East Dallas developed soon after Downtown, and our neighborhoods remain linked to it as a business and social center. Its development and success have always been important to ours.
Now is the time to rededicate ourselves to the Central Business District and to a slice of it that has great unrealized potential – the Arts District.
We have lost ground in Downtown with some companies choosing the suburbs over the central city. But we have also made much progress. The old Joske’s building will be converted into a higher education center; we have saved (at least temporarily) historic buildings in the West End; the convention center expansion is complete and booked; and a new housing policy promises finally to bring us Downtown’s missing element – people.
As chairman of the City Council’s Arts and Education Committee, I have a particular interest in seeing that Dallas fulfills its promises and goals in the Arts District, the 61-acre area located in our council district.
These vital and important 17 square blocks of Dallas have brought stability and further development on the eastern edges of Downtown. Many East Dallas residents can walk to its exhibits, concerts and arts events.
Home to some of our premier cultural institutions – the Dallas Museum of Art, the Meyerson Symphony Center, the Dallas Theater Center and the Arts Magnet High School – the Arts District is an asset to Dallas that few cities and no suburbs can rival.
The Arts District, first and foremost, is a people place that blends art and commercial use. But it is not complete. Arts District supporters, many of whom live in our East Dallas neighborhoods, want to:
- Plan and build a new multi-purpose arts facility as a showcase and incubator for new and emerging arts activities and to support performing arts for the opera, theater and dance, as well as the visual arts.
- Increase the visibility and identity of the Arts District through completion of street-scape improvements.
- Develop inner-city housing in Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods whose residents will take advantage of their neighborhood Arts District.
- Link other Downtown areas through such projects as extending the McKinney Avenue Trolley to the West End Historic District; bridging Woodall Rogers freeway (as they have done in Seattle) with parks to connect the Arts District with the Uptown area; and implementing the DART light-rail system.
Arts administrators, real estate developers and neighborhood leaders recently met to discuss the Arts District’s future. Neighbors involved in this discussion included: Crickett Lindgren, executive director of the Arts District Friends and a Munger Place resident; Craig Holcomb of Cochran Heights; D. Michael Lynn of Bryan Place; Maggie McCarthy of the Communities Foundation of Texas on Live Oak; Bill Swart of the M Streets; and Andy Wolber of Junius Heights.
The 75 leaders attending the meeting agreed that the goals mentioned above are important and achievable. We also agreed that immediate action was necessary to make full use of the Arts District we have today.
We want to increase the number of public events such as arts and crafts fairs, to encourage street vendors and to reach out to the Hispanic community, which has a major presence with the Cathedral Guadalupe.
Much remains to be done in our Arts District to enhance Dallas’ cultural community and benefit East Dallas and other nearby neighborhoods. Most work will have to be done with private funds and existing resources.
Our City’s tight budget will not enable us to consider major debt financing any time soon. One of my goals is to leverage the already substantial public investment we have in the Arts District.
Arts District supporters have formed two working groups – one addressing infrastructure, the other access – to tackle the many issues facing its development. If you would like to participate, call the Arts District Friends at 953-1977.
Please join your neighbors at a Town Hall Meeting Feb. 10 at 6 p.m. at Stonewall Jackson Elementary School, 5828 E. Mockingbird. We will discuss neighborhood re-development, public safety and the City legislative program.
I hope that you attended the Jan. 27 meeting at Samuell-Grand Recreation Center, where we shared ideas about how to prevent juvenile delinquency. If you were unable to be at the public meeting but have views you wish to express, please write me at City Hall 5FS, Dallas 75201.
