Southern Dallas Task Force: It's time for City Hall to put up

From: Dallas Morning News
BY: Rudolph Bush // September 24, 2009

Before the passage of yesterday's budget, leaders of Mayor Tom Leppert's Southern Dallas Task Force penned him a pretty pointed letter.

The message: There's been a lot of talk at City Hall about making Southern Dallas development happen. Now where's the money?

It wasn't as blunt as that. In fact it was very polite.

"As you might expect, the projects and goals promulgated by the various Areas and Committees of the Task Force will require a certain level of funding in order for them to be realized," the letter reads.

"Our goal, in seeking an allocation of capital from the City Fund, is simply to create a pool of resources that is dedicated to the projects being promoted by the Task Force, and that may be leveraged with private sector and/or public sector dollars."

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Trinity gift is $10 million for pedestrian bridge

From: Dallas Morning News
By: Bruce Tomaso // September 24, 2009
The gift is anonymous, but in honor of Mary McDermott Cook, who chairs theTrinity Trust Foundation.

The existing Continental Avenue Bridge is next to the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, which is under construction north of downtown. The Hill bridge is the first Trinity bridge from Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who was in town for today's gift announcement.

"This landmark $10 million anonymous gift given to the City of Dallas gives us the funds to convert the Continental Bridge into a pedestrian and living bridge for everyone in Dallas to enjoy," said Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert.

He praised Cook for "her tireless vision for Dallas."

Cook said: "This gift will transform the Continental Bridge into an outdoor venue for walkers, bikers, and potentially, a future trolley line across the Trinity River. It will be beautifully landscaped and include the infrastructure and facilities for recreational events, markets and fairs. Cook is the daughter of Margaret McDermott, for whom a second planned Calatrava bridge is named. That bridge would replace the existing Interstate 30 bridge over the Trinity.

Houston: Texas Sized Sprawl

From: NPR
By: Steve Inskeep // September 17, 2009

Listen to the Story

Houston is the latest stop on the Urban Frontier, Morning Edition's occasional look at how cities change and grow.

Houston is a swiftly growing city; it has added a million residents this decade. No doubt, some of those newcomers drive on Interstate 10, which roars in front of Houston's own version of Mount Rushmore — giant white busts of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and two founders of modern Texas, Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin.

Since it overlooks the freeway, the spot is known as Mount Rush Hour. And it reminds visitors of a couple of things about Houston: one, that it's a little quirkier than you might realize; and two, that it is huge.

The highways radiate out to a giant seaport, oil companies, skyscrapers, and miles and miles and miles of suburban neighborhoods.

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Dallas -- Perot Museum of Science & Nature

From: Dallas Urban Core
September 20, 2009

Renderings and a building model for the 180,000-square-foot Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park have been unveiled for public view. The $185-million project has a fall 2009 groundbreaking and is slated for an early 2013 opening.

The facility, which is being built on just under five acres at 1155 Broom St., is less like a typical museum with Doric columns adorning the front, and more like a floating cube over Victory Park; a cube blending in with the landscape and allowing a great deal of light into the spacious interior. Designed by Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne and his firm, Morphosis Architects of Los Angeles, the 14-story, 170-foot-tall building contains an acre of rolling roofscape comprised of rock and native drought-resistant grasses, five floors of public space containing 10 exhibition galleries and a children's museum and a multi-media digital cinema that can seat 300 people.

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DFW & Houston -- Low Transit Ridership

From: The Transit Pass
September 14, 2009

Here are the most total rides per day (for the first quarter of 2009), according to the American Public Transportation Association.

1. New York (MTA/Long Island Railroad/Staten Island Railroad): 10,758,600
2. Chicago: 1,635,700
3. Los Angeles (MTA/DOT/RRA): 1,608,300
4. Washington, DC: 1,421,200
5. Detroit (including Flint): 1,322,100
6. Boston: 1,217,500
7. Philadelphia: 1,145,100
8. San Francisco: 1,060,900
9. Atlanta: 487,900
10. Seattle: 449,700
11. Baltimore: 408,900
12. Miami: 349,900
13. Portland: 323,000
14. Houston: 307,700
15. Denver: 292,100

It is exciting that there are eight metropolitan areas in the United States transporting over 1,000,000 rides per day. However, there are several major metropolitan areas that are missing from this list.

The following are the top 17 largest metropolitan areas and their populations according to Wikipedia. I cut off at 17 as these are all metropolitan areas of 3,000,000 people or more.

1. New York: 19,006,798
2. Los Angeles: 12,872,808
3. Chicago: 9,569,624
4. Dallas: 6,300,006
5. Philadelphia: 5,838,471
6. Houston: 5,728,143
7. Miami: 5,414,772
8. Atlanta: 5,376,285
9. Washington, DC: 5,358,130
10. Boston: 4,522,858
11. Detroit: 4,425,110
12. Phoenix: 4,281,899
13. San Francisco: 4,274,531
14. Riverside/San Bernardino/Ontario: 4,115,871
15. Seattle: 3,344,813
16. Minneapolis: 3,229,878
17. San Diego: 3,001,072

The cities from the population list that are most conspiculously missing from the ridership list are Phoenix (214,000 rides per day) and Dallas (217,000 rides per day) as well as Houston’s low ridership.

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Taking Downtown Dallas Investment a Step Further

From: Dallas Urban Core
September 16, 2009

Today Mayor Tom Leppert announced the details of an effort that has been in the works for the last several months, through cooperation of the City, DOWNTOWNDALLAS and the Dallas Regional Chamber. Called “Bold Moves”, the initiative is a unique, multiphase CEO-to-CEO business to business recruitment effort.
Bold Moves aggressively targets CEOs primarily from California and the Northeast corridor whose businesses are feeling the effects of the poor economy, tax increases and excess regulation. The “Make a Bold Move” campaign highlights the benefits of moving to Dallas and how the bold move of relocating headquarters will create positive change in a company. The campaign elements include videos, direct marketing, e-mail, iPhones and an invitation-only Web site. To check out a preview visit downtowndallas.org.

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DART rolls in new era with Green Line opening

From: Dallas Morning News

By: Michael Lindenberger / September 14, 2009

When the trains begin running today on the opening segment of DART's new Green Line, the transit agency will unveil the longest expansion of light rail in North America.

It triggers four years of growth that by 2013 will double daily rail riders and double the length of a DART rail network that has been 26 years in the making. And it finally will begin to deliver on an old promise to make Dallas Area Rapid Transit mean more than just a way for some downtown Dallas commuters to get to work and back.

The new stations that will open just ahead of the State Fair of Texas will attract fewer than 2,000 round-trip riders per day in the first couple of years – and they certainly won't end Dallas' dependence on the automobile.

But over the next 15 months, the four stations east of downtown will be followed by 16 more along the 28-mile Green Line, stringing communities together from as far north as Carrollton to as far south as Pleasant Grove.

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DART -- In Dallas, You Don’t Get What You Don’t Pay For

From: DC.StreetsBlog.org

By: Sarah Goodyear // September 16, 2009

On Monday, we featured a post from The Transit Pass that called out Dallas as one of the U.S. cities in which the proportion of transit users to population is sadly anemic.

Today, we'll take a closer look at transit in the Dallas area, from a couple of angles.

First, courtesy of the Dallas Transportation Blog at the Dallas Morning News, a report on passenger frustration with delays on the city's newest light rail route, the DART Green Line. Those delays are causing ripple effects throughout the city's transit system, and it's not clear when they will be resolved. Stories in the paper about the delays have gotten a lot of comments from readers angry that the problems were not better anticipated and planned for.

But reporter Michael Lindenberger says the city's voters need to take some responsibility for the way the system is developing.

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Austn - Rial vs. Road Debate

From: News8Austin

By: Karina Kling // September 15, 2009

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) estimated five years ago it would take a lot less money than it has to get people from one place to the next.

Already, their spending has one transportation planning watchdog fearful road improvements will end up in the ditch, so more money can be spent on rail.

The question is will commuter rail take cars off congested roadways?

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For Dallas' Deep Ellum, hopes ride on DART

From: Dallas Morning News

By: Steve Brown / September 11, 2009

Almost two-thirds of a new shopping strip that opened last year in Dallas' Deep Ellum district is still vacant. But leasing agents aren't sweating the project's performance. Starting next week, hundreds of commuters a day will be streaming through the new DART light-rail station right next door.

"This is what we have been waiting for," said Heather Winn of United Commercial Realty, which leases the ground-floor retail space in the Ambrose apartments on Malcolm X Boulevard at Indiana Boulevard. "We already have two retail tenants, and they are ready for the rail line to open, too."

The rail station near Baylor Medical Center is one of two DART stops opening next week in Deep Ellum – a welcome stimulus for an urban district that has seen its share of booms and busts.

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Eco Hotel in Austin

From: Austin American Statesman

By: Shonda Novak // September 10, 2009

In the first major hotel project to be announced for downtown Austin in nearly two years, developers plan a 17-story hotel that could mark the debut of a new global brand.

The hotel, proposed for the southwest corner of West Fifth and Colorado streets in the Warehouse District, would be a concept called 1 Hotel, by Starwood Capital Group. Starwood Capital has billed the concept as the first luxury eco-friendly global hotel brand.

Starwood has hired Woodbine Development Corp. to build the hotel, which would have about 250 to 275 rooms.

Woodbine, a seasoned hotel developer based in Dallas, developed the Hyatt Regency Lost Pines near Bastrop, as well as the Hyatt Regency Hill Country and the Westin La Cantera in San Antonio.

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Dallas Woodall Rogers Deck Park

From: Dallas Urban Core

September 11, 2009

A little more than four years after the concept was formally introduced, developers are finally ready to launch construction on the $100-million Woodall Rodgers Park, a development geared to link Dallas’ uptown area to the CBD. Thanks to the inclusion of funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, ground will officially break on the 5.2-acre parcel spanning the multi-lane Woodall Rodgers Freeway at Pearl St. on Sept. 14.
The keynote speaker at the event will be Tony Jones, chancellor of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Jones will discuss how Millennium Park changed Chicago’s landscape, much as those behind the Woodall Rodgers Park hope the project will do the same thing for Dallas.

Linda Owen, president and CEO of fund-raising arm Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation tells GlobeSt.com that the development will provide a connection between two areas of the city currently divided by the concrete moat that is Woodall Rodgers. She says now is a good time to work on the project; as the development nears its end, the economy should be improving, and could “hopefully jump-start development along the Woodall Rodgers corridor,” Owen comments.

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After 26 years, has DART been worth it?

From: Dallas Morning News

By: Rodger Jones // September 11, 2009

t's a good question, and you'll find the context and a discussion over on the Transportation Blog. Click over and see what you think.

My blog partner there, transportation writer Michael Lindenberger of the news department, asked the question for an upcoming story on the opening of DART's Green Line next week. He was seeking input from the public to help shape his piece (and we'll have to wait and see what he comes up with).

Meanwhile, on my own track, I've written an editorial expressing the position that rail transit is good for the metro area in a number of ways. Take development. You may have seen the giant mixed-use project at the Park Lane station, or Southside on Lamar, near Cedars. I posted recently about the transit-oriented development (TOD, to experts) in the Red Line's Richardson corridor. Meanwhile, Carrollton, Farmers Branch and Irving are busy trying to make the most of transit service heading their way. The new Baylor station has already hatched projects. The MLK and Fair Park areas are hopeful but more skeptical, as reporter Nancy Visser wrote today.

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Far as Mayor and DART Prez Are Concerned, the Green Line's All About Jobs, Jobs, Jobs

From: Dallas Observer

By: Kimberly Thorpe // September 11, 2009

Mayor Tom Leppert and other city officials got their first ride on the much-anticipated Dallas Area Rapid Transit Green Line this morning. The first four stops on the $1.8 billion, 20-station, 28-mile line will officially open Monday -- following tomorrow's Super Saturday spectacular at the MLK Jr., Fair Park, Baylor University Medical Center and Deep Ellum stations. The politicos and accompanying media boarded at Victory Station for the quick ride to Fair Park, where U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was the keynote speaker at the official dedication luncheon.

As the train passed through the Baylor University Medical Center Station, Leppert and DART President Gary Thomas cheered; now, they said, Dallas, like Houston, will have "the medical connectivity" between various Dallas hospitals. Indeed, "connectivity" was the buzzword of the short ride.

Leppert said he would speak during the luncheon, inside the Women's Museum, about the importance of linking north and south Dallas. "It makes it much more convenient for people to have jobs across the city," Leppert told Unfair Park during the ride to Fair Park. (Still, you'll have to wait until at least December 2010 for the rest of the line to open.) "It helps the individual, and it also helps the economy. ... Clearly, we've got much higher unemployment in the south."

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Transformative Transit

From: Dallas Morning News

September 11, 2009

A Dallas Area Rapid Transit rail stop down the street means more than just another way to get around town.

What it means is opportunity – for jobs and careers, for neighborhoods ambitious for rejuvenation, for businesses looking to expand and attract workers.

It also offers people the un-Dallas-like opportunity to wean themselves from a car-dependent lifestyle, while giving those who can't afford a car an efficient way to travel.

More parts of Dallas can begin exploring the possibilities starting Monday, when the new Green Line begins service with the opening of four stations southeast of downtown.

Rail transit service is as transformative as community leaders want to make it. Neighborhoods and City Hall must focus intensely on the opportunities after waiting 26 years for Green Line service, going back to the multi-city vote to create DART in 1983.

A host of other communities will be waiting till next year for the opening of 16 more stations on the line, from Carrollton to the northwest to Pleasant Grove in the southeast – 28 new miles in all.

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