Dwaine Caraway might have hoped his legacy would be the renaissance of the Oak Cliff neighborhoods he knew as a boy, where he grew up, where he seemed to know everybody and where he spent his adult life crafting a reputation as a crusader for the people.

He loved to point to what he had changed, shutting down hot sheet motels, calling on kids to pull up their pants, and, most of all, rejuvenating the Lancaster/Kiest corridor.

But even there, along streets where Caraway did bring new and heavily subsidized development - his work is questioned.

And nowhere so much as it is at Rudy’s Chicken.

Rudolph Edwards, the man behind the beloved chicken shack, sat outside his business on Lancaster Road Thursday afternoon shaking his head at the news that Caraway pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges.

Edwards and Caraway have a complicated relationship. It was Caraway who led the push for an $890,000 city grant to build Edwards a brand new restaurant to replace the rundown, walk-up chicken shack he became famous for in southern Dallas.

But it was a favor Edwards never wanted and that came to symbolize Caraway’s dominance in the area to some.

Today, Edwards won’t accuse Caraway of any wrongdoing toward him, but the way the council member handled the deal still doesn’t sit right with him.

“I didn’t want this property,” he said. “I told [Caraway] I did not want my business on this lot ... He did what he wanted to do.”

Edwards said he didn’t realize that by accepting Caraway’s offer it meant he’d lose his land and end up with his business in a place he never intended it to be. But before he knew it, it was done and there was nothing he could do about it, he said.

He said the land he had to give up was worth at least $400,000 compared to the roughly $65,000 he had to pay for the small piece of property where his restaurant now stands.

The deal was part of Caraway’s efforts to accomplish his goal of revitalizing Lancaster Road, a street divided by the DART rail line where opportunity has been hard to come by.

Caraway, though, brought new construction to Lancaster Kiest and gave a sense that this area could grow too, if only the people demanded it.

Owner Rudolph Edwards, left, is questioned on Thursday by former City Council member Sandra Crenshaw about the involvement that former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway may have had in his business at Rudy's Chicken in Dallas. (Carly Geraci / Staff Photographer)

Edward speaks of Caraway today in the same sort of conflicted way many who know him do.

“He’s got a good heart, and that’s what people can’t understand,” said former City Council member Sandra Crenshaw, who stopped by Rudy’s Chicken Thursday.

Standing in a laundromat across the road from the chicken restaurant, 80-year-old Elijah Hawkins said it was hard for him to believe the news about his council member.

Caraway was a good listener, he said, and the man was approachable.

“What he was trying to do was help us with this right here,” Hawkins said as he pointed to a homeless man sleeping in a chair next to him. “I’ve seen him give money to people out of his own pocket.”

Longtime Dallas resident Elijah Hawkins, left, talks about the news regarding former Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway as Tae Shelton, of Dallas, takes a nap at Amigo Wash & Dry in Dallas on Aug. 9, 2018. Hawkins said he was disappointed to hear about Caraway, who will plead guilty to federal corruption charges. He knew him to be approachable and invested in the community. (Carly Geraci / Staff Photographer)

But Caraway was also known as a hustler, pushing for others but also pushing for himself.

Edwards said he lost over $2 million by doing business with Caraway, and that is a conservative estimate.

He doesn’t believe Caraway did anything criminal in his dealings with him, but “I kinda got hoodwinked,” Edwards said.

When asked if Caraway ever asked him for money, Edwards just put his head down and laughed.