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The Bishop Arts District is a Great Place in Texas, according to the American Planning Association Texas Chapter, which named Bishop Arts a Great Neighborhood.

The “Great Places” designation recognizes places that “exemplify exceptional character and highlight the role planners and planning play in creating communities of lasting value.”

“Thanks to the diversity and entrepreneurial spirit of the Oak Cliff neighborhood, Bishop Arts has been reinvented and preserved over the decades,” City Councilman Chad West says. “No matter what the future holds for us, residents and small business owners remain the heart of the neighborhood.”

The association published this one-page report on the history of Bishop Arts, from its beginnings as a streetcar stop, its later decline and rebirth beginning in the 1980s and its coming full circle with the new streetcar. Our favorite part comes at the very end: “As growth continues, its active residents remain ever vigilant, seeking inclusive and equitable growth to maintain Bishop Arts as a neighborhood cultural center of Oak Cliff.”

Pat yourselves on the back, ever-vigilant neighbors of Oak Cliff. Without our pushback, Bishop Arts wouldn’t even be what it is today.

Here’s what Bishop and Seventh looked like in 1929.

Oak Cliff Pharmacy at Seventh and Bishop

And here’s what it looked like in 1985, when Jim Lake Cos. started buying buildings there and named it the Bishop Arts District.