Articles about Urbanism
Urban Expert to Downtown Boosters: Dallas Is Screwed
Read between the lines, and that’s what former CEOs for Cities CEO Carol Coletta said at yesterday’s annual Downtown Dallas Inc. luncheon. Details on FrontRow.
Chinese Dragon Attacks Flora Street, Reveals Dallas Not Yet “World Class”
Friday night, the Crow Collection of Asian Art threw a “Year of the Dragon Preview Party.” There was face painting. There were complimentary Chinese candles. There was kung fu. I think owing to the beautiful weather and the fact that China is the most populous country on the planet, a lot of people turned out for the gig. I’m not great at estimating crowds, but I put the number at 1,289. All in all, it was a fun night. But I’ve got a few complaints. As a friend of mine said that night, “Poor Dallas. We’re trying. But we’re just not quite there yet.” (Update at 1:45 — A little under 5,000 people attended last year. Between 6 and midnight this year, 8,373 people came through the Crow. Yes, the weather made a huge different. And, too, dragons are cooler than rabbits.)
Complaint No. 1: The Nasher was closed, and its windows were dark. Okay, so you’re going to close Flora Street and have hundreds thousands of people milling about till around 9 or 10 o’clock. On a Friday night. Might be a good idea to keep your doors open past 5. Standing on a packed Flora Street, waiting for the kung fu show to begin, I stared at the darkened windows of the Nasher and wondered if the people there ever check out the calendar of events of their across-the-street neighbor.
Complaint No. 2: Drinking was permitted only where you couldn’t see the show. (more…)
Map of Downtown Tunnels Is Here
Downtown resident/neighbor Noah Jeppson launched a campaign on Kickstarter in June. He wanted a beautiful map that accurately plotted the downtown tunnel system. He had worked on one before, but it was a little out of date. The last printed version was done before DART was in the area. So, Jeppson saw a need.
Several months, countless hours, and $1,200 later, Jeppson has 10,000 maps to hand out. He just dropped a few off by our office. I plan on using mine to get home tonight.
Jeppson has lived downtown for 6 years. He currently lives in the beautifully renovated 400 N. Ervay (which I immediately fell in love with and wrote about here). I told him my feelings about the tunnels, and he said he’s neutral. “They’re an asset that already exists, so why close them down?” he says. “Don’t expand them, but don’t close them down.” He’s on a task force that is evaluating the tunnels. He said the group is close to releasing some recommendations. I hope one of those recommendations is to open the tunnels around lunch on Saturdays. I know it won’t happen, but I would really love to be able to get a Salata salad or a Chick-fil-A sandwich without getting in my car.
If you want one of Jeppson’s maps, check out his site here or stop by our office. I’ll have a few at the front desk.
How the Nasher Hurts Itself and the Arts District
Allisonette #4 and I strolled into the Nasher the other day to have lunch. To buy lunch, unlike at the DMA, we were told we first have to buy admission to the museum.
The policy is understandable considering how the Nasher is configured. To get to the restaurant, one has to walk through the museum, so you see a lot of what people pay admission to see. That design flaw hurts the Nasher and the Arts District, which lacks the sort of drop-by, buy-a-sandwich-and-a-beer, and check-your-IPad places that attract strollers. It also is a revenue-loser for the museum itself.
Memo to Nasher Trustees: Bite the bullet, move your restaurant to the main gallery facing the street, open it up and put tables outside, and invite people to come into your space. It will drive up food and drink revenues, increase paid attendance, and add some life to Flora Street. If you’re worried about architect Renzo Piano, just don’t tell him. He never comes to Dallas. He’ll never know.
Tip For Those Who Walk Around Downtown
Just because there’s no sign saying you can’t walk down a sidewalk where someone’s using a jackhammer doesn’t mean you should walk down said sidewalk.
Leading Off (1/16/11)
Bike Accident Illustrates Need For Safer Biker/Pedestrian Options: If you’ve ever ridden a bike over one of the two viaducts that span the Trinity River and connect Oak Cliff to downtown, you know how incredibly scary it is. It just got scarier: Dallas Torres, 32, was struck by a car while riding his bike on the Jefferson Boulevard viaduct Saturday, breaking his neck. He remains at Baylor University Medical Center. Too bad we can’t fund those bike paths.
‘Dallas’ Looks To Capitalize on Recessionary Escapism: A flurry of news stories about the revival of the television show “Dallas” hit the inter-webs this weekend. This is all you need to know, via Larry Hagman: “Remember when ‘Dallas’ was really big, we were in a major recession,” he said. “People couldn’t afford to hire a babysitter and go out to dinner. So they had to stay in and watch something on TV, and that was us.”
Rick Perry Continues To Self-Destruct Presidential Hopes: Rick Perry believes that calling for the prosecution of legal adults serving in the marines who made a video of themselves urinating on Taliban corpses shows “disdain for the military.” Cue Zac.
Could Dallas Ban All Billboards?
Sao Paulo did it in 2006. And it has not only eliminated visual pollution, but made advertising more efficient:
Anna Freitag, the marketing manager for Hewlett-Packard Brazil, said her company had never considered how inefficient billboards and the like were until they were illegal. “A billboard is media on the road,” she told the FT. “In rational purchases it means less effectiveness… as people are involved in so many things that it makes it difficult to execute the call to action.”
“This Space Available“, a documentary about Sao Paulo and other movements to rid cities of billboards, will be shown at the Dallas Film Festival, which runs April 12-22.
First Trees Planted at the Park
We sent intern Jessica Melton out into the frigid air to capture the first trees being planted.
The crew prepares the River Birch trees for planting.
The Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation planted the first of 322 trees for the upcoming Park this morning at 10:30.
TurningPoint Foundation donated the first 25 River Birch trees. With the new trees came a new tree trust, which will allow donors who provide $25,000 or more to the Foundation to pick which trees they want to plant and select an area to place them in the Park.
One of the donors, Kristin Schor of the Gaedeke Group, says while her company already sponsors plant life around the United States, the people in her company are excited to see what they can do in their own backyard.
“We want to make a difference,” Schor says. “Even if it is one tree at a time.”
The trees are being planted in organic dirt placed on top of lightweight filler, because dirt alone would be too much weight for the bridge to handle, says Joanna Singleton of Jackson Spalding Communications.
Planting will be going on all day today and Thursday, but there’s not much else to see on top of Woodall Rodgers Freeway right now except a lot of organic dirt.
If you’re interested in what the Park will look like when it’s finished, the Foundation’s website has a bird’s eye view of what they’re planning for it. —Jessica Melton
Tear Down the East Dallas Portion of I30
At a recent TED event in Philadelphia, Next American City editor-at-large Diana Lind reviewed the movement to dismantle highways that disrupt a city’s natural flow. From a report by Andrew Nusca:
After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, the city of San Francisco faced the tremendous task of rebuilding the structurally-damaged Embarcadero Freeway. Instead, they tore it down, replaced it with a people-friendly boulevard that encouraged development. The surrounding area has since rebounded, Lind said, with higher property values, more tourism and more housing for city residents.
The same phenomenon occurred in New York City when it rebuilt the elevated West Side Highway in 1989 as a surface roadway, giving New Yorkers access to parks, piers and picturesque views on the West Side of Manhattan.
Our opportunity lies with the elevated portion of I30 that runs from downtown through East Dallas. I argue here that tearing down that 2.5-mile portion and creating a boulevard in its place would unleash millions of dollars in development (and new taxes).
Downtown Prepares for the Holidays
Photo taken by Noah Jeppson from the fourth floor of his apartment building.
Starting sometime last week, the folks behind City Lights (Downtown Dallas Inc., Neiman Marcus, the City of Dallas, Downtown Residents Council, Planet Productions, and Excitement Technologies Group) started making downtown a bit brighter. They shut off streets, pulled out cherry pickers, and strung 3,882 lights (3,800 C9 bulbs, 32 LED pars, and 50 12-inch LED strips–I know you wanted to know specifics). I ran into Jaime Clintsman, events coordinator at Downtown Dallas Inc., last night and we watched as this orb/ball/sphere was hung into place. For someone who has been working nonstop for the past week (as has the entire staff), she sure seemed happy. She promised DDI has a lot of tricks up its sleeves, and that we’re all in for a good show on Saturday. This photo was taken by neighbor Noah Jeppson. I don’t think I’m ruining any of the surprises, because unless you’re Jeppson or one of his neighbors, I doubt you’ll get to view the show from above.
Of course, the tree in Main Street Garden will be lit as well. I’ve made it known how I feel about that thing. Regardless, I’m pretty excited for Saturday night.
Do Some Good Today with Crowdtilt
After all the name calling and angry words on the blog yesterday, I thought we might need something to make us all feel a little better. So I present an opportunity. I know a guy who started a great crowd-funding site called Crowdtilt. The idea behind Crowdtilt is that you start a campaign, set an amount of money you need raised, and then set the number at which the campaign “tilts.” No credit cards are charged unless the campaign gets to that tilt amount.
So here’s where you can do good. The Deep Ellum Urban Garden group needs about $25,000 in order to transform the lot into a garden. They have set the campaign to tilt at $10,000. Yesterday, the campaign was around $4,700. The people at Crowdtilt gave of their own money and did a match campaign. Today, it’s at $6,795. Make yourself feel better, donate a few dollars. And then get your friends to donate a few dollars. See, don’t you feel a little better?
New Goal in Life: Beat UTA Students at Something, Anything
I thought Park(ing) Day Dallas was a huge success. It was great seeing all the parking spots (51 in all) be transformed into museums, trails, lounges, and soccer fields. A lot of people weren’t really sure what was going on. But, as one guy said, they all seemed to enjoy coming out of their office buildings or apartments and stumbling onto something cool. The coordinators, Noah Jeppson, James Warton, and the crew with Downtown Dallas Inc., did a great job getting everything together in just eight weeks.
There were a lot of great spots that had good ideas. I thought our book swap area, complete with Dirt’s fantastic landscaping (I wanted to take the book tree home with me) and Half Price Book’s storytelling time, was a shoe-in for the win. But I was wrong. The winners of Dallas’ Park(ing) Day competition, judged by the guys from Better Block, went to RE, one of four UTA architecture teams that participated. This is the second time those students have beaten us (the first time was in June during the 72-Hour Challenge). So I emailed Wanda Dye, assistant professor of architecture, and told her that it’s now my goal in life to beat her students at something. She was very nice in her response. “We do have an advantage of having time!” she says. She made Park(ing) Day part of her students’ class work. The winning scheme was called “The Bird’s Nest.” Watch Robbie Curtis’ video, and you’ll see where the inspiration came from.
And for those of you who are against pop-up ideas, saying that it creates no real difference in a community, here’s this: Dustin Bullard, cityscape and urban design manager at Downtown Dallas Inc., says there are some semi-permanent plans in the works. “Based on the success of Park(ing) Day, DDI wold like to work with the city and stakeholders to create longer term installations that could be rotated around downtown.” For example, in San Francisco, they have dumpsters with plants and seating that they rotate throughout their downtown. I hope this happens. Seeing all the people, the parks, and the excitement on Friday demonstrated the great potential downtown Dallas has. I’d like to see this potential realized.
Here’s Our New Map of Dallas, Incorporating Your Feedback
Thanks, everyone! Very helpful comments. Your new map is after the jump. ENJOY.
Help D Magazine Define Dallas Neighborhoods
Neighborhoods are whatever we — the hive mind, the wisdom of crowds, the Borg Collective, Wikipedia’s editors, etc. — want them to be. But we don’t always agree. Ask 10 random people on the street what neighborhood of Dallas Victory Park sits in, and you’re bound to get 11-15 different answers.
We here at D Magazine confront this reality every day as we add new restaurants to our online restaurant guide, new shops to our online shopping guide, and new bars to our online bars and clubs guide. We assign each listing to a neighborhood, and we’ve not been consistent in how we classify areas of the city of Dallas, as the many different staff members who work on those online guides have differing opinions of what sits where in the city, and we haven’t been working from the same map. We need to reach a consensus.
In addition, some neighborhoods have grown strong enough that it’s time for them to walk on their own, and to be added to our official list. They’ve earned their own classification. For instance, we firmly believe it’s time for an amicable divorce between Knox and Henderson. They’ve been growing apart for years.
And so we’ve drawn the new map you see below. Take the jump to help us make it even better.
View D Magazine’s Dallas Neighborhoods in a larger map
Dallas Will Have Park(ing) Day Friday
In case you haven’t heard, Park(ing) Day is happening this Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Main Street District (between Field and Ervay), in Deep Ellum (between Good Latimer and Malcom X), and in the Arts District (between Pearl and Olive on Flora). Park(ing) Day was started in San Francisco in 2005. It’s now held throughout the world and in 183 cities. It’s basically a day where groups take over metered spots and turn those 9-by-18-foot spaces into parks (or whatever they dream up). This will be Dallas’ first year. (Actually, I’m wrong. Dallas’ first year was in 2008 and held in Oak Cliff.) Since it’s right down the street and right up our alley, D will be taking over a spot.
We’re teaming up with Dirt, Half Price Books, and JD’s Tree Service to transform a boring area of concrete into a reading room forest. We’ll be on Main Street, right in front of Dirt and across from Iron Cactus. Please bring your gently used books and magazines and swap them for something new (or, at least new to you). Also, bring your kids around 5:30 as we’ll have some storytellers. And be sure to check out the rest of the street. I’ve heard there will be everything from bands and a pumpkin patch to a seesaw and a nature trail.
Oh, and if you’re looking for parking, we’re not taking up all the spots, so there will still be a few available. Or ride your bike.
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