Neighborhood resident Mariana Greene has the right idea with her column in Sunday’s DMN about Dallas’ downtown not being "cool" and costing us the occasional big relocation. And she offers some practical ideas about how to dude-up downtown to make it "cool" in a way that Chicago and Los Angeles and Austin and New York have become "cool" to young people companies are so eager to hire.
Among her ideas: Close Main Street between Field and Harwood from 7 a.m.-10 p.m., subsidize downtown apartment rents instead of grocery stores, "encourage" independent boutique-style retailers on the blocks of Main where vehicles can no longer drive during appointed hours, bring back the Hop-A-Bus to connect one end of the city with another, and appoint a "hipster committee" (her words, not mine) to makeover downtown’s image from crappy to "cool" and "stylish".
Good ideas all, and some are fairly easy to make happen: In fact, for starters, why not just close Main between Field and Harwood to vehicles permanently? And maybe a few other blocks throughout downtown, too: After all, there’s so little going on there now, the city could probably buy back a few empty buildings, tear them down and create some nice parks at a pretty affordable price. And doesn’t every vibrant downtown — from Boston to New York to Chicago — need some central areas where you don’t have to worry about getting hit by a car and where you actually want to hang out because it’s pretty or restful or both?
And despite DART’s never-ending turmoil, surely they could find the money to bring back a bunch of Hop-A-Buses (cheap-to-ride buses painted partially pink with bunny ears), or maybe Angela Hunt can figure out a way to fund her trolley-car system throughout downtown — now that would be "hip", I think, although I’m a little too old to actually know. (And Mariana is probably showing her age by even using the word "hip" in public.)
As for subsidizing rents, Mariana has the right idea, but we’re already done it: By giving developers wads of cash every time they wanted to start a project downtown, we’ve theoretically subsidized the rents by making the properties more affordable to build. Or maybe we’ve just lined the developers’ pockets and done nothing to lower rents. Regardless, that horse has left the barn; a better way to make something happen downtown would be to subsidize — rather than just "encourage" — independent, boutique-style retailers for a set number of years. One reason people don’t want to live downtown, in addition to the relatively high rents, is that there’s nothing to do there: There are few places to shop or hang out, and after 9 p.m. or so, forget about finding much of anything open. Maybe if we made it affordable for smaller retailers and businesses to open downtown, prospective residents would reach a little deeper into their pockets to live there. (Of course, maybe the city’s program to "subsidize" retailers would turn into a giant bribery zone, too, so maybe giving away money isn’t the way to go…)
Ultimately, what we need downtown — but probably aren’t going to get for awhile — is a longterm combination of so many new employers/jobs and such high gas prices that most of us would be fools not to live closer to the central city. And over time, that seems to be happening pretty much on its own anyway. Then the people who are there will figure out a way to make it cool, because they won’t really have much of a choice.
