They'll both complement one another

[ahhughes]

Main Street and Victory can coexist for the same reason the West End and Deep Ellum coexist... they have different kinds of customers.

Moreover, there are millions of people in the Metroplex, millions! waiting for someplace to go to at all. There are enough potential customers out there to fill a dozen places like Victory. Or downtown Dallas.

There is no such thing as a small number of people who will go downtown, a number that never increases, and that constitutes a limited customer base. In actual fact, that number is potentially huge... the technical term for an attraction creating patronage is "induced demand".

Consider a thought experiment. Assume we built a Disney World near downtown Dallas. Do you believe that its patronage would consist only of Six Flags Arlington customers? No. It would draw half of Mexico here, and half of South Central USA.

If we doubled the number of attractions in downtown, and put them close enough to develop synergy and critical mass, then we might quadruple the overall attractiveness of the area as a vacation destination.

[GarrettCarey]

I agree ahhughes I agree.

[JaeTex]

you guys are right.

However, how does that square with the AMC Grand effectively turning the former restaurant row on Walnut Hill into a parking lot, and what I currently see on McKinney Ave...a thriving West Village and an unsettling number of closed places between that and the Crescent?

I agree that chances for complementary development are good if the two are adequately connected. But, DART will serve the western edge of Victory (the parking lots of Victory from my reading of the drawings, not good for building cohesion) and plans for a pedestrian plaza will be believed when seen. In the meantime Woodall, absent its burial and being covered with a park or development, is a pretty big impediment to the two areas being stitched together. IMHO

[aceplace]

Interesting point about Restaurant row. I think the existence of the AMC Grand pretty much doomed it. How does a group of restaurants without such an asset compete with one that has it?

But you also mentioned the problems McKinney Avenue has had in comparison to the popularity of the West Village. I'd like to address that issue.

McKinney Avenue's restaurant scene was always iffy... the eateries were always opening and closing way before the West Village. And it did not have any sort of street life comparable to the West End or Deep Ellum, or even Knox/Henderson.

But there are isplated spots on McKinney that always have been popular. Think about Primo's.

What seems to make a difference is the width of the street and the presence of congestion. Popular gathering spots for a crowd have two sides of the street close to one another so people can walk across easily, and very slow auto traffic thru them also furthers this sense of connectivity.

These architectural features pretty much CREATE a public space.

And an intimate outdoor public space generates people and activity.

Also, if a venue has some sort of a physical barrier that seperates its patio area from the sidewalk, it will lose patronage. Think of the building next door to the Hard Rock Cafe. That fence area separates its patio area from the street and redefines it as private... so it consistently fails as a venue. Another example is the property on the east side of McKinney and Hall, with those planter boxes separating its patio from the sidewalk. They virtually say "keep out" to anyone who walks by.

Contrariwise, the Cafe Express has that huge patio on the street that is very easy to walk into, that seems to invite people to step inside, go thru the crowd of tables and enter the restaurant. Its patio area succeeds at creating an intimate public space .

Primo's location does not have the synergy of the "other side of the street". But it does have the patio area that is easy to walk thru.

Stone Place on Main Street is another example of an intimate public space, as is that section of Main Street itself.

If Victory emulates these things, it will succeed at attracting its share of the millions of bodies in the Metroplex looking for fun on a Saturday night, as will Main Street. Otherwise, not.