When we launched Renegade Bus on May 1, 2009, our ambitions for this space were both grand and modest. The team of us wanted simply to write about this city in a new way, to consider its art and engage in the ideas that were giving shape to what we perceived as its new future. There was no obvious home for the kind of conversation we thought Dallas should be having about itself, and seizing the unique immediacy and possibility of internet publishing, we started a web magazine with the hope (and a little naivety, no doubt) that we could help foster that dialogue.

I cannot tell you how surprised we were that in the seven short months since we launched, we have managed to achieve much of what we set out to do. We have hosted debates on our site, given voice to under- or un-published voices, and published photos, stories, and essays that have shed new light on our city.

Not least among our accomplishments has been the attention this little site has gained from Dallas’ major media outlets. Through links and online debates, we have injected ourselves into Dallas’ published conversation and, in many ways, have helped shape it.

I want to talk here about one such debate that began with an article by Christina Rees on Glasstire called “Reckoning.” In “Reckoning,” Rees tips her hat to Renegade Bus’ role in broadening the dialogue about art and culture in this city, but then she uses the example to challenge major media to do the same. Sites like this one, she suggests, have proven that there is an appetite for real, intelligent, and honest dialogue in this town – conversation that is serious without being snooty, encouraging and optimistic without being polite or superficial. But what the city is still lacking is a place where intelligent conversation about the arts happens regularly within the context of general interest media.

Rees notes, just as we have always done on this site, that Dallas is at a critical point in its cultural history, and the conversations about Dallas that are happening these days are indications that this city is deepening in its understanding of itself. But without the support of the major media, without having the intelligent conversations about art, urban planning, culture, and civic identity placed within the context of a wide-reaching publication, these conversations will remain confined to our own living rooms, bar tables, and websites.

In her piece, Rees specifically challenged D Magazine to take up the torch and champion a deeper Dallas in the mainstream media. In fact, Publisher Wick Allison had already been working to expand the magazine’s arts coverage. In a publisher’s column in D earlier this year, Allison wrote about the severe lack of real criticism in Dallas:

I do not have a solution to the problem. But as a media owner, I do have a responsibility. At the moment, we are monitoring and talking to very bright people in other cities who are grappling with the same dilemma. When we see an idea that works, D Magazine will do everything in its limited power to introduce it to Dallas. To my mind, the need is too great to merely sit by and watch.

Say what you like about D Magazine, in its thirty-five year history, it has not often been known to sit back and watch any major developments unfold in this city. Now, I am happy to announce in this space, that D Magazine will indeed launch a new, expanded arts coverage initiative, both online and in its magazine. Furthermore, Allison has asked me to be the founding editor of this new venture.

I will admit, when Allison first approached me I was flattered, excited about the opportunity, and a little skeptical. Would D’s arts editor really be given the reins to provide the kind of coverage this city needs – coverage that elevates and broadens the public dialogue and serves as a catalyst to Dallas’ continued maturity?

After a number of conversations with the editors at D, I am convinced that their vision for the magazine’s future bears much in common with the original goals of Renegade Bus. And after a great deal of soul searching, I have decided to accept D’s offer.

This might strike many of you as an unexpected development in the short history of this little site. After all, one of our most widely read pieces was written by my wife, Lucia, who tore into D’s Art Slam earlier this year. But the Art Slam episode, in fact, offers encouragement. After Lucia’s piece appeared on our site, Allison invited the both of us to discuss Art Slam, to figure out what didn’t work and why. D has shown a strong desire to learn from that experience and make sure that any future efforts represent a move forward, and not a step back, for our local scene. Furthermore, I believe in Renegade Bus, and so I believe that anyone who wants to adopt what Renegade Bus has been trying to do has to have a pretty good vision for what this city needs.

The question that remains, then, is what will happen to Renegade Bus in light of these developments?

At first I decided I would simply step down as editor. However, it has become obvious during the course of the conversations among the site’s founders, that continuing to run Renegade Bus as-is would pose a great number of conflicts – practical, professional, personal and familial. And so we were forced with the opportunity to draft the ending of our own history, which could go two ways: Renegade Bus could continue on as is, advocating for an alternative local voice at risk of damaging our best intentions and relationships, or we could close up shop and throw our efforts wholeheartedly into this new endeavor, as well as seek out new ones that cultivate and shape Dallas’ best possibilities. It was the decision of the founding editors to take the latter course.

Renegade Bus is not dead, but it will enter a period of prolonged hiatus while our remaining founding members, Lucia Simek, Joan Arbery and Teresa Burkett, work to reshape its physical presence in Dallas. One idea for its rebirth is to re-launch as a print journal, an idea which was always floating around since we began talking about this project. Rest assured, the Bus will be back.

For now, nothing makes me more excited than the opportunity to bring much of what we have been trying to do here on this site to D Magazine, to lend our voice and tone to the greater city, and to offer many of our contributors a wider audience.

These are exciting times in Dallas. Your readership and participation on this site, we truly believe, has helped foster a wider and more faceted understanding of Dallas. I want to thank our readers, contributors, advocates, and friends for coming with us on this ride, and I very much look forward to continuing our conversation through Dallas’ city magazine in the coming years.