Avi Adelman: The Next Lars von Trier?

• ***Lower Greenville Is Dead*** I do not understand why everyone is so worked up over this. A bar is a bar. Most people should grow out of this said bar scence eventully. Avi is not winning any battle on Lower Greenville. James knew when to get out because he is smart. Compare Whiskey Bar to all of the others in the street. Whiskey is on of the few that lasted as long as it did. Avi is wasting his time. He likes the confortation and arguments. These confortations give him a woody. Lower Greenville will NEVER be what it once was. I have lived in this area off and on for the past 8 years more recently I have been here for 4 years straight. Lower Greenville is like a ghost town during the day, now it is even a ghost town at night, everything is fairly quit during the day and nothing happens. At night only the true idiots act up, and I mean true idiots because someone who even had a first grade education would see the police on every corner. You do not have to a rocket scientist to realize as soon as you act like a fool you will be arrested. THE FACTS ARE The scences change. This is not a Dallas thing, this is not a Texas thing.. It does not matter how far or where the next scene is the scene will eventually change on its own.

• I just checked www.avishasasmallpenis.com is available. Maybe you should waste more BNA money on that one too.

• "They wanted to protect their FUTURE residents from scum like you." There you go again with absurd assumptions. You don�t even know who I am but if I disagree with you I must be scum. It is like debating with an eight year old and I am done with you. " But the persistent nagging of I know what�s best for you down there, by people that don�t live, or run a business here is a running joke." We own a business down here. And yes, making a parking situation worse than it already is will not help the decline of lower Greenville. The new development dollars that you speak of will stop coming if the buildings remain empty. Have you taken a look at our street? There are too many empty buildings and each month another is added. The Belmont Neighborhood Association and its mouthpiece have not presented themselves as anything but a hindrance to business. I certainly hope that it doesn't end up like Deep Ellum but it is definitely on that track. The Belmont Neighborhood Association and their vice president have done nothing for this area. In little more than a week we have found several more businesses and residents alike that feel the same. If they want to go around quietly trying to destroy the area then why can�t I let the people who are affected by it know about it? This does affect me personally and professionally.

• One correction - There IS RPO on the west side of Lower Greenville - the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Summit and the 5500 block of Sears have been RPO since 1999. There will never be a parking lot in the area until we get a deal from the City to make all streets in the area RPO. Why should you get a new playground to double the parking spaces and not get any protection on our streets??? And I would rather see five new restaurants than three new bars (which are illegal anyway per zoning) any day. Check out our new websites coming soon - www.savelowergreenville.com www.residentparkingonly.com www.residentonlyparking.com

• Great, another Lowest Greenville Wanna be Hero comes to our frickin �we didn�t ask you to� rescue again. Living in the corridor of residential and entertainment area is IMHO bloody well awesome. But the persistent nagging of I know what�s best for you down there, by people that don�t live, or run a business here is a running joke. And if your only qualification for thinking you should be in charge of how people live, drink and enjoy their lives here based on your drinking habits, you�re more selfish and self centered than the folks you accuse of having to daily walk the walk of living and working here. If I hear another whiner saying if you don�t like LG then leave. Well Yo, sweetheart Greenville Ave goes North and South. Same to you. Save Lower Greenville, blah blah blah Avi. �Avi is the boogyman� cried the villagers �Slaughter� is anti-Christ.. Ohhhhh Ahhhhhh. Hummed the drunken masses. Like Avi or slaughter is the ONLY problem down here. Living in LG and having met both Avi and Slaughter. You take �em for what they are. I can tell you this area is not Deep Ellum. (Which coincidently I lived in and saw first hand what happened there.) We have real problems in terms of parking, disrespectful drunks, homeless, city council vaguely interested in us, 3 neighborhood associations in the area with different priorities, drugs and prostitution at the car wash, etc etc. Avi may go about dissonance with his website and barking at the moon if he likes. He will likely effect some of the changes he (and a big portion of this community) seeks. Resident parking, noise control, getting a business into the 2 year vacant Cityville. etc, But destroy Greenville? Come on? Avi, has openly endorsed Gezellig and Libertine in posts elsewhere. He just can�t play nice in the sandbox with Slaughter and a host of others. Additionally, he thinks lower Greenville is horribly outta control. I�ll agree parts of it were. And parts of it are just fine. Slaughter is sharp & knows his market. He adapts his business to the customers. If you�ve never sat on the couches of Stout eating a �Terrible� pizza you�re missing out down here. Most bar owners here aren�t stupid money hungry screw the community types they are portrayed as by your only saveLG website source Avi�s barking dogs. The bars have many LG residents wanting them to thrive as well. I�ll be a Stout/Whisky Bar customer for as long as my liver can take it. There are many people who live here for the whole Lower Greenville Experience. It will reach an equilibrium of entertainment and residential uses. Slaughter will run his bars knowing he is serving the people that live down here and those that can be enticed to come down here to maximize his profit and make sure everyone has a good time. Is it possible to lose a bar or two in the rebalancing this community is making? Sure, I�ll accede that point. But really if I have 30 bars and lose 5 and pick up 2 bad ass new restaurants. I�m all over that. If I lose 5 and no restaurants, woe is me I have 25 bars to walk to. You can all still come down and get happily loaded with me on Greenville ave. You may walk a quarter mile more than the past on the east side. (No RPO on the West Side of Greenville or N of Belmont BTW) And for some that�s too much walking and I know cabs suck if you live in Garland. Angela Hunt has been looking at the parking down here and knows it�s an issue. From the comments of our city hall about Cityplace, no one wants this area vacant. It will change. There is a lot of developer money down here, and a lot of interest. The bars and restaurants are already catering to folks in the town homes, and apartments springing up. Fact is the neighborhood and associated businesses are adjusting to residential and entertainment uses. Frankly this can be very profitable & enjoyable for all involved if played right, and still be the eclectic romper room of the many bar patrons here I call friends. If you want to be useful, devote a web site to saving the area that is more about things people who don�t live here and live here need together like a parking garage, handicap parking, a fund to buy homeless folks a bus ticket to anywhere like Deep Ellum did, promoting social responsibility to help those drunks I so love get safely home, something to get more cabs down here at night, promoting the bar businesses that may not have parking but have a great vibe we�d hate to lose, a designated driver/safe ride program for SMU students. If you can�t vote in Dallas, to help us get some of those things, well that sucks, cause many would welcome that kind of support. But come on down, if you really believe you like this area as much as you say you do. The walk won�t kill ya. Lower Greenville�s a lot tougher than you think, and no Avi or Bar owner is king. If you want to just jump on the net, post and argue with Avi back and forth all day, hey it�s your time have fun. Forgive my sarcasm in this post but to just say the BNA, Slaughter or Avi is the problem or this is the next Deep Ellum is very short of our reality. My $0.02

• RE: Explain LaVista. It is a street full of vacant town homes that were just built. The developers (with your help) had the city make it RPO - not residents pushed over the edge by crime. The developers came to BelmontNA and asked us to help them with the RPO process. The City law allows them to RPO without asking your permission since you do not live on that street No one twisted their arms. They wanted to protect their FUTURE residents from scum like you. BelmontNA put $200 into the process, plus all the logistical support - petitions, paperwork, etc. This is why we have RPO - to protect our interests, NOT yours.

• "Every street with RPO has had some seminal incident - a robbery, an assault, or other crime - which pushed the residents over the edge to demand RPO." Explain LaVista. It is a street full of vacant town homes that were just built. The developers (with your help) had the city make it RPO - not residents pushed over the edge by crime. Making people park further away will not solve crime it will undoubtedly make them targets for crime as they are forced to wonder deeper into a dark neighborhood. If you want to help Lower Greenville then quit making it unsafe and harassing legitimate businesses until they have no option but close up shop and move elsewhere. Your website makes it more than clear that you do not like bars nor their patrons � you are trying to turn Lower Greenville into something that it never was and will never be. If every bar on Lower Greenville became a Chuck E Cheese where the hell would you expect the people to park? You don�t want them to park on the streets so you misuse a law that was designed to help out neighborhoods that truly needed resident parking only. You have also made it more than clear that you don�t want a parking garage. There seems to be no pleasing you. Please quit making absurd assumptions. Not all bars are scumbars. Not all patrons are drunks that crawl out of the shadows. Not all businesses affected by your antics are bars.

• Avi only eats out at places that he can drag his whole brood & eat for free. He also doesn't tip for these free meals. It's usually after calling code enforcement repeatedly on an establishment that they figure it's cheaper to feed him and the dog pound. A little intimidation goes a long way!

• "Sorry guys, you are just gonna have to get used to me being on Lower Greenville till the problems get fixed" Avi, you are not trying to fix problems. You are trying to destroy a thriving entertainment district. You seem to live in an imaginary world where you claim that no bars existed on Lower Greenville when you moved in and that is far from the truth. Just because you don't like bars doesn't make it wrong for others. Not all bars are "scumbars" and not all patrons are drunks. Your behavior will not only drive away bar patrons but the retail shops that they support. You are self-serving and shortsighted. If you want to help Dallas let the police do their job and quit calling them every time you start to lose a fight that you started. If you wish to live in a quiet suburb move to Plano. I�ll buy your house if you promise to move far, far away.

• RE: "A group of us got tired of his antics and started our own "neighborhood association/movement " www.myspace.com/savelowergreenville" My congrats on starting a website (if you call MySpace a website) But you have a BIG factual error on the site and it should be corrected (heck, people ask me to correct my site on occasion and I do) Resident Only Parking The BelmontNA is facilitating the residents to get Resident Parking Only (RPO). We are not the ones filing the petitions, however. The City Code (yeah, it's a law) allows residents to petition the City to RPO their street. This is NOT easy and has lots of hoops to jump through... 1 - Two-Thirds of the street's property owners (or renters) on any side of the street being RPO'd must sign the petition. That usually meaans on Lower Greenville an average of 12 properties per block, and thus 9 signatures. Do you have any idea how hard that is??? Try gettting 2/3rds of your neighbors to agree on anything. 2 - $50 Petition Fee 3 - Survey by the city to determine if the street meets the requirements re number of cars belonging to non-residents, divided by the number of possible spaces, and the hours requested. 4 - $42 fee for each sign installed 5 - $6.50 fee for each hangtag In the case of every street listed with RPO, the residents signed the petitions and met the requirements. The law specifically limits the decision to go RPO to the people who are most impacted - the folks who live on the street. If you have an opinion about changing this law, AND you live in Dallas, you have every right to call your Council Rep and ask to have the law revoked. If you live outside of Dallas, don't bother to call, no one cares what you think. If you don't want to see RPO, then behave yourselves. Every street with RPO has had some seminal incident - a robbery, an assault, or other crime - which pushed the residents over the edge to demand RPO. Granted that several years ago RPO was a street by street effort. But since BelmontNA has all the money from the Arcadia sign to cover the expense, there is no reason to not help our neighbors. And for every street that goes RPO, trust me there is one that we cannot hit the signatures target. Yet. Regarding your opinion that the streets belong to everyone, this law makes that point moot. You are probably someone who believes that every parking lot in the area not blocked by a valet stand is open for your car. Garbage! That parking lot belongs to a business who needs it for their own customers. Just look at Blockbuster, Taco Cabana, or Big Wong. They tow cars off every weekend because someone thinks all parking lots are free to the public. And finally, if you don't like the truth about the decline of Lower Greenville, then move your ass down here and get involved. Have fun!

• "In this area, about half the so-called restaurants are really bars with no kitchen and therefore are out of compliance with city regulations." What so-called restaurants are you reffering too. I would really like to know, because every establishment I have been in that calls itself a bar/grill actually is. Lower greenville is an area of entertainment. The majority of people that come out weekly are meeting up with friends to hang out. There are a couple of places I frequent for dinner and drinks at the bar. Dallas is full of bars with great food, some of the best. Maybe you should stop complaining and try some of it. By the way, I work way too hard at my real job for you too try and take away my relaxing weekend or after work drink with my friends.

• Please explain to me why someone who knows that they are destroying an area is allowed to continue their current path of destruction. A direct quote from Avi's website www.barkingdogs.org "This past weekend's foot traffic on the street was noticably slower than usual, especially for a weekend so close to the end of summer. Add the loss of parking spaces close to Lower Greenville, three armed robberies in the last month, and two businesses closing their doors (Blarney Stone and Lower Greenville Seafood and Jazz) to the mix, and the next thing you know it's Deep Ellum Deja Vu out here." Yes, "it's Deep Ellum Deja Vu out here" so will somebody tell this guy to leave Lower Greenville alone before another thriving area is left in ruins. A group of us got tired of his antics and started our own "neighborhood association/movement " www.myspace.com/savelowergreenville. Someone needs to save Dallas from this ego maniac even city hall is sick of his antics.

• This footage is just embarrassing for everyone in it, including Avi.

• *That's like telling MLK he should just shut up and eat at the segregated counter in his hometown and be thankful he is not being poisoned.* Avi, down here on THIS planet - where the rest of us happen to live - you have NOTHING in common with MLK. I don't hear a whole lot of people making plans to march behind you up and down Lower Greenville Ave. MLK wasn't as shortsighted as to only care about his own neighborhood. In fact, why don't you go to South Dallas and stand on MLK Blvd. with your little video camera and ask the folks who live in that neighborhood if they'd like you to represent their particular perspective? See if they happen to draw the logical conclusion about the life legacy of MLK and your "outstanding" work as a civil rights activist, spiritual leader and unifier of the people. Do you have the courage and commitment to represent the folks of South Dallas as well? Or is your civil rights "activism" primarily limited to places that are within earshot of your own home? If you're brave enough to stand on MLK Blvd., comparing yourself to MLK while making unsolicited videotapes of storefronts and bar owners, then make sure you post that on YouTube as well.

• "Life Wasted? Would such Passion and Committment be better served elsewhere?" I get it - you and your friends would rather I go deal with issues in any place that requires a valid passport. In other words, you don't want me to see, report, comment or videotape the problems in my own neigbhorhood? That's like telling MLK he should just shut up and eat at the segregated counter in his hometown and be thankful he is not being poisoned. Get a life. Shooting the messenger (literally, not really, but that has been suggested) does not make the problem go away. Sorry guys, you are just gonna have to get used to me being on Lower Greenville till the problems get fixed.

• Life Wasted? Would such Passion and Committment be better served elsewhere?

• Beg to differ. Do you remember Rick's Casablanca or maybe Texas Teahouse? Must you persist in name calling? How does it feel to be a kept man? Have you ever held a job for 12 months? Does your house lean because of all the liens? Why don't you schlep your happy ass back to Philly? These are the questions Slaughter should have asked on camera. That video would have been less than a minute!

• Regarding the comments by the DPD There was no audio since the noise of the DPD vehicle overwhelmed the tiny microphone on the camera (note to self - buy extended microphone) But for the record, the officers did not issue any notices or tickets. They simply noted that Slaughter had issues with me standing on the sidewalk at or near his business, but since that was absolutely legal there was no way they or he could tell me to leave. As if there was anything else to say?? And to the comments about living where the bars are - let's sing it again... I have been here almost 30 years and there were no bars here. So does that give me the right to tell them to go away?? Nope It also does not give them the right to tell me to go away. Just because you don't like my exposing these problems does not mean I have to shut the f-ck up either. All we are asking is for a level playing field where all the businesses are legally operating. In this area, about half the so-called restaurants are really bars with no kitchen and therefore are out of compliance with city regulations. Now, let's see how fast the City acts on that issue. Wake me up in 2015? Instead, market forces are working to put the scum out of business. Two closed in the last two weeks, another is on the edge, and another is just at the edge. And I will be here to watch it all happen. Avi

• Every time the audio almost got interesting he shot the sky or a hand. When the cops finally did show up and Slaughter's conversation w/ them was over, that's when he stopped? Would have been fair to hear what Avi and the law had to say. With editing this could have been less than one minute easy.

• If I lived in an area of town I didn't like...near neighbors I didn't like...I would move. Then again, I have a real job and a life. Avi...your at the top of the "Scumresident" list.

• James Slaughter is a businessman trying to make a living. I agree with the 15 minutes. Yours should be up. The Greenville scene is enjoyed by many. I would much rather see focus on underage drinking and DWI than your played out attempts at shutting these legit joints down!

• Just a few notes to explain the video... No, I cannot explain Slaughter's actions - not last night, not last month, not last year or even further. It's obvious he has issues with the exposure of problems not only at his facility but all around Lower Greenville. It's a giant code enforcement cesspool that is slow to be cleaned up. Regarding Why? the video. I have a database of almost every business in the area for the last 20 years, showing how it changed from Community Retail to bar zone hell. I also have a photo database of each business facade between Ross and Belmont (and most of the stuff north of Vickery) The only difference now is that the BelmontNA has a digital video camera so we record all the images on tape. Of course, Slaughter cannot stand the fact that I walk along the streets untouched by the local gendarmes even when he calls and bitches about it. Slaughter is the poster boy for all the bad guys on the street, and sooner or later they will all be going away. I can only hope he is the first one to close the doors and throw away the key. Avi

• Avi's 15 minutes are way past the expiration date. He camped out in front of Whisky Bar for one reason & one reason only... to start a confrontation & he got one. He has no concerns or desires for the neighborhood or he would learn to work with people. He only knows one mode... attack. He is the epitome of a "Napoleon complex". If he's not attacking St. Martin's or Whisky Bar, he's attacking other neighborhood groups. Let's all go stand in front of his house & shoot video of his house from the sidewalk. Talk about a code enforcement nightmare!

• That was a major snoozefest.

• I can't believe I just wasted ten minutes of my life watching that when I could have been driving a nine inch nail into my forehead instead. That was like watching two Lew Sterrett escapees reinacting a dispute between a wannabe paprazzi and Mel Gibson.

• I don't live in his neighborhood but I have always wondered what gives with Avi and this lower Greenville thing. His concerns and desires for the neighborhood have always seemed prefectly reasonable to me even if he doesn't seem to be an easy person to deal with. I don't get why folks have a problem with the existence of the Belmont NA.

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