In racially exclusive neighborhood, residents worried Bush will make it a 'target' Andrew McLemore

Published: Saturday December 6, 2008





Print This Email This As President Bush prepares to move into his new Dallas home at the end of his term, neighborhood residents worry about having him close by.



One woman shared her fears as she walked past Bush's house carrying her King Charles cocker spaniel on Friday.



"I am afraid with all the negative press the president has been getting, the whole neighborhood is going to be a target," said the woman, who refused to give her name.



Traffic has already begun to clog the narrow streets around the home, causing neighbors to call the police -- who expect the hullabaloo to continue.



"When the Bushes are here full time, I imagine we'll be here full time," said Officer Michael Bratcher of the Dallas Police Department, who was directing traffic.



But the exclusive Dallas community the Bush family will soon join has a troubled history of its own.



Until 2000, the neighborhood association's covenant said only white people were allowed to live there, though an exception was made for servants.



Enacted in 1956, part of the original document reads: "Said property shall be used and occupied by white persons except those shall not prevent occupancy by domestic servants of different race or nationality in the employ of a tenant."



The entire covenant can be seen here.



When asked about his new home in an interview with The Dallas Morning News, Bush "played coy."



"Mr. President -- you excited about your house in Dallas?" Todd Gillman asked.



"Todd, why do you care?" Bush responded. "You live in Washington, D.C."



The neighborhood is home to many famous people, including former presidential candidate Ross Perot and Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman and Dallas Mavericks owner.



President Bush's new house abuts the 14-acre lair of real-estate investor Gene Phillips, who just had a trout-filled lake installed on his property.



