By Maria Hickey, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX –
Maria Hickey, 90.1 reporter: No specific site has been chosen yet for a new Cowboys stadium, but officials have outlined a large area west of Ameriquest Field where the Texas Rangers play. If the tax referendum is passed, a $650 million stadium will go somewhere within the area south of I-30 down to Division Street and between Collins Street and the Ballpark. The Cowboys are working hard to make that happen. Part of the team's pitch in mailings and TV ads is that a new stadium would clean up a "high crime area."
Woman in Cowboys TV ad: I don't know a first down from a touchdown, but I like the fact that building the stadium will clean up a run-down neighborhood with a high crime rate.
Hickey: One of the homes pictured in the ad is owned by Charlie Scott. He lives a few streets over and has bought up about 30 acres of property in the area - hoping to sell it for commercial use some day. Scott says the day the Cowboys taped the house, his tenant was piling up junk to take to the landfill. In a drive around the neighborhood on this day the yard is neat and orderly.
Charlie Scott, Arlington resident: They picked the house on the street that looked the worst - that day.
Hickey: Scott's own yard has "Vote Yes" signs on it. He admits he has a lot to gain by selling to the Cowboys, but the 25-year resident takes exception to the characterization of his neighborhood as blighted.
Scott: We're just a neighborhood in the country, to us, just two blocks off of I-30. It's a nice calm neighborhood. No hassles, no problems, we don't have crime over here; just haven't had any.
Hickey: According to the Arlington Police Department's crime statistics, the department has received nearly two thousand calls since January 1st in the beat that covers the proposed stadium's area. It sounds like a lot, but other adjacent police beats have received even more. In fact, out of the nine beats in the department's northern district, calls from this area make up just nine percent. Rather than comparing police beats, city and police officials now are comparing average crimes per square mile - saying the half square mile area where the stadium may go has one and a half times the crime of other areas in the city. University of Texas at Arlington Urban Affairs Professor Paul Geisel says that's not the best way to look at crime data since population distribution varies so much from one square mile to another. Regardless, at-large council member and Mayor Pro Tem Ron Wright says the proposed stadium site covers a lower socio-economic area with pockets of higher crime, especially in older apartment buildings.
Ron Wright, Arlington Mayor Pro Tem: What we as public officials have to look at is crime rate relative to the rest of the city, and this has a higher crime rate with more police activity. If you drive in there, it's an area that's ripe for redevelopment and desperately needs it.
Hickey: But this area is also one of the most affordable in Arlington. Along Collins Street - many of the apartment renters are Hispanic. Most say they'd prefer not to move but will find somewhere else to go. Councilman Ron Wright says the city will be fair with renters.
Wright: We're going to follow federal guidelines and provide relocation assistance for them because they are Arlington citizens. The fact that they're low income or a lower socio-economic level doesn't mean we don't care about them. We're going to be very fair with these people.
Hickey: Homeowners are in a different predicament. Adriana, who did not want to give her full name, has lived in her home at Collins and Randol Mill for thirteen years. She says most of the houses in the area are valued at between $30- and $50,000.
Adriana, Arlington resident: They're not fancy homes, they're frame homes, but this is where we live and this is where our families live, and this is what we can afford. These are the payments we can afford. We cannot afford anything else.
Hickey: If the Cowboys pay the value of her home, Adriana says she won't be able to get the same size home or yard in another part of the city. But even if the stadium doesn't require razing her home, she doesn't like the idea of having the stadium nearby. Adriana says she thinks crime will increase with more strangers coming into the neighborhood. For KERA 90.1, I'm Maria Hickey.
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