One Guess What Downtown Really Needs

• Sitting here on the 14th floor of the Elements at the Merc. Friday night and the clubs just closed and it is too quiet. No noise issues here. Love this building. Can't wait for the Salsa Bar to open on the East end of the Merc, work is already under way. That is the old bank lobby that Jack was sitting in during the interview. Someone left the doors to the underground open one day, had to have a peak. 2 huge bank vaults. They were stunning. Would make a great night club LOL.

• @downtown_worker: It is the Merc. http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/DN-downtown_17bus.ART.State.Edition1.26c0a30.html

• This is the first time I've commented in a blog. I'm encouraged at the discourse. Lee is right on the money with his three reasons for the fall and all we can do is claw piece by piece back to the surface. I was here when Vince Ponte, a city planner from Toronto addressed all the vested interests in Downtown at City Hall and layed out the tunnel plan. Collectively the audience were like lemmings nodding in total agreement, except for one guy, a notible gentle architect named Bud Ogelsby stood and said "This is an awful idea, you're stripping the streets of humanity." He was shouted down.

• I have sex wit my boyfran down therr all duh time in duh tunnels it be real good

• I'm not sure how anything I said is the reason downtown is dead. What I was trying to point out was that the food courts are filled with people who could easily walk to a street-level Chick-fil-A and add much more life to the streets. I'm not even that much against the tunnels, but they are a sign of our racist past (like a negroes-only fountain that had the sign taken down but is still operational). Once downtown reaches a critical mass of residents, the tunnels will not be a hindrance to life on the streets. But until then, they do have some adverse effect on street-level retail.

• Does anyone know what the building is that Jack Gosnell is being interviewed in with the abandoned lobby and escalators? He says it'll be a "165-man architectural firm" that will face Neiman Marcus. I'm guessing it's the ground floor of the Merc, but I could be wrong.

• @Rashida Downtown Dallas Org = ELITISTS They're part of the Neiman Marcus crowd.

• Downtown Dallas org forced me to lose my job and give up on myself. They failed and are killing Dallas slowly. I know everyone of these people by name and plan on exposing their shortcomings soon!!!

• Don't put anything in me!! I've eaten it up before and I'll eat it up again!! Downtowns orginization never fulfilled their end and all the boutiques suffered! I know for a fact they were lazy and could care less. I would love a Traildust and a few steak and shakes. Maybe a nice Citi Trends for all the black folk. Then we can get a supercuts with a wendys on the side. We can put a Ross next to neimans. And a marshalls across from it!

• Homesick: I bet a chief reason a number of downtowns in cities like Minneapolis or Houston (where I lived for two years) have managed to maintain both underground (or skyway) tunnels and street-level pedestrian activity is that their downtowns were never as depleted or as depleted for so long as Dallas'. In short, street retail and other attractions weren't completely gone, whereas in Dallas, the underground was the only place for retail survival, provided a shop or eatery could live on lunchtime/weekday traffic. Downtown Dallas has started much farther back, trying to attract residents and businesses, and its efforts for years were weak, misguided or badly coordinated (look at the way the Arts District grew with pretty much every-arts-institution for itself). Jamie: It's a chicken-or-egg problem: Residents won't move downtown unless there are enough ordinary businesses around (dry cleaners, food stores, etc). But those same businesses won't move there unless there's a sufficient customer base. That's why city support is used to prime the pump. The city gives tax breaks or code relief or even just cheap land to developers to attract residents -- hence, the Merc. Now we need to figure a way to get major street retail in areas like the Arts District in order to give downtown some actual life. Scott: I agree with the benefits of a comprehensive plan. But some trees do survive quite handily. Check out the ones around the Meyerson. They've grown so much that the mini-forest now seriously obscures the view of IM Pei's building for many drivers passing by. Ditto the ones along both sides of the DMA on Harwood and St. Paul. Those are some of the few pleasant places to walk.

• Neiman Marcus decides who the retailers are who can come to Downtown Dallas. And, very few retailers meet their snobby standards. Until that changes, retail development will stay the way it has been, in spite of Jack Gosnell and others. Additionally, there are not enough people living in Downtown Dallas to support retail development. And, residential development has stalled in Downtown Dallas since the Mercantile project was completed. City Hall just can't get either of these components working. They don't seem to have a plan, so they probably need to commission another consultant to conduct a study for them.

• We're not so sky high... Current rates city/county combined: Fort Worth, Tarrant 111.9 Houston, Harris 103.09 Dallas, Dallas 97.6 El Paso, El Paso 97.13 San Antonio, Bexar 89.25 Austin, Travis 84.24 We can handle the increase in Dallas. Businesses are still attracted to Houston/Harris and Ft Worth/Tarrant despite their much higher rates....

• you cant have it both ways, folks. a city and county tax increase makes it just that much harder to make a profit from a retail store. if you dont think companies, even big retailers, dont look at our already sky high tax rate and cringe you are crazy.

• you cant have it both ways, folks. a city and county tax increase makes it just that much harder to make a profit from a retail store. if you dont think companies, even big retailers, dont look at our already sky high tax rate and cringe you are crazy.

• I don't think the Dallas tunnel system has anything to do with the lack of redevelopment downtown. There are plenty of cities that have an extensive tunnel system and still the downtown retail continues to grow. As others mentioned, the Houston tunnel system is a lifesaver in hot and/or rainy weather. It's also full of retail and restaurants. Many establishments have entrances at both street and tunnel level. I just don't understand why the tunnel system always takes part of the blame for the lack of downtown Dallas redevelopment. I just don't think it plays a factor.... And if it does, how have these other cities overcome it?

• Jerome, I love trees, but the average urban tree ring only supports a tree for 7 years. Think, think about all those trees that have been planted over the years, yet, no trees. They aren't being abducted by aliens. Sadly, people who mean well have suggested trees and they just die. We need to octuple the space we dedicate to soil rings for trees. This would require novel approaches to paving or other accommodation. I'd suggest that the tunnels do offer great utility, though street level retail is needed to. However, I doubt that simply installing retail would do it. We need a comprehensive program with street cars, accentuating DART rail and shut down the parking meters after 6:00 and on weekends.

• +1 Jerome!

• People like Lakewoodhobo are the reason Dallas downtown is dead as a doornail, tunnel built to separate people in One Main Place new building from every one else,the other retail followed the white flight to North Dallas after school deseg.and open housing laws passed,North Park open and other left.I enjoyed shopping and eating downtown ,at Akard and Elm the underground city owned public restrooms were very nice and clean.I don't know if they're still down there.Stores were closed in Texas on Sunday so downtown was full of people all week.Dallas Transit transferred all riders downtown and people could meet for dinner catch their bus go back home.Dallas was fun then.I would walk pass the Adolphus hotel look in window of basement Restaurant and dream about the good food I saw on plates. I think that started my love for strawberry shortcake with whip cream topping.Blacks were not allowed inside hotel but my Sisters worked there so sometimes I got a good looking shortcake.I sure wish downtown was what it used to be.Everyone enjoying each other during segregated times and after it all ended.

• The one thing the tunnels do -- the reason for their existence and the reason they will defy Gosnell's every effort to just plant retail on the street level in the hope that pedestrians will magically appear -- is that they get office workers out of the heat and sun (and away from any homeless on the street, but that's another matter). Sorry, it's a fact of Texas life: As long as going out to lunch or to shop means broiling to death in a block or two, downtowners will huddle inside with the A/C. So here's my solution: Plant trees. Shade can cut the heat by 15 degrees, which is the difference between a horrible 100 degrees and a tolerable 85. The city ordinance that required downtown parking lots to put up some nice shrubbery missed the mark. Those lots still swelter and bounce heat in your face. Instead, every sidewalk that has the room, every new development going up, should have shade trees. For 20 years, I walked most every workday from the Dallas Morning News to the West End for lunch or to the tunnels starting at the Texas Club -- and like everyone who came with me, we carefully picked our way across town, trying to stay in the shadows of the buildings and save ourselves some major pre-cancerous exposure. You can go to Main or Commerce and watch people do that -- they cross the street to stay out of the sun. If we give them shade -- and retail -- they may start strolling around downtown.

• I am not trying to pull any "well in Houston" nonsense here, but.... The tunnels there are extremely effective in allowing many thousands of people get to and from restaurants, other services and other buildings without having to walk in the rain, scorching heat or cold. The tunnel system there is open during the week days and is very heavily used by the large number of people who work and live downtown because they make it extremely easy to get to many places without delay. They close at around 6:30 and then the above ground stuff takes over. I am in sales and my business requires me to do a great deal of client entertaining. In Houston, I could park my car in the morning and get anywhere at all downtown that I needed to go through the tunnels by walking. I am happy to walk a mile or so each way to get where I am going, but this is simply no possible in the heat unless I want to show up for an appointment 15 minutes early and hang around in the lobby to stop sweating. Good tunnel system open during the day making easy for everyone to get where they want to go=good. Driving car a half mile and walking in 105 degree heat in a suit=bad.

• rubbercow, I would be interested in your defense of the tunnels. What do they add to downtown life?

• Ugh! All the hatred towards the tunnels is misdirected.

• Can we hurry up and open a "Stewpot Express" in the tunnels? I guarantee you that will get people off their lazy asses out of the food courts and liven up the streets.

• Also, I would like to applaud 7-Eleven for doing what I suggested above. I like their store on Commerce, and their new stores at 511 Akard and next to Doug's Gym will add much-needed retail to their respective locations.

• A Container Store, maybe. Half Price Books, sure (although bookstores will go the way of the record store in 5 years). But why not recruit North Texas-based retailers like JCPenney and GameStop to open concept stores in downtown Dallas? Maybe a Blockbuster kiosk or two. Certainly a Brinker restaurant. I don't understand why these companies can't be convinced to invest a little bit in their city's core.

• at least there is someone as passionate and knowledgeable about dallas as this guy fighting for something like reviving our downtown. I don't think any of us would want to take that on - the behind the scenes battles with funds, politics, etc. are enough to make my head hurt. The combo of catalysts like the arts district and WR park + what jack and forest city have done so far can only mean good things for our city. keep up the good fight jack!

• I agree with you about Jack. At least he has a plan that is doable! The same goes for Victory park...what we don't need is another high-end clothing store. How about another gas station or borders bookstore or some amenity that normal people can afford.

• Spot on! That stupid $700k report the city paid for didn't mention the tunnels and their solution was to build glass box retail in front of the existing buildings. Innovative solutions on making the existing buildings work for retail is the only sane solution. It just takes more thought and resourcefulness. Plus you can't follow the faddish architecture which Dallas has always been a sucker for. I'm glad he's in our city.

• What killed downtown Dallas? For starters, setting up a system that made it more attractive to tear down buildings than to keep them. The result was that there were few places that an entrepenuer could open a resturant, a boutique or even a shoe shine parlor. In addition, allowing the demolition of wonderful, attractive buildings, such as the Kresge Building. Second, the dreadful tunnel system which drained the life from the streets, any that was left. Enough said there. Third, failing to require store front retail in new buildings in the 70s and 80s. Look at the buildings of that era and you see no relationship to the street life at all.

• I think Jack is awesome, but can we really call him genius? If he's so genius then why has he and others failed to attract retail back to downtown? Just sayin!

• Jack Gosnell is a real estate genius, despite opinions about the Merc and the Continental. His vision and ideas for downtown retail are and will be spot on.

• Makes you wonder how Forest City feels about Gosnell now?

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