East Dallas as well as the rest of the City’s neighborhoods, has a lot to gain if and when the Dallas Plan becomes a reality.
But no progress will be made unless those of us in the neighborhoods are willing to look past our immediate surroundings and consider what’s best not only for us, but for everyone in every neighborhood of the city.
That’s a familiar refrain for regular readers of this space; indeed, it’s one of the reasons that the Advocate exists.
However, there are times when we feel like we’re the only ones who notice, which made me all the happier to read David Dillon’s penetrating analysis of The Dallas Plan in Dallas’ Only Major Newspaper.
It’s not often Dillon’s employers cover our neighborhood (unless something burns down or some kid at Woodrow shoots himself in the foot). It’s even rarer when they do so in a thorough, comprehensive, and sensible manner.
Yet there was Dillon’s piece, which not only pointed out that the Dallas Plan’s emphasis on the neighborhoods was a good idea, but finally buried the notion that “keeping the dirt flying” was exemplary urban planning.
“I don’t think that anyone can look around downtown and not see that something needs to be done,” says Dillon, an East Dallas resident who has been the newspaper’s architecture critic for more than a decade – and has seen a succession of mayors, city managers and city councils unsuccessfully wrestle with our future. “Anyone who thinks that hasn’t really looked at the big picture.”
And we play a huge role in that big picture.
The Dallas Plan, released last month, is a blueprint for the City’s growth over the next couple of decades. It is, in many ways, a revolutionary document for Dallas. It says City services should be provided to all residents, regardless of where they live. It says Dallas’ transportation problems will not be solved by building more roads, highways and expressways. And it says that what happens in the neighborhood plays a vital role in making Dallas a better place to live.
But it also says, as Dillon points out, that nothing is going to get any better unless everyone is willing to work to make it better.
“There’s no way any kind of plan is going to succeed unless the neighborhoods are willing to give something back to the City,” he says. “The neighborhoods are going to have to take charge of their own affairs, but also realize that there are things that the City can’t do for them.
“And they are going to have to start looking past their neighborhoods and what their neighborhoods need to look at what sections of the City, what was the City as a whole, needs.”
I don’t doubt that’s something we’re willing to do. Hopefully, some version of the Dallas Plan will become reality and give us the opportunity to do just that. After all, all any of us in our neighborhood have ever wanted is the chance to be part of the process.
