Comments on: Twenty Things I’d Like to See Downtown

By: SMUGIXXER

SMUGIXXER — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:49:47 +0000

“No metered or paid parking on weekends”

but how will the valets scare everyone off from going downtown?

By: Joan

Joan — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:58:44 +0000

Thanks for your kind comments, Patricia. Yes, the air! I forget to pay attention to those orange and red alerts, but they do a doozy on folks. Guess we’ll have to keep hoping that greening buildings will do part of the trick. Maybe DART’s new natural gas plan will help too…?

By: Patricia Mora

Patricia Mora — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:56:26 +0000

Joan,

From what I can tell you should be in charge of city planning. These are great ideas and you [I suspect] know some of the people who can make them happen.

One of the photographs you posted reminds me of the “bookinistes” in Paris. I would love that! But Dallas is worried about becoming messy or having it’s hair mussed. And we have so many “Orange” days that the “outside” becomes something to be avoided at all costs much of the time.

Perhaps Step One should be “clean up the dang air.” I was in Colorado for a year. They complained about the quality of THEIR air. I was stunned. It was pristine [to me]. Now that I’m back, I’m even more appalled.

Oh, yes, and parking. Parking is so difficult downtown. I have Martin J. Rubin on my speed dial. You know: the Ticket Attorney…

Your articles are great and you have marvelous insights. Congratulations.

Patricia Mora

By: Jennifer Chambless

Jennifer Chambless — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:06:22 +0000

I second the locally owned bookstore/cafe. Nothing against B&N or Borders, but there are all too many of them outside of downtown. And, because locally owned book stores have to compete with the big box retailers, they try a little harder to cater to the local tastes and organize events to bring in customers - both of which add to the local color and culture. I think of the Elliot Bay Book Co. on Main Steet in Seattle. About a dozen authors a month are invited to the store for readings and to discuss their works. They stock new books, used books, and a sizable selection of rare books. They also host several special interest book clubs for those into sci-fi, books about global issues, and drama. In addition to selling books, The Elliot Bay Book Co. fosters a vibrant community of readers.

That’s my plug for the locally owned bookstore. But it won’t work without many of the other things you noted.

By: Kim

Kim — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:13:37 +0000

Great list! My husband and I live downtown and we love it, but we’re waiting for a lot of the things on your list to materialize. I would love to have a locally owned bookstore/cafe close-by, outdoor and specialty markets, street vendors - it would make living downtown even more special. Maybe once the convention center hotel brings more visitors, people will be inspired to open shop down here?

By: Joan

Joan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 20:59:19 +0000

Wow, I am shocked and dismayed to hear about this enforced deprivation of water fountains. Funny how its absence leads to the desertion of the city streets.

By: Jerome Weeks

Jerome Weeks — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:21:36 +0000

Eric:

It should be kind of obvious. No buskers (and no street vendors) because no pedestrian traffic. Or at least, no reliable pedestrian traffic. Whenever I have seen a busker in Dallas — a guy who played the sax in the West End, for instance — I’ve always given them money and encouragement. But I think that’s been, like, five times in 20 years.

The environmental facts that kill a lot of pedestrian traffic here — the brutal heat, no public water fountains or rest rooms — kills buskers, too. The only places I’ve seen street performers have been the West End — which has some restaurant awnings and a few trees they can shelter under — or the occasional DART rail stop (at Mockinbird, for instance). One of the great urban stupidities in the early design of DART rail was the decision to ban water fountains and rest rooms from the train stops — for fear of encouraging the homeless to hang out there, a true threat to public decorum in Dallas, which must be maintained at all costs.

By: ericthegardener

ericthegardener — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:31:28 +0000

How `bout some buskers? I have no idea why they aren’t allowed here. They’re everywhere in England, even smaller towns. People love `em.

By: Chris Smith

Chris Smith — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 13:05:24 +0000

All great ideas. Another suggestion: managed auto traffic. I am always baffled as to why Dallas has not been able to computer-control its traffic signals, enforce no parking zones, and use traffic cops (when/where necessary) all to keep cars moving through downtown. I avoid downtown at all costs because it is a traffic nightmare.

By: Joan

Joan — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:42:54 +0000

And I forgot to mention:

#21: Internet cafes and clean youth hostels.