DTD Revitalization: Thoughts, Ideas, Milestones, and Progress

[CTroyMathis]

To revitalize downtown, the whole must outweigh the parts
03/31/2002
By DAVID DILLON / The Dallas Morning News

With its proposed $250 million Center for the Performing Arts, Dallas has caught the latest urban wave, along with Philadelphia, Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and a dozen other American cities. Performing arts centers have become the new fixe du jour for ailing downtowns, succeeding the pedestrian mall, festival market, convention center, cultural district, sports arena – and presaging who knows what. Dallas has built or toyed with all of these and has now set its sights on the Trinity River and the massive Victory development.

Former mayor Ron Kirk called the Trinity plan "the key to Dallas' economic future," while Ross Perot Jr. referred to his Victory development as the future "Times Square" of Dallas and "the new front door for the city." With the threatened withdrawal last week of partner Tom Hicks, and resistance to additional public subsidies at City Hall, that door may be closing.

Urban ideas

Pedestrian malls
The Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Calif., made the best of a dubious idea.
Examples: Akard Street, Dallas; Main Mall, Tulsa, Okla.
Problem: Downtown is noisy, messy and congested. Solution: Close off streets, put down bricks, add trees and benches, and let the public loose.
Result: An explosion of dead space, proving that a certain amount of grit and congestion is essential for urban life.

Arenas and ballparks
Being big league doesn't necessarily pay off.
Examples: The Ballpark in Arlington; Camden Yards in Baltimore.
Problem: The teams are leaving! The teams are leaving!
Solution: A new arena or ballpark, publicly subsidized, with luxury suites and a retro fantasy look.
Result: The teams stick around, but the promised public windfall doesn't materialize.

Convention centers
Mass without class.
Examples: McCormick Place, Chicago; First Union Center, Philadelphia.
Problem: The residents won't go near downtown, but perhaps visiting dentists and home builders will.
Solution: A convention center, the bigger the better, where all sense of place and time can be profitably erased.
Result: Dozens of big blank boxes that kill street life for blocks around.

Festival markets
The success of Quincy Market in Boston wasn't exportable.
Example: South Street Seaport, New York.
Problem: Downtowns are dirty, dangerous and full of strangers with funny accents.
Solution: Bring in food, pushcarts and street performers, and turn shopping into amiable entertainment.
Result: Like sequels to hit movies, the novelty faded and the marketplaces devolved into semi-suburban malls.

The premise of the big fix is that the way to lure disaffected urbanites back downtown is to create a constellation of special attractions that the suburbs can't duplicate, such as ballparks, concert halls and blockbuster exhibitions. It's theme-park thinking, but with understandable appeal. Most people like to eat and shop and be entertained, and historically, downtown has been the place to do such things, whether it's a Greek agora, a Renaissance piazza or a Disneyfied Times Square. The trick is to persuade the visitors to stick around or to come back when there isn't an important game or special show. That takes more than one or two big fixes, as generations of American planners have discovered. .

One of the most popular urban-design nostrums of the 1960s and early '70s was the pedestrian mall, of which Dallas' Akard Street is a tiny remnant. This was the era of urban renewal and the interstate highway boom, when planners became convinced that the car was the enemy of public life. One remedy was to close streets to create tranquil, trafficless zones where shoppers and tourists could stroll contentedly among flowering shrubs and antique street lamps. (Dallas' extensive sky-bridge-and-tunnel system sprang from the same desire to separate people and cars.)

But the typical result was a wasteland of shuttered stores and empty plazas. Most cities that built pedestrian malls eventually ripped them out. The few that flourished, such as Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis and the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Calif., accommodated cars and buses. Cars, it turns out, are an essential element of the urban experience, part of our mental map of how cities work. Banishing them entirely creates eerie, alien landscapes where nobody feels comfortable.

Failed festivals

The pedestrian-mall bug was followed by festival-market flu. Dallas caught a mild case in the '80s when it poured millions into public improvements around the Farmers Market in hopes of creating a new commercial cornucopia. This phenomenon was driven by the spectacular success of Boston's Quincy Market and Harborplace in Baltimore, Md., both developed by the Rouse Corp. America's downtowns were on the ropes, and any sign of life was greeted with wild enthusiasm. Quincy Market attracted nearly 10 million visitors its first year, persuading mayors and city managers that a savvy blend of food, shopping and entertainment, cleverly choreographed and tightly policed, was just the thing to revive the center city.

But the concept didn't travel well. Except in Boston and Baltimore, festival marketplaces bombed. New Yorkers preferred the real Manhattan to the concocted version provided by South Street Seaport; residents of Toledo, Ohio; Tampa, Fla.; and Flint, Mich., were equally underwhelmed by their ersatz town squares.

The devil was in the details. The marketplaces required large public subsidies, were formulaically designed and often featured the same mix of stores and restaurants as the regional malls to which they were allegedly an alternative. The Dallas version would have contained a replica of the San Antonio River Walk, complete with riverboats and strolling musicians. Dallas dodged that silver bullet when Rouse pulled out, though some of the spirit of the marketplace survives in popular consumerist warrens such as Mockingbird Station and West Village.

Conventional wisdom

No fix was bigger in the 1980s and '90s than a convention center, in small towns as well as major cities. In 1992, for example, an urban design SWAT team from the University of Minnesota traveled up and down the Mississippi River advising mayors and city managers how to perk up their moribund downtowns. What they wanted to talk about most was a convention center, even when the best they could hope for was an occasional tractor pull or fly-fishing tournament. They had seen the future over in St. Louis or St. Paul, and they were going to build it. The Dallas Convention Center has been expanded so many times that it's more like an artificial mountain range than a building. These expansions have enabled the city to attract home builders and cardiologists and other expense-account philanthropists, and to keep its top-10 ranking in the national convention sweepstakes, significantly below New York, Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., but roughly even with Atlanta, New Orleans and Washington, D.C.

Yet whatever this golden flow of tourists has done for Dallas' economy, it has done little to energize downtown. The convention center remains inscrutably vast and disconnected from the rest of the city. No stores, restaurants and chic hotels line Young Street; weary conventioneers exit into bleak parking lots and empty streets. Some of them pile into cabs and head for downtown Fort Worth, where an old-fashioned urbanism of street, block and square still prevails. The Wild West theming gets a bit thick, but the scale is comfortable, the sidewalks are jumping and one thing connects to another. Even the locals show up.

Sports arenas generate stronger feelings than convention centers, because they offer the cachet of being big league instead of merely convenient. Yet the economic evidence is overwhelming that with a few exceptions – Washington's MCI Center, for one – arenas and ballparks generate little new money or new development, particularly when located on the fringe of downtown like Reunion Arena or the new American Airlines Center. There's no synergy in a remote site. Fans drive in and out without setting foot in the city.

A livable city

In a special report on Dallas published 11 years ago in The Dallas Morning News, urban historian Neal Peirce noted that while from a helicopter downtown looked stunning, "when we got to street level, we found astounding inactivity, a place so vacant you'd have thought the neutron bomb exploded there, removing the people." Much has changed since then. Fifteen thousand people now live in downtown lofts and apartments compared to a few hundred in the early '90s. DART rail has arrived to pick them up and drop them off in aerodynamic comfort. The Arts District, after a decade in intensive care, is showing signs of sustainable life, with a sculpture garden, a performing arts center and possibly a new natural history museum by Frank Gehry in the works. Santiago Calatrava has been commissioned to design a dramatic new bridge connecting downtown and West Dallas, and plans are under way, however muddled, to reclaim the Trinity River that flows beneath it.

What hasn't changed since Mr. Peirce's report is that downtown Dallas remains a stark, abstract place, far more appealing from a distance than up close. In its fascination with big fixes it has neglected the small, everyday ones that make downtowns livable: parks, trees, walkable streets, places to buy a good baguette or a $3 shine. The late sociologist William Whyte – no stranger to Dallas – referred to such things as "tremendous trifles" and pointed out that, though apparently trivial, they can have a dramatic cumulative effect on cities and landscapes. They were his potent antidotes to "the grand-sweep approach to regional design" and the big-fix approach to urban development.

Paris has more monuments than any capital in the world, yet it is also a city of cafes, gardens, parks, surprising views and an inexhaustible supply of great walks. It is this interplay between big and little, grand and ordinary that makes it such a memorable place. Similar things could be said about London, Boston, New York, Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver, all cities rich in grain and texture. Barcelona, Spain, used the 1992 Olympics to reinvent itself, not just by building arenas and stadiums but by investing simultaneously in neighborhoods, parks, gardens, beaches, public art – the condiments of urban living.

Downtown Dallas still needs big ideas, but it also needs greening and softening and more connective tissue to pull its fragments together. Instead of one 50-story building, it needs five 10-story buildings. Not only more housing, but a broader range of housing to attract a more diverse urban population. And nothing would draw the middle class back quicker than a couple of first-rate public schools. The arts magnet is terrific, but it's not enough. Downtown's next monument could be the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, which is being touted as both the city's cultural showpiece and the exclamation point for the Arts District. Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas are outstanding architects, and there's an excellent chance that their designs for the opera house and theater will be stunning. But architecture alone won't produce the civic triumph the public is hoping for. It will take all the other stuff – shops, cafes, parks, housing, that elusive element known as ambience – to turn the Arts District into a place instead of a collection of discrete cultural destinations. The goal is a bouillabaisse instead of a buffet.

This won't happen overnight. It took 25 years for New York's Lincoln Center to become a cultural mecca; Yerba Buena in San Francisco is still a work in progress after nearly 30 years. A building, even a great building, is only a first step.

[mdunlap1]

Dallas has a chance for one of the biggest urban development investments, during a bad economic time, and the Dallas City Council, along with their newly-crowned Queen, appears that they will turn it down over pure selfishness.

The misinformation on this Victory deal is so amazing, it is making Dallas look ridiculous to any observer that has the most basic understanding of economics. Palladium is one of the premier real estate development firms in the nation, and they are offering to put $600 million into this project, if they can only get a guarantee of $40 million, which would only come from tax revenues generated by the project. But the City of Dallas leaders appear ready to turn down an amazing deal, out of their lack of understanding of economics. Unbelievable. This idea that pot hole fillings and city employee raises aren't happening b/c money is going to business incentives is a joke. It's not a zero-sum gain, people. Those things aren't happening due to the same ineptitude being displayed in the Victory/Palladium TIF debate.

[GarrettCarey]

Dallas Council Antes Downtown Promise to $108.9M
By Connie Gore
Last updated: Jul 10, 2002 01:09PM

DALLAS-Downtown Dallas has bagged a $108.9-million promise for its hard-hitting revitalization drive, up from $49.2 million in a revision OK'd yesterday by city council.
The City Center TIF would have exhausted its incentive pool by year's end, but the beefed-up stimulus package now enables additional public improvements needed to forge ahead on the inner city renewal. The added funding gives a decided edge to the downtown alliance in its face-off with the nearby Victory project of New York City-based Palladium to attract retailers.

"This revision allows us to continue with the revitalization under way and maintain the momentum we have achieved for new investment and redevelopment," Susan Mead, executive director of the Downtown Partnership Inc., said in a prepared statement. The target area is bordered by Elm, Main and Commerce streets.

The council action comes about two months after a $10-million boost in the City Center TIF budget empowerment. With the added capital influence, the reality of a grocery store and neighborhood-based retail is more likely to evolve--elements deemed critical to the revitalization and the success of 1,800 residential units that have been completed, are under way or on the drawing boards.

Washington, DC-based Madison Retail Group and Roadside Development are leading the charge to backfill the downtown buildings with local and national retailers with scale of appeal for the rising residential head count. "The city and county's continued support and participation is critical to the ongoing success," said Richard Lake, Madison's managing principal.

To date, 60,000 sf of retail has been completed under the existing TIF District. Thus far this year, the downtown has cut ribbons on a Corner Bakery, Chipotle Grill, Atlanta Bread Co. and Starbucks. In the past two weeks, the Metropolitan Restaurant has opened at 1525 Main St. and Campisi's at 1520 Elm St. Additionally, several upscale newcomers have cut deals for spots in the high-rises, another sign of the hard sell by brokers all around town.

[hamiltonpl]

Vision for downtown Dallas unveiled
Council gets glimpse of landscaped boulevards, green space, new life
12/03/2002
By VICTORIA LOE HICKS / The Dallas Morning News
www.dallasnews.com/latest...69892.html (http://www.dallasnews.com/latestnews/stories/120302dnmetpark.69892.html)

Like kids with their noses pressed against a shop window, Dallas City Council members got a peek Monday at a vision of a downtown where pedestrians stroll along landscaped boulevards from Uptown to the Farmers Market, pausing to shop or relax on a shaded park bench or at a sidewalk cafe. Landscaped boulevards would convey motorists into downtown from every direction in a rational, orderly – and well-marked – way, and wastelands of surface parking would be replaced by attractively designed parking garages. Judging from their comments, council members liked what they saw, but there was little brass-tacks discussion of whether they're willing to pay the price of admission – aside, that is, from Mayor Laura Miller, who set the planning process in motion.

The future of the entire city "all comes down to downtown," Ms. Miller said. "We have no choice." The two-hour presentation was billed as an interim report by the Inside the Loop Committee, appointed by Ms. Miller to devise a physical plan and a revitalization strategy for downtown. Robert W. Decherd, whom the mayor named to lead the committee, said the city must have not just a plan for downtown, but a business plan. "This is a large business that we are all responsible for managing," he told council members. He said downtown will be revived only if City Hall creates a "virtuous cycle" of public investment that spurs private investment that makes possible further public investment, and so on.

Mr. Decherd is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Belo, which owns The Dallas Morning News, WFAA-TV (Channel <img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"> , TXCN (cable Channel 3<img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/glasses.gif ALT="8)"> and their affiliated Web sites. Belo is among a few major corporations with headquarters in downtown Dallas.

First up: hotel

The committee said the city's most urgent task is to conclude a deal with a developer to build a hotel adjacent to the convention center. Beyond that, most of the panel's recommendations fit into two broad categories: creating parks and other green space, and bringing rationality and pedestrian appeal to drab and often convoluted streets. The committee envisioned a 4.7-acre park dubbed "Commerce Garden" straddling Commerce Street between Harwood and St. Paul streets, plus a 61-acre "Emerald Bracelet," or linear greenbelt, immediately inside the freeway loop.

The panel also urged refashioning five major north-south streets, from Harwood on the east to Field on the west as pedestrian-friendly links from the Arts District to City Hall and the convention center. The report also stressed linking downtown to surrounding areas by decking portions of Interstate 30 and Woodall Rodgers Freeway, creating a Central Boulevard on downtown's eastern edge, and improving major thoroughfares such as Ross Avenue, and Young and Canton streets. Mr. Decherd stressed that, with the exception of Commerce Garden, which the committee said should be built as soon as possible, the other recommendations are preliminary and may be superseded by the work of professional consultants who are about to analyze the issues of downtown parks and transportation.

Ms. Miller echoed that thought. "All this is a work in progress," she said. The Inside the Loop Committee did not attach price tags to each of its recommendations, but in a presentation last spring, Mr. Decherd urged the council to include more than $25 million to initiate some of the downtown projects in the bond package that could go to voters in May. Among various bond scenarios drawn up by the city manager's office, only the largest package – totaling nearly $603 million – would include the startup projects on the Inside the Loop list. In particular, $10 million toward the creation of a major park such as Commerce Garden is omitted from all but the $603 million scenario.

That being so, "we ought to have a $600 million bond package," Mr. Decherd said. Monday afternoon, in a separate discussion that followed Mr. Decherd's briefing, council members appeared deeply divided about whether the city can afford or can sell voters on such an ambitious bond package.

Citywide rewards

Mr. Decherd urged council members to consider the potential citywide rewards of ambitious but well-chosen outlays on downtown. If the city can lure private companies to invest downtown once again – something that has not happened in 15 years – tax receipts will rise, lessening the tax burden on homeowners, he said. "A $1 billion increase in value [of property encompassed by the downtown freeway loop] is possible if you have a plan and stick to it," he said. At present tax rates, such an increase would generate $28 million a year for local governments and schools, including $7 million for the city of Dallas, according to the committee's analysis. That won't happen, though, if the city isn't willing to do what it takes, Mr. Decherd said. "It will not happen if it is left to the private sector," he said.

[crescentboi]

Has anyone noticed that on the corners of a lot of vacant parking lots downtown they were putting in pavers in a small square area, with electrical running to it. Well I just saw today, next to my apt (Davis Bldg) that they are very large round, I would call them poster holders! They are awesome and look great. There is the symbol of pegasus on the bottom of them and have multiple openings for posters and are circular! This should be a nice addition to downtown. When I have a chance I'll take a pic and post it, unless someone does it first.

[gc]

I have not seen the signs, but noticed the parking lot being dug up earlier this week...perhaps that is what they were doing. I'll have to check it out! thanks for notifying us!

[crescentboi]

Yeah, when I noticed them being tore up (and there's quite a few locations around downtown) I was kind of hoping it would be landscaping, when I saw the electrical and round platform, I was afraid it was for some large light pole, but these signs are great! Very excited about them.

[gc]

Kiosks get city's approval
69 structures with Dallas maps, ads to be installed downtown
By DAVE LEVINTHAL / DMN / February 11, 2004
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/news/city/dallas/stories/021204dnmetkiosks.52e8c.html

To some, they're commercialized eyesores. To others, they're tasteful beacons of useful information.

Regardless, dozens of 10-foot-tall kiosks will sprout up throughout downtown this year after the City Council on Wednesday gave an entrepreneur permission to proceed with their installation.

"The process? It's grueling, frustrating," said Scott Reynolds of Reynolds Outdoor Media, who said he grappled with the city for two years to secure permits and the council's blessings for the kiosks, all 69 of which will sit atop private property – primarily surface parking lots.

"It's kind of a David and Goliath thing. I was facing a giant that was out of control."

Mayor Laura Miller expressed concern that Mr. Reynolds' kiosks won't jibe in style and substance with kiosks the city may in the future approve for public areas, such as sidewalks and parks.

"We're basically allowing little billboards," Ms. Miller said. "I wish that we could have picked our own design. He can now do anything he wants with them."

Mr. Reynolds' kiosks will feature a map of Dallas highlighting points of interest, as well as two advertisements, he said.

Tobacco, alcohol and sexually oriented advertisements will not appear on them, and he won't exceed his allotment, although he originally wanted to construct 80 kiosks, Mr. Reynolds said.

The Highland Park businessman also said he would donate trees, street benches and other downtown beautification elements to the city in return for the council's go-ahead.

Ms. Miller, despite her concerns, joined in approving the kiosks.

The council in 2001 passed what members acknowledge to be a vague ordinance allowing kiosks in Dallas' Central Business District, so long as they meet various criteria for size and placement. Mr. Reynolds expressed interest shortly afterward.

In December, the council considered placing a moratorium on kiosk placement to further study the issue but decided against it. Mr. Reynolds, meanwhile, had paid the city more than $26,000 in nonrefundable permit fees for the kiosks and spent tens of thousands of dollars more leasing space from private property owners, he said.

Mr. Reynolds said he all along worked with various government departments and the council to comply with the ordinance and couldn't understand why the city seemed bent on stopping him.

"We made a mistake" in December, council member Bill Blaydes said. "But it's in the best interest of the city to abide by the guidelines that we set."

Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Reynolds praised God for help during his negotiations.

"I've gone above and beyond anything asked," he said, adding that he would have lost tens of thousands of dollars in investment money had the city rejected his request. "Why should I be penalized for doing the right thing?"

In other City Hall news Wednesday:

The council approved funding for the relocation of the first eight of more than 100 households from the Cadillac Heights area to other parts of the city.

The residents live near a lead smelting plant, and the city is planning to construct a police training facility there. The city will use $250,100 in bond and multifamily housing funds to finance moving the residents.

E-mail dlevinthal@dallasnews.com

[Foucault]

I think it's a rather bad idea. They're likely to clash with the surrounding area, or be graffiti targets on the southern streets. The advertising, which could go to the city, will go to this man, who will inevitably pick Wal-Mart over Stanley Korshak if Wal-Mart will pay more. And if/when the city decides to install their own kiosks, these will be difficult to remove. At least he's donating beautification in return.

[Kelley USA]

The city will regret this 5 years from now...

[aceplace]

The blunt reality is that the City of Dallas failed to act on its own.

[dallastophoenix]

yeah, i'm worried about these, too... i think this guy will spend more money fixing up the bashed-in, graffiti-ridden kiosks then he realizes. hopfully, there's some regulation on how they can look... i just hope they aren't some teal and pink, suburban mall type of kiosk...

[gc]

City claims future kiosk business
06:27 PM CST on Wednesday, February 11, 2004
By CHRIS HEINBAUGH / WFAA-TV
http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/wfaa/cheinbaugh/stories/wfaa040211_jml_6kiosks.f006d60.html

One by one, kiosks are popping up in downtown Dallas. It's advertising with a European, big-city flair.

Last year, businessman Scott Reynolds followed the city's rules, and got 30 permits to place the kiosks on private property downtown, but when City Council realized they could contract for kiosks on public property and get a cut of the ad revenue, Reynolds' plan almost got run over by City Hall.

"We need hundreds of them [kiosks] all over the city, but I want the city to get revenue off them, just like cities like Boston and Cleveland," Mayor Laura Miller said. To do this, the council would have to impose a freeze on private-property kiosks.

When the mayor tried last December, the Council didn't act.

Reynolds filed for another 39 permits, signed leases and invested money. Then, Council rushed to impose a moratorium, stopping his permits before they were granted.

Reynolds said the city's effort could drive him under. "I got so far into this, and so far vested, that I can't stop now," he said. "To take away the 39 that I have pending right now, would cripple me -- in fact, put me out of business."

Council members ultimately agreed. Reynolds followed the rules. He'll get his permits, but no more will be issued.

Reynolds sees it as David battling Goliath. "I was doing everything that was right, but was facing a giant that was out of control. Fortunately, I had God on my side, and I'm just grateful, very grateful."

He vowed to put the sour experience with the city behind him and focus on getting his kiosks up.

E-mail cheinbaugh@wfaa.com

[gc]

Originally posted by aceplace
The blunt reality is that the City of Dallas failed to act on its own.

Exactly Ace.

Miller's beef is that the city isn't making money on them.

[dallastophoenix]

oh, okay. i didn't think about the city being upset b/c they weren't getting a piece of the the revenue... i was thinking they were upset b/c the kiosks might look bad... you snooze, you lose, dallas...

[crescentboi]

Here's a pic, not the greatest, but it gives you an idea.

[bloodandpopcorn]

wow, that's really not bad at all.

[TexasStar]

I went to lunch downtown, as I do everyday, and I was struck by something as I stood on the steps of Bank One Center. I moved here exactly 3 years ago. I can say without any reservation that pedestrian traffic in the CBD has gotten considerably heavier during that time. Being down here everyday can make it hard to appreciate gradual change. But, it's something I look for. Anyway, as I watched people walking around in the bright spring sunshine, it hit me just how much things have improved in the past 36 months.

Of course, I don't have any empirical data to back it up. It's just my personal impression from walking the streets every day since May 2001. Things are changing. There is no question about it. You can see it. You can feel it.

Anyway, I just thought I should share this.

---------------------------------------------------

FYI - a new restaurant has opened on the ground floor of the Republic Complex next door to the Advancial Credit Union branch. It opens toward Thanksgiving Square. Haven't tried it, but it looks very unique.

[Columbus Civil]

In the Mercantile Complex? Really?

That's pretty encouraging. I know I've seen a lot of changes in the downtown/uptown area since I moved to Dallas, too. Considering the economy is in an upswing (hopefully), things will only continue to grow.

[barrycb]

In the Merc, or Republic Tower complex?

[gc]

Thanks for sharing that TexasStar. I agree. I have the same thoughts when I drive/walk in and around the city (downtown + uptown). It is exciting and energizing to see the progress, though it never seems to happen fast enough.
There are still many milestones that Dallas is far from reaching, but with so many projects in the works, I will continue to remain impatiently optimistic.

[clipper]

I think there were always that many people down there at noon, but they were "hiding" in the underground tunnels and such. Now that the streetscape is nicer, people are willing to go outside. We'll see what happens when it is 102 degrees.

[TexasStar]

In the Merc, or Republic Tower complex?

Perhaps that was wishful thinking on my part. Definitely REPUBLIC complex.
Thanks for the correction.

[barrycb]

I was hoping I was wrong!

[crescentboi]

I moved to the Davis in November, and from then on I can tell a difference, not just pedestrian but auto. It seems like people are "checking it out" to see what all the hype is about downtown. And it seems they like it. Hopefully it will pick up even more. Someday I want our downtown to look like the below picture again! Wouldn't that be great!

[Foucault]

WOW!!!! :eek:

[savant71]

I think I am goingt to agree with Focault....That picture left me speechless. I can't believe that Dallas once thrived like it did in that picture...What year was that Cresentboi?

[Lakewooder]

I'm going to guess that pic is from the late 1940s. It could be during a special event.

However, as students at Lakewood Elementary in the late 1960s, we often took the bus downtown (ALONE, no parents). We would dress up, go visit our parents' offices, see people we knew on the street, go to a movie at the Capri or Majestic, perhaps shop at Sanger's or Titche's, and on special occassions would have lunch at the Zodiac Room at Neiman's. Sometimes we'd even transfer and go by Fair Park.

The downtown 'scene' was definitely on the wane back then, but it still existed. There weren't really many suburban type large office buildings then except maybe the ultra cool Meadows Building on Greenville. I have no doubt what we were doing was trying to be 'grown up' like the generations before us...

[clipper]

Definitely post war. I can tell by the cars. That's the Kirby Building with the gothic windows. It was then home to the A. Harris Department store which later merged with Sanger Brothers. The neat building a little further down Main Street with the fancy cornice on the roof is the Praetorian Building. It was "modernized" in the 1950s and they hacked off all the fancy facade and replaced it with metal panels. There's a deli on the ground floor now at the corner of Stone Place.

[drumguy8800]

WHOAAAAA THAT PICTURE IS AMAZING..

I want that to happen.

If anyone remembers that huge storm we had here last friday.. well.. I went to Iron Cactus that night.. and it looked like a scene out of a movie. (It wasn't raining yet, or even hinting at it, of course..) But on all three levels, people were hanging out (tons of them) on the patios, having a good time. I probably saw 20-30 people walking their dogs.. and tons of groups of people shuffled their way down main street, looking for a good time.

I have to admit, I was completely awe-stricken. Main Street is probably the best looking street in Dallas now.. with Pegasus Plaza, the new-ish hanging lights, the new streetlights, the uniform street signals, the trees, the stone pavers.. the restaurants, and ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT when the Davis building lights up and changes colors.. it REALLY adds to the streetscape!

[gc]

State of Main: Will changes in downtown continue?
03:37 PM CDT on Sunday, May 23, 2004
By DAVID DILLON / The Dallas Morning News

Walk down Main Street almost any evening – not the whole street, just the short stretch between Ervay and Field – and you'll hear the hum of change. It's still faint and easily lost in the roar of buses and low-flying airplanes, but it's there:

People noshing on calamari and quesadillas at sidewalk cafes or watching the sunset from the balconies of the new Iron Cactus or surviving karaoke in Stone Street Gardens; pedestrians who aren't lost, buildings lit up for something besides security. Compared to three or four years ago, it's a whole new scene.

An extremely fluid and fragile one. Walk one block north or south, to Elm or Commerce, and you're back in the sepulchral stillness of old downtown, where you can fire a cannon at 6 in the evening and not hit anyone or anything. The Corner Bakery in the historic Wilson Building recently closed. So did Pegaso, an upscale taqueria in the Adolphus Hotel block, and Mark and Larry's hip gift store on Elm. Except for Neiman's, the downtown shopping experience is mostly virtual. The upside of the current boomlet is that it reflects the aspirations of many small entrepreneurs instead of one big one. It is incremental and organic, unlike the Godzilla approach of Victory or before that Cityplace. The downside is that it reflects the aspirations of many small entrepreneurs instead of one big one. There's lots of second mortgage financing; and getting 30 or so individual property owners to agree on anything takes the negotiating skills of a Lyndon Johnson.

"Right now we're between a rock and a hard place," says Nancy Hormann, executive director of the Downtown Partnership, a business group focused on redeveloping Main. "We had a nice surge of restaurants and housing conversions a few years ago, then everything stopped. Things don't happen all at once down here; they take four or five years. Some of the pioneers were just slightly ahead of their time."

Yet she is optimistic that the latest spurt in construction is the start of something bigger and more durable. The bright spots:

• Stone Place, for years a grimy alley and homeless hangout, is now a landscaped urban mall named Stone Street Gardens with patio dining, an outdoor stage, even a small newsstand.

• Iron Cactus, a three-level tequila emporium across the street, is jumping most nights with twentysomethings draped over balconies.

• The 1926 Davis Building, with its beefy neo-classical facade and sporty cupola, now contains 183 apartments, and work has begun on the Art Deco Dallas Power and Light building on Commerce to create 158 more, plus 26,000 square feet of retail.

• A boutique hotel is under construction at 1530 Main; a new nightclub is going into the old Umlaut space on Main; a grocery store is coming to the former Interurban Building on Jackson Street; even Starbucks in the Magnolia Hotel is planning to stay open longer on weekends.

Small gains by the standards of San Francisco, Chicago or even San Antonio but worth savoring in a downtown that has had numerous near-death experiences. "Downtown is in the early stages of becoming a destination again," says Thomas Taylor, an engineer turned developer who is responsible for Stone Street Gardens and the Iron Cactus and is about to renovate the old Linz Jewelry store next door to Neiman's. "But restaurants and bars alone can't do it. The city has to invest in itself."

Simply stated, downtown desperately needs more density, meaning more housing, more commerce and more basic services to lure people to the center city and keep them there. Planners talk about a 4 percent rule, which says that when 4 percent of a city's population lives downtown, it has a reasonable chance of turning around. In Dallas, that would mean approximately 50,000 residents. A decade ago it had 250, all living in one building; today there are 3,000 – 8,500 if you count Uptown – which is a big jump but still not enough to support a bookstore, hardware store, movie theater or supermarket .

"Downtown retail is nowhere," says John Tatum, Mr. Taylor's development partner. "Nobody is looking for it or thinking about it. There's no Ray Nasher down here, no coordinating consciousness." But there is progress. The city has been using Tax Increment Financing funds to stimulate redevelopment by putting the taxes on the increased value of qualifying properties into a revolving fund. Stone Street Gardens, for example, received $600,000 in TIF funds; the Iron Cactus got $275,000 and the Davis Building $1.35 million for facade restoration. The city is also about to launch a $2.5 million retail incentive program to encourage small merchants to locate downtown, "buying shopkeepers," as one of them put it.

"We'd like to have 300,000 square feet in addition to Neiman's," says Karl Stundins, the city's redevelopment manager. "But it needs to happen within the next two or three years, or attrition starts to set in." Yet, while the property owners are grateful for the help, many complain that the programs are too complicated and excruciatingly slow. "The city has to become quicker and more entrepreneurial to do what needs to be done down here," says Ms. Hormann.

Density and transit are synonymous, which makes constructing the second DART rail line through downtown critical. This alignment was first discussed in the late 1970s, but engineers and city officials still can't agree on where to put it. Under Main? Under Elm? Somewhere else? The discussion has become intensely political, with the suburbs not wanting to spend money on tunnels for downtown. But the need is real. Rail is the instrument of density, carrying far more passengers more efficiently than cars, and consequently liberating precious downtown land for something besides parking garages. Downtown Dallas already has more of them than it knows what to do with; what it needs is people on the street.

The third leg on the downtown redevelopment stool is a master plan, which is not to be confused with a zoning map or a thoroughfare plan or other halfway measure. It is a strategic document built around specific goals and pragmatic ways of achieving them. Without it, downtown development will continue to be ad hoc and fragmented. The recent downtown parks master plan, for example, omits any mention of DART, as though it were a purely academic matter.

If Dallas had a serious planning department, that task would fall to it; since it doesn't, the responsibility may pass to some semipublic body, such as the Local Government Corporation currently being proposed by business leaders. Some city officials have wondered publicly whether it is just an establishment power grab, others see it as a reasonable alternative to a cumbersome and inefficient public planning process. Either way, it won't accomplish very much without a road map that integrates housing, transit, commerce and recreation in some practical and appealing way.

What such a rejuvenated downtown might look like is anybody's guess. Right now, its challenges are more economic and political than esthetic. Yet the Downtown Partnership has published a splashy photo collage of Main Street, from Neiman's to Field Street, that gives a hint: Crowds of pedestrians surge along broad tree-lined sidewalks, with banners for Victoria's Secret and the Dallas Museum of Art floating overhead. There's a bookstore in the foreground, a Coca-Cola super-graphic in the middle distance and all sort of urban design tchotchkes in between. The image is thoroughly conventional and instantly appealing and, while still a long way off for downtown Dallas, maybe no longer completely out of sight.

[gc]

These are the types of articles that we need to see more in the paper.

[Flaming Moderate]

Downtown gets bashed a lot. It's conventional wisdom, but is it really that bad? I'm staying in Houston, and its downtown entertainment is just now catching up with the West End. There's nothing in San Antonio's downtown, and besides Sixth Street Austin's is nothing special. The Bass Brothers keep Fort Worth's alive, but it is not the most spectacular I've ever seen. I guess I'd like people to think is downtown really that bad or a case of everyone started bashing so I will too?!?

Of course, I'd love to see more happen, but I'm not sure if we appreciate what's there - the West End, Main Street stuff, the hotels, Reunion Tower.

[MustangMonkey]

Downtown can be improved alot, some areas are allready very nice, others leave much to be desired. That said, I think alot of the bashing must come from the desire to give people a kick in the pants, and make Dallas and DTD realize its true potential.

[JBB]

There's nothing in San Antonio's downtown

Do what?

[Kelley USA]

I agree FM... Dallas is not that bad- has tons of potential and we just want to see it reach that point. But I like what's going on!

[Flaming Moderate]

Do what?
Rightly or wrongly, I truncated the Riverwalk area. There's not a whole lot going on in downtown proper. In fact, there does not seem to be much to downtown San Antonio outside of the Riverwalk-Alamo area. That's probably unfair.

[freewaytincan]

Rightly or wrongly, I truncated the Riverwalk area. There's not a whole lot going on in downtown proper. In fact, there does not seem to be much to downtown San Antonio outside of the Riverwalk-Alamo area. That's probably unfair.

The Riverwalk is way overrated, especially once you've been to it more than three times. That's not to say that it wouldn't make an excellent place for a movie, but that's something entirely different.

[rjlevins]

I will have to say that I favor Austin's downtown to any other Texas city, but I do agree that people put down DTD too much. Austin has a lot going downtown, not just 6th street...popular bars inhabit everywhere from south congress near the capital to riverside (immediately south of downtown). Austin is fortunate enough to have the extraordinarily nice developments going up in the west part of downtown too. In comparison, a medium-sized city of Austin is really kicking major-sized Dallas' butt. Not to say that won't change. I was reading on some website that Dallas is the most visited city in Texas, which shocked me cuz it was contrary to what most people say about Dallas' visitors. Maybe they meant metro.

[psukhu]

What kind of urban residential does San Antonio have? Is it like Uptown/Turtle Creek/Oaklawn? What about stuff like the projects in DT Dallas?

[aceplace]

I was reading on some website that Dallas is the most visited city in Texas, which shocked me cuz it was contrary to what most people say about Dallas' visitors. Maybe they meant metro.
Of course they mean metro... a visitor to a city doesn't care where one boundary line ends and aother begins.

If you visit Las Vegas, do you know where the city limits of Las Vegas are? When you are in downtown LV, you are inside the city limits, but when you go to a hotel on the strip, say, Bellagio or Circus Circus, you are outside the LV city limits. Nobody cares.

[freewaytincan]

Nobody cares.

You're right. If it burned down overnight, I know I wouldn't.

[Foucault]

I seriously doubt enough people visit Plano to make a difference.

[freewaytincan]

I seriously doubt enough people visit Plano to make a difference.

And if they do, it's undoubtedly for family, or perhaps business.

[drumguy8800]

I will have to say that I favor Austin's downtown to any other Texas city, but I do agree that people put down DTD too much. Austin has a lot going downtown, not just 6th street...popular bars inhabit everywhere from south congress near the capital to riverside (immediately south of downtown). Austin is fortunate enough to have the extraordinarily nice developments going up in the west part of downtown too. In comparison, a medium-sized city of Austin is really kicking major-sized Dallas' butt. Not to say that won't change. I was reading on some website that Dallas is the most visited city in Texas, which shocked me cuz it was contrary to what most people say about Dallas' visitors. Maybe they meant metro.

Yeah, except that no. Sixth street is basically Deep Ellum and West End mixed together, and then cut down by about two thirds. It's boring, has many vacancies, crappy infrastructure, etc. sure, it has cool restaurants and bars, but none of them compare to Dallas' mix of restaurants and bars in any given area. Sixth Avenue is comparable to Lower Greenville, only again, smaller.

West End is a very nice area of DTD, with WAY more to do than sixth street. Also, Deep Ellum is WAY larger and again, has a lot more than sixth. South Congress is also disgusting. The new Frost Bank Building already has cracking sidewalks and bleaugh underneath it. But, like you're talking about.. the entertainment.. it's all overpriced Londonish-bigot bars. gross. Nothing to do. The Austin Convention Center has a cool sign.. (yehaw,) and UNT is cool. But the Barnes and Noble-Chipotle strip to the south of it (UNT) is ununiform and outdated. It's also a haven for homeless people who yell at you and tell you to take their pictures.

Dallas has its own character that is unmatched by any other city in the US- it tries so hard for its certain areas to become 'the new soho' or the 'new whatever,' that it pseudo-succeeds and ends up creating this great variety of places to go to. Main Street (that little part of it, anyway,), West End, Deep Ellum, Uptown, Victory (or.. what's there..), Reunion, Arts District, Farmers Market, Oak Lawn, Cityplace (at least, WV,) Fair Park, Mockingbird Station.. its all connected, its all fun to go to.. If you'd like to go farther out, you can include Six Flags, Addison Circle, Hurricaine Harbor, and whatever Fort Worth has to offer. Austin is spread out and boring.. Dallas is spread out (yet connected (by trains and the trolley),) and fun. I'd pick DTD over DTA anyday. sorry for bashing Austin, it is in fact a pretty cool place to go to, but doesn't really hold a light to Dallas. (or however the saying goes.) The bashing of any other city goes hand-in-hand with my I-think-Dallas-is-better-than-everyone-so-nyah syndrome.

[aceplace]

I seriously doubt enough people visit Plano to make a difference.After the Plano Angelika opens in Legacy, there will be one good reason for visitors to DFW to visit Plano. Another good reason for them to visit is to hang around the shops and galleries in downtown Plano... it's easy to get to on DART rail and has things to see... and it is, to use a controversial word... "charming".

[psukhu]

I seriously doubt enough people visit Plano to make a difference.

Don't forget that there are a few Fortune 500s there.

[mikedsjr]

Flaming moderate, don't go jealous on us because Dallas hasn't had philanthropists helping Dallas for the last 20 years. But I would blame the city government in Dallas the past 20 years because now they are in catch up mode. But DTD isn't a bad place to sight see around the edge. Not much to do in the core of downtown besides do business.

I feel a lot safer at night in DTFW. And I think the general public in DFW probably feels DTD is unsafe and full of homeless people. If you want to know why people look down at DTD, I would look no further than there.

I actually have a Uncle and his wife that moved to DTFW about 2 month ago in the old electric building. They love being close to Sundance Square.

[mikedsjr]

"charming".

:eek: I can't believe you said the word. :D

[aceplace]

I can't believe you said the word.Well, words actually mean something when you use them properly.