By Rob Tranchin, KERA News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-930701.mp3
Dallas, TX – Today our Your Town, Texas series travels to a community in southwest Dallas County that's recognized for its diversity and its "All-America" City designation. Like most every city these days DeSoto is challenged by the economy. KERA's Rob Tranchin tells us DeSoto is also fighting a regional bias that has existed for generations.
If you've ever been on I35 about 12 miles south of Dallas, maybe you've seen the tower on the west side of the highway near the T Mobile store, the one that says DeSoto on it.
The tower marks the eastern edge of one of the oldest communities in North Texas, settled in 1847 on what was then good farmland drained by Ten Mile Creek.
Back then, the main attraction was a general store at the crossing of two trails that today are called Hampton and Belt Line Roads.
For much of its history, DeSoto was a small farming community.
Beginning in the 1970s, though, the population of DeSoto exploded along with the rest of the metroplex and today, nearly 50,000 people call DeSoto home.
Reginald Jones moved here 16 years ago.
Reginald Jones: I was talking to someone about this yesterday and we were just kidding around and I said well you know DeSoto is kind of like a little bit of Mayberry RFD-- that's dating myself-- with a Mount Pilot feel. The people are like Mayberry, but it's really more like Mount Pilot where there's a lot more going on than there was in Mayberry.
Feleceia Benton is a school teacher and actor who likes the pace of life in DeSoto and its location.
Felecia Benton: A lot of my friends always ask me "Oh Feleceia, DeSoto, that seems so far away!" And what they don't realize is that Desoto is right around the corner from everything. It takes me about 30 minutes to get just about anywhere I want to go, whether that's Fort Worth or North Dallas. And so it's more central than people think it is, and at the end of the day it feels like I can come home and still be part of something big but not feel like I'm being bumrushed by the rest of the city. It just feels like home to me.
DeSoto is largely residential, and most people who live here commute elsewhere to work.
The two largest local employers here are the school district and city government.
De Soto has an industrial park, but it needs more tenants.
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There are a lot of "For Lease" signs around town, and longtime resident O'Faira Carter hates to see them.
O'Faira Carter: It pains me to see our big box-- empty big box stores here, the old Albertsons, the old Winn Dixie, the old K Mart. That they're just sitting there empty on this wonderful piece of land that could be something-- do something! We need to get some kind of retail in here. And I think that's a sticking point with the city, we need businesses here!
The lack of local retail in DeSoto has turned out to be a problem for the city's economy.
Theo Peugh works in the Dallas County Public Defender's office.
Theo Peugh: Every time somebody gets in their car and they start up their engine and they go to another city, whether it's Cedar Hill, whether it's Arlington, mesquite, North Dallas, South Dallas wherever, anytime they leave and they spend money that's revenue that our city has lost. You know, a lot of people want more retail, more clothing stores, more places to shop, more restaurants
Part of the problem is that DeSoto-- along with the rest of southern Dallas County-- is still fighting race-based stereotypes. O'Faira Carter moved to DeSoto in the 1970's. She remembers when she was in Albuquerque preparing to move with her husband and family to the Dallas area.
O'Faira Carter: And there was a lady there that had moved there from Plano. And she said, well you guys are leaving to go to the Dallas area? Well you do not want to go south of the Trinity River! I had no idea where the Trinity River was, I had never been in Dallas before. And so I said, "Well what's south of the Trinity River? What's wrong with the " I thought, "What does that mean?" She said, "You just don't want to go down there. You want to be north. You want to be in Plano."
Feleceia Benton: It's ironic that that same false perception still exists today that south of the Trinity "Oh, don't go!"
Theo Peugh: Those kind of statements stem from people who really haven't bothered to get to know what's south of the Trinity for themselves.
If you have a negative perception about DeSoto or South Dallas County, I can almost guarantee you that you haven't come down here, spent some time, got to know the people, got to know what we do down here.
Feleceia Benton: That's the thing. If you can get outside yourself long enough to get to know somebody else, it be comes a non-issue.
O'Faira Carter: Exactly.
DeSoto prides itself on being the most diverse city in southwest Dallas County. But it hasn't always been that way.
In 1990, whites made up nearly three quarters of De Soto's population. Today, African Americans account for more than half of the city's residents, and there's a growing Hispanic population.
In 2006, the city earned "All-America City" designation from the National Civic League in part for its efforts to encourage residents to embrace the city's increased diversity.
But a tough economy has made it difficult for DeSoto to continue to grow.
Reginald Jones: Prior to the economy really going downhill, there were a number of developments that were basically approved before the economy fell, and a lot of those have not happened, and my understanding is that they have not happened because they cannot borrow the money to do them.
As in many places elsewhere, DeSoto has recorded a high number of home foreclosures.
O'Faira Carter: Now we had a new development just across the road from our neighborhood -Avondale--- and a lot of homes in there were between 200 and 300 thousand dollars, maybe a little more. And people were just flocking in there. No money down, zero interest, you didn't need anything. You just sign the sheet and move in. And within the year, that's when a lot of foreclosures started to happen in that little area.
Housing values in DeSoto have declined, home sales are among the worst in the county, and without a lot of local businesses and retail establishments to provide additional tax revenue, the city has been forced to raise property taxes to avoid cutting services.
Theo Peugh: No matter what's going on in the world, you know, citizens still want police, they still want fire, they still want their streets to be paved now, because of the diminishing property values, they are going to have to increase takes just a little bit. I think the rate was like .69 it's going to be like .73.
Another concern is the future of the diversity that Desoto is so proud of. Most of DeSoto's white residents are older and retired, and civic leaders are looking for ways to attract younger white families to the city.
Feleceia Benton thinks the solution may be economic.
Feleceia Benton: If you look at Frisco and Plano and all of those places, most of those people live where they work. And they have Frito Lay and technology companies and things of that nature that are in those areas. And so as a result those people who work in those places live in those places as well. So I think it would be to Desoto's benefit to start to hopefully attract companies like that and encourage corporate relocators to therefore encourage those people to move to Desoto, and then maybe we'll start to see that diversity in that age demographic start to increase.
Reginald Jones has a simpler answer.
Reginald Jones: I just think you need to provide a very good place to live, and allow the people to move where they want to move.
Time will tell if DeSoto is able to grow and keep the diversity that has made it the "All-America City" it wants to be. If it does, it faces a very different set of challenges than it faced in 1847, when a very good place to live was defined by thousands of acres of fertile farmland and a nearby general store.