This announcement is proof that they city’s investment in transforming Lower Greenville is paying off with dividends.  The new streetscape improvements look terrific – wider sidewalks, pedestrian lighting, crosswalks, benches, and bike racks (soon to be installed) have completely transformed this stretch of Lower Greenville.  These physical changes, in combination with the new late-night permiting process, have created a neighborhood-oriented, pedestrian-friendly environment that is attractive to retailers, like Trader Joe’s.

I remember talking with several retail brokers and restauranteurs a couple of years ago who told me the reasons they wouldn’t relocate to Lower Greenville: the perception of high crime; the fact that it was primarily a regional late-night bar strip; and the run-down appearance of the street.  We have changed that.  The new late-night permitting process is reducing crime and helping rebalance the day-night business ratio.  The street and sidewalk improvements have cleaned up the street and created a welcoming environment for the surrounding neighbors. 

But the proof is in the results:  Of all the places Trader Joe’s could have moved to in Dallas – the Park Cities, Uptown, Lakewood, Far North Dallas, and elsewhere – they chose to come to Lower Greenville.  Without question, this is a direct result of the changes we’ve made, and I have no doubt that without these changes, they would not have come.  And this is just the type of business we wanted to attract — a daytime business focused on serving the surrounding community.  It’s also a perfect fit for East Dallas.

But there are other, more subtle signs that our investment in Lower Greenville is paying off:  Over the last two weeks I’ve seen some things that I’ve never seen on Lower Greenville:  A dad with a baby stroller, relaxing on one of the new benches.  Girls walking their dogs along the new sidewalks.  An elderly couple taking a stroll.  These are the types of things you see all the time in the surrounding neighborhood, but never on Lower Greenville.  Now, Lower Greenville is once again part of the neighborhood.

It’s a great time to be in East Dallas.  Welcome to the neighborhood, Trader Joe’s.

If you’ve never been inside one of Downtown’s vacant buildings, I can tell you that the ones I’ve seen are littered with old furniture, junk, and trash, and are generally in disarray.  (The City has taken measures to require buildings be cleaned up.)  While some property owners leave their property in shambles (trying to avoid the expense of clean-up and hoping that potential tenants can see past the debris and visualize their new space), Leobardo’s philosophy is that those looking for real estate are more inclined to purchase space if the building looks move-in ready.  The difference in 1600 Pacific is striking:  Looking at the before and after pictures reveals how significant his clean up was.

The first floor of the building will have restaurant and retail/business space.  The lower floors will be for a hotel while the upper floors will provide office space.  The original elevators in the building are incredibly fast, rocketing from the first to the 32nd floor in just a few seconds.

The building has terrific views of Downtown, with the Magnolia and Mercantile on one side and the Republic Bank Tower and Thanksgiving Square on the other.  There’s also a very cool, enormous terrace, as well as a beautiful ball room complete with high wood-paneled ceilings and a huge chandelier.  (Previous plans for the building had included tearing out that space.)

Leobardo’s approach to renovation appears to be well-suited to a time of economic slow-down.  He plans to renovate as the floors are purchased:  a crane and building materials are staged in the basement, and every floor has a large opening in the floor and ceiling along the west wall to allow the crane to operate.  The building should be ready for move-in by December.

Leobardo has a similar plan for the Statler Hilton, which he purchased days ago.  He and his team will clean up the exterior and interior, and do the same with the library next door.  I toured the Statler two years ago, and it has such potential, with great views overlooking Main Street Garden and cool mid-century architecture (which I’m liking more and more).  Leobardo is going to approach the Statler renovation in the same way as 1600 Pacific, renovating in stages.  We’ll see the building transform over the next two and a half years.

The changes coming to 1600 Pacific and the Statler Hilton are another example of our successful transformation of Downtown Dallas.  Each building will help revive it’s surrounding neighborhood — 1600 Pacific’s redo will complement the planned redevelopment across the street on Elm, while the Statler’s rejuvenation — along with the Merc, UNT Law School, and Main Street Garden — will bring life back to one of the most significant blocks in the heart of our city.

The grocer considered closing the aging store, but instead decided to reinvest in the area with a new store, built with significant input from the community. When the zoning request for the project came forward, I ensured that the new construction responded to the needs and concerns of the surrounding neighbors, including making sure that the parking lot lighting did not shine into nearby homes, that the project was well-landscaped, that the truck delivery area was on University (not Robin Road), and that the back of the store and the adjacent lots were well-landscaped along the newly-curved Robin Road.

As you can see from the pictures below, Tom Thumb lived up to these standards and more. The store is a great new asset for the neighborhood and provides a much-needed service for residents.

At the center of the lawsuit is a shipping channel — the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, or “Mister Go.” New Orleans sits 120 river miles from the Gulf of Mexico, and Mister Go was intended to provide a 75-mile long channel, straight to the Gulf.

Building Mister Go was a massive effort, moving more dirt than did building the Panama Canal. Politicians called it the “key to the region’s economic future,” providing a busy outlet for commerce.

Local critics predicted that, instead, it would be an inlet for marsh-killing salt water….

Unfortunately, while the flood concerns were largely on-target, the economic claims were not. Mister Go never delivered the boon it promised. What it did deliver, with every high tide and every storm, was salt water. That killed plants in formerly healthy wetlands. Once the plants died, soil would slump into the channel, after which we taxpayers would pay to dredge it again….

In hindsight, it all seems implausible. Unfortunately, it’s not just plausible — it’s being repeated all across the country. New developments in California sit below sea level and atop fault lines. In Missouri, strip malls and industrial parks have paved over floodplains. In North Carolina, tax dollars help speculators build expensive homes on fragile barrier islands.

That’s how the Growth Machine works. Ignoring environmental warnings and promising great economic rewards, a small number of speculators push projects that usually don’t help the economy and that, in the most severe cases, can actually destroy lives, costing billions of dollars.

That’s also the real significance of the judge’s decision in New Orleans: When politicians support economic growth at the expense of the environmental systems that protect and support us, we need to know that they may be talking about a kind of growth that we probably can’t afford.

We owe it to ourselves to learn that lesson before we fall for the same empty promises again.

A couple of weeks ago, I took a tour of 2000 McKinney Avenue. The new Uptown office building sits on the edge of the future Woodall Rodgers Park, between Harwood and Olive.

Like many new developments in District 14, the developer came to the city requesing a zoning change to allow them more flexibility in height and other aspects of construction.

Their original proposal had (typical) narrow sidewalks, a parking garage facing the park, and several driveways along the building (which broke up the sidewalk).

When I’m reviewing a zoning case in dense areas like Uptown, I look for wide sidewalks, greenspace, walkability, and connection to the surrounding area. In this case, I requested the developer create wide, tree-lined sidewalks to provide an attractive route to Woodall Rodgers Park. I also requested fewer driveways into the parking garage to reduce the pedestrian-car intersections along the sidewalk.

Lastly, I requested that the side of the building facing the park be actively engaged with street life and the park. The proposed parking garage didn’t do that; it turned its back on the park and left park patrons with a monolithic concrete tower to look at. Now, we’ll have a street-level restaurant with condos above — a great addition to the streetscape and surrounding area. (And those condos will have some of the best views of the park and Downtown as you’ll see in the photos.)

Enjoy these pictures.

I got a call this afternoon from Dallas FOP president, Mike Walton. Dallas lost the 2013 FOP convention to Cincinnati, 800 to 1100 votes. We think one thing that may have tipped the vote in their favor was that FOP members in states near Ohio wanted to drive to their destination, and they have a larger voting bloc than down south.

I’m disappointed, but am so glad I had the opportunity to work with Mike, Fred, Dena, and everyone else who put so much time and energy into this effort. We’re very lucky to have these folks in our DPD.

Enjoy these pictures from our trip, and check out the videos of our presentation (below). Mike was on fire, and did a great job selling our city and hitting all the right notes.

Next time, I’m bringing the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. I kid you not.

In January, I joined DPD officer and Dallas FOP executive board member, Fred Mears, and Dena Rambo of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau, as we gave the national FOP officers a tour of Dallas’ police headquarters. Fred’s been working tirelessly to bring the convention to Dallas, which would be terrific for Dallas’ economy. I’ve been working with the Dallas FOP and the convention center to ensure we could bring the best deal possible to the table.

I was really impressed with the regional cooperation and statewide support Dallas received. Richardson, DART, Fort Worth and others have stepped up to help lure the FOP to Dallas. And the FOP lodges across Texas have been really working the delegates here at the convention, encouraging them to vote for Dallas.

On Monday, I met with Dena from the DCVB and DPD officer Mike Walton, president of the Dallas FOP. Mike has been working his butt off, campaigning every possible minute. We discussed our presentation for Wednesday (each city vying for the 2013 convention gives a ten minute presentation to the entire delegation).

On Tuesday, I spent the day at our convention hall booth with Dallas’ 20-member delegation. We were working hard to sell the delegates on Dallas. We had two main points. First, the entire delegation would be in just 3 downtown hotels, all close to the convention center (including the convention center hotel) and connected by light rail. This was a big selling point because the group is usually spread out across whatever city they’re in. This has been especially true in Long Beach, where some of us (the Texas delegation) are 10 miles from the convention center. Second, Dallas is economical. The three hotels have agreed to offer the prevailing federal per diem rate, which is $115 right now. None of the other cities could beat that.

Last night, Dena, Mike and I got together to prepare our presentation. We worked on it about 4 hours, and I think it paid off. Today, we made our presentation to the whole delegation (I’ll post the video shortly).

This has been such a great group to work with. I can’t say enough good things about the DPD officers I’ve gotten to know on this trip, and Dena from the DCVB could not be a better cheerleader for our city.

Tomorrow, the delegation will vote on the host city for 2013. I’ll give everyone an update on the results. Keep your fingers crossed.

(FYI — I didn’t spend any taxpayer funds on this trip; it was paid for by the FOP and out of my campaign funds.)

I’m not a huge fan of mid-century modern architecture.  It’s always seemed a little kitschy and plain to me.  The traditionally-designed Adolphus, the Magnolia, the Kirby, those buildings have style and class to spare.  But I’ve gotta say, mid-century modern is growing on me.  It’s still not my favorite, but I’m starting to appreciate the clean lines and blocks of color.  It’s something.  It’s the Jetson’s vision of the future made real (only without the jet-packs, air-cars, or robots, unfortunately).

The Statler Hilton (aka, Dallas Grand) is the quintessential mid-century modern building, with its blue glass paneled facade and Sinatra lounges.  Last week, I toured the building with Karl Zavitkovsky, Director of Economic Development for the city, and the style grew on me a little more.

As you’ll see in the pictures, the building needs some love.  But it has great bones and lots of cool mid-century flourishes.  I don’t know the structural integrity of the building, what it’d cost to do asbestos abatement, HVAC expenses, etc.  But aesthetically, the Statler’s no worse off than the Merc or Atmos buildings.  And the view is amazing.

I’ve heard again and again from developers that the eight foot ceilings are the killers — they’re just too low for today’s marketplace.  But the configuration of the rooms, combined with the wall of windows, make the ceilings seem higher than eight feet, and the rooms don’t feel small or cramped at all.

Imagine Main Street Garden is done, the UNT Law School has moved into the municipal courts building, and the modern streetcar is up and running on Commerce (with its mate on Elm).  The Statler could be one of the coolest addresses in Downtown.

(And I didn’t wear the cool headgear throughout the tour — only in the stairwells and basement where it was dusty and/or smelly.)

Councilmember Koop and I traveled to Portland and Seattle last weekend to tour each city’s streetcar system and bicycle infrastructure. Assistant City Manager A.C. Gonzalez (who oversees economic development) and Jay Kline (DART’s streetcar coordinator) joined us.

STREETCARS
Both cities have used streetcars as economic catalysts, allowing considerable mixed-use development in depressed areas. The Pearl District in Portland is a great example. Only a few years ago, it was a run-down, crime-ridden warehouse district. Today, it’s a vibrant, clean, mixed-use community with businesses and residences.

Seattle just invested in its first streetcar line, working to accomplish the same thing Portland did. So far, the investment is paying dividends, with a billion dollars of investment popping up along the line.

The streetcar tool can be used in the same way in Dallas. We just have to figure out a way to fund it. I think a Tax Increment Financing District is on the right track, but TIFs have to generate money via economic growth in order to throw off future dollars. And “future” is the key. We need some start-up money NOW to get the line(s) rolling (so to speak), and that really can’t be TIF dollars since those are future dollars. We’re currently working on how we can structure this, but I think we’ve got some real buy-in now that our folks have gotten to talk with out-of-town developers who have created remarkable growth in other cities, and whose developments would not have existed but for the streetcar lines.

BICYCLE INFRASTRUCTURE

Both cities have made significant investments in their bicycle infrastructure. As Dallas becomes more dense, we need to do the same thing. Portland and Seattle recognize that there are different levels of riders, a small percentage who’ll ride anywhere (they’d ride on Central if they could) and at the other end of the spectrum, those who won’t ride anywhere, for any reason. In the middle, there’s a large percentage of people who would ride if there were some level of protection or distance from cars. Portland and Seattle have worked to accommodate both the confident riders and those who want a little more protection. As Dallas moves forward on updating its bike plan (Sheffie and I are chairs), we will explore these different options, and hopefully do some demonstration areas.

I’ll have pictures up later today….