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There are heroes all around Dallas. Today, let's highlight the work of Ari Nessel, a developer who has decided against suddenly evicting all the residents of a Lake Highlands condo building he recently purchased.

"Tremendous progress has been made, and it's because of the pioneers like Mr. Nessel," Dallas City Councilman Jerry Allen told the News on Friday after Nessel apologized to residents for the notices they received on their door last Monday saying that they would have to face a judge in eviction court if they didn't move out in three days.

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Steven Martin

Highland Park is OK with wide homes, but not tall ones.

Rich people, we learn time and time again, do not like living near tall buildings or lowlifes who rent their homes, even if those tall buildings are fancy condos, occupied by lowlife renters who are also rich. Of course, the well-to-do usually come up with a better excuse for why they're fighting the tall building rental project. In Highland Park's case, town officials have claimed that Dallas can't allow the construction of a luxury high-rise on the Dallas side of the Katy Trail because it will make Highland Park's traffic worse and block Highland Park's sunlight.

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Andrew Catellier

Mobile home parks, at their best, offer community, safety and freedom for people who can't afford to be tied down in a regular house but don't want to be fleeced by a slumlord running a crumbling apartment complex.

A Dallas commercial real estate company called Harvest Partners Ltd is doing its small part to change that.

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Bonita de Boer

Beneath Turtle Creek's placid surface, tension, anger and turned off sprinklers.

At a condominium near Turtle Creek, there is a bitter, strange battle brewing between the building's homeowners' association and the domestic partner of one of the HOA's members. In January, the 3081 Gilbert Homeowners' Association felt so threatened by the man, they filed a lawsuit.

The court filings start out innocently enough, if a bit snooty. The couple lived together in a condo on Gilbert Avenue for years, but only one of the men is listed as owning the property, the HOA explains in its petition, reducing his partner to undesirable non-HOA member status: "Ken Ray is not an owner of [the unit] under current Texas law and is, therefore, not a member of the Association."

That wouldn't be an issue, according to the petition the HOA filed, if the non-member resident in question wasn't going around being a jerk to all the legitimate HOA members: "Ken Ray ... has no right to challenge the actions of the Board."

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"Bed bug, Cimex lectularius" by Content Providers(s): CDC/ Harvard University, Dr. Gary Alpert; Dr. Harold Harlan; Richard Pollack. Photo Credit: Piotr Naskrecki - http://phil.cdc.gov/phil. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.

You feel an itch just looking at this, don't you?

Marquis on Gaston is one of those faux-luxury apartment complexes plopped by one of Dallas' cool neighborhoods (in this case, Deep Ellum), advertising itself with descriptors such as "gated community," "suburban living in an urban environment," "luxurious pool area," "French patio doors," "distinguished community" and the claim that "Marquis on Gaston residents live surrounded by elegance."

If a lawsuit filed by a former tenant is to be believed, some of the Marquis on Gaston residents also live surrounded by bed bugs.

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JMSuarez

Roughly 3,400 Dallas ISD students are homeless. Hundreds of these are LGBTQ teenagers.

When they come out, gay teens must often deal with unsupportive, even hostile parents. Sometimes, parents even go so far as to kick the kids out of their homes. If they attend a Dallas ISD school, they become one of the roughly 3,400 homeless students in the district. By some guesses, although it is impossible to put a definitive number to the group, hundreds of LGBTQ youth are homeless in Dallas.

See also: Why There Are 3,400 Homeless Students in Dallas ISD

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via City House Facebook Page

Since 2006, the City House nonprofit has offered shelter for homeless kids and young adults in two houses in Plano, smack in the middle of residential neighborhoods. City House claims the kids' neighbors never seemed to mind. How does City House pull this off? By operating out of existing houses that look just like all the other nice houses on the street.

"When you drive down the street you shouldn't notice" a difference, says City House spokesman Rob Scichili. "It's a normal house in a normal neighborhood, and that's the way we operate."

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Ed Yourdon

If this is the image you associate with the homeless population, you'll probably be in for a surprise when you look around Dallas.

The number of homeless people in a city on any given night varies, and is difficult to measure. Most cities perform random periodic counts to determine the number and demographic of homeless individuals. In Dallas, counts over the last 10 years indicate that the general population is going up, but the demographic is shifting. Look around, and you might see more women, kids and down-on-their-luck families.

According to a report by Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance, the number of chronically homeless individuals is down about 65 percent, and the number of people sleeping outside or in abandoned buildings on a regular basis is down 49 percent. "Chronically homeless" means men and women with debilitating mental illness, substance dependency or other disability who are homeless for over a year.

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We're cool! Swear!

You may have seen some of the breathless headlines. "In the heat of summer, Forbes says Dallas is cool." "No surprise that Texas has some of the coolest cities in America." "Dallas Among Top 10 'Coolest Cities in America'."

But here's the deal, Dallas: Houston and Austin have both outcooled us. And it's all because young people hate it here.

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Geremia

If you're ages 25 to 34, you could buy a house for a really cheap price in Texas. Like, this mansion would be practically free.

Dallas is among the 10 best cities in the country for young people to buy a home, according to a new National Association of Realtors report. "Buying a home," if you're under 35, is an old-timey activity practiced mostly by your parents and grandparents, sort of like using a rotary phone or having a savings account.

The report uses job numbers and housing prices to determine where young people might actually be able to buy something. It surveyed 100 cities across the country and focused on specific data encompassing the 25 to 34 age group. The report excluded 18- to 25-year-olds who are typically less likely to buy homes, owing to crushing student debt and bar tabs. Austin joined Denver, two cities in Utah and five other cities on the list.

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