Blogs

I don't think it would be a crime to see a little bit of both, actually. Link some paved trails to downtown and then White Rock lake and leave a bunch unpaved for hikers and mountain bikers.

Too early to speculate, but some soft pack trails a la Katy would be fine by me. I'm always looking for more to run on. Unpaved trails are nice but can be ankle breakers.

Hope it details some space for retail. I would love to open up a Segway rental shop for all those paved trails. Just hope there is enough parking.

If done right, paved trails can be a bonus. Have you ever been to River Legacy Park in Arlington. They have a pleasing mix of paved and unpaved trails in the park. But, the Trinity River as it runs through River Legacy Park also has a deep enough channel that the park hardly ever (I can't recall it) flooding. I don't know what the routine flooding the Trinity Forest receives will do to concrete trails.

Paved Trails? Is this really a problem? For something this massive, you would have to pave them, light them, patrol them, etc. or you would have 1000 lawsuits against the City for tripping on horseapples.

Hire a designer? What whould happen when the designer wants to gat all creative? How much more would that cost and would Schutze be supportive of his/hers ideas or complain about the rising cost of the project?

Is this really an issue... Last time I checked Central Park had paved trails.

Where exactly are the current trails and trailheads? Is there a map online anywhere?

Here's a related DMN article:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/040708dnmettrinitytrails.39eb31f.html

And BTW, Belle Isle park in Detroit is a shithole. Just like everything else in Detroit.

Look, part of the trail system in Dallas includes spine trails. We need the spine trails to create connectivity. What Groundwork Dallas does is soft-surface trails and our goal is to connect our soft-surface trails to the spine trails. A lot of the area that the spine trails will go through is in disturbed areas or flood zones, places that a soft surface trails wouldn't make sense. Our nature trails are nature trails- we don't put the nature trails in pristine areas. I know that some will disagree with me. But our Great Trinity Forest is an urban forest after all. No the City not paving the whole of the almost 7,000 acres.

Besides, Jim, didn't you write an article a few years ago, basically condemning the GTF as a pile of junk with scary one-eyed dogs and weird dirt?

Jim please let me take you on a tour of some of our trails that we have already built so you can see the immensity and the scope of what we're talking about. Our trails are fantastic and I can't wait until we can connect to some of the spine trails.

These spine trails are no surprise. There have been a number of professionals adding their ideas into the mix for a long time- it's not something designed by bureaucrats. You just never were consulted because you're a journalist and really, what can you add? Rhetoric? Thanks but that doesn't get a trail built.

Some will argue that we need to preserve our forest as some sort of wildlife refuge. Some will argue that we need to use our resources as a recreational amenity. I'm on the side of recreational amenity. We have a nature preserve in Cedar Ridge; the GTF remains an urban forest that will constantly trap all the runoff from upstream EVERY TIME it floods. Could we have done things differently in the past? Sure, but we didn't and we have to make the best of what we have now. This is exactly what we are doing. While there are some pristine areas with significant cultural and historic places located in our forest, the whole of it is not, and most of it has been disturbed in some way. I'm not advocating doing what DART has done and I don't see the City doing that- we need to manage some parts of our forest and that's exactly what we are doing here.

Again, we have positioned ourselves in a way that we can work togeter with the City, as a partner, on our trails in our park. This is a good thing. If we thought the City was going to pave over all our trees (which is NOT happening here), then Groundwork Dallas would be the first to be jumping up and down about it.

And Jim, if you'd like to learn more about trail building, Groundwork Dallas has partnered with REI and we will be doing a series of trail building classes, free to the public, so that folks can get the proper training they need to volunteer to work on doing something unique and truly amazing. Maybe you should stop by next week and see what it's all about.

The trail that worries me most is the Buckeye, which is supppsed to be a forest trail. They want to pave it. If they want to put in sidewalks for the downtown park, that's great. But I just came back from the Grand Canyon. It isn't wheelchair accessible. Yet. Does everything have to be? Plus, look at White Rock: there are so many lawyers out there on 30-speed bicycles, it isn't safe to walk.

>> If done right, paved trails can be a bonus. Have you ever been to River Legacy Park in Arlington. They have a pleasing mix of paved and unpaved trails in the park. But, the Trinity River as it runs through River Legacy Park also has a deep enough channel that the park hardly ever (I can't recall it) flooding. I don't know what the routine flooding the Trinity Forest receives will do to concrete trails.

River Legacy Park flooded last year.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHH

okay that felt good....

In Rocky Mountain National Park the trail around Bear Lake is paved with a big parking lot. It is a beautiful alpine lake. Originally I was turned off by that trail, prefering the natural trails. However, we realized that the trail around Bear Lake is the only way that many people will ever get to see an alpine lake in the national park. I am ok with some paved trails in the Great Trinity Forest.
On the other hand, I do wish that there were a professional park planner involved. Maybe there is, but we just do not know it.

Thank you Groundwork Dallas....

I know it is a requirement to hate everything that is related to the Trinity River to work for the Observer, but give me a f'ing break.

Central Park has paved trails.

I don't think they are talking about "paving" the Buckeye Trail. There was supposed to be an ADA accessible trail out there years ago and it's not going to follow the same route as the existing Buckeye Trail.

Why not pave it or is the objective to make sure nobody visits except hard core hikers

Not only does Central Park have paved trails, it has streets with taxicabs running up and down and across it. Central Park was not a "preserved" kind of park--it was totally manufactured, with levelling of hills and creation of lakes, sort of like Six Flags without rides. The Great Trinity Forest isn't (and shouldn't) be like that.

How many trees does it take to put together a 14,000 - 16,000 page document?

Tree,

None. It is an electronic document.

Still waiting for Jim to stop with the excuses, the platitudes, and actually take me up on an offer to do a trail tour with me.

Steve Blow's been...............