Saturday, April 18, 2009

Central Dallas CDC’s Office, Part I






Almost every time someone walks into our office they say “This isn’t what I expected.” Nobody has every told us what it is that they do expect, but I thought I should describe our office, so if any of you reading this ever visit us, you, at least, won’t be surprised.

Central Dallas CDC’s office is located in Deep Ellum, a near downtown area once famous for its music venues. Now it’s home to a number of eateries, some bars, just a few music venues and a lot of tattoo parlors. Lucky’s Tattoo parlor, located directly across the street from us, is painted bright red. It makes a good neighbor. Lucky’s doesn’t open until we’ve gone home for the evening, so we never compete for parking spaces. Lucky’s is also a good landmark.

There’s also an eclectic selection of businesses in the area: the Mozzarella Cheese Company, a fine maker of handmade cheeses; Rudolf’s, maybe the best butcher in Dallas (which is owned by a friend); a butcher supply shop; Reel FX, a big special effects maker; and many other businesses that you wouldn’t find anywhere else.

Deep Ellum is in one of its periodic down periods right now—a far way from the times when Stevie Ray Vaughn and Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians were playing the clubs. It’s even farther away from the day when it was a great center of African American blues music.

More people live in the area than you would ever think. Homes are tucked away in courtyards, off alleys and in the second story of buildings. Everyone hopes that Deep Ellum will recover beginning this fall when light rail begins running through it.

Our office is in a building called the Carson Warehouse and is over one hundred years old. We rent suite 102. Suite 101 is leased by a photographer, who lives upstairs. Hal is a great photographer, but like most artists he’s a little eccentric. He has a Bulldog named “Cash”—so he’ll never be without Cash.

When Cash was being housetrained, we found out that Hal’s floor was our roof and that it was in the slightest waterproof. It wasn’t a pleasant discovery, but fortunately Cash seems to have things under control now.

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