Reply With QuoteI think it's Robert.Wilonsky@dallasobserver.comOriginally Posted by drycreek
That Wilonsky hits the nail on the head. I'd like to shake that guys hand. Anybody have his email address? How can someone like me who lives in Huntington Beach, CA help this cause out?
I think it's Robert.Wilonsky@dallasobserver.com
This struck me as being a cool idea for Deep Ellum:
Eschewing MP3s for a Modern Music Bazaar
Amoeba Records as a Cathedral of Commerce
Michael Smith, ABC News
Feb. 5, 2007 — With its iconic clubs and secluded party venues, Sunset Boulevard has long provided a backdrop for the colorful history of rock 'n' roll.
Today, it tells a new story of the music business.
On Sunset in West Hollywood, the iconic Tower Records building has been boarded up and abandoned since the company went into bankruptcy in August. Meanwhile, to the east, past the exclusive bars and clubs, the line for Amoeba Records' parking lot stretches around the block.
As a professional touring DJ, I am always looking for new places to find music. At age 9, I purchased my first tape — New Order's "Substance" — from Walton Records, in my hometown of Birmingham, Mich.
Twenty years later, living in California and performing music to audiences all over the world, I found myself swimming in a river of digital music and only occasionally visiting the drought-stricken record stores where I met so many friends, band mates, and fellow music geeks.
Most of us have become accustomed to clicking our way through reviews and digital previews rather than browsing aisles for our music. If the Amoeba phenomenon is any clue, the total shift away from brick-and-mortar music might not happen as fast as we thought.
Enter Amoeba
From the crowds that pack the aisles of Amoeba's Hollywood location, you'd never know that, industrywide, album sales are down 5 percent from last year, or that sales of digital singles are up 65 percent and that 10 percent of all music is sold in digital format, according to The Associated Press.
Despite this clear trend away from the traditional commercial model, other figures indicate that digital music sales will never fully kill the CD as a format. Amoeba's success may suggest a reason why.
The three-store chain, which started in the Bay Area of Northern California, has established a modern music bazaar that serves as a destination unto itself rather than a casual stopping point in some suburban mall.
At the Los Angeles outlet, which has concrete floors and Costco-high ceilings, fellow DJs and music lovers tear through the used CDs like vultures and argue over what Led Zeppelin record is the best. In fact, Amoeba's inventory is so huge that it has to rotate its stock to make sure every disc sees the light of day.
As owner Marc Weinstein explains, Amoeba's collection is so broad that just about anyone can go there to sell CDs, which drives its reputation as the central music trading post in Los Angeles.
Many of us also go there in search of something new. The store even maintains several unprofitable departments — like posters and seven-inch records — simply because no one else does.
Because the music is housed under one very high roof, Amoeba acts like a magnet for die-hard music fans or even casual listeners who want some exposure to coolness.
"There's a huge social event built in. It's the distillation of all the music-loving people around town all in one place shopping for music," Weinstein said. "What person from L.A. wouldn't be proud to look out and see all the way-into-music wackos out on the floor of that store?"
"It's like you're in New York," he said.
Offline Social Networking
What draws people to the store is a kind of network effect. That is, the more people use a certain service, the more useful that service becomes to others. Being around other Amoeba shoppers is desirable on its own.
While online retailers like Amazon can provide infinite inventories and convenient shipping, their personalized recommendation systems will never be a substitute for the people-watching that follows part-and-parcel with our interaction with music.
While you could learn, with a click or two, that users who bought the Lily Allen album also (surprisingly) liked The Decemberists, there is something qualitatively more meaningful about seeing hipsters in leg warmers, dads in cotton T-shirts, and teenage girls in low-rise jeans all shopping within five feet of each other.
Sometimes bands are shopping in the aisles, too. In addition to its slate of nearly weekly in-store performances from bands as big as The Shins, artists like Beck and Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers are Amoeba fans. I once bumped into the artist Dangermouse from Gnarls Barkley who recommended a CD by an incredible group named Grand National.
The lesson from Amoeba's success is that divorcing music as a product from the experience of purchasing it may be more difficult than Internet prognosticators could have predicted.
Just as DVDs have failed to stomp out all demand for going to the multiplex, MP3 distribution of singles and albums have not yet made the record-store experience irrelevant.
Indeed, just down the street from Amoeba, the giant ArcLight Cinemas complex provides a telling analogy.
ArcLight celebrates and enhances the moviegoing experience by allowing viewers to choose their own seats, focusing on quality control in the presentation of the film, and hosting film events for industry insiders.
Similarly, Amoeba has capitalized on what the die-hards demand as a way of attracting the casual consumer who occasionally wants to feel like an insider.
"Anyone who believes in music sees us as kind of a mecca. It reinforces a lot of people's belief systems to go into the store," owner Weinstein said. "It's hard for people to quantify what they experience when they come in. There's a feeling of togetherness and community that is unparalleled in the retail world."
Even if physical media like CDs are becoming obsolete, and even if real estate prices prevent new music stores from opening in major cities, consumers may find the digitally mediated musical experience cold, isolating and transitory.
Until Amazon and iTunes figure out how to create a virtual space like Amoeba's cathedral of commerce, one that doesn't collapse when its servers crash, there may be room left for the brick-and-mortar stores — even if they aren't the smaller, more intimate stores like the Walden Records of my youth, which closed five years ago.
Though it has no plans to expand to new locations, Amoeba is aware of the service it provides to its home cities.
"Metropolitan museums teach people about art or history, and there are no such equivalent institutions devoted to music," Weinstein said. "To that extent, we are such a huge presence."
Both Amoeba and ArcLight are awesome but I'm not sure either would work here to the extent they do in LA. For those who haven't seen them, both are immense (the Bay Area Amoeba stores are smaller) and much of their clientele comes from music and film industry geeks and -- because the record store and theater are on the corner of Sunset and Vine -- tourists, especially those looking for something authentically Hollywood. In either location, you might bump into an actor or musician of either lesser or greater repute. Only New York and London offer the same sort of density of pop-culture geekitude and star power.
As much as I'd love to see an Amoeba or ArcLight in Dallas, the guy who's quoted in the story as saying they don't plan to expand probably has it right. It would be hard to duplicate ArcLight or Amoeba's immensity and audience in just about any other city and remain profitable.
What is Deep Ellum trying to be? I believe many on this forum and investors alike want to see it blossom into a neighborhood. A neighborhood includes banks, apartments, fast food, parks, NYC-style development (even the manufactured kind) and all of the above. It sounds as if Wilonsky wants it to be a 'district,' only open or liveable between 7pm and 2am. A mixture of both sounds good, but it seems all have conflicting ideas.
BTW, I didn't like Wilonsky's punch at the suburbanites. They provide probably half the revenue that keeps many of these clubs and bars afloat.
"And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed."-"Farewell to Penn Station," New York Times Editorial, October 30, 1963
I don't think you can have an entertainment district and a neighborhood, at least not in Dallas. Deep Ellum 1, 2, 3 (how cycles have there been) and Lower Greenville prove that. People might seriously consider using the west Cedars for that district and letting Deep Ellum go condo/Uptown with lots of plaques for past music stars. Maybe even change street signs? West side of Cedars has some geographic advantages in that I-30, DART line, Trinity River, and Police HQ can physically contain it. Other than the Beat at the very south end (Buzz and other places are outside to the east), really no one should be building residential in that rectangle. We already have some venues there. The bond package seems geared for turning Lamar into the new pedestrian friendly Main/Elm. It already has a LR stop. If we ever get Trinity River off the dime, it might fit very well.
hate to break your bubble but people have been living in Deep Ellum for over 20 years now and the loft space isn't all just in those handful of 6+ story buildings but all over the area.
Why can't entertainment and art be in the core of the neighborhood? SoHo, French Quarter, Bricktown, and many more neighborhoods in cities across this country have done it so why can't Dallas? Generally the entertainment venues that are open late are on a couple of streets while the residential use is on the other streets or down at the ends of the main blocks and to be honest Deep Ellum has already migrated to that format with most of the clubs on Elm. Main and Commerce with a few outliers on Canton and now Taylor.
I know people live in Deep Ellum, but the expectation is that number would increase dramatically and likely contain interest groups/demographics beyond the somewhat self-selected group more comfortable with Deep Ellum as it is. That influx is going to cause changes and conflicts. In this town, when those conflicts occur, money talks and edgy, earthy (whatever you want to call it) walks.
I have no idea why Dallas is different. But it is different and I suspect investors are not really interested in funding a period when Dallas figures how to do it right. I also don't think the Council is that interested in funding it either.
Zac Crain (candidate for mayor) posted the following on his website
"I recently read (on the Dallas Observer's blog, Unfair Park) about what the major landlords in Deep Ellum are hoping for/planning on: selling the entirety of the neighborhood to a major developer, who will then raze Main, Commerce, and Canton to create a mixed-use type of situation that will (more or less, depending on whom you believe) mirror Mockingbird Station and/or West Village.
Is this a good thing? Based on what Deep Ellum is now, I'd probably have to say yes, because our fair city has let it die on the vine. When there was a crime problem -- or, at least, the perception of a crime problem, which may very well be worse -- the city detached 40 extra police officers to the area.
For a month.
Accordingly, the crime problem went away -- for a month.
So that didn't help. They came up with the brilliant idea of doing away with parking meters. And I'm not using "brilliant" sarcastically either. That lasted about a month, too. Now there are even more meters. "But they aren't in service during the day," you say. True. Guess what? Neither is Deep Ellum. Not really.
The city hasn't helped and so the Deep Ellum Association has had to fend for itself. They went to City Hall with their own strategy on how to clean up the neighborhood: stricter measures were put in place to ensure that not any old club could open, since they deemed the problem to be stemming from renegade dance halls that attracted a bad element. Guess what? Those new stricter measures pretty much ensure no new clubs. No new clubs, and all the ones currently there (with a few notable exceptions, like Club Dada) are going down. Which means: the death of Deep Ellum.
I'm not saying it can't bounce back. What I'm saying is it can't under the current conditions. What I'm saying is it probably won't, because the land owners down there don't want it to. What I'm saying is that it never should have gotten to this point in the first place.
Everyone I know has (or had, at any rate) a soft spot for Deep Ellum. With some minor adjustments (and some major, involving the infrastructure) it could have remained one of Dallas' jewels.
But Dallas has always written its history with an eraser, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised what's happening. I shouldn't be surprised that I'll one day go to a Gap or whatever, point to a spot on the floor, and tell my son this is where I was standing when I put Vanilla Ice into a headlock outside of Trees. Or cross the street, walk a ways, go into a Tommy Bahama or something similar and say this is where I took your mother for New Year's Eve a couple of years before you were born.
I can tell you this: This will not happen on my watch. "
Yahoo moving out of Deep Ellum
04:29 PM CST on Wednesday, February 14, 2007
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
One of the biggest employers in Dallas' Deep Ellum district is preparing to move to the 'burbs.
Yahoo Inc. has leased 46,000 square feet in Richardson's Telecom Corridor for its Dallas-area operation.
The company will start moving workers this spring to the Cardinal Technology Center, which is located near East Collins Boulevard and Glenville Drive.
Yahoo has been looking since last year at buildings in the area, according to leasing agents.
"We worked on this deal for almost a year," said Talynn Otsuki with Onyx Realty Services, who represents the building owner, the Stanford University Endowment Fund. "Many of their employees live up north, and it was a long trek for them down to the old location."
Officials with Yahoo on Wednesday confirmed a move was pending.
The Internet giant now leases two buildings on Taylor Street in Deep Ellum where it has an office and data center.
Yahoo has had the Deep Ellum operation since it acquired Dallas-based Broadcast.com in 1999.
At one time the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company planned to expand its workforce in the area just east of downtown to more than 1,000, and it acquired additional properties. But instead the operation was downsized.
A larger building on Crowdus Street where Yahoo planned its expansion is now occupied by Reel FX Creative Studios.
In 2000 the City of Dallas authorized $1.3 million in tax breaks if Yahoo would maintain its offices in Deep Ellum. Yahoo agreed to keep at least 1,000 jobs in Deep Ellum for 10 years. But the terms of the agreement were never met, Dallas city officials said.
The Richardson building Yahoo is moving to has been vacant for about a year and at one time housed operations for Allied Riser Communication Inc.
Yahoo's move to Richardson won't be completed overnight.
First the company has to replicate the data center and satellite facilities it now uses in Deep Ellum.
Investor Jeff Swaney, who owns one of the buildings the company occupies, said Yahoo recently extended one of its leases to allow transition time. "They are going to be there for a while," Mr. Swaney said.
And after Yahoo's gone, he expects there to be good demand for the space - in part because of Dart's light rail expansion into Deep Ellum.
"The site is so desirable we should have good luck in attracting someone else," he said.
Deep Ellum had one of Dallas' largest concentration of high-tech workers in the late 1990s before the dot com bubble burst.
While the district has recently suffered setbacks with the closing of several long-time entertainment and restaurant operations, Deep Ellum is expected to get a big boost when DART completes two light rail stations in the area in two years.
I wonder if Yahoo Reps had any discussions with Dallas city officials, about providing incentives, before deciding to move to Richardson.
A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. - Plato
I actually work for Yahoo and work in the offices that are relocating. It's certainly not any issue with Dallas or the officials - we simply need more space. That building is busting at the seams.That's a good problem - but I do work from home a couple days a week (along with many others) to work around that problem. Having more space (even if it's in Richardson) is a good thing - we will be able to hire (read: pump more money into the DFW area)...
^
My company recently moved into new offices, so I got a chance to take a close look at the Dallas office market while shopping around. We have a small office, so we were able to find some affordable class A space in Oak Lawn.
There is not a lot of affordable class A options for companies with 1000+ employees. (by affordable, I'm thinking of < $20/sq ft.)
At least Yahoo! was able to find what they needed in Dallas County.
Exactly! And since we are NOT the corporate HQ in this day of consolidation - they are making a committement to the region. We can't overlook the importance of that - employment in the region is something that often gets overlooked in this forum. People worry a bit too much about where a particular company's office is. As long as the employees LIVE in the area, that IMO, is what is important.
I don't have to move, and I don't have to find a new job. Two VERY good things. I love my job - how many people can say that?!
^I would agree that Deep Ellum is not ideally suited for larger companies. It's still sad to see Deep Ellum in a death spiral. It's just not working on any level at all and must change.
I also looked at Deep Ellum for a project that I've been working. If you can get by with 3000-4000 sq ft, and adjacent parking is not a big issue, then you can make it work. But then other problems nag on you, like the crumbling sewers.
If Deep Ellum were to be a magnet for start-up companies, then there does need to be new space developed that suits the needs of these companies and allows some room to grow. You need some new housing stock, you need a better mixture of retail, you need bike lanes, all that. Underlying all that should be maintaining the character of the district, because that funkiness & history will be attractive to such companies and their employees. We need to get inside the heads of talented, creative people who will drive our economy and recreate the district to appeal to them. The musical heritage of the district still fits in this more diversified scenario.
That's why I think there should be a study of property in Deep Ellum to guide historic designation, there ought to be some kind of neighborhood overlay to set standards for land use & new development, etc. There needs to be a couple of pocket parks as well.
The biggest risk to this new dawn for Deep Ellum is the lead property owner, Westdale, IMO. I fear they are more interested in developing townhomes and turning them to max profit. When I look at the kind of developments Westdale is famous for, they don't seem to fit this particular neighborhood. The city, I would say, does not appear to take any active role in this either.
I'm going to play a little devil's advocate here.
Westdale is a for-profit organization. For them to design properties to maximize profit is to be expected. If I ran or owned the company, I would do no different. They MUST do this. I certainly do not blame the company for doing their job.
Now, that being said, I agree with your comments about an overlay to ensure new building has some guidelines. The zoning board needs to get on board and the city needs to ensure this area becomes a sustainable community. But it is NOT the responsibility of Westdale to do this. It would be nice, but certainly not a requirement.
Last edited by LH_Newbie; 15 February 2007 at 02:07 PM.
^Yes, I am aware that they are running a business and want to maximize profit. So is JPI, Centex and other residential developers. But what we do not want are monolithic, generic development scenarios across the city. All I am advocating is being context sensitive inside these important, historic neighborhoods. Westdale is probably in tune with this, but when I met with them myself, I left feeling concerned about that.
I guess my point is that unless the city does something... the developers are going to do what is best for their pocket books.
Anyone who can claim to have put Vanilla Ice in a headlock gets my vote.
Is he (Ice Ice, baby, not Crain) still selling used cars in Irving?
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09
Devil's Advocate,
Its great to be region, but the region never treats Dallas like its a region, and takes companies in a heart beat. Those companies are paying taxes to that municipalities in which they reside. Its great that they stay in the region, but always a big deal for one to leave.
It looks like the childish, aggressive, anti-social behavior which tainted a good night out in Deep Ellum is manifesting among the groups who hope to control/manage the future of the area:
From Pegasusnew.com:
Updated and developing: Deep Ellum Association says they were locked out by Foundation
By Pegasus News wire
Updated 10:56 p.m., February 16, 2007
DALLAS — Funny doings down in Deep Ellum these days, as evidenced by this statement (below) that comes in from Gianna Madrini, president of the Deep Ellum Association, which documents fireworks that erupted at the most recent meeting of the Deep Ellum Foundation on Wednesday, February 14.
Pegasusnews.com had already been conversing this week with both Madrini and Deep Ellum Foundation president Barry Annino. We'll share our notes later this weekend.
Mr. Barry Annino, President, Deep Ellum FoundationUPDATE: Forwarded to us this evening by Gianna:
Dear Deep Ellum Foundation Board Members:
At the February 14, 2007 Deep Ellum Foundation meeting, Foundation president Barry Annino publicly berated the president of the Deep Ellum Association, Gianna Madrini. Then Treasurer Ken Carlson made a motion to remove the president of the DE Association from the Deep Ellum Foundation board, seconded by Barry Annino and John Tatum. The stated reason for the motion to remove was that DE Association representation was no longer needed on the Foundation board. Barry then attempted to coerce DEF Board members Denny Hunt and Richey Owens to go along with the motion. The motion failed, for lack of a unanimous vote. Richey Owens, Denny Hunt and Arvel Jernigan abstained and did not vote.
Later in the day at 4:30 p.m., the Deep Ellum Association board members convened for our regularly scheduled meeting at the Deep Ellum Association offices at 2630 Commerce only to discover that the locks had been changed and that we were now being prevented from entering the building. The Deep Ellum Association has been operating and doing business out of the building located at 2630 Commerce Street for the past 2 years which had been graciously provided rent free by Westdale Asset Management, with the exception of the cost of utilities.
The Deep Ellum Association is the elected representative of the neighborhood business community, property owners and residents and believes that we are entitled to have a voice and participate on the Foundation Board. It is through the taxes paid by Deep Ellum property owners, residents and business that the P.I.D. money is raised, and the Deep Ellum community is certainly entitled to some input into how the money is spent. We believe that the Association can and should work hand in hand with the Foundation for the improvement and betterment of Deep Ellum. The recent actions, however, have us questioning why the Foundation wants to sever its relationship with the Association.
The Deep Ellum Association board accordingly would like clarification of the Deep Ellum Foundation's position regarding its relationship with the Association and the neighborhood. Is it the Foundation's position that the Association is not entitled to representation on the Foundation Board, or that such representation is not needed? If so, what is the basis for that position? Exactly how does the Foundation view the Association's role with regard to the Foundation?
Furthermore, the Deep Ellum Association needs a response as to why it has been locked out of the building at 2630 Commerce without any notice. The DE Association still has files, brochures and other Deep Ellum Association property in the building and we would like to make arrangements to get our belongings, if indeed the intent is to exclude the Association from usage of this space. We would greatly appreciate your repsonse. Thank you,
Sincerely,
Gianna Madrini, President, Deep Ellum Association
Tanner Hockensmith, Vice President
Bob Cummins, Vice President
From: "Ken Carlson"Posted by T.G., updated by Mike
Date: February 16, 2007 7:16:36 PM CST
Subject: RE: Deep Ellum Foundation Meeting and deep Ellum Association Lock out
Gianna,
Monday 10 a.m. - arrangements have been made for the Deep Ellum Association to access the building at 2630 Commerce Street to retrieve the Association’s belongings.
The Deep Ellum Board members are welcome to attend the next Deep Ellum Foundation board meeting where we will be pleased to address any questions – that is the most effective format for discussion.
Thanks.
Man, the lights are on but nobody's home.
He's been living in South Florida for the last several years.
I wish I'd written down the name of the group that was meeting at the Bar of Soap last week (Sunday, 2/11, IIRC) when I was doing my laundry. They meet at a different venue each month, one guy said, and invited me to hang around for the meeting. I couldn't stay, but I listened in a bit while folding my clothes, and they were talking about organizing events and working with the owners of places like BoS and Club Dada. Anyone know who that group might have been? They seemed to be getting along fine with each other and playing well with others.
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09
Unfair Park has an intriguing account of the DEA/DEF feud.
http://www.dallasobserver.com/blogs/?p=2419#more-2419
"You look at Chicago, New York, San Francisco, you'll find lots of small businesses. But here in Dallas, they hold up big businesses and kick out small businesses, and that's not good."
Is that a mixed use TOD for the DART station near Baylor?
Interesting. I like it a lot... but, I bet the hard-core "gritty" Ellumers hate it.
Great design, but it has about as much in common with Deep Ellum as Reunion Arena does with La Reunion.
* The site of La Reunion is miles away from Reunion Arena. Although this development is at least on the edge of Deep Ellum, it certainly *looks* miles away.
* In fact, the original settlement of La Reunion was long gone by the time Reunion Arena was planned. Similarly, much of the original Deep Ellum was wiped out by Central Expressway and the Julius Scheppes overhead.
* La Reunion was an experiment in creating a socialist Utopian community. Reunion Arena was completely commercial and now hosts Monster Truck Rallies. The parallel between the picture above and what we know as Deep Ellum is uncomfortably close.
That said, this looks like a great TOD plan. I just wish it could happen somewhere else along the line. How about Buckner Station?
Last edited by RobertB; 22 February 2007 at 03:43 PM. Reason: typo
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09
It looks like another City Lights deal to me... I seriously doubt money could be lined up to do all that in one fell swoop. You would expect that momentum in Deep Ellum would have to built gradually, like what's happened in the Cedars...
Yes!!!
The sad part about (re)development in these areas is we've fooled ourselves into believing that new development always equals better or higher value. These developers have been primarily responsible for this warped perception, and it's no secret that Dallas has allowed developers to have their way with many parcels in the city - historic or not.
The historic value of every structure in Deep Ellum needs to be seriously evaluated before we allow any more developers to come in with shiny/colorful renderings (that won't happen in the rendered form anyway) and fool us into believing that their proposed development(s) are better than what's there now, because theirs will be newer.
I'm not stating that we should save every building in Deep Ellum. . .or even half for that matter. However, surely the City won't seriously consider allowing the wholesale redevelopment of not one, two, three, four, or five, but SIX city blocks in Deep Ellum, as rendered in post no. 326, without first performing an evaluation of which structures should be preserved.
A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. - Plato
I've never seen that many yellow autos in one day before, much less, on one street.
A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. - Plato
It seems that this development will not require alot of demos if my memory is correct. This is the are along CBD Fairpark link right? What is the status of Main/Elm/Commerce? Does that strip have historic status? Is it protected from the wrecking ball?
That rendering shows the area between Walton St and Trunk Ave. with the central street in the rendering being Hall st. You can see the future Dart station in the upper left corner.
Here's a Google aerial link. I guess one thing you can say is, "it could be worse".
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09
I'm not sure of the historic status, but, isn't that where the Deep Ellum Lofts (Murray Lofts, Farm & Ranch, Lofts, Continental Lofts) are located? I could be wrong. However, I think those buildings are fairly old.
A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. - Plato
Those are a block over to the east (east of Trunk).
Last edited by jsoto3; 22 February 2007 at 06:20 PM.
Thanks, and after looking at the map Robert provided, the development doesn't look as threatening to historic structures. That being said, I hope the City does everything to protect historic structures, in the way of that would-be development, from the wrecking ball.
A wise man speaks because he has something to say; a fool because he has to say something. - Plato
There needs to be a mix of new & old... otherwise, Deep Ellum will die.
This is almost right on top of Mill Creek...how much better it would be for the city to open up and beautify the creek and solve all the sewage problems in Ellum with tax money. That would save the little guys from going out of business and leaving their buildings vulnerable to destruction.
I would agree there are certain vacant or semi-vacant non-historical parcels in Ellum where such a building or development might work..we just don't want the whole thing to fall like dominos to Disney domination.
Speaking of Mill Creek, I just found this item on the online DPL catalog. I'm going to get my hands on it and make a copy. I'll scan and post it later.
Uncovering hidden streams : treatment of Central Dallas' heritage creeks : Dallas Institute of Humanities & Culture, Thursday, April 8, 2004.
Prejean, Robert
Printout of a powerpoint presentation developed by Robert Prejean of HNTB Corporation and delivered at the Dallas Institute of Humanities & Culture on April 8, 2004.
Discusses three Central Dallas streams that impacted the city's history--Cedar Creek, Turtle Creek, and Mill Creek--and unveils a concept plan for re-establishing George Kessler's original vision of Mill Creek Parkway.
Looks nice to me. It doesn't seem to be located on top of anything worth preserving, so lets get started.
Steve Brown: Deep Ellum may not be singing the blues for long
03:33 PM CST on Thursday, February 22, 2007
"Once I had a sweet girl, meant the world and all to me.
But she went down in Deep Ellum, now she ain't what she used to be."
A 1930s tune called Deep Ellum Blues could have been written for the new millennium.
That's because the old business district on the east side of downtown Dallas is singing a sad song these days.
After recent bad publicity about high crime and a retreat by retailers, Deep Ellum's plight has grown worse during the last few months.
Just last week, one of the neighborhood's biggest employers – Yahoo Inc. – said it was hightailing it to the Telecom Corridor.
And recent closings of several of Deep Ellum's iconic nightspots have left the area reeling.
There's even talk that speculators might knock the whole district down and start anew.
All this doom and gloom would ring true if the future of Deep Ellum wasn't already looking brighter in the form of DART's new light rail line.
If you want to see the future of Deep Ellum go to the corner of Malcom X Boulevard at Junius Street where construction is under way on the first of two light-rail stations that will serve the Deep Ellum area.
Across the street from the new train station, developer Alliance Residential has already broken ground on a retail and apartment complex that will replace a vacant lot.
Further south near Exposition Street, plans are in the works for a mixed-use complex that restores the old Dr Pepper building.
And more new developments and retail tenants are likely to pop up around the other DART station at Good Latimer and Swiss Avenue.
While the first train won't roll into Deep Ellum for two years, developers are already making their moves.
And maybe Deep Ellum soon won't be so blue.
I drove by last night on the way back from Bar of Soap (where a punk rock show reminded me why I love Disco), and it looks like the area is currently home to parking lots and nondescript recently-built warehouses. I think St-T hit the nail on the head -- we need a mix of old and new to make Deep Ellum vibrant and diverse.Looks nice to me. It doesn't seem to be located on top of anything worth preserving, so lets get started.
We can be forgiven, though, if our first reaction is OMG MOONINITES! We've been conditioned to expect any new plan to involve wholesale demolition of temporarily empty buildings (ref the West End freight depot, the east side YWCA, the list goes on...)
As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals... Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. - B. Obama 1/20/09
I hate it- it looks like Dallas Alley in West End- too touristy.
Boo!
I think it looks nice. I also think it's the same thing as every other new project in the city (and country).
If we have cool historic buildings like Dr. Pepper being renovated, why can't we get the rest of the buildings to fit into that period/style? If we're going to tear down and rebuild that area - why not get a cool overlay going now? Deep Ellum would then be a consistent neighborhood - be DIFFERENT than uptown and attract different crowds (or at the very least have a different look/feel). Diversity is indeed a good thing. It would tie in nicely with the historic areas of Elm and Main Street.
I personally would much rather live in/frequent an area like that than the Uptown area.
I don't love it, but I think anything that gets people into Deep Ellum at this point is a good thing.
None of what we love about Deep Ellum matters if it all wastes away because no one comes down here anymore.
Yeah, dump the "ELLUM!" sign, with exclamation point. It's called "Deep Ellum", period.
I'm less worried about what it looks like and more worried about how much it will cost to live there.
This development, Ellum Haus (yikes!?!?!), seems to be more oriented to the expanding Baylor Hopsital employment center than the precarious Deep Ellum entertainment center.
The single municipal action I think would lessen the threat of Deep Ellum sanatization is an active Peak-Haskell Corridor development plan. Thoughtful municipal regulation to redevelop this direct link between Fair Park and Uptown is probably the most important issue to the character of East Dallas. Should the worlds-apart atmospheres of Uptown and Expo/Fair Park be prompted to flow into each other along the Peak-Haskell corridor, Deep Ellum will be freed to grow into the avante-garde downtown neighborhood, the fulcrum between the Farmers Market and The Arts District.
Creating an exceptionally strong symbiotic relationship between the two "big city amenity" neighobrhoods - The Arts District and Deep Ellum - should be a top priority for the city council. To many casual observers, the reciprocal relationship between these two neighborhoods is counterintuitive; however, the two are as close as the Spring is to the Summer.
^ I have to agree with the Peak/Haskell Corridor, tam
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks