As Colleyville keeps an eye on the future in terms of the city’s potential growth, it has asked the Fort Worth Transportation Authority to include a proposed Colleyville light rail station as part of an upcoming environmental impact study. Existing rail service connects Fort Worth and Dallas, and is becoming an increasingly popular way to decrease traffic and pollution.

The addition of a light rail option for commuters could boost the values of Colleyville real estate, offering an attractive transportation option for those who wish to live in Colleyville but work in Dallas or Fort Worth.

Fort Worth Transit Helps Boost Home Sales

Fort Worth real estate has received a shot in the arm from The T, with a special program offering incentives for homebuyers who purchase property within one-quarter of a mile from a T transit route in southeast Fort Worth.

The program, called Smart Commute®, allows potential home buyers to add the estimated decreased commute expenses to their income, increasing the amount of qualifying income and opening up more purchasing options. Under the program, single income households can add $200 per month and dual income households can add $250 per month to qualifying income.

Loans under this program are available through participating program lenders and applicants must meet normal loan qualification requirements.

The use of light rail in metropolitan areas only makes sense. It offers a convenient commuting option that will reduce the amount of traffic and lower pollution levels. The addition of a light rail station to Colleyville could provide an easier transit from this community’s beautiful neighborhoods into the employment centers of Fort Worth, Dallas and the Metroplex.

My friend told me Halloween night at Prestonwood (Baptist Church) previous years, but we never went because my husband feels it’s important to go around our own neighborhood even though not many kids (almost none) go around Trick or Treatin’ around here. She said there are rides and games and it’s really fun for kids. We’re likely going to go for other reasons, but you can check out the website for more info here.

There’s also a site that lists things to do for Halloween around Dallas.

It’s kind of sad because Halloween seem to be so different from what I remember when I was a kid. We use to be able to go out (by ourselves) and just have fun. Now everything has changed and it’s all so scary (not in the Halloween sense) and parents go with the kids and also goes to other neighborhood intead of their own.

So there’s an article on the neighborhood Little Forest Hills on the Front page of the Dallas Morning News. It was title ‘We got discovered’. I knew the article was coming out, but didn’t know when. The mention of Subdivided by local documentary film maker Dean Terry was in there. It was made as an artistic and personal piece but really turned into something that is powerful and gets you to think.

The film had been broadcast on PBS’ KERA for the Dallas Metro area the beginning of this year and has garnered awards including the World Fest Award for Creative Excellence (and another one that has not been announced, so I can’t mention yet). It was also selected in the Utopia Film Festival which runs October 26-October 28 in Maryland. The film has been quoted as “absolutely beautiful” by Rober Wilonsky of The Dallas Observer. The film has touched many and brought out feelings they were not able to pin point before. It features interviews from Andres Duany (Suburban Nation), Robert Putnam (Bowling Alone, Better Together), and others who had studied the effects of sprawls and suburbia. The DVD has extra interviews that were left out of the final cut.

I personal know the story and I lived it just as the film was made. I lived in Little Forest Hills a month or so prior to finding our first home in North Dallas. The mistake we made was looking for a kind of house (contemporary) and didn’t spend as much time with researching about the neighborhood. At Little Forest Hills, we took afternoon walks and people waved and says hi (yes even if you don’t know them). Far different in far North Dallas. People don’t wave hi or say hi, they sometimes walk across the street to the other side of the sidewalk to avoid any eye contact (yeah, amazing but true). This is of course my experience and I can’t say the same for others, but it really was a “cold” feeling living in North Dallas. Luckily, we found another neighborhood that had the friendly vibe of Little Forest Hills, but I’m not going to say where since I don’t exactly want it to be “discovered”…at least by the developers (although you can tell they are sneaking in).

Majority of the people at Little Forest Hills have been trying to get the neighborhood to be a conservation neighborhood and they’ve been using the tagline of “Keep Little Forest Hills Funky”. Which is a perfect fit. It is indeed “funky” and you just can’t create neighborhoods like this and developers are coming in and building the McMansions. This does ruin the neighborhood’s feel of funkiness and uniqueness. Alot of people want the conservation to go through just to provide guidelines for rebuilts (a lot of houses are on the small side, but rebuilding does not mean it has to be huge and look like every other house), but because of some that don’t, it makes it hard to get it done. The City of Dallas should just make the call and save this neighborhood and maintain it’s funky charm. I mean, does Dallas really want all the houses to turn into McMansions?

*Subdivided DVD is also available at some libraries: Harvard, UT Dallas, Dallas Libary, and more. But of course, you should support independent art and buy the DVD!