An op-ed piece in the New York Times this past Saturday pointed to the Kessler Theater as an example of how un-“Dallas” Dallas is.

Writer Ben Fountain notes that a new version of the TV show “Dallas” is set to begin filming soon, probably in locations “where glitz and rigorous body-sculpting reign supreme.” He doesn’t expect the show to film in Oak Cliff, where awesome old stuff is more likely to be preserved.

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What you will find is an abundance of 1920s and ’30s low-rise buildings and the sight of — gasp! — actual pedestrians within the Dallas city limits. Then there are the architectural gems that have survived despite decades of blight and neglect, or maybe thanks to neglect — in Dallas’s sexier precincts, the interesting stuff tends to get razed to make way for the next big deal.

Fountain concludes that while the city is spending on big-ticket items like the Calatrava bridge and the Trinity gateway plan, smaller, more soulful projects like the Kessler are the ones actually bringing life to Dallas neighborhoods.

This is at least the second time Oak Cliff has been featured in the New York Times this year. Our neighborhood is a regular media darling in fact. We’ve made several national publications, from The Bond Buyer to Garden & Gun this year.