God, I miss living downtown…

(Front yard?)

What does Southlake Town Square have that every other lifestyle center in the country doesn’t, better demographics? It must have, because its tenant mix is no different than hundreds of others just like it. Take a 100 year old retail concept and fill it with the standard upscale mall tenants. Wow, how creative…

Downtown Dallas has danger. It has edginess. It has 24 hour entertainment (where else will you see a naked homeless man taking a bath in broad daylight in the middle of a public fountain?). There are restaurants in our soulless downtown that are higher quality and more prestigious than anything in NE Tarrant County. There is a true pedestrian atmosphere (they’re too drunk to drive anyway.)

Frank Bliss can keep the whiny helicopter-mom soul of Southlake. We’ll take the alcohol abusing, homeless dodging, massive arts district, home to fortune 500 companies, loft apartment, largest farmers market in the country soul of Downtown Dallas.

That was my problem with the whole thing too. Everyone has a different definition of soul but it seems like the things that he would see as negative in Downtown Dallas like weird little hole in the wall restuarants, tattoo-covered emo kids skateboarding past an old couple headed to the Majestic to see some light jazz, graffiti, a homeless guy singing a song about being a spaceship captain etc. is what a lot of us believe to be soul. Yeah, downtown can get kind of tumbleweed-ish after dark sometimes but it’s not the post-apocalyptic Night of the Living Dead that a lot of “meh”ers make it out to be.

As far as the Times Square after the cleanup thing, I don’t know if you have lived in NYC but when I did, Times Square was for the tourists and there were still PLENTY of seedy areas in Manhattan. And most New Yorkers liked it that way too. Go to St. Mark’s Place and ask the average New Yorker what he thought of Guiliani’s “cleanup” of the city. The response will probably be pretty expletive-filled.

But let’s be honest. I think what he meant to say is that Southlake Town Square is like going to a big city downtown district only without having to worry about looking at poor people or (gasp!) having them talk to you. Which is fine. Some people just love that New Gated Community smell. But acting like the pre-fab glorified strip mall is in any way on the same level as the downtown area of one of the top 10 biggest cities in the country is sillypants.

Just to add to the discussion, consider this piece by Mariana Greene last year after MillerCoors chose Chicago over Dallas for its headquarters. I think that Bliss’s definition of “soul” is likely similar to the “vibrancy” that MillerCoors found lacking down here.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/points/stories/DN-greene_03edi.ART.State.Edition1.4d96e8f.html

Ex-Southlake Town Square employee here! I began my career there just after the grand opening…remember me, Frank? My maiden name is Penn. You conducted a good portion of my interview in French to prove I wasn’t lying about being “moderately fluent” on my resume. But I’m not bitter.

Praise to Southlake Town Square – in becoming an avid student of urban development and management since my employment there, now more than seven years in at DOWNTOWNDALLAS, I consider the project to be one of the best examples of a lifestyle center in the country – one of the closest to creating an environment of true urbanity by incorporating the city’s government center into the mixed use development.

But…SOUL? How can THAT be the motivator behind an attack on Downtown Dallas? If there is one thing we are Downtown it is authentic, real, organic and spirited – isn’t that the definition of soul? Did you forget about the significance of historic architecture? The birthplace of our city’s culture? How about businesses, like the flagship Neiman Marcus, that has been Downtown for more than 100 years? Or the three independent pizza joints on Main Street owned by dueling family members? Or the hot dog vendor and saxophone player on the street corner? Or the now 6,000 residents who gather at City Tavern and plan their next group dog walking outing? Organic. Authentic. Community. Oh, and where is it again that internationally renowned architects are building, and the region’s cultural hub is emerging? That’s right. Downtown.

Sure, we have our challenges to address – mistakes that have been made in our history and public issues that are inherent to a city’s center. But that is precisely what gives us character, gives us soul, and provides an interesting and rich context for future development. Authentic and humanized urbanity. So, go ahead, bash us for not attracting Banana Republic. Or for not developing an abundance of front row parking spaces, forcing the public to embrace mass transit.

But please, SOUL? I argue that this word choice is quite ill-conceived. With all due respect, of course, to those who lit the fire of my passion for this business in the first place.

(I hope all readers will check out more on this at our blog – http://www.downtowndallas.wordpress.com where a couple of our staffers reflect on John King’s recent article in D.)

Oh wait where was I?

Saying Downtown Dallas has no soul is an insult to the memory of my late Daddy and thousands more. My father worked for a few years for 1942 Mercantile Bank Building then for 32 years at Mobil in the iconic 1922 Magnolia Building (haven’t seen one of those out in the sticks).

I and many others who grew up in Dallas visited our daddies in those buildings crowned by clocks, pegasus or even a rocket.

We would get our first real suit at James K. Wilson or Sanger’s.

We would go downtown on the bus in the late 60s and early 70s and even have lunch at the Zodiac to say hello to Stanley Marcus (my best friend threw his Times Herald). So many of the movies I saw in those days were downtown. The WW prom was at The Sheraton with the obligatory dinner at Port O’ Call. As a student at SMU, I interned at The Dallas Times Herald. During the go-go 80s I attended countless parties and dined at Dakota’s, while ending some nights at The STARCK.

I could go on and on about the churches,the restaurants, the museums, Farmer’s Market – places I still visit on an almost weekly basis. Just last week I was at the Majestic Theater.

When I fly into or out of my hometown I strain to see my beloved downtown skyline. It gives me goosebumps. No soul, indeed.

I ran into Michael Davis at the opening of the green line at Its a Grind Coffee shop http://tinyurl.com/lz53xg The place was filled with friends, there raising money for charity.

How’s that for soul?

I met friends for beers at Meridian Room last night, very cool spot. My son plays music at Doublewide on Friday, Fallout Lounge on Saturday, both cool spots.

My friend Frank Campagna has a great show just about every weekend at Kettle art.

If you want to really see the city at its best, show up at a Art Conspiracy event. This year, December 13.

Now, our downtown is still a work in progress. Mostly there are not places I’m interested in, but Deep Ellum, and Expo park and even West Village are places that I really enjoy.