I wasn’t present at the birth of Oak Cliff People, but I returned for my second stint with People Newspapers not long after its birth.
At the time the paper operated out of a office just above the space that eventually became the restaurant Bolsa. (It was actually the second office, the first was around the corner from where Oddfellows is now.) D Magazine arts editor Peter Simek was the first reporter for the paper. Later I hired Chuck Cox, who’s now the People Newspapers sports editor, to succeed him. Oak Cliff was often the most interesting publication to write about and edit, as it was an area undergoing significant transformation, as opposed to the prosperous stasis found in many of the other neighborhoods covered by People Newspapers titles.
Tim noted the eulogy posted on the People Newspapers site yesterday. Last night David Spence of real estate developer Good Space posted a tribute on his company’s Facebook page. Spence was Oak Cliff People’s landlord in that office on Davis Street and a sometimes contributor to its pages:
A NOBLE EXPERIMENT, AN ALLY, A JOB WELL DONE. To those of us dinosaurs who enjoy reading the news in ink-and-cellulose form, who prefer face-to-face to Facebook, and who see the nobility in old buildings well built, the cessation of publication of Oak Cliff People is cause for wistfulness. We were there when Wick Allison declared his intent, over lunch at Hattie’s, to publish a newspaper devoted to our neighborhood, and we’re pretty sure that we never missed reading an issue, especially the 20-or-so editions that charitably carried something we had written. Good times, good stories, good job – tough business.
We tip our hat, and we offer heartfelt thanks, to Mr. Allison and the corps of young journalists he charged with chronicling the inconsequential happenings of our community. God bless you all, and God bless Oak Cliff.
