An alert FrontBurnervian sent me a note complaining about the Morning News‘ use of the moniker “Old East Dallas.” There is no such thing, said he. And he was inclined to believe that the paper demonstrates a bias in how it thinks about that part of town.
Meh, I don’t know about any bias. But I do know that when I googled “Old East Dallas” and “Dallas Morning News,” I found the very story my correspondent was complaining about. It’s about an apartment fire. Only now, the headline puts the first in “Far East Dallas.” Look at the URL for the story, though:
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/dallas/headlines/20110213-three-alarm-fire-burns-at-old-east-dallas-apartments.ece
That fire was in Old East Dallas when the headline was written. Seems the Morning News caught its mistake.
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Old East Dallas is the former city of East Dallas, Texas that was annexed in 1890. The area mentioned in the story is not in the former city of East Dallas so that geographic designation is incorrect. However, the current Dallas neighborhoods of Swiss Avenue, Munger Place, Peak’s Suburban Addition, and Junius Heights are all parts of what was the city of East Dallas.
Seems like most media outlets have always referred to “Old East Dallas” to describe the areas of East Dallas largely inhabited by Hispanics. But maybe I’m over-sensitive about this.
Also most of “Old East Dallas” except Munger Place, Swiss Avenue and Junius Heights is zoned to North Dallas High School.
The DMN did not always use the term “Old East Dallas” which, indeed, nobody in East Dallas uses. At some point, it seemed like maybe 20 years ago or so, it became newspaper syle to refer to the “communities” of Dallas the way City Hall divides them up. These include
* Bachman Lake
* Jubilee Park
* Lake Highlands
* Lancaster Keist
* North Oak Cliff
* Oak Lawn
* Old East Dallas
* Pleasant Grove
* South Dallas
* South Oak Cliff
* West Dallas
* White Rock Hills
* West Oak Cliff
* VA South Loop
VA South Loop, wherever that is, probably got the worst of this deal, though.
Lots of people in East Dallas use the term “Old East Dallas.” I’ve heard it since I was a child.
I was actually driving down Highland when it happened although i didn’t realize what was going on, i thought there had been an electrical fire in my engine because the smell was so strong, but when i got to Garland there was a fire truck coming. As for the Old East Dallas issue, my parents have lived in that area for 20 years and i’ve never heard them or anyone else refer to it as Old East Dallas.
i live in there and i call it “funky north philly” but it doesn’t seem to be catching on.
They also like to use:
“North Dallas” which is anything north of the Park Cities, but not in Preston Hollow
“Far North Dallas” which is everything north of LBJ
I always think it is odd that they capitalize all these areas as if they were separate towns.
Just as long as it doesn’t become too cool and start opening bars with reserved seating, bottle service and valet parking.
Leave the db’s and their ilk to trendier parts!
The original Munger Place renovation signs (funded by Lakewood Bank) had “Old East Dallas” on them…of course that was the late 70s..
I like to say “East Dallas” and “Far East Dallas” or “our side of the lake” and “the other side of the lake”. It’s fair play because they can say that too…