The community organizers behind the Better Block projects and the nonprofit Go Oak Cliff have quit their day jobs. Jason Roberts and Amy Cowan are in it for profit now. These neighborhood leaders formed a company, Cowan Roberts LLP, to bring their ideas and skills, including public relations and fundraising, to other parts of Dallas and the world.

In early 2010, Jason Roberts and his friend Amy Wallace Cowan were speculating about their Dallas neighborhood. What if, instead of empty, run-down buildings, the streets were lined with cafés and flower shops? What if people of all ages rode bikes here? What if Oak Cliff looked more like, you know, Paris?

...Event organizers Jason Roberts and Amy Cowan say many a business had a grand, if not record, weekend at the cash register. They and others proclaim the second art crawl a success.

And there’s hope out there that the weekend Better Block experience on Tyler will lead to permanent changes in that area and elsewhere — changes that would slow down traffic, and make the street, sidewalks and alleys more pedestrian, bicycle, user friendly.

A great public place gives residents of a neighborhood a sense of belonging, pride, connection and beauty. But too many neighborhoods have no such place. Some have been destroyed by recession, with shuttered businesses and boarded-up buildings. Others are simply soulless, built for cars, not people, featuring strip malls that require driving instead of places for residents to walk, bike, play or gather.

Is Dallas’ “next big thing” south of the Trinity? Our guests this hour think so. With a nod to Jim Schutze’s recent Dallas Observer article, we’ll get the inside scoop on the Oak Cliff Renaissance from Jason Roberts, president of the Oak Cliff Transit Authority and co-founder of Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, Mariana Griggs, who runs the Oak Cliff Community Gardens and Amy Cowan, organizer of Cliff Fest, the Mardi Gras Parade, the 2008 Presidential Watch party in the Bishop Arts District.

Amy Wallace Cowan is the proud mother of three girls: Aubrey Cate, 9; Colette, 5; and Laurel, who was born in May. But as a founder of Go Oak Cliff, she is also a parent of such community events as the Oak Cliff Mardi Gras Parade, Bastille on Bishop, and Blues, Bandits & BBQ.

And here they are, the voter-nominated finalists for this year’s Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce Awards...

Amy Cowan, who works a day job as a fundraiser and events planner for the Democratic Party, has worked closely with Jason Roberts on the Better Block Project and other street parties. She and her husband have lived in Oak Cliff for three years and are raising their two children there. Cowan says she wants her kids to grow up among the social and economic diversity of Oak Cliff.

‘Twas a colorful and energetic affair that brought an estimated 8K to 10K folks to the corridor. This from Amy Cowan, an organizer with event sponsor Go Oak Cliff. 

Reports of its death may be greatly exaggerated, but that didn’t keep about 80 people from having a funeral Sunday for the proposed Trinity Parkway.

Organized by opponents of the $1.5 billion toll road plan, the New Orleans-style procession included a casket marked with the North Texas Tollway Authority’s signature T.

Good show yesterday along Davis Street and through Bishop Arts.

Bikes and beads and bands and costumes and craziness floating around.

“Our little neighborhood parade got on steroids,” said Go Oak Cliff’s Amy Cowan, an organizer of the weekend Mardi Gras fest.

...Go Oak Cliff’s Jason Roberts and Amy Cowan present ceremonial $700 checks to Josh Ragsdale, Adamson’s football coach, and to Rametria Smith, Sunset band director. An anonymous donor that night also gave Smith a $2,500 check to buy instruments for the Sunset jazz band.

...It's one scene in a public art project confronting graffiti and enlivening a stretch of Seventh Street - in time for another weekend of art, music and playful energy in north Oak Cliff.

"It will be a little bit of everything we have to offer," said Amy Cowan, an organizer of the second annual Oak Cliff Art Crawl. "It will be like a big old Oak Cliff open house."

...leaders of the advocacy group Go Oak Cliff have been talking about launching a pedicab service. Go Oak Cliff leader Amy Cowan said the group, which sponsors special events, has grant money to contribute to such a project.

A Dallas neighborhood is taking a unique approach to combating crime in its area — disc golf. 

Go Oak Cliff is an advocacy group with the stated mission of developing North Oak Cliff as the "most livable community in the nation."

The group is leading an effort to construct a disc golf course at Oak Cliff Founders Park, a triangular piece of property bounded by Marsalis Avenue and Zang and Colorado boulevards.

"As we all know, more eyes on a park makes it safer,” Go Oak Cliff's Amy Cowan said.