What the Downtown Planners Are Talking About: Tunnels, Gateways, More Deck Parks ...

By Robert Wilonsky Fri., Jun. 4 2010 at 8:30 AM

Categories: News

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On Tuesday we looked at the mammoth PowerPoint assembled by MIG for its May meetings with downtown shareholders as the company prepares to hand the council the Downtown Dallas 360 plan at summer's end. In the past those slide shows have been accompanied by recaps of what was discussed during those sit-downs; not this time, though word is one's a-comin'. So instead we turn to our old friend Kourtny Garrett, vice president of marketing for Downtown Dallas, who's posted quite the lengthy update on the D-Spotters' blog. (Meaning: It covers not only Downtown Dallas 360, but also Main Street Garden and more.)

Some of you asked the other day about the tunnels -- as in, no downtown plan is worth $550,000 until the planners talk tunnels. Garrett says they're being discussed: "We find the time is right to examine innovative solutions of repurposing (bike parking? storage? fiber optic paths?) and incentivizing tunnel dwellers to emerge." She also says some are wondering if maybe Dallas isn't building the wrong kind of parks downtown -- as in, maybe it'd be nice to have a place to play instead of just a pretty path upon which to walk to and from parking lots. But here's the real takeaway:

In contrast to previous sessions when feedback was consistently based on setting "realistic" goals and prioritizing -- the tone seemed to shift, stressing that the creation of 360 is our opportunity to aim high. Perhaps an indicator that the frugality of the last 24 months is shifting? Do I dare say we are becoming more hopeful? The specific reference in this case was discussion regarding potential deck parks over I-30, ala The Park (Woodall Rodgers Park). Can we fund and sustain another project like Woodall? Tell me what you think. (As a Cedars resident, personally, I say yes! The connection is critical...)

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I work downtown and use and eat in the tunnels every day. Weather's great down there and best of all, no bums hasseling me for money or cigs or wanting to talk about Jesus. The tunnels should be showcased and expanded!
Ouch! A person leaves town for a day and he gets called out by name. Tough crowd... But seriously Mark, just because MIG mentioned that "they'll look into it" doesnt mean your bitching got you anywhere. Trust me, us construction related folk will tell the backseat drivers just enough to get them to sit down and shut up.
Toronto has tunnels and it doesn't seem to hurt the street life.
Here's the deal. Basement space, if you can rent it goes for $6 a square foot. Street level space goes for $24 to $30 per square foot. The tunnels exist because greedy building owners figured out the tunnels would allow them to lease their "basement space" for $24 a square foot instead of $6 (if at all). This kind of stuff is very obvious. The City is just wasting money on studies. We should all wish the City had half of the money it has spent on these types of "consultants" and "studies". Simple, instead of spending the money on "studies" which produce no results, mount an active campaign to subsidize the street level space to make it competitive with the tunnel space (in fact, make it way cheaper than the tunnel space), and make it easy for tunnel retailers to move their businesses back to the street levels. With the right plan in place and the appropriate financial support, the retailers will be clammering to get out of the tunnels. But, there are political ramifications. The losers in this "plan" would be all of those building owners who currently lease their basement space for big money; their basement space would revert to being worthless. Everyone at City Hall will continue to wring their hands, and commission study after study after study. But, do they have the intestinal fortitude to live with the consequences of really taking action?
Ok, I know this will be unpopular but just think of what we could accomplish if we made the tunnels into living and social service places for our homeless brethren! They are out of the weather, not having to battle all the NIMBYs, and can have all the ancillary services they need right there with them. Of course there would be a thousand and one reasons people would object to this...just thinking outside of box.
Lisa,as long as downtown workers continue to shop and eat in the tunnels, there will never be a critical mass of street level activity. When you divide up the levels and put stuff below, there will never be a reason to put stuff up. No amount if residential will ever change this. No matter how many residents move up, as long as people frequent below, places like BoA, Thanksgiving Tower, Renaissance, One Main Place, etc will never have street level activity, only blank walls. AT&T, which isnt connected to the tunnels, recently renovated their plaza area and it is much more pedestrian-friendly and therefore has more activity. That would happen all over downtown if the tunnels and skywalks were closed.
I am afraid I am going to have to agree with suburban idiot on this one. Be careful what you wish for!
See, bitching on the internets does get results! And that SchluderStrip dude can eat my shorts. Maybe we need a $550,000 incentive program to get C.H.U.D. to relocate to the underground. That would get the business people out of the basement.
Statler-Hilton Grand - subsidized housing for teachers, police, fire and city employees..
Those of us who work in these godawful high rise buildings use the tunnels on a daily basis. Closing them isn't going to do downtown any good. If there are enough residents down here, then the shops, restaurants, etc. will follow regardless of whether or not workers can grab something from Alonti's without hassling with the weather.
I agree with Lakewoodhobo, get the residents first, then the other stuff will fall in place, but its nothing but crap when you try to put the cart before the horse.
The Morlocks will only leave the tunnels to feed on the Eloi.
Stop dreaming about new deck parks and focus on what it's going to take to get downtown to that critical mass of 10,000 residential units. But on the topic of the tunnels: find a way to get the downtown office towers (who the tunnel businesses pay rent to) to cooperate with the city's plans to move them street-level. If they don't cooperate, just stop issuing new Certificates of Occupancy until enough businesses make the move.
What happened to the Dallas that needed to cut-cut-cut that budget, furlough workers, and cut services. I guess they must have solved all those money problems if they are going to put some into more parks when a week ago they were shutting down libraries.
if the city planners are thinking about decking I-30 behind the convention center towards the Cedars then they should seriously look at Seattle's freeway park and its connection to the CC. The back side of the CC is probably the ugliest view in the downtown area. Sprucing this up with an integrated green element/deck park/whathaveyou would up the value of the convention center and the land on South Lamar. Think of a vital North/South pedestrian spine connecting Victory/West End/Main Street/CC/Cedars... To further supplement this...the CC people should consider pop up shops and/or permanent spaces in the voids of the CC underpass along Lamar. Right now it is just wasted space that could be built out to house a coffee shop/Burger King/Newspaper stand/anything else... There are so many wasted opportunities around the Convention Center. They need to be reclaimed if we want to be serious about truly connecting Downtown to the Cedars.