What would it take to move you downtown?
Or maybe you live there already. Tell us why.
4 Comments »
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I don’t understand why you would move to downtown Dallas. Dallas life is all about being able to afford a nice home with a backyard minutes from everything at a third or fourth of the price of a apartment-dwelling city. I just don’t understand why you would live in a NY-style apartment, small, parking problems, without NY downstairs. I am sitting on my back porch, watching a few red-winged blackbirds dance around my bird feeder and I can be at White Rock, downtown or the Monk in less that 8 minutes. Why downtown?
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I love this question, and don’t know why people find it difficult to answer. Hubby and I live on the edge of downtown, next to the Wilson Historic distric. We moved from Lakewood (a great walkable neighborhood) to be closer to downtown and light rail. The verdict: We would do it again and are glad we made the move.
Hubby loves the close proximity to major roadways, and I like the close proximity to public transportation. When the Green line is completed, we’ll be able to take light rail to Expo Park and Fair Park and to Victory Park. Plus Hubby will eventually be able to roll his suitcase to light rail and go directly to Love Field for biz trips.
You think there are not enough parks. Okay. Well, we are within walking distance of the Exall park and recreation center, and two dog parks (one within the Wilson district and the other in Deep Ellum). The Wilson district itself is full of green space, and we frequently walk through it on our way to Deep Ellum. More green space is planned for downtown. Of note, the park planned across the street from the Unversities Center and the old Statler.
Another reason for our move was the close proximity to the Arts District. We attend many events in the area. When the Dallas Center for Performing Arts is completed, we’ll be patrons of both the Opera House and Wyly Theater.
I could go on and on about all the places and things there are to do. We are lucky to live near the Latino Cultural Center, art galleries in Deep Ellum and Expo Park, as well as the Dahlia Woods Gallery. There are not enough days in the week to cover all happenings within walking distance of our home.
If you don’t believe, check out our blog to find out how we do it. It’s not hard to find things to do and love in the city center. Really.
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Spending the week here in Louisville’s downtown gives me a sense of what’s difficult to do without a car in a Midwestern/Southern town.
The convention center here, unlike Dallas’, is in the center of downtown. It’s very close to all the major hotels, has lots of small plazas and parks around to green up the area, and is two blocks from Fourth Street Live, which has live bands on the weekends, lots of bars and chain restaurants, and a Borders.
A bit further afield, but still in walking distance, are art, history, and sports museums, galleries, higher end restaurants, and swankier bars. A riverfront park along the Ohio, complete with kitschy steamboat tours, with a neighorhing minor league baseball field, is no more than 10 minutes from the convention center.
Churchill Downs is a 15 minute bus-ride, as is the older, more artsy neighborhood of The Highlands along Bardstown Road. Louisville’s Shakespeare in the Park takes place less than 2 miles from downtown–and there are a few downtown theaters, not just 1. All these places are very accessible–perhaps because of Louisville’s smaller size, more narrow streets, and lighter traffic.
Ok, so up to this point Louisville’s pretty attractive to an out-of-towner who gets to stay in the heart of the city after living in the inner circle around Dallas’ downtown.
But there still aren’t grocery stores, variety of retail stores, and movie theaters.
If downtown Dallas is going to woo a larger resident population, necessities and luxuries need to lie side by side. Why isn’t there something more akin (vulgar and breast-baring as it is) to Fourth Street Live in downtown Dallas? Why isn’t there a Gap or BR to alternate with NM? Would it kill us to bring in a bookstore? When you have umpteen convention center folks looking to become human again after 8 hours spent in a giant air-conditioned box, they’ll be glad to fraternize in the halls of commerce.
Which is all to say that I’d move to downtown Dallas if absolutely everything could be in walking distance. And I’d certainly move to Louisville’s downtown if it had more of the necessities along with its leisure activities.
More parks. Stores that make sense for a neighborhood. Maybe a street car to get to the different parts more easily. More places to hang out. More people. I just wonder if a family could work down there. Or if you could ever live downtown and not get in your car and leave it at least once a day.
25 May 2009 at 11:10 am