Last summer, a DART bus crashed through the Salvation Army thrift store on West Jefferson at Polk. WFAA had pictures. Luckily, no one was hurt in that accident, as it happened at about 6 a.m. on a Saturday.

Unfortunately, Salvation Army has decided not to reopen the West Jefferson store; the 10,000-square-foot building is for sale. It is listed, as is, for $480,000. C.J. Dunn Commercial already is is negotiating with a potential buyer, says Patrick Patey, a Salvation Army spokesman for the Dallas area.

Salvation Army decided to make the thrift store on Village Fair its “anchor” in Oak Cliff.

“That was our smallest store,” Patey says. “So it was a good time to go ahead and let the other one be the anchor store in Oak Cliff.”

Greenling, the web-based organic grocery delivery company recently launched operations in the Dallas area. The company, which started in Austin and also serves San Antonio, has a new warehouse in Allen.

The company sells local and organic produce, bread, meat and dairy, as well as “sustainably produced” groceries and sundry items and delivers to homes and offices.

Greenling threw a launch party Saturday at Bolsa Mercado, inviting local growers, including Oak Cliff Organics and the Texas Honeybee Guild, for snacks and sips.

 Urban Acres market is cutting back its hours starting Jan. 16. The store will be open noon-6 p.m. Friday, 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday. It will be closed Monday-Thursday.

Retail business typically is slow on week days anyway, manager Liz Goulding says. And they decided to focus more on co-op business  — a recent Groupon deal resulted in more than 500 new co-op members.

It looks like plans for a Walmart store on Fort Worth Avenue have been scrapped.

Cielo Realty Partners has shown off its plans for the former Colorado Place site on Fort Worth Avenue, and they include some unique amenities for this mixed-use development. (Click on the rendering for a larger view, and see below for better views of notes on the rendering and, our favorite, a key to the various trees that will be planted on the property.)

The site has been vacant since the old apartments on both sides of Fort Worth Avenue were demolished and, hopefully, these new plans mean that a proposed Walmart-lite strip shopping center is now gone for good.

The new development is called The Collective, and the name plays off the collaborative interaction between the 320 apartments, retail space, artist studios, commissary kitchen, community garden, dog park and innovative office arrangements. Cielo hopes the configuration of the development will lead to weekend markets with food and art,  a “live/work” lifestyle and pedestrian-oriented activities. Ground-breaking is planned for May, with a 22-month construction schedule. Here’s more from Councilman Scott Griggs’ blog:

“The $48 million project includes approximately 320 rental residential and/or live-work units and a minimum of 40,000 square feet of commercial, office, residential and/or live work space. No zoning change is being requested. The site is designed so that buildings are pulled up to the street, front doors and windows face the street and the impact of surface parking is minimized. The developer is working with the City to create bike lanes on both Colorado Boulevard and on Fort Worth Avenue and will add bike parking throughout the project. Wide sidewalks, street trees, pedestrian lighting, and park/plaza space are included throughout. Nearly all of the first floor units that face a street or a park have entrances directly on the street or park space.”

As Griggs also references on his blog, the project is requesting $7.5 million in TIF funds, which will be considered by city council in late January.

The project notes from the above rendering, which are too small to read, are after the jump: (more…)

Bolsa Mercado opened Dec. 12 on 614 W. Davis. It’s a market/cafe concept from the owners of Bolsa that make their dishes in-house. You can stop in to eat or pick up items to take home, items that are all natural, local and organic. In this video take a look inside the new place, located in North Oak Cliff.

Does your foodie already have a Le Creuset French oven, a 27-piece All-Clad set, some serious Japanese steel and a subscription to Art Culinaire? If so, that person sounds awesome, but whatever does one buy the foodie who has everything?

Here are a few ideas to delight the food snob in your life.

Samurai life lessons: Chef Michelle Carpenter of Zen Sushi is offering several knife classes next year. The $449 “premier” package includes a pro carbon-steel Japanese knife, scabbard and whetstone, plus knife skills and sharpening lessons. For the $99 intermediate knife-skills class, bring your own knife and learn to buy and deconstruct a whole fish with Carpenter. For more information, email info@zensushidallas.com.

Say yes to smoking: The pit masters of Lockhart Smokehouse are offering “Smoke Camp” from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 17. Learn to choose the right meat, smoking techniques, wet rub vs. dry rub, trimming and carving. The $75 class includes dinner, beer and a T-shirt. Call 214.944.5521 for reservations.

Coffee and cookies: Oak Cliff Coffee Roasters and the Kessler Cookie Company teamed up this year to offer a $40 package that includes 1 pound of oatmeal cranberry cookies and 1 pound of Christmas blend coffee.

Spooning: Oak Cliff-based artist Erik Tosten carves the beautiful and functional wooden spoons pictured below. They sell for about $25 each at Oil & Cotton.

The Davis Foundry gallery is hosting a party and holiday sale from 1-10 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 11.

The sale features artwork — paintings, limited edition prints, sculpture and housewares — for under $100, plus cookies and cinnamon tea.

Here comes the booze. A year after Dallas voted to make Oak Cliff wet, beer and wine stores are cropping up on West Davis.

Dan Beer and Wine opened last week on West Davis at Polk.

When I visited, they didn’t have their wine selection in stock yet, but the beer selection was pretty good. They have one full cooler of local and craft beers. That cooler also contained Rheingold, which I thought was interesting since I don’t recall seeing it in Dallas before, and it is neither craft nor local. Is it the new Pabst, the beer cool kids drink because it’s ironic? Anyway, we bought New Belgium Snow Day. It cost $8.99 for six.

Another store, North Oak Cliff Beer and Wine, is coming soon to the space on West Davis at Clinton, adjacent to Urban Acres. North Oak Cliff Beer & Wine is opening on the same block as Chelsmati’s Wine Market, which Oak Cliff resident Tina Acosta opened in July.

Yes, readers, Jingle Bells on Bishop is here again. The 16th-annual event kicks off Thursday from 6-9 p.m.

The festivities continue from 6-9 p.m. Friday and noon-9 p.m. Saturday.

Patricia Rodriquez of Kings Highway is a freelance artist, blogger and graphic designer. The 35-year-old was born and raised in Oak Cliff, and she has been working full-time as an artist for over a year.

Why do you choose to live in Oak Cliff?
I was born in Oak Cliff, and I choose to live here because it is my lovely home.

What is your artistic background?
After graduating from Arts Magnet High School, where I studied painting, I continued my studies at Mountain View College and then fully immersed myself in the arts. Painting is my main passion, and I’ve never stopped since I started. I jumped out of the working world about a year ago to freelance and do art full time. I have found myself teaching, drawing and painting on anything someone needed painted. Creating is the best reward!

Describe your work in a sentence or two.
My work is like a double agent. I have one side that is very elegant fine art canvases that are inspired by nature, color and zen. On the flip side of that is what I call my rock-n-roll side — painting on recycled vinyl records for fun.

Ziggy played guitar.

What can we buy for around $50?
All my painted vinyl records are $50 and under and can be custom ordered per your wish. I also specialize in hand-painted custom boxes. Both of these items make thoughtful and inexpensive gifts.

Where or how can we buy it?
You can buy what is available through my etsy shop, tigerbee.etsy.com, or drop me a line through my website, tigerbeearts.com, to order a custom piece.

Anything else you’d like to say?
Thanks for supporting local artists, especially the ones who do this for a living. You are not only giving handmade and thoughtful gifts, but you’re making those of us that create them feel needed and wanted.

Do you know an artist who would like to be profiled here? Please email rstone@advocatemag.com.