Photo courtesy of Ewa Stewart.

Haines Avenue property owner Keith Jasiecki, whose neighborhood garage sale turned into a 16-year block party tradition, has died. He was 62.

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Jasiecki was an Oak Cliff character who loved to invite neighbors onto his porch for a cold beer and was known to share an off-color joke. But also he was a vigilant neighborhood advocate who was totally reliable, friends say.

Jasiecki grew up on Haines starting at age 8 or 9, after his father died, and he moved into his grandparents’ home with his brother, Perry, and their mother.

Their grandfather was a Dallas firefighter at station No. 15, in the building that now houses Gloria’s on Bishop and Davis, according to Perry Jasiecki. He also bought residential properties in the 700 block of Haines and on nearby streets in the 1970s, when families started moving out and homes would fall into the hands of absentee landlords.

A landlord himself, “Keith really disliked slumlords,” next-door neighbor Pam Miller says.

Neighbor Anne Campbell says he was always willing to “butt in” when she’d have contractors working on her house, two doors down from his, to make sure they didn’t do any work he thought was improper.

He called 311 to report potholes and collected signatures to get stop signs installed on his block. A friend says they once took matters into their own hands and used a posthole digger late one night to install a stop sign on Haines themselves.

Before the Bishop Arts District was branded and revitalized, City of Dallas code inspectors couldn’t be bothered to respond to complaints in North Oak Cliff, Perry Jasiecki says.

That’s part of the reason Keith Jasiecki became so vigilant about protecting it and keeping it nice, decades before developers moved in.

A lifelong bachelor, he “was set in his ways, but an out-of-the-box thinker,” says friend Ewa Stewart. He read the Dallas Morning News every day, was always punctual, and he frequently ate breakfast at Norma’s Cafe on West Davis, she says. He was well-organized, took notes and had an amazing ability to remember people’s names and faces and how he met them, even after many years had passed. Everywhere they went together, even outside of Dallas, Jasiecki always ran into someone he knew, Stewart says.

Jasiecki and Stewart traveled together to England, Poland, Mexico, Hawaii and the Grand Canyon. He did snorkeling and SCUBA diving and was skilled at driving cars, motorcycles and boats, she says. His “favorite thing” was to be on an airplane in first class, she says.

He loved parties, pubs and community events.

In 2005, he started a neighborhood garage sale on Haines that became Porches on Haines, a block party with live bands, food, drinks and socializing.

“If you hadn’t seen anyone all year, you could always show your face at Porches and catch up with everyone,” Miller says.

Two former City Council members, Delia Jasso and Scott Griggs, were among the friends who showed up to an impromptu memorial on Jasiecki’s front lawn Sunday, where friends and neighbors shared their Keith stories. There are a million of them.

Jasiecki’s best friend since 1980, Coy Fite, says his friend loved to push the envelope to see how far he could go before getting a rise out of someone.

“He was a very good judge of character,” Stewart says.  “Keith was a mentor and a teacher at heart.”

Jasiecki’s mother died in 1984. Aside from his brother and many friends, he leaves behind a niece, Nicole Jasiecki.

Jasiecki died of a heart attack on June 11, and his brother wants to thank Baylor Scott & White’s heart and vascular hospital for their care.

Funeral arrangements are being made with Calvary Hill Funeral Home.

“This is the true Keith,” says friend Ewa Stewart.

Jasiecki frequently ate breakfast at Norma’s.

Keith Jasiecki in his Haines Avenue front yard during a neighborhood celebration. Photos courtesy of Ewa Stewart.