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You guys are thinking along the right lines. I said the same thing when I wrote about the AT&T Center for the Wall Street Journal. What downtown needs most of all is middle-class housing. But the authorities all say the land is too expensive. So we are fated to have only housing for the very rich, e.g., One Arts Plaza and the proposed Museum Tower. Where will ordinary people live?

More people living there, the reason why a place like NYC feels safe to walk around in is that you have people living there in multiple locations, which brings more shops, food, etc etc, things stay open past 6 pm

Until the economy gets better this will not happen.

Drive through downtown on a Saturday, it is scary..

Hookers

Sidewalk cafes & trees & misters. Food vendors. Downtown outposts (or reasonable facsimiles) of some Deep Ellum establishments: Murray Street Coffee, Allgood. A big drugstore/pharmacy. Bakery. Density.

taste of Plano festival

Anything open late that’s not a bar. Sundance Squared would be awesome.

Other thing high on my list: not getting stabbed.

Renegade Bus was thinking the same thing a few weeks ago. How about a link Zac?

http://renegadebusdallas.com/2009/09/28/twenty-things-i%E2%80%99d-like-to-see-downtown/

As someone who works and lives downtown, I would love a few great restaurants scattered through downtown open past 7 p.m., a better dry cleaner than the shady ones, an all night cafe, more people living down here (not just the bum’s, but actual working professionals), better and a variety of lunch and weekend dining options. I love that we have great parks opening and am excited for The Park to open, despite any frustrations it may cause. I’d also love for the CVS Pharmacy between Main and Elm at Akard to be open past 6 p.m. Those are my wishes!

Bike lanes definitely. Hot spots (Free wifi. and any sort of late night spots would be nice too. Maybe something like a late night book store so not to attract to many douches.

A nail salon.

I would love a bookstore, and a reopening of the movie theater in West End. I love going to downtown Fort Worth because they have all these things, within a 4 block walk, plus free parking, two comedy clubs, a Marble Slab and tons of family friendly, affordable restaurants. And I’ve lived in downtown for five years.

1. Square devoted to public executions w/AT&T sponsored guillotine.
2. More hype.
3. Fewer cheesy clubs.
4. Reopen Carousel Club as working bar-slash-museum.
5. Oops. #4-5 contradict one another.
6. Move Avi Adelman downtown to help keep things on the up-and-up. Give him honorary law enforcement badge ala Elvis.
7. Statue of Tom Leppart and Laura Miller pointing toward Trinity. Caption that says, “I did that.”
8. Statue of a Hunt (pick one) that says, “I own you.”
9. Statue of Don Hill that says, “You owe me.”
10. Bicycling lanes. Seriously.

Someplace where you can actually get a decent burger. Or a NY style deli. Or both.

Skateboard park. Houston one of the world’s best, and it’s right in the shadows of downtown.

How about some gondolas for the winding creek that runs from high atop the Woodall Rodgers Park and follows a course past Hooters down to (coincidentally) the Bottoms and then feeds into the Trinity River so young lovers can be serenaded as they ride in a tender embrace beneath the Calatrava Bridge To Nowhere. ONce beyond the bridge, the gondolas will dock at Port Downtown and the lovers can step off the gondolas and go through the EPA Chemical River Wash before being allowed to board the monorail back to the park.

Why does Tim think there are no dry cleaners downtown? There are several that I’m aware of: in the tunnels below Bank of America, on Elm Street near Field, and Ivy Dry Cleaners. I don’t know where Ivy is located, but they’ll pick up and drop off at your office or, if you live downtown, your apartment. I haven’t set foot in a dry cleaner since I began using Ivy four years ago. I’ve only passed the Elm Street dry cleaner on my way to Sushi Ya, but it looks perfectly respectable.

Less valet parking on weekend nights.

~Downtown Wish List~
* Trees on Elm Street;
* Anything on Elm Street;
* Target and J. Crew;
* A good hamburger place (my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I don’t recall City Tavern’s burgers being anything to write home about);
* Pei Wei and Chili’s;
* A wine bar (I don’t count Swirl, as to my knowledge they only carry their own wines);
* A creperie;
* A gas station;
* For Neiman’s Cafe to go back to their cafeteria format rather than this sit-down business. I miss my roasted turkey sammies with herb mayo;
* For Jason’s Deli to be open on the weekends or, at the very least, Saturdays; and
* Prohibiting the valets from taking over all or most of the metered parking on Friday/Saturday nights. It’s so obnoxious and discourages visitors who aren’t going to drop $300 to get in the door at PM.

Responses to the above comments– Re a coffee shop that’s open past 6: have you tried Opening Bell @ Akard/Pacific? I thought they were open until midnight most nights. Re a sandwich shop open on the weekends: Jimmy Johns, Which Wich (closed Sundays), or Subway? I grant you, I’d like a place that’s a little more gourmet (like Paradise, located in the tunnels and closed on weekends), but we’re not completely without options here.

Lots of good suggestions, gang. Really, a lot of hustle. I think my favorite two (so far) are water slide and the Twilight Room.

H&M, Half Price Books/B&N/Borders, Times Square style video signs on Main, more apartments/density.

An A/C unit covering every inch of sidewalk, so when I walk around downtown in July I won’t sweat too much.

Indoor snow ski slope like the one in Dubai.
Bookstore
Movie theater

I totally agree with dallasboiler — I strongly believe that Dallas will not have a vibrant downtown scene until we close the tunnels. when i moved back to dallas from nyc, i was always so confused as to why there was no one on the streets in downtown during the day, then, I started working there and discovered the tunnels. I would rather walk outside in 105 degree heat feeling like I was part of a city, rather than feeling like a reasonably cool temperatured mole person.