David Flick’s story on Lower Greenville in Sunday’s Dallas Morning News suggests that people should no longer think of Lower Greenville as a late night party scene for college students and 20-somethings because business owners are reinventing it as a “neighborhood amenity.” Flick states: “The new model is not Uptown, but Lakewood Center,” and quotes District 14 Councilmember and M Streets resident Angela Hunt:
“Lower Greenville was built to be a neighborhood venue, and it simply doesn’t have the capacity to serve as a regional draw,” said Hunt, whose district includes several Lower Greenville neighborhoods. “Undoubtedly, Lower Greenville will attract some visitors beyond East Dallas, but I think it functions best as primarily a neighborhood venue.”
The story also sought the input of brothers Mark and Roger Andres, whose Andres Properties owns much of the property along Henderson Avenue and also around Lowest Greenville:
“We’ve always intended for this to be a neighborhood attraction,” rather than a regional one, Roger Andres said. “We’re looking for people in Lakewood who avoided us because of what was happening over the last few years, and passed us up for Uptown, to start coming back.”
The story points to plans for a food truck court and the reopening of Terilli’s as signs of Lower Greenville’s changing face, but I suppose the question is whether business owners are alone in seeing the street as belonging mostly to neighbors, or whether neighbors are beginning to see it that way, too.
