Prowling

I made another trip to south Dallas on Saturday morning to scout an abandoned house --- or houses actually. There's a whole block of them on Park Row, just east of I 45. And it completely mystifies me why these houses are boarded up and empty. Park Row has many middle class black home owners who take really good care of their houses. And I think some gay couples are discovering the greatness of this neighborhood. One of the homes in particular that's abandoned could easily be on Swiss Avenue. I walked up to it, scanning for the homeless occupants, and briefly considered climbing up to a second story balcony to gain entry and then chickened out. I'd do it, but not by myself. The house next door is also of high quality and has recently been boarded up. Another home next door burned a few months ago, but it had been occupied. Two others are also boarded up but at least one of them is for sale. Why would anybody just leave a perfectly restorable house and board it up? If you don't want to live their or rent it out, why don't you sell it? Maybe the owners are dead, maybe they live out of state and don't care about the place or maybe they're just plain stupid. But I almost went inside this house just so I could see what it was like before it burns like the one next door.

Here's the house I looked at. I hope the link works.

http://www.dallascad.org/AcctPhoto.aspx?ID=00000147142000000