By Rawlins Gilliland, KERA 90.1 commentator.
Dallas, TX – In Dallas real estate, as elsewhere, one hears it's "location, location, location." Problem is, for an East Dallas native like me, most of the people who live here moved here in the last 10 years. And so did their clueless and generally indifferent real estate agents. The result? A sort of manufactured or misguided marketing misinformation that makes me feel, in my own hometown, that no matter where I live, it's on the 'wrong side' of somewhere.
This started early! My Dad built our house just before Central Expressway split the inner-city in half. Suddenly, my family lived on the 'wrong side' of the Knox-Henderson tracks. Even in the '70s, when new friends who moved here began to look for homes, I suggested that they look in what we called the 'M' Streets. I was informed by their realtors that?ugh?no one would 'risk' moving to 'that side of Central Expressway.'
Later, after Old East Dallas finally became 'in,' my friends who wanted huge, old houses refused to look on Swiss Avenue because it was 'the wrong side of Ross Avenue.' I drove them through Forest Hills, but was told that this was the 'wrong side' of White Rock Lake. So we went to Bluff View, where things got worse: this was not only the wrong side of Inwood, it was the wrong side of Lovers Lane! What about Preston Hollow? That was the 'wrong side' of Northwest Highway. I loved Kessler and Stevens Park! Forget it. Everyone gasped at the thought of living on 'that' side of the river! I gave up.
What fascinates me now is the way entire areas of town can be annexed by gerrymandering realtors once an area gets 'hot.' Lakewood, which was originally simply part of East Dallas and not a separate part of town at all, is my favorite case in point. I have five friends who bought houses in Lakewood. One of them actually did. One couple was even told by their agent that Casa Linda is actually 'part of Lakewood.'
Talk about a mobile society. Another friend bought her house in Oak Lawn, listed it to sell as Knox-Henderson, then changed that to Uptown when THAT non-existent area was invented. It sold! I found myself wondering if realtors in Guam claim their island is the southernmost of the Hawaiian chain?
To a native Dallasite, ignorance of where one lives is not bliss. I live adjacent to the Trinity Forest in Piedmont, only to hear for 20 years anything on 'my side' of I-30 collectively referred to as Pleasant Grove. Sure. Like Oak Lawn is West Dallas or Winnetka Heights is in Grand Prairie?
Moral to this story?
Do more than read D Magazine to learn what is here and where it is. Because, take it from me: location, location, location - changes, changes, changes. And where you live today may not only become 'hot' or cold, it may even be renamed or relocated!
Rawlins Gilliland lives in Dallas, TX. He is a journalist and a former National Endowment poet.