Ross is avenue of development, diversity - and now debate

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, August 12, 2008
By ERIC AASEN and MICHAEL E. YOUNG / The Dallas Morning News

Three-and-a-half miles long and 150 years old, Ross Avenue traces the evolution of Dallas from hardscrabble frontier town to multiethnic metropolis, sophisticated and down-home and ever more diverse.


Used car lots on Ross fly the flags of the U.S. and Mexico. The avenue runs through both a largely Hispanic neighborhood and the West End. It is dotted with churches, museums, lavanderias; even Stephan Pyles' restaurant.

It's home to chef Stephan Pyles' namesake restaurant and Tacos y Mas; skyscrapers and lavanderias; museums, concert halls and tired old buildings where enterprising newcomers shape their dreams.

And it is at the center of an intense debate between a community that feels ignored and others who claim a stake on this street, with personal, financial, even historic investments.

The eastern stretch of Ross Avenue runs through a largely Hispanic neighborhood, and leaders, snubbed in efforts to have Industrial Boulevard renamed in honor of César Chávez, have turned their name-changing efforts toward Ross. Others agree with the sentiment but not the location.

To developer John Sughrue, part of the team building the 42-story Museum Tower condo project in the Dallas Arts District, Ross Avenue is more than a street. It's a brand.


Javier Tapia (right) quickly gets the attention of his friend Pedro Puebla after spotting a potential employer slowing on North Carroll Avenue near the de facto day-labor center on Ross. Mr. Tapia said he's been coming to Texas on and off for 20 years from his home state of Aguascalientes, Mexico.

"Ross Avenue in Dallas is much like Park Avenue in New York or Michigan Avenue in Chicago," Mr. Sughrue said. "You change the brand, you risk changing the enterprise."

But Dallas City Council member Steve Salazar, a key name-change proponent, has received favorable feedback on the Chávez idea from property owners along Ross.

"A lot of people say, 'I have memories on Ross,' " Mr. Salazar said. "I don't think the memories are about Ross, but the things that occurred around that street."

It's their business

On an avenue lined with dozens of office towers and hundreds of individual businesses, changing the street's name means changing business cards, stationery and store signs. For some, it might mean changing their names.

Consider the Ross Avenue Wedding Chapel.

"I do a lot of [Hispanic] weddings because the [Catholic] cathedral can't take any more," said owner Michael Cotten. "But I can't imagine that many of my other clients would be thrilled going to the César Chávez Wedding Chapel."

Dora Medina's family came from Mexico, and her parents now own Ross Discount Tire, where she works. And though Ross Avenue might get a new name, the tire store won't.

"I don't believe the name change would affect business," she said of the 20-year-old shop. "If we were a new business, this would affect our clientele a lot more."

But others say a change means major headaches.

Danna Moon of Texas Paint & Wallpaper, a fixture on Ross since the late '60s, said she respects the desire to pay homage to a major civil-rights figure but doesn't understand why that has to happen on a street with scores of businesses.

Ross Avenue is "just part of our family, and it's a part of our store," she said. "We know that we have to change with the times. This is just one area, I guess, that we don't see needs changing."

Family histories are a key part of the street's history, and a part of the city's. Changing one affects all the rest, locals say.

The street is named after brothers William and Andrew Ross, prominent Dallas residents during the Civil War.

A.H. Belo built the Belo Mansion on Ross in the late 1800s.

Four decades later, thousands lined up at the mansion, by then a funeral home, to view the body of Clyde Barrow.

"To want to change the name of a street that honors one of the early founders of Dallas after someone who is not from Dallas, not from Texas ... it's a travesty," said Ellen Amirkhan, president of the Oriental Rug Cleaning Co. on Ross since 1920.

Some Ross residents don't care for a name change, either.

"Ross Avenue has a history all of its own," said Bobbie Kraft, 71, who has lived in a duplex on Ross since 2005. "I think we ought to leave some things alone."

Recognition

Proponents say the name change recognizes Dallas' changing makeup.

The street is home to the Cathedral Shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe and headquarters of the Dallas Independent School District, which has a significant Hispanic student population.

And an immigration march up Ross Avenue in 2006 attracted up to 500,000 people.

"We need to express our respect to the Latino community, and we believe they should have a prominent venue," said John Fiedler, senior pastor of First United Methodist Church at Ross and Akard Street.

"But I think of Ross Avenue as our Fifth Avenue ... and in New York, Fifth Avenue was a transcendent stage shared by everyone."

A City Council committee recommended last week that Ross be renamed. The Dallas Plan Commission will take up the issue in about 60 days, Mr. Salazar said, before the council considers the matter.

Mr. Salazar and the council's two other Hispanic members, Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia and Pauline Medrano – whose district includes a section of Ross Avenue – support renaming the street.

Angela Hunt, whose district includes the downtown portion of Ross Avenue, has said she has concerns about changing a street name tied to Dallas history. But, she said, the process needs to play out.

Renaming a historic street puts the City Council in a no-win situation, said Robert V. Kemper, an urban anthropology professor at Southern Methodist University.

The unscientific poll to rename Industrial Boulevard was the beginning of the crisis, Dr. Kemper said, and when a road for César Chávez emerged as the unexpected winner, city officials turned it down.

"That was the flashpoint for what has happened since, and now the politicians are trying to escape the consequences," he said. "There's no easy exit."

At the eastern edge of Ross, Carl Bell looks at the future and considers the past.

Somewhere else?

Mr. Bell led the deacons at Ross Avenue Baptist Church when it was largely destroyed by fire in 2002.

"There's a legacy of places that were once on Ross Avenue, such as Merchants State Bank and Sears and even [used-car dealer] Goss on Ross," he said.

Mr. Bell said he understands the impact the Latino community has in Dallas and admires Mr. Chávez for helping migrant workers.

"We should honor Chávez now, whichever street or boulevard it is," he said.But many on Ross would prefer that street be somewhere else.

Some mention Jefferson Boulevard in Oak Cliff or Northwest Highway or Columbia Avenue.

Ms. Amirkhan of the Oriental Rug Cleaning Co. said there are less divisive ways to honor Mr. Chávez. She suggested renaming the Dallas Farmers Market.

"We are aware of immigrants; we're aware of their contributions," said Ms. Amirkhan, whose grandfather fled the Armenian genocide in Turkey.

"We understand that people want to honor their culture and their history. We want to do the same.

"But we have to do it in a way that brings everyone in the city together."
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