Updated 1/9/08 - Fear of scumbar patrons in LGNA-land drives call for business boycott - click here

Ever since neighborhood associations on Lower Greenville starting buying streets under the City's Resident Only Parking program, the two hottest questions heard from scumbar patrons have been...

What do you mean, they towed my friggin' car??

and

Where the hell am I supposed to park now?

Ever the one to provide a forum for important information about our wonderful neighborhood, BD has prepared a list of streets and a very easy to read map of free parking just a few steps away from Greenville Avenue.

The Belmont Neighborhood Association announced at its National Night Out event that 5700 block of La Vista, between Greenville and Matilda, will be the newest Resident Parking Only zone on Lower Greenville in nearly eight years.

The signs will be installed within two weeks; the new RPO zone will be combined with the RPO Zone on Hope Street. Click here to see a map. RPO will be enforced Tuesday - Sunday evenings, just like Hope Street.

RPO is a City of Dallas parking designation which allows only the residents of an RPO-zoned block to park on their street during certain days and hours.

A petition signed by more than 2/3rds of the property owners must be submitted before the City will survey the street for compliance with the ordinance's requirements.

Normally BD does not read the wit and wisdom of the LGNA (aka the Mad Maxine Admiration Society) website, but a neighbor sent a link that we just had to read to believe.

We already knew how LGNA claims to care about anything that happens south of Belmont. Too bad most of their officers could not find their way south of Belmont without a map and a police escort. And we already know how they refuse to recognize Belmont NA and its decision (backed by 100+ neighbors) to secede from LGNA.

But now they have the unmitigated chutzpah to take credit for the installation of the new four-way traffic signs at the intersection of Matilda and Belmont.

After yesterday's surprise announcement about the (pending) redevelopment of Whole Foods Lowest Greenville into WalMart Lowest Greenville, some intrepid neighbors went to the City's Building Inspection Department and pulled a whole bunch of site plans. In addition to paying big bucks for big copies, one neighbor got a parking ticket because he was in the Municipal Building so long - when was the last time you saw anyone from Parking Enforcement write a parking ticket? Me neither (we are starting a fundraiser to pay the ticket off).

We're not sure what documents the Dallas Observer was quoting from for their story, because the City staffer told us we were the first ones to ask for these site plans.

BD and others have done a cursory review of nearly 15 site plan pages, out of more than 130 pages. We'll have a final review sometime next week, and post all the information here.

The documents were filed (in November) by the property address (2218 Greenville) and not by the name of the business. That's how it was kept off the radar of neighborhood folks watching the parking lot.

By Robert Wilonsky / Dallas Observer / Unfair Park

Speaking of Walmart (told you) ...

In the end, turns out, I didn't need Mitchell Rasansky to tell me what everyone already knew -- or guessed, anyhow. Because, as I discovered this morning, the permits were filed with the city two months ago and approved December 29. So, yes, brace yourself, Lower Greenville. You are indeed about to get a Walmart Neighborhood Market in the building formerly occupied by that Whole Foods.

Well, actually, the neighborhood market thing's not confirmed; Walmart officials haven't returned calls or emails sent this morning, and folks in Sustainable Development and Building Inspection can't say for sure. "They never identified it as a neighborhood market," says one of Dallas's senior building officials.

But city officials confirm: There will be a Walmart going in almost directly across from the planned Trader Joe's on the old Arcadia site. And it will occupy only the former Whole Foods and not the next-door Blockbuster: Plans call for filling 34,630 square feet with coolers for meat and produce and dairy products, a bakery and a pharmacy, for starters. Per Walmart's website, "A typical store is about 42,000 square feet." The plan also notes: "No late hours."

Tried calling Rasansky. He's out of the country till Monday.

Click here for the complete story