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Hinga Mbogo has operated an auto repair shop on Ross Avenue just east of downtown Dallas for about 30 years. Eleven years ago the city of Dallas came up with a plan to redevelop that stretch of the road — with apartments, shops, restaurants, minus greasy-looking businesses like mechanics — as a more attractive gateway into the Arts District.
Using a process called “amortization” — which sounds like a rebranding of “eminent domain” — the city has granted Mbogo special-use permits that have allowed him to keep operating even as he’s out of step with the new zoning for the area, with the understanding that he will take that time to make arrangements to close his shop.
Mbogo went to the Plan Commission in February asking for another two years to stay in business. City staff recommended approval, but commissioners denied the request. Next week, Mbogo’s case is on the agenda for the Dallas City Council to decide.
In the meanwhile a libertarian nonprofit law firm called the Institute of Justice has taken up Mbogo’s cause, creating a Change.org petition and the advocacy video you can watch above. They argue that the city shouldn’t be allowed to force a private property owner to sell to another private entity in the name of economic development. Which, on the face of it, seems a sensible position in a country, and a state, that likes to boast of its love of personal liberty.
Mbogo says that potential buyers know that he hasn’t got much leverage in his situation, given that he’s up against a government-enforced deadline.
On the other hand, he’s had more than a decade to figure out how to move from the neighborhood, and his shop has begun to look incongruous on that bit of Ross. The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, and all that.
