Dallas City Council member Jennifer Staubach Gates spoke this morning at the Preston Center Rotary Club. She emphasized the need to improve street conditions and public safety, describing Project Safe Neighborhood and the fact that this is a priority for Dallas City Council.

Now that PD-15 development has been approved by City Council, she said she is turning her attention to Preston Center Parking Garage. Her vision for the area is “live, work, play” — a neighborhood where we can walk rather than drive. “The garage is the eternal city saga for District 13,” she said, noting that the issue dates back to 2006. She said consultants have reviewed the area and her team is working with nearby property owners. “We want to make sure that anything that is redeveloped is redeveloped for the city of the future. How can we connect the north of Northwest Highway to the south? How can we compete with the suburbs?”

She also described how she attended five National Night Out events last night and spoke passionately about strong neighborhood ties and how community members are watching out for one another and making a difference.

See the video of Gates talking about PD-15.

And on a fun note, she closed her speech recounting what it was like having former NFL quarterback Roger Staubach as a dad. As children, she and her siblings encouraged Staubach to throw the football to them. When they lobbied him to throw the ball with all of his strength, he threw it at the fence instead of at them to demonstrate why he wouldn’t target them with his full force. That ended the discussion.