The Biggest Problem in Downtown? The Sidewalks
At lunch, Tim, Peter, and I took a meandering stroll downtown, eventually arriving at the Press Box Grill. On the way back, we took a similarly circuitous route. Tim pointed out — and we all agreed — that the sidewalks downtown are much (much) smaller than in most big cities. Rarely can you walk three abreast, and sometimes, two is a struggle. It seemed — to us, anyway — that is a hurdle to active street life. (Also: lack of people, but that’s a different discussion, and more easily rectified.) So what is to be done? You can’t really make the streets smaller, and making buildings thinner is more like a job for the CGI technicians behind Dark City. And, I guess beyond that, do you agree?
(If you find this post to be hogwash, please direct your commentary to: Wyeth Consumer Healthcare, Madison, NJ 07940 or visit www.robitussin.com.)
(Also, deeply aware that someone else has already written about this subject. Call me on it, and I’ll update this post with the link.)
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You’re right. I want to knock over that stand outside Sol Irlandes. And the outdoor seating area at the Fish Market.
There is no room for people, let alone streetscape improvements.
Downtown Dallas. It’s Your Turd!*(TM)
_________________________________
* Relax, it’s not yours specifically, Zac; more like it’s collectively our city’s ugly duckling minus the duckling part**, and one that they keep trying to “shine,” which popular wisdom avers one cannot. Although, with the reverse-ital emphasis added, I guess I can see how you’d assume there was a culpability dispute being advanced. There is not.
** At ground level, at least. Our skyline isn’t half bad.
Applause!!!!
Yes, in Downtown we suffer from a stroll-stopping mix of narrow sidewalks, office buildings from the 70’s & 80’s that were built “to curb”, poorly planned landscaping that interrupts your path and several stiletto-damaging chipped curbs.
Oh, but wait – we’re the folks who are supposed to be doing something about that, aren’t we?? Here’s some scoop –
The construction you now see on Elm Street around the Stone St. intersection is part of a sidewalk improvement project approved in the last City bond program. Sidewalk repairs and ’streetscaping’ to come.
You may also notice some relatively new pavers and pedestrian lighting on Harwood and other key north/south streets in the CBD. This is part of another City bond project that is still underway. And there are a handful of others (Routh Street) coming down the pipeline.
On a much greater scale, through the Downtown Dallas 360 process (downtowndallas360.com), we are advocating for a significant philosophical shift in the way that both the City and the private development community approach planning Downtown that will ultimately trickle down to impact such things as sidewalks. Take the Complete Streets initiative, for example. Instead of planning for quick “in and outs” and major thoroughfares (i.e. Pearl), a true urban center should be a hub of broad sidewalks, multi-modal transit lanes – an environment where cars, public transportation, cyclists and pedestrians can peacefully coexist. This, of course, bleeds beyond solely transportation planning and into addressing the public realm – pedestrian friendly connections, activating storefronts, sidewalk cafes, buildings that interact with the street, etc. A new report will be posted on the 360 site next week that addresses some of these matters.
In the meantime, to tackle the every-day sidewalk maintenance issues, always feel free to report them to 311 at the City, or straight to us here at DOWNTOWNDALLAS – info@downtowndallas.org or 214-744-1270.
The silver lining? Now at least we have people roaming the sidewalks to take note!
I’m pretty sure that sidewalk dimensions, which I’m sure is an overwhelming and dire issue, is most definitely not the biggest problem in Downtown Dallas. A couple of thousand mentally ill people wandering aimlessly through our streets might pose a slightly weightier dilemma, don’t you think?
@Dallasite: Commodious sidewalks would give the mentally ill a wider berth, wouldn’t they? Two birds. One stone.
The sidewalks are too narrow? If memory serves, Men’s Fitness says Dallas is among America’s fattest cities. Perhaps it is not that the sidewalks are too narrow.
Also, let’s say they are too narrow: How do you fix that? Hire a Trammel Crow Company to move the buildings back six feet?
Or (and hasn’t this really been suggested?) turn all of downtown into a walking mall with tramways and big external parking lots so it’ll be easier for car burglars?
How about double-decking the sidewalks — top level for casual strollers, lower level for joggers, speedwalkers and panhandlers?
Or, and this is probably what will happen because it is the Dallas Way: ban pedestrians. Dallas doesn’t need a bunch of chubby whiners walking around complaining.
Sadly, I think Dallas went through some long, futuristic vision phase, where designers envisioned downtown pedestrians running around in underground tunnels like ants, or a scene from this: http://media.photobucket.com/image/logan%252527s%20run/kjv31/7782/aicn.jpg
You are correct about the sidewalks,the City Development Department under Ms.O’Donalds direction,changed the width of the sidewalks in most of the new downtown developments.We should be able to see them soon.
It’s not just downtown; it’s everywhere. McKinney Ave., Hall Street, Lemmon Avenue, Cole Avenue; Carlisle: all in Uptown. Dallas does not wish to encourage walking. It’s as simple, and sad, as that.
Los Angeles — which I visited last month — is much more pedestrian-friendly. Wide sidewalks encourage happy people to wander up and back.
I can’t cite a specific post, but the author of http://carfreeinbigd.blogspot.com/ has occasionally called for wider sidewalks, elimination of one-way streets and other calming measures for downtown traffic in an attempt to promote a pedestrian-friendly environment.
“LIVING CAR-FREE IN BIG D
A Sometimes Semi-Serious Slant and other Ruminations on Urban Design, Architecture, Sustainability, Ecolonomics, and the Way of the World or How I Learned to Stop Driving and Love the Walk… in my adopted home of Dallas, Texas.”
“Commodious sidewalks would give the mentally ill a wider berth, wouldn’t they? Two birds. One stone.”
Provided they don’t use the stone to hit you in the head and steal your watch for drug money…
I agree that our sidewalks are too narrow; even worse when you get out of downtown.
The other issue walking downtown is construction projects that shut down a side walk one one side of the street for a full block, forcing you to switch sides multiple times before getting to your final destination. Places like new York, Boston, Berlin, London, etc. require the use of scaffolding around the sidewalks to allow for unimpeded pedestrian traffic while ‘progress’ happens.
What’s a sidewalk?
The walk on the “Promenade” from the AAC. The trees are in the middle of the sidewalk! Is this more incompetence from Ross Perot Jr.? Has he done anything well?
Bike lanes. I repeat, bike lanes.
It’s possible to walk alot here. I office at Fitzhugh and Central. I frequently walk the Katy Trail, as well as walk to West Village and Knox Henderson for Lunch.
Katy Trail has some very nice new entrances being built.
I try to schedule lunches which are walkable, as well as using the local cleaners, banks and other nearby businesses.
agreed about the sidewalks. even west village is sorta narrow, but it’s completely doable.
To that Publicnewsnonsense person: you obviously haven’t seen the D guys. They are as slim as they come and if they can’t walk 3 abreast, nobody can.
i’m no fan of the grammar police, but office is a noun not a verb…please please please stop using it as a verb
please, i beg you
and walking around in downtown Dallas remains a sad way to get somewhere despite the latest round of civic “upgrades”
i don’t know why and don’t know what the fix is, but it’s just sad
Dear jrp:
Please, I beg you. Please, please, please use proper capitalization and punctuation. Your sin is far greater than verbing a noun.
Sincerely,
RAB
i’m a sinner, i sin, that’s what i do
and despite 12 years of Catholic school, i musta missed the “Thou Shant Use Lowercase To Start A Sentence” commandment
you’re futilely holding on to 20th century conventions a decade into the 21st century
this is a blog…just a bunch of binary digits on a screen…this isn’t an interoffice memo, nor resume, nor cover letter, nor job application, nor newsletter, nor newspaper; it’s not even a magazine
read those to fulfill any desire to process information in an antiquated style, as i will not honor your request here
@jrp: It pained me to approve that comment. As a reader of this blog, you know how we value the rules of grammar and punctuation. By following them to the best of one’s ability, one shows respect for the reader. Is that old-fashioned? Eh, maybe. But some things are better that way.
And if you’re such an ee cummings-style rebel, why did you capitalize “Catholic”?