"I'm like the old man from Up," Tracy Popken Springer said when I called her last week, referring to Pixar's cartoon hold-out who refused to sell his beloved home to developers drowning his neighborhood with concrete towers. That's exactly what I hoped she'd say, which is why it's at the top of this piece about Springer's refusal to sell her 90-year-old red-brick two-story to the latest developer plopping apartments in and around Bishop Arts.

By way of introduction, Springer's a designer of some renown: The Dallas Observer included her in its 2013 "Dallas People" issue, alongside people whose radio shows you listen to, whose movies you watch and whose food you've eaten. She makes new clothes that look old, timeless, and she designs smart-looking aprons and apparel for people serving food and pouring coffee at Emporium Pies, JOY Macarons and other North Oak Cliff eateries.

Which is all impressive and cool. It also has nothing whatsoever to do with why she got a shout-out during a recent meeting at Dallas City Hall or how I wound up spending an afternoon at her charming home talking about why she's never, ever going to sell her house, even when she's eventually surrounded by apartments and parking lots and all the other Uptown amenities that will wind up jammed into a North Oak Cliff neighborhood that was supposed to be the opposite of Uptown.

