post production company, she is exploring her filmmaking passions off the clock, too. She recently launched “alt + 164 productions” to coincide with the At the Ballet production process.
“I really want it to be a company that can uplift voices of all backgrounds and specifically minority backgrounds,” she says.
Her upcoming short film does just that, following the story of Elsi as she reminisces about her former dance passion and how it has affected her, a storyline that draws from Peña’s own experiences dancing in Dallas.
“Dance speaks loudly, and it’s spoken loudly across different cultures and different types and styles of dance and even the history of dance itself speaks so much of what it is,” she says.
“I think it’s a story that many people who have ever gotten discouraged by whatever reason to stop pursuing something that they love can hopefully give them another spark and realize kind of how I did like, ‘Hey, I don’t have to hate it, but I can love it a different way.’”
A PLACE FOR FOOD AND FAMILY
Donde Los Tacos serves Mexico City-inspired meals
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ | Photography by KATHY TRAN
With a variety of different options, there’s a taco built for everyone.
With a sister behind the counter and a husband in the back kitchen, Jennifer Reyes knows that it takes a strong support system to start a new venture.
Martin and Jennifer Reyes opened Donde Los Tacos near the Bishop Arts District in April. It took more than nine months from signing the lease to put all the finishing touches on the space, and they continue to make updates as need -
ed. Business fluctuates as they are new to the neighborhood. Some Taco Tuesdays are filled to the brim with other days just bringing in some consistent regulars.
Neon lights with the Spanish phrases “Provecho!!!” and “Tu, Yo Unos Tacos” (“Advantage!!!” and “You, Me, Some Tacos” respectively) welcome you into the indoor seating area. The main gallery piece is an array of black and white photos with phrases
heard in the restaurants of Mexico written in the primary colors.
The couple often visited taco shops in East Dallas for date nights and when their go-to El Taco Loco on East Grand Avenue vanished, the idea started to circulate to finally create their own shop.
“My daughter actually loved that place. She’s very specific with her food, and she loved that place. They shut down for one
Appetizers of chips with guacamole, salsa and the queso blanco pair with well with any taco on the menu.
($3.95-$7.95)
thing or another, I’m not sure why,” she says. “So we couldn’t find a taco place at all. And my husband was like, ‘Well, what if we just open a taco restaurant?’ It was always just in the back of our head.”
One day the right place finally came at the right time. A former law office and crystal shop at the corner of North Tyler and West Davis, the irregularly pentagon-shaped building with faded ruby bricks, was up for grabs. Right across from Abruzzo’s and diagonally from the pastel pink Talking Out of Turn, even though it needed much love, they went for it.
“At the end of the day, you don’t know unless you take that step,” she says. “I’m like, ‘We’re going to be stuck with, ‘Oh, what if?’ What could have been, you know? It was weird, our whole relationship is based off of, let’s just do it. We don’t even think about it. We just jump into it.”
This “go for it” mentality led to some sleepless nights, but as soon as the contract was signed, Martin was knocking walls down and tearing floors up.
“We just started off,” Jennifer says. “We’ve never done this. We were in a completely different business before this. So it’s new to us.”
Some of the sauces and the restaurant’s best-selling quesabirrias were Martin’s idea, but a good friend of the Reyes couple, Javier Ventura, was heavily involved in the recipe creation process and works as a manager at the restaurant. With nearly 30 years in the industry, he traveled to Mexico to research recipes and created the wall collage that is the centerpiece of the building. Along it, a selfserve salsa bar holds spice levels from one to six. Separate from the bar, there is a secret No. 7 salsa to prevent tolerance accidents from happening.
“People don’t know about that one, but when they’ll say like, ‘Oh, it’s not spicy,’ I’m like, ‘Ah, let me bring you one from the back.’”
One of the best-selling items from the Reyes’ restaurant is the Taco Perron ($7.50), a ribeye corn or flour filled tortilla topped with asadero cheese, grilled cactus, avocado and DLT slaw. A single taco overflows with toppings, so Jennifer suggests starting with one.
“Because they are pretty filling. And then the melted cheese tops it off, too, because it gives you so many flavors in one taco, but it’s not too overwhelming. It’s just the perfect taste,” she says.
Martin’s quesabirrias ($11.99) are filled with slow-cooked pork and come with a serving of consomé for dipping.
“It never misses on a daily, we soak the quesabirrias, and people walk in here, and they’re like, ‘Do you sell them daily?’ I’m just like ‘Yeah, why wouldn’t we?’ Well, there’s places that don’t sell them daily. They only sell them on the weekends.”
For starters, the Reyeses added queso after many requests and kept a shrimp taco option ($4.50) after planning just to add it for Lent to accommodate those abstaining from certain meats for the annual tradition. They also have one vegan option with a plant-based pastor ($3.50).
To cool off the tongue after experimenting with the salsa bar, there are house-made aguas frescas ($4) including Pepino Lima, Strawberry Hochata and Sandia Refresh. And there’s the option to take frozen margaritas ($11-20) sealed to-go.
Donde Los Tacos is wrapping up final preparations for the patio with outdoor seating and hopefully occasional live music just in time for the fall weather.
“We wanted to be welcoming for family to be able to come in, sit down, have a meal, maybe stay, chat a little, have a drink or two, you know?” Jennifer says. “Whatever makes you guys comfortable and whatever brings you guys in.” Donde Los Tacos, 900 W. Davis St., 214.258.6689, dondelostacos.com
Mudanza Movement brings salsa classes to their community
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
Photography by KATHY TRAN
Energetic footwork, fluid turns. Lively Latin beats of the clave and maracas fill the room, with greetings of “Hello” and “How are you” from the 25 dancers. Rebeca Trevino, 23, and Carlos Cortes, 21, have begun a new month of their young venture: teaching salsa classes through Mudanza Movement at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center.
With a synchronized “alright,” the class has begun. Students line up into three rows facing the pair that separates the learners from the mirror.
Although they didn’t grow up religiously listening to salsa, both Cortes and Trevino agree it gives off a nostalgic feeling. The genre of music reminds them of Sunday morning cleans or attending quinceañeras and weddings of their family members.
Both dancers got their start with salsa due to the influence of their mothers but at different ages. When he was 11 years old, Cortes attended classes at Calirumba, formerly located in the Valley View Mall. His mom had an interest in learning the art form when she stumbled across salsa classes for children.
“And so that’s also how I got kind of into the performance scene of salsa,” Cortes says.
A doctor recommended dance classes to improve stability for Trevino’s mom, who was suffering from dizzy spells.
mundanza mundanza
mundanza mundanza
The pair that make up Mudanza Movement, Carlos Cortes and Rebeca Trevino.
“So she asked me to go with her, and she didn’t end up liking them, especially because they were in English and she only speaks Spanish,” Trevino says. “But, I went with her, so I stayed, and then I really liked it.”
Trevino started salsa locally during a break from Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where she studied architecture. Once she returned to school, she continued her newfound passion by driving to New York for salsa classes. She later graduated with a double major in architecture and dance with a minor in art history.
People come to the Mudanza Movement classes for many reasons. Like Trevino’s mom’s case, sometimes it’s to get moving, but other times to heal more than the physical.
“I would say one of the more common reasons is because they just want to, sometimes it’s actually therapeutic for people,” Cortes says. “A lot of times people are struggling with personal issues, and they just want an escape.”
Also, Trevino says people are drawn to the music and how salsa looks.
Some people even want to learn salsa because of Bad Bunny or because it has become more popular in our culture too, she says.
The students at the first beginner class of the month include a variety: a pair of mother and son, some affectionate couples, two teen girls that could be sisters. Each has their eyes glued to Trevino and Cortes as they go over the counts of the basic salsa step: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 with a pause on 4 and 8.
Trevino had been volunteering occasionally to teach salsa workshops at the center since 2023, sometimes with a grant from her university By planting that little seed of salsa in the center they requested more, she says.
“I didn’t graduate and be like, ‘I
want to teach dance.’ It just kind of happened,” Trevino says.
The two met here in Texas through dance classes and consistently crossing paths at local salsa socials. They would train together on and off as Trevino returned to college and Cortes began traveling often.
Finally, their timelines aligned in the summer of 2025 through the opportunity to teach at the Oak Cliff Cultural Center. Trevino says that by providing access to classes at the center, they are – to her knowledge – the only option for learning Latin dance in Dallas.
Cortes says he started to take dance more seriously once he turned 18 and while he is currently studying business at the University of Texas at Dallas, he doesn’t really see himself doing anything else but dance. Within the last year, he has decided that he wants to pursue dance professionally.
“I really started to enjoy dance, especially getting into the social dancing aspect of it and meeting new people and traveling,” he says. “I think that was one of my favorite parts. I thought about making this into a living. So I knew that teaching classes would also be something that I can (do).”
High fives fly as students rotate from the front row going back. No matter who you came with, you connect with others throughout the class. You won’t be able to know the timing or perform the dance without the partner connection, Cortes says.
“We always like to remind our students that dance is like having a conversation,” Trevino says. “Our point of connection in dance is our hands, at least in salsa, right? Especially in partner dancing because that’s how it gets. And so we always try to facilitate that connection so that our students can have a smooth conversation with one another.”
“We always like to remind our students that dance is like having a conversation.”
BEHIND THE RAPPING
NameBrand is the producer of Oak Cliff artist Triple D Dante
Story by VICTORIA HERNANDEZ
Triple D Dante is a rapper based in Oak Cliff. And the producer behind those tracks is Brandon Stout, known as the music producer NameBrand, when he’s not doing his day-today work in accounting.
Stout aspires to just do what he can to help the music careers of artists he believes in, and Triple D Dante has become his sole project.
In 2001, after the passing of his skilled guitar-playing father, a buddy called Stout to offer him a keyboard out of nowhere.
“I was like, ‘I have no use for a keyboard, bro.’ I play basketball, you know what I mean?” he says. “I had no idea, but it sounds cool. ‘I’ll give you 250 bucks for it.’”
From there, he took the keyboard and started remaking beats of his favorite songs, like “Lean Back” by Fat Joe, Remy Ma and Terror Squad, changing the drum patterns, relaying the melodies and constructing a whole entire new beat, he says.
Twenty years later, NameBrand and Triple D Dante connected via social media, meeting up for the first time at the local Dick’s Sporting Goods where Stout provided Triple D Dante some sample beats. From that first sale, the two have developed a strong connection in the local music scene working together over the last two years and putting out eight
NameBrand has worked with several artists, some even hiring him from all the way in New York, but he says he now works with Triple D Dante solely and that he is the most prepared he’s seen for the studio.
“There’s a lot of artists that will not have anything ready, which is fine because it’s organic that way as well,” Stout says. “But he comes in, it’s pre-written, and he gets in the booth and he’ll not fight. A lot of artists punch in. They might rap a couple words, a couple lines, and then have to punch in. Like start the audio, start
the audio, start the audio. He takes one take. One take, in and out, and he’s done. His work ethic is unmatched in my opinion.”
The two of them will work in the studio for about two to three hours straight and at the end of the session will have three full songs ready to go, he says.
Through Triple D Dante’s music, Stout says he’s learned even more about the Oak Cliff community in addition to his own time spent living in the neighborhood from 2007 to 2012.
“He’s definitely a family-oriented type of person, and that’s what I would feel like Oak Cliff is,” Stout says. “It’s just real family-oriented and close-knit.”
Through lyrics of Triple D Dante’s music and working with him so closely, Stout says he has learned about his past and the struggles that he has faced growing up in Dallas. Although Stout says he doesn’t directly relate to all aspects of Triple D Dante’s life, he can understand the trials of a rough upbringing, having grown up standing in line for government assistance himself.
But even with the two of them facing childhood struggles, they have been able to channel those experiences into the music they create.
“I’m really trying to invest all of my time and effort into him, into his music. I literally produce on a daily basis for him,” Stout says. “It’s just trying to connect all the dots. I’ve been doing this for 24, 25 years. Got an artist that’s really professional, and I think ready to go.”
Between constant studio sessions and working with reputable professionals, Stout hopes that his work with Triple D Dante can get the artist the recognition he deserves.
Although NameBrand is the producer behind Triple D Dante’s tracks, he says he is good in life where he is.
“I’m trying to put his name, his music in as many rooms as possible to try to get the right eye on him to where he can be in a position to hopefully be afforded and offered a multimillion-dollar deal,” he says. “But for him to get what he deserves, that’s my goal.”
NAMEB RAND
Photo courtesy of Brandon Stout.
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BRINGING CITY GOVERNMENT BACK TO THE COMMUNITY
D4’S MAXIE JOHNSON OPENS HIS CITY COUNCIL OFFICE IN SOUTH OAK CLIFF
Freshman Dallas City Council member Maxie Johnson is shaking things up. He opened his new District 4 Community Office Aug. 12 where the people of his district are, in the historic Glendale Shopping Center. Next door to PanAfrican Connection and within the walls of the former For Oak Cliff headquarters, he got the space running just a couple months after receiving word that he won the election.
“The reason why I opened it in August is also (because) I was a trustee of Dallas ISD. This is my area,” Johnson says. “I had the South Oak Cliff area. I had the Roosevelt area and pretty much District 4 sits in the heart of District 5 as a school board trustee.”
His team is rooted in education experience, too. Chief of Staff Edward Turner served on the school board and helped with Johnson’s campaign. Sharron Jackson, who Johnson calls “the jewel of the office,” is a former principal who came out of retirement to serve as district director. Derrick Battie joined as council liaison. He previously worked at South Oak Cliff High School for 25 years, has been an avid community advocate across city lines and previously served on the mayor task force to reduce crime.
“What’s so special about it is everyone in this office has strong community roots. We’re all community organizers,” Johnson says. “We’re all community driven and we understand transparency and accountability and making sure that we are accountable to those that we serve daily because we’ve been serving them daily for the last 10 years.”
When walking around the shopping center, Battie says a year ago this would not have been possible due to public safety. Johnson echoed that perception of the area, sharing that his oldest son was killed a couple streets over from the D4 office due to gun violence.
“I lost a lot of kids from South Oak Cliff because I was a football and baseball coach, community liaison at my first
school in Dallas ISD. I was a community liaison right here at Clara Oliver, so I knew the area. And so I was intentional because we have to clean up this community,” he says.
This approach to serving a Dallas district as a city council member is unique, just like Johnson’s educational service background. Rather than making the trek to a government office downtown, Johnson says he is bringing city government back to the community.
“Soon as I got into office, this is the first thing I thought about,” he says. “Where am I going to place a community office that is a central location? That no matter where you are in District 4, it only takes you no more than seven minutes to get there without going through (and) getting on the freeway.”
Johnson is in office at the Glendale Shopping Center Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. When he’s in Downtown Wednesdays for City Council meetings, Battie is in the office every day.
The D4 Community Office is open five days a week, but it’s not just Johnson’s team that uses it. The space is partnering with Code Compliance, the Dallas Police Department and members of Dallas Area Rapid Transit.
“The reason why I brought these resources in is No. 1 to help with response times,” he says. “When our community calls for DPD and to make sure that if Code is partnering with us in the office and they’re here, then they’re able to see the blight and some of the things that we need to clean up. It shortens the response time, and it builds a strong partnership with our community and our City office.”
People were shocked by the announcement of Johnson staying local, particularly due to the violence in the 75216 ZIP code, he says.
The Superblock is a neighborhood sectioned off by certain boundaries like streets or highways. For our neighborhood, that includes 75216 where the District 4 Community Office is located.
According to For Oak Cliff, the 75216 Superblock has 7.9 incidents of violent crime for every 1,000 residents of the ZIP code, including 4.4 instances of assault.
The Superblock also has the highest number of individuals incarcerated compared to any other ZIP code in Dallas.
“This to me is saying that I see the problem. We’re going to be transparent and accountable. We’re not going to hide it,” he says. “We’re going to clean up District 4, and when you sit here and see all the things that go on, you see some of what I call ‘deplorable conditions’ in our community. And here, I’m going to look at it.”
With the campaign motto of “building the community, with the community,” Johnson says he aspires to do just that together through this new space, such as opening the office to interns currently attending law school in Townview.
“We brought city government to the community and we made it so accessible. And they come, people come,” he says. “They walk up, they talk. A lot of things are impromptu. If they need me, I’m available.”
For example, community kids are able to walk up to the office if they have any problems.
“I have some kids raising their siblings, so we’re making sure that we have resources to help them,” Johnson says.
As for future goals of the new office, Johnson and his team are working on programming for the community space, including the National Night Out that took place in October and a Veterans Day program coming this month. They are also working to offer classes to help strengthen resumes and provide training for Microsoft Excel.
“Educational inequity leads to poverty, and poverty leads to violence. We have to fix the poverty,” he says. “And if we want to fix the priority of the violence, we have to fix the poverty. And the only way to fix the poverty, we have to educate our community and our kids, and that’s what we’re trying to do here.”
