BROKEN HEART FOR OAK CLIFF

If I let myself give into my emotions, I could cry real tears over the assault of a seventy year old woman in Oak Cliff this morning. There are plenty of things to grieve over-one being a woman of her age going to a job at 6:15 am on the bus alone. How can people who cannot retire go to work to support themselves if the streets aren't safe?
Two weeks ago, my husband and I drove in the Marsalis area and he commented about the many young males walking the streets-destination unknown by us. Perhaps they were going "to the store," a decrepit neighborhood Quik-Stop type place. No crime in this, but the streets had an unsafe particularly decaying urban feel to me. We saw no police patrolling, and now I wonder if the seedier parts of OC have adequate police presence. If you live there, you would probably say NO!
Obviously poverty, drugs, mental illness and violence breed more violence, and we are all at risk.
Do not walk alone; and, police, please patrol the main street bus routes especially early in the morning and at night. As for the collapsing properties, some really need to be torn down and the areas redeveloped. Such neighborhoods are unsuitable and unsafe for children and families, and have the welcome mat laid out for criminals and gangs.
Oak Cliff was a childhood home to many Dallasites, and I for one will always want the very best for her good, hard-working people.
Certainly OC is a wonderful, scenic historical resource for Dallas and a source of tax revenue, but it is time for the city to step up efforts to address urban blight and crime.