I live in a very eclectic neighborhood just over a mile east of downtown Dallas. The neighborhood is undergoing gentrification, but not much has happened on my block so far. Next door, the Peak-Suburban Historical District begins--which both helps and hinders the urban renewal going on around us.

One block over and just a few blocks further from downtown, the Swiss Avenue Historical District begins. The Swiss Avenue Historical District, well known in Dallas, features a broad avenue divided by an attractive parkway, large beautiful homes sitting well back from the street and no telephone poles or power lines in sight--very pretty.

However, within a mile of my house you can also find hungry people waiting in soup lines, homeless people sleeping under highway overpasses and various ghettos—Mexican, black, Vietnamese. On the corner near my house, illegal Mexican aliens congregate, hoping to be hired as day laborers. Around the corner, an aging prostitute does her best to keep a roof over her head.

I like my neighborhood. The owners of a nearby Thai restaurant live on the corner...they are friends. My closest neighbors, Adam, Mark, Alfreda and Hector, are fine people. But little by little, the unfortunates are being pushed out of my neighborhood, the appearance of the neighborhood is being renewed or restored and the value of my property is increasing. I have mixed feelings about it.

Here are a few photos of my neighborhood that I have taken, mostly within a mile of my house, during bicycle rides in 2005 and 2006.