
Where I Live: Resident feels the winds of change in United Riverside neighborhood
Phyllis Allen, president of the United Riverside Neighborhood Association, stands in front of her house Jan. 5. (Seth Bodine | Fort Worth Report)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_1733.jpg?fit=250%2C300&quality=89&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/IMG_1733.jpg?fit=780%2C934&quality=89&ssl=1″>
By Phyllis AllenI live in a neighborhood that I always refer to as “my” neighborhood, because it has been my home since 1958. Even during the years that I lived in other parts of the city, I always referred to United Riverside as “my” neighborhood.
First, what you have to know is that in 1958 when my family moved into the neighborhood, there were two Riversides. We casually referred to the other Riverside as the “white Riverside.” “My” neighborhood had very definite boundary lines. We were bound on the west by the Trinity River, on the east by Riverside Drive, on the north by SH 121 and on the south by the new Dallas Turnpike; but we never felt trapped. Inside those lines, families shopped, worshiped, lived and loved.
My elementary school, Riverside Elementary — not the white one — was brand new. In fact, I was in the first kindergarten class. We were sitting in classrooms that smelled of fresh paint and chalk, all in our places with sunshiny faces, waiting for our new lives to begin. At lunch, our pea green lunch plates were filled with food that was cooked by women who lived where we lived. Aunt Merrell lived on the corner down from me and made the best cafeteria chocolate cake ever. Miss Maudie lived across from the school and she always made sure that I got a little extra catsup on my homemade meatloaf. Ms. Atkins, the head of the cafeteria, lived up across First Street and she’d always put in the nickel you were short for your lunch.
Then, everyone in “my” neighborhood looked like me. Not now. “My” neighborhood is changing.
In 1994, a dear friend, the late Rev. Roosevelt Sutton, told me that my neighborhood was going to be “in play.” I pooh-poohed the notion that anyone who didn’t grow up in the United Riverside neighborhood would want to live there. After all, we had undergone the darkness of the crack epidemic, which resulted in vacant lots pockmarking the streets of “my” neighborhood like so many missing teeth in an otherwise bright smile.
Rev. Sutton’s prediction became eerily prophetic when Streams and Valleys, in conjunction with the Tarrant Regional Water District, began a cleanup of the Trinity River and its overgrown banks. Quickly, the summer weed-choked banks of the Trinity gave way to carefully manicured, gravel-lined trails that brought bikers, walkers and even horseback riders. It also brought town homes that I couldn’t afford to even dream about and developers filling in the vacant lots with houses that tower over their neighbors.
At the same time, some of the more weathered and unkempt houses were being purchased and slowly rehabbed by people who didn’t look like us. They didn’t speak our language or share most of our customs. “My” neighborhood was changing.
Warily, we watched as the new people built fences, made additions and played music that we didn’t recognize. In small groups, we wrung our hands and shook our heads about the changes. Most of us didn’t know what to make of them.
That was over 20 years ago. The new people are not new anymore. They are a part of the neighborhood. A couple of weeks ago, my neighbors had a quinceañera for their daughter’s 15th birthday — and I had more fun than anyone.
After 65 years of living happily in “my” neighborhood, I am learning that it can offer shelter and community to both the new people and all of us who have spent our entire lives here. As neighborhood association president, I want “my” neighborhood to be elastic enough to seamlessly envelop both old and new residents and give everyone the opportunity to think of it as “our” neighborhood.Phyllis Allen is president of the United Riverside Neighborhood Association.
United Riverside Population: 1,868
41% Male 59% Female
Age:
0-9 – 19%
10-19 – 11%
20-29 – 9%
30-39 – 14%
40-49 – 12%
50-59 – 23%
60-69 – 8%
70-79 – 4%
80+ – 1%
Race:
White – 26%Black – 34% Hispanic – 38%
Two+ – 1% Pacific Islander – 1%Education
No degree: 21%
High School: 37%
Some college: 33%
Bachelor’s: 6%
Postgrad: 3%
Click on the link to view the schools’ Texas Education Agency ratings: IM Terrell Academy for STEMCarter-Riverside High School Texas Academy of BiomedicalTexans Can Academy Riverside Middle SchoolVersia Williams Elementary Van Zandt-Guinn ElementaryCharles Nash Elementary
Comments (0)