The default beat goes on in Lancaster, elsewhere in southern Dallas County

Of the 1,600 foreclosed homes in Dallas County, many are in the southern sector. In Lancaster, for example, foreclosures are up 116 percent over the last three years.

Here’s how bad it is across all of metro Dallas:

Cedar Hill, DeSoto, Duncanville, Garland, Irving, Lancaster and Mesquite had more than 560 foreclosures among them for August of 2004. While that was bad, the Foreclosure Listing Service now says the numbers are much worse. This August, there were 862 foreclosure postings in the same cities. That's an increase of 65 percent.

It’s bad in a lot of the Metroplex, but Lancaster looks like it’s the worst.

And, former city manager Jim Landon scoffed at me 10 months ago when I said this was coming. And so did the Lancaster ISD head cheese, Larry Lewis. Well, Jim is gone (did he actually recognize this coming himself?) And Crazy Uncle Larry is flying from one idea to the next before the TEA comes to town.