Thank goodness for the Southwest Patrol Division’s Facebook page. Otherwise I might have never seen this cool bar graph showing year-to-date total crime is down 17 percent in Oak Cliff.

What do you think? I have noticed a slight decline in car burglaries in our weekly police blotter, but I’m no expert.

If you haven’t picked up your Feb. 25 edition of Oak Cliff People yet, I’ll give you a 24-hour grace period before the shunning begins. I’m a little biased, but it’s an excellent issue that will make you laugh, cry, and gag.

And that’s only from reading one article.

Staff members Dan Koller and Georgia Fisher stuffed their faces for the sake of journalism at the annual vegan pancake eating contest at Spiral Diner on Feb. 20.

Entertaining? Yes.

Pretty? No.

We’ve got the video to prove it. Just try to turn away. I dare you.

Teco’s latest lineup of one-act plays ends this weekend — with one of six completing playwrights set to win $1,000 Sunday by audience vote. Tickets to the annual New Play Competition are just $15, and you can buy them and get show details here.

I don’t know about you, but I want to see Ghet-toe Court.

Oak Cliff residents have long lamented the lack of local grocery stores. It looks like Councilman Dave Neumann was listening.

Neumann announced yesterday that a Walmart Neighborhood Market is going in on Fort Worth Avenue near Hampton Road, the former site of Colorado Place Apartments, by 2012, and the area’s second Aldi will open March 9 at Fort Worth Avenue and Jacqueline Drive. Not wanting to be left out of all the fresh food fun, Kroger at Wynnewood Village Shopping Center has extended its lease for five years and pledged a $2 million renovation.

Check out the Feb. 25 edition of Oak Cliff People for the full story.

This is one of the more bizarre incidents I’ve encountered on the Dallas Police Department website.

At 12:30 p.m., closed-circuit television showed two people entering a Bank of America vault in the 400 block of South Zang Boulevard. They somehow got past a secure metal door without damaging it. Closed-circuit footage also showed them repositioning a camera so they wouldn’t be recorded causing $30,000 worth of damage to 15 safe-deposit boxes.

Two employees entered the safe-deposit area at 1:10 p.m. and asked one of the intruders what he was doing there. The intruder replied, “I am here with Michelle,” and asked them to open the door so he could leave. An employee granted this request, and both intruders fled the building.

From the “Say It Ain’t So” desk:

Legendary bartender and author of Speakeasy, Jason Kosmas, will depart Bolsa for the moneyed waters of Highland Park Village. Kosmas, formerly of Neighborhood Services Tavern, will manage the cocktail list of Tre Wilcox’s Marquee Club, which should open soon. For more details, hit up our lovely sister blog Side Dish.

Managing editor Dan Koller races to eat as many vegan pancakes as he can.

It took a while for our lovely staff writer, Georgia Fisher, to learn this lesson. In the last 60 seconds of the five-minute bout of pancake carnage, Fisher finally resorted to using the eating tools God gave her: her hands. It was too late though, as the nine competitors that aimed to defeat her had already been using both left and right hands to shovel as many flapjacks as possible into their pie holes.

In the end, there was only one winner: Mario Sanchez, 2009′s runner up, consumed 21 pancakes, ultimately besting champion James Magruder, who could only down 19. Aaron Gonzalez, the owner of one fine handlebar moustache, claimed third with 12 pancakes.

Our own managing editor, Dan Koller, tied for fifth in the matchup of mighty masticators, devouring 10 pancakes. Just imagine how many more he would have eaten had he ditched the fork …