Posted on 10/28/2015 11:10:06 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The planners, residents and developers hunched over maps Thursday had plenty of ideas for the daunting task of untangling and improving the massive web of aging highways in and around downtown Dallas.
About 50 of them were gathered at the Dallas Regional Chamber for the second of three public input workshops on TxDOT’s CityMAP project. The goal? To provide a blueprint and menu of options for city officials on potential costs, traffic impacts, timeline and designs for Interstate 30, I-345, I-35E and Woodall Rodgers.
It would be wonderful if the city could eat the whole apple — all the worthy projects — at once. But finite time, energy and money dictate a bite-by-bite approach. We suspect leaders would make the most of that by quickly rallying around fixing I-30 first.
Putting I-30 at the top of the priority list would help resuscitate southern Dallas neighborhoods that have been walled off by the hulking freeway since it was built. Better connecting residents and other businesses would provide a big economic boost to an area still plagued by too many rundown homes and struggling businesses.
We’re squarely behind one great idea: to trench I-30 near Fair Park to allow the city or private donors to build a deck park reconnecting that neighborhood to East Dallas. Another idea would improve I-30’s congested Canyon with a deck park that connects downtown and South Dallas.
Imagine more middle-class families drawn to new housing, bike trails and activities in neighborhoods around parks. Imagine the restaurants and other businesses drawn in to serve them. Imagine more community gathering spots like Klyde Warren Park, south and east of downtown.
(Excerpt) Read more at dallasnews.com ...
I checked out the map near Fair Park.
At the corner of Malcolm X Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard is the Islamic Center of South Dallas.
Nice neighborhood.
Yes, and it will stay a hood, no matter how many billions you sink into it.
That isn’t really South Dallas. There is already some development around the police headquarters/Cedars Dart station. The area that would benefit from the trench would be the area between there and downtown, including the Old City Park area. Developers are already picking up the good pieces down through there, and the paper is right, it would make that area boom.
That being said, at least one powerful developer has his eyes on the I-145 connector between Central Expressway and I-45. I expect the push to tear out the interstate and turn it over to a developer in a sweetheart deal to get pushed through at some point. Of course, folks going from Plano to Houston would have to go 75-Woodall Rogers-35-30-45 instead of the short direct cut through. But as long as a developer can make money, who in Dallas cares?
Stupid Laura Miller did not realize that by inviting Jerry Jones into the mix would have naturally invited others who would have revitalized the entire downtown and Fair Park area.
When Jerry built his stadium in Arlington, the entire highway infrastructure also got reinforced and updated. Coincidence? I think not.
Now, Jerry is building his new Cowboy training facility in Frisco way north of downtown, which will be surrounded by restaurants and lofts. This could have been the Fair Park area, but no. Stupid Laura Miller did not want to let Jerry get the ball rolling.
Investors have lined up in Frisco and the building is incredible. Fair Park is existing on the fumes of Laura Miller and the new crop of know-it-alls who wouldn't know an interested investor if he bit them on their collective @$$.
The best thing about I-30 is it gets me out of Dallas and back to sunny Fort Worth as quickly as possible. Except on Fridays.
The story goes that Amon Carter, local businessman in Fort Worth, told his driver before going to Dallas to fill up the tank and pack a lunch because he did not wish to spend a cent in Dallas. Love the story and agree with him (used to live just south of Fort Worth, where the west begins.)
With the $TRILLIONS the government has already spent, why do we not already have the worlds best roads and bridges and electrical system?
You want to find all the worst areas of the USA?
Google street view all “Martin Luther King Blvd.”s in the country.
But wait!
SH190 loop was suppose to save DFW!
That is the Regional Mobility Commission sold in 1990. What happened?
If I was moving to the greater Dallas area, I’d move to Rockwall. It’s a great little city 30-45 minutes east of Dallas on I-30. It’s out of Dallas County with its high taxes and liberal policies. Low crime rates and far enough from Dallas to keep out the Black Lives Matter crowd.
Except for the congestion....trying to drive anywhere in Rockwall is a nightmare.
Fair Park, Pleasant Grove, are unsafe to even drive through in the daylight. We quit visiting the fair years ago....too dangerous waling to and from the car.
I dunno....Malcom X Boulevard may win the prize.
We’ve got a whole interstate in my town named after MLK.
Yet, every October, the parade of drunk/hungover Sooners and Longhorns parking in the hood and going to the Cotton Bowl continues like a bunch of lemmings. I went to the late December/early January version when the Cotton Bowl was still in the eponymous structure and I really wondered what I'd come back to find in the parking lot. The team we played that year was Ole Miss with Eli Manning as the QB. The Rebel flags were flying from their cars and the "Wish I were in Dixie" horns were tooting as they drove through the hood. I just knew something was going to break out before we even got parked.
At the corner of Malcolm X Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard ...
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is also the Oakland Cemetery. I have Grands and Great Grands that are buried there. Many of the early wealthy business men that promoted Dallas and helped the city to grow in the late 1800s and early 1900s are also buried there.
In 2002, my sister and my daughter went with me to find and clean the grave sites of our ancestors. The street at 9am already had drug dealings going on and streetwalkers. We were uncomfortable just driving through the area in broad daylight, including the street where my dad was born and his parents lived (about 2 miles from the cemetery).
The white cemetery caretaker said he always wore his holstered pistol in plain view and all the locals knew he would use it.
Wow. Sad.
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