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Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name.

“We shouldn’t have to displace hundreds of families just because we want the city to look nicer.”

JUAN DIAZ, 17, who has lived in north Oak Cliff his whole life.

“We have to consider whether [shoving out] hundreds of people from the places they’ve been living their whole lives is worth fixing a couple of streets or making the city look nicer.”

Diaz’s parents also have recieved multiple unsolicited offers on their house. “My parents were able to afford [a house] and I’m pretty sure it was for less than $100,000, but now I’m sure that they could sell the house and get over $100,000.”

“As it is cheap for them, it becomes expensive for others.”

CITLALLI LOPEZ, 17, has lived in Oak Cliff for 12 years.

“It’s scary because I would hate to see a loss of culture within the Oak Cliff area,” she says.

Lopez and classmates made a documentary called “Gentrification in Oak Cliff.” She blames gentrification for the destruction of culture and displacement of families. She believes facilitated transportation leads to gentrification. “Little Mexico in the Uptown area didn’t start to become gentrified until after they placed the tollway right there,” she says.

Some of her family’s friends have moved to areas such as Duncanville because they could no longer afford to live in Oak Cliff. Lopez’s neighborhood near Kiest Park is seeing changes as well. The house right next to hers was torn down and replaced with a house she described as looking “nothing like the other houses surrounding it.”