NEIGHBORHOODS HEAR YE, HEAR YE: COURT FIGHT OVER GRAND PRIX NOISE

Willie McGaha didn’t read the petition that circulated through his Fair Park neighborhood in May. McGaha, a fifty-year-old maintenance worker, just signed it.

McGaha says he now realizes he made a mistake. The petition was a notice of claims against the city of Dallas for $25,000 in damages for every signee as a result of the Grand Prix of Dallas auto race held April 29-May 1 at Fair Park. The notice of claims, a prelude to a discrimination suit, states that the noise created by the race caused injury “including head pain, anxiety and other disorders, as well as the loss of (he quiet use and enjoyment and the full value of his or her property.”

“That’s a bunch of baloney,” says McGaha, who lives six blocks from Fair Park. “You couldn’t hear the noise from down here unless you went out in your yard and listened for it.”

Genera Turner, who lives seven miles from Fair Park, says she was visiting a friend in Fair Park when asked to sign. “I told the man I didn’t live in the area.” she says, “and he told me to sign it anyway.”

Attorney Neil Cogan, who filed the notice of claims in June, says the petition was circulated by residents and that he was not aware how the signatures were obtained. He says that, as far as he knows, the plaintiffs from other areas were in the neighborhood attending church on the day of the race when they signed the petition.

“I doubt seriously we will pay any money on these claims,” Assistant City Attorney Paul Pearce says. “Any resolution on the case will have to be decided in court, especially when you consider they are claiming pain and injury.”

But that is small consolation to Buddy Boren, the organizer of the race. Trying to raise sponsorship money for an event that faces possible legal battles is virtually impossible. And Boren thought that providing more than 500 minorities with temporary jobs and designating $15,000 to Fair Park charities (which Boren hasn’t paid yet, by the way) would make him welcome in the neighborhood. “When we do this deal somewhere else next year, I’m not going to look back and say I told you so,” Boren says, “but people are going to recognize how good a deal this is.”

Cogan has filed a suit in federal court against the city of Dallas on behalf of eleven residents who live within a block of where the race was held, charging that the city discriminates against the predominantly black Fair Park area by allowing disruptive, noisy events to be held at Fair Park.

But why are residents creating such a furor over the Grand Prix noise, but not noise generated from other events held at Fair Park, such as the Texxas Jam rock concert? The answers vary depending on who you ask, but one thing seems clear: so far, there is little evidence to support the residents’ claim that they suffered physical injury. Assistant City Attorney Pearce says he has been informed by Cogan that, with two possible exceptions, the residents have incurred no medical expenses.

Ironically, Boren went to considerable lengths this year to reduce the noise level. Unlike the Formula One cars in the race at Fair Park in 1984, alt cars this year were equipped with mufflers; noise reduction barriers were erected; and racing was limited to between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Even more ironically, one of the petition signers is Denise Sharpton, whose small public relations company was hired by Boren last February to act as a liaison between the Grand Prix and the neighborhood residents.

Nevertheless, Cogan says he will take the case to federal court. And Boren has already cut a deal with Addison to stage his race at the Addison Municipal Airport in the future.

“I don’t expect any special treatment,” Boren says. “What I do expect is a little help and cooperation, no more and no less than any other event of this type in any other city gets. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”