Some Kleberg-Rylie residents are frustrated by what they see as neglect from Dallas city officials.
About a dozen miles southeast of downtown Dallas , the Kleberg-Rylie area feels like a different world. Still partly rural, what was once its own small town before it was engulfed by the city is green with wooded land and fields dotted with livestock, ranches, modest houses, mobile homes and empty shacks that once held businesses. Take care if you drive down to take a look at it, though.
Joseph said police get many calls from residents in the area about loud music and gunfire, and he acknowledged that sometimes police dispatchers get frustrated with residents for calling. Joseph said to ask for a supervisor if this happens or if police don’t show up. “Illegal dumping is a huge problem,” he said. “It’s a nationwide problem.” If there are incidents of illegal dumping on someone’s property, but they don’t have any evidence of who did it, it’s on the property owner to clean it up, he explained. That’s why he encourages residents to get cameras for their properties to catch people in the act.
A bit of progress for the community can be found in a lawsuit recently filed by the city. It’s going after an auto scrap yard that the city says has been operating illegally for some time. For some, the actions by the city are too little, too late. Carranza said he’s been trying to get this property dealt with for the last four years.
The community’s population varied from a few hundred during most of its existence to more than 4,500 just before being annexed by Dallas. The town incorporated in 1956, when it started providing water and fire protection to its residents. At the time, it was the largest town in the state without a property tax. But increased rates for electricity and other services crippled the town.
“All my neighbors, I get along with really good,” he said. “I don’t have any problems. In fact, we’ve said if there’s problems, call me, I’ll come back you up, you know, if you got a criminal or something there, because the cops take too long to get there.” Wojtowicz said that when he and others, like Freeman, were more active in the community, they got things done. But since City Council member Tennell Atkins was elected, Wojtowicz said he’s felt disenfranchised and neglected.
She stays in Kleberg-Rylie partly because she feels she doesn’t have the means to leave. “My parents moved back to Mesquite, and I stayed because there’s no way for me to get out, if that makes sense,” she said. “They keep raising the rent.” Carranza said many of the mobile homes in Kleberg-Rylie are falling apart because homeowners don’t have the money to fix them up. He thinks the city has programs to help traditional homeowners, but nothing specifically for mobile home owners. “It’s sad,” Carranza said. “They’re keeping these people down because they’re in a mobile home.” Ramirez said many Kleberg-Rylie residents have lost hope.
“I think people here are very hopeless, and I think they just wait for a miracle to happen,” she said. “I know I do.” That’s when he met longtime residents Freeman and Wojtowicz. “I started getting pissed off,” he said. “These people have been fighting for 20 years, and they’re getting older.” One thing Kleberg-Rylie residents are trying to do is get a trail running through the community."This trail has been on the plans since 2007," Carranza said, but it has yet to be built.
He said he’s put millions of dollars into the community, but he has 53 square miles in his district to watch out for. “I get $25 million for infrastructure,” he said. “Everybody gets $25 million, and I’ve got 53 square miles, and some have 10 square miles.” At this rate, he said, “I’ll never catch up with equity.” He said he can’t do anything about the lack of restaurants and shops in the area because developers go where they want, and they’re not ready to be in Kleberg-Riley.
The community needs more resources, but so does the rest of his district. “We could send all the code officers in the city of Dallas out there and you still won’t resolve all the problems,” he said. Generally speaking, North Texas is good at developing rural land, and that includes infrastructure. But things are a bit different in the city limits, Clark said. For one thing, the land in Kleberg-Rylie isn’t that desirable for developers yet. “Therefore, the kind of classic economics that develops new land aren’t operating very powerfully there,” Clark said.
Trying to build with affordability in mind, especially in an area that’s already partially built out, presents extra obstacles.
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