![]() “This has been a strong community for years,” Armstrong says. They have moved to other neighborhoods.Įven so, Pastor Ned Armstrong says, the church is here to stay. These days, most of the congregants don’t live here anymore. It’s the largest church in Gilbert-Emory. Sunlight streams through the amber-colored windows of the Greater Mount Pilgrim Church on Bayonne Street. “Our culture is built around barbershops, beauty shops, cafés, and the church was our shelter in the times of the storms.” Posey’s Barber Shop is where the men hung out,” Payton says. ![]() He would get his hair cut by the gregarious one-armed barber. He remembers visiting Gilbert-Emory in the 1950s when he was a boy. Payton says the effect is loss of generational wealth, black culture and community. Research shows Black homeownership rates in Dallas are much lower than those of whites. “At one time it was called ‘urban renewal,’ then it was called ‘urban redevelopment,’ and then it all boils down to relocation.” “When you say gentrification, that’s a new word,” he says. It’s about the struggle to persevere and preserve as pricey development threatens housing in historically Black neighborhoods. Payton says the struggle for residents of Gilbert-Emory is a story repeated throughout Dallas and across the nation. “And, if we don’t work to preserve our stories, it’s all going to be forgotten.” “In just another few years, it’s all going to be dog parks and bike paths,” Payton says. ![]() He has chronicled Dallas Black history for several decades. Gone are those days.”ĭallas historian Donald Payton agrees. “My mother was instrumental in getting donations to get the street paved. “We were here before the street was paved,” she says. Her father worked two jobs to buy the land where her home now sits. Now only one-fifth of residents are Black. In 1990 about half the neighborhood was Black, according to census block data. Most of the people Johnson grew up with no longer live here. “They are building around us and, for me, they are trying to motivate me, aggravate me, stimulate me to move quickly because ‘we are going to get this community,’ ” she says of developers. Within the last year, new townhomes went up, turning Johnson’s block into a dead end. Today, it’s overshadowed by a $600,000 three-story townhome with balcony views of the downtown skyline. They don’t care.”Ī decade ago, a 600-square-foot shotgun house would have been valued at about $11,000. Police say during the haircut, Fronseca pulled out a bag of marijuana and handed it to the informant.įronseca was charged with possession and intent to sell marijuana within 1000 feet of a school.“We actually feel like the place that time has forgotten,” Johnson says. It's unclear how long the barbers were giving out cuts and weed, but deputies caught wind of the operation when Fronseca sold drugs to an informant. ![]() The shops owner, Felipe Sierra, told police he had no clue his employees were in the drug dealing business, but he was slapped with handcuffs, too because of all the weed found on the premises. Some of it was in plain sight.Ī search of the barbershop turned up 17 bags of weed, three glass pipes and a joint that was already rolled and ready to be smoked. Two barbers, David Fronseca, 25, and Norman Irizarry were arrested for selling drugs less than 200 feet from James S. When customers asked for a high top fade at VIP Barbershop, they might have received more than a fresh new do.īroward Sheriff's Office officials said that several of the barbers at the South Florida shop used the front to sell marijuana just feet from a middle school.
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