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Amenities, diversity attracted black professional family to lake community of ROWLETT
09:12 PM CDT on Saturday, June 25, 2005
When a cow backed up traffic on one of Rowlett's major thoroughfares,
Roy Johnson, who grew up in South Dallas, thought he had moved to
Mayberry.
He thinks that often since moving from Garland to Rowlett.
He talks about a neighbor who brought him a welcome gift and the Fire
Department chaplain who called him to tell him his Pomeranian, Foxy, had
been struck and killed by a car.
But "Mayberry" is growing.
Rowlett, a town of more than 44,000 about 20 miles east of Dallas on the
shores of Lake Ray Hubbard, nearly doubled its population during the
1990s.
And many of those residents, like the Johnsons, are affluent black
families. Mr. Johnson, 44, is a branch manager for Wells Fargo Mortgage.
Marsha Johnson, 42, is a loan officer at Bank of America, although she
is on medical leave.
The Dallas Morning News spent several months examining the
dynamics of affluent black households in the Dallas-Fort Worth
metropolitan region. The News analyzed U.S. census data from 1990
to 2000, comparing the growth in upper-income black households locally
and nationally. Reporters interviewed families, demographers, economists
and educators, as well as civic, business and religious leaders about
the status of black residents in the region.
The median income for black households in Rowlett exceeds the citywide
median income. And the number of black households in the highest income
bracket increased fivefold from 1990 to 2000, according to U.S. Census
Bureau figures.
Three years ago, the Johnsons began looking for a new home. They needed
more space, especially a bigger kitchen, where Mr. Johnson could prepare
gourmet meals.
The couple has two children, Danielle, 17, and Jaisen, 11.
During their house hunt, Ms. Johnson said, she looked at more than 30
homes in Rowlett and other area suburbs. The last one she looked at had
a fireplace in the master bedroom.
"I told Roy that I found the house," she said.
Rowlett has most of the amenities a family needs, the Johnsons said. And
their neighborhood is racially diverse, which is important to them.
The city is about 9 percent African-American, 9 percent Hispanic, 4
percent Asian and 77 percent white.
Ms. Johnson grew up in a diverse culture during her father's U.S. Air
Force career. And she wants her children to have the same experience.
But she doesn't want them to move from school to school like she did.
She wants stability.
But life in Rowlett has had its ups and downs. In January, Mrs. Johnson
was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Throughout her treatment, neighbors, friends and family have stepped up
to help – much as they would in Mayberry.
E-mail jlafleur@dallasnews.com
