Mallory McDonald

A non-fiction piece written for my reporting class 

The Dart Says Hey How are ya?
The elevator to head down to the lower level of the DART Mockingbird Station finally arrives and its doors open. An older woman hunched over in a large white T-shirt boards the elevator. She walks with a large silver walker and bags of unidentifiable items cluttering her arms. Mostly the bags are plastic from grocery stores, but she also carries a small single red gym bag. Her face is tough, her skin is rough, and her hair a short black fro. She looks up to the man who boards the elevator at the same time as her, but from the opposite side and says, “Where are you headed this morning?”

After a short exchange of pleasantries, they both stepped off the elevator and went their separate ways. She slowly walked over the map to pick out which color rail she was going to ride that day. Beyond her was another woman holding jewelry all over her body.

“Do you want to buy some necklaces?” she asked each person that passed her. She was probably in her late thirties, tall, thin, and African American. In fact, the station was predominately filled with people who were not Caucasian. Everyone sat or stood around waiting for the train to arrive. The automated voice of a woman came over the speakers after a while calling out, like a prison sentence, “Arriving. This is the red line,” she said in perfect monotone.

The crowd gathered, passengers got on and passengers got off. The people passed each other without so much as a once over, everyone had somewhere to be—work, school, home, and no one was too concerned about anyone else. Some small hum of conversation floated in the air, but mostly, all the passengers kept to themselves either seated silently or had headphone stuck into their ears.

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit or DART was created in 1983 to service the people of the Dallas community. It was funded with a one-cent local sales tax and consists of 13 cities. The light rail consists of a length of 85 miles, has an average weekday ridership of 90,224, all according to DART.org.

Riders of the DART vary in every way from physical appearance to economic status. Ridership has been decreasing in recent time due to the economy, the placement of new buildings and homes causing population growth to grow beyond the DART service area, says the Dallas Morning News. Ridership also tends to be from people with lower economic statues, usually those who cannot afford vehicles and gas prices, though some still ride for convenience.

The Mockingbird Station DART  is located off Mockingbird and North Central Expressway. It is the closest DART station to SMU’s campus. Much of the infamous Dallas North-South Gap can be seen in riding the DART. As riders travel farther south the economic status also drops. SMU has influenced the Northern part of Dallas and brought students, jobs, and success. Many suggest if SMU were to expand into South Dallas it could help bridge the gap, according to an editorial sent to Dallas Morning News. Over the years some suggestions have been sent forth as to how to bring together North and South Dallas, yet the gap remains. Only time will tell if it can one day be fixed.

But regardless of economic status and no matter where the DART travels, different types of people from all walks of life can be seen—the young, the old, the rich, the poor, and all different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Luckily, there is an innate human kindness in most people at least enough to offer a sweet southern, “How are ya this morning?”