Pictures for Your Eyes From Main Street Garden
The official opening of Main Street Garden went down tonight. The mayor’s hands were present. Lasers played a role (no joke). I overheard again — as I did at the opening of the PAC — “This doesn’t look like Dallas.” We will have more to say about this green space in the very near future, but here are some pics to tide you over.
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20 comments
Great opening for what will unfortunately, but inevitably become the city’s largest outdoor homeless shelter.
The old city hall looked fantastic. I never realized that it had such a majestic look to it. Of course, the only other times I had seen it was on the way in to fight a traffic ticket; didn’t think to look up and appreciate it…
The park is great. The fertilizer smell made me continuously check the bottoms of my shoes to make sure I didn’t hit a land mine on the way in though. By next weekend, it should be finished. The “art” portion was kind of goofy, but that what artists do I guess.
The Grand Hotel has got to go. The low floor plates make it pretty much unusable, and the massive vacant building in the heart of downtown just adds to the image of a blighted downtown. Blow it up and move on.
What’s with the homeless shelter comments? I have yet to see homeless people in Central Park, Bryant Park in New York, the Public Garden in Boston, Hermann Park in Houston, Trafalgar Square in London, Union Square in San Francisco, or Millenium Park in Chicago. People in Dallas who are concerned that parks only attract homeless people need to venture out and see the world. The world’s greatest cities have great parks. The 70’s are over. Urban parks are back in. Get with the times.
@Observer, you are not a very good one! Union Square in San Franciso is TOTALLY taken over by very aggresive homeless which have ruined that beautiful area and when I was last in London so was Trafalger. The muggers keep the homeless out of Cental Park.
how long until the wooden benches are replaced with ugly concrete molds? 3 months? 6 months? That will be one of the first budget cuts they make next year.
How will the little birdies use the birdbaths if they are covered by a tarp?
@ Some Guy: The park was barely ready for its opening. That explains the fertilizer smell Dallasite mentioned. The sod we stood on had been laid earlier in the day. They’d thrown that black tarp over a bunch of construction equipment. I don’t know. I’m guessing the thing won’t actually be finished for weeks yet.
Tim: Given that it rained most of September and half of October I’m amazed the park was as finished as it was – particularly given how it looked a week ago.
@Tim: I was asking about the bird bath looking thingies that the woman in a blue tee-shirt it leaning upon in the above photo.
@Oberver trying visting those “worldly parks” instead of looking at yahoo travel pictures… and when you do visit take a lot of spare change.
Looks great — a park visit will be in my near future.
I was at the opening, and the park is going to be great when it opens this week for CityLights. Over the weekend I noticed residents sneaking into the park to enjoy the space even though the ropes are still up. People are desperate for green space downtown.
Hopefully the park will encourage redevelopment of the Statler. The park designers confirmed that it is an important piece of urban architecture surrounding the park. Replacing it with a parking lot would give the park a very different setting.
DowntownDallas is planning a lot of programing to keep the park active and attract all types of folks. The YMCA wants to hold sports activities for residents on the weekends. Sure, there will be the chronically homeless crowd. But as long as they aren’t panhandling, aren’t they allowed to use the park during the day as well? The increased security presence and installation of several security cameras should help clean up an area that prior to the park was sleeping grounds for the homeless (in the old parking garages).
The Statler Hilton is a marvelous architectural piece. Hopefully, it will be saved, restored, made into a hotel, office, dormitory for the UNT center downtown, or some other use that will preserve an increasingly-unique piece of architecture downtown. You know, much more impressive that “signature bridges” to nowhere, built on foundations of sand.
Finally, an actual park in downtown Dallas! This city was in desperate need of greenspace (insert Barbara Hitzelberger park here – anyone up for a stroll in a 10′x10′ plot of plants and grass?). Whether the homeless are a dominate presence or not, at least the city is realizing that parks matter. To dfwcre8tive’s point, they deserve to use it just as much as we do during the day. And it’s one less concrete city block radiating heat and driving the temp above 100 during the summer. Can’t wait for the Woodall Rogers and all other parks to come.
It saddens me to hear so many people wanting this to fail (by suggesting the homeless will take over and nobody will use it). This part of downtown is busting at the seams with office workers, an 80% full Merc tower and, coming soon, UNT Law students and even more residents (and their dogs). People will use this park, and that will keep the homeless away. The park will also close at night, so nobody will be allowed to sleep there.
We cannot kick out the homeless, and per the comments above, homeless and residents/employees tend to coexist in urban parks in any other city. Bryant Park, Golden Gate Park, and Central Park are FILLED with people despite the homeless that mill about. However, we do plan to keep it under control at DOWNTOWNDALLAS with our safety patrol. But homeless are part of any downtown/urban environment.. San Fran is filled with them but it doesn’t hurt the city’s perception when it comes to tourism and livability.
We do plan to keep the park fully programmed with the recreational options dfwcr8tive mentioned – sports leagues for after work, Saturdays to come out and reserve a volleyball net, etc. We also plan on throwing an animation festival, movie series projected onto the Universities Center, etc. This park is VERY important to us at the office as we understand what all it gives to the lifestyle of Downtown.
As far as the Statler, fingers crossed! There are two local guys looking at going into it together right now, vs the Asian folks whom have had a contract on it for awhile now. Unfortunately, the 8ft tall ceilings give the building a hard sell..to redo the floor plates would be more expensive then just demo’ing it and starting over. We’ve tried pitching it to UNT for student housing, no such luck. ick.
I’ve seen the homeless in various areas in San Francisco but I just visited Trafalgar in London and didn’t even notice any of them. If you are going to live in the big city stop whining about them. Even better, move: that’s what Frisco is for.
As for the Statler / Hilton it needs to be restored – middle income, student and public employee (teachers, fire, police) housing makes the most sense. It could also work as a hotel – let me reference London again – see The Sanderson.
@LakeWWonder: Ditto ditto ditto!
I was at the park on Friday night and let me say this is going to be a great asset to Dallas. Many of us neither live in downtown or work in downtown and it is easy to forget that we live in a real city. This park is in the middle of a lot f great buildings a true outside room.
Looking up and seeing the lighted top of the mercantile building and the grand municipal building that will become the UNT Law school in just a few years is truly a cool site. And i think it makes you re-examine your sense of place — This is Downtown Dallas!
So sad how many people can look at something and only see the glass as half empty.
I am really happy to see a great number of positive comments among a small number of negative ones. It’s not the norm when something new comes along in Dallas! I also appreciate reply comments from the writers, thank you!
I am ecstatic to see more and more parks popping up, especially downtown. Also more restoration, though it looks like the Statler is doomed b/c of the floor plates. Too bad.
@ reader: We Oak Cliffers REALLY appreciate comments like ‘bridge to nowhere’, how witty.
If you visit any number of the world’s great cities and simply focus your sights on homeless people, you’re missing the forest for the trees. (Homeless people are human beings, by the way, not objects to be despised. It’s sad to hear these negative comments coming from a city located in the bible belt–the meaning of loving one’s neighbor is apparently lost on some people). Every major city has homeless people. Does that mean London is a horrible place? Rome? San Francisco? New York?
People visit cities for their public spaces and the life those spaces create. I’ve never heard anyone say, “let’s spend a week in a suburb–I hear they have a ton of tract housing, hardly any public spaces, and absolutely no homeless people. What fun!”
Those who mock great urban spaces need to get out more. Central Park is one of the safest places in New York, if not America. Who’s going to mug you there? A musician? A mother strolling her kid? And if you’re afraid of the yuppies, families, and youth in Union Square, you really must be living in a bubble. While there are a few homeless people in each of these places, they certainly aren’t in the majority. Most people in Central Park, Trafalgar Square, Union Square, the Spanish Steps, the Riverwalk, and Hermann Park are everyday people who are jogging, getting a bite to eat, enjoying some sun, people watching, listening to music, playing with their kids–just enjoying life. In fact, most of these great urban spaces are filled with suburban folk who are hoping to see something in the City–people hoping to escape the doldrums and banality of their antiseptic suburban lives.
Kudos to Dallas for creating another great public space. Looking forward to seeing more of them.