on May 19, 2011 / by Downtown Dallas Inc. / in Blog Posts, DDI News, Doing Business, Economic Development and Planning

We’ve been telling you for some time now but it seems that others agree… it’s a new day in Downtown Dallas. Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm said she can remember when people didn’t want to live Downtown because you couldn’t find any retail…  much less a dry cleaners or a place to walk the dog; but that’s all changing.

Suhm was the key-note speaker at today’s Downtown Dallas, Inc. Membership Luncheon. Suhm told some 700 attendees that you can always tell when a neighborhood is changing for the better… when you see kids and dogs.

“There are children growing up in Downtown and that was not the case a few years ago,” said Suhm.

If you don’t believe her just go to Main Street Garden on any given Saturday or Sunday afternoon. You will find kids playing in the play park and dogs socializing in the dog park. She mentioned new census figures show Dallas is growing by leaps and bounds but we must keep our eye on the ball and that’s Downtown. She said we’ve made some great strides but our work is far from over.

“Downtown will need to make connectivity a top priority,” said Suhm. “We must make it easy for people to get to the Arts District from Main Street and all of the other districts.”

We couldn’t agree more. Addressing connectivity has been a top priority of DDI’s for the last two years, emphasized again in the newly released Downtown Dallas 360 plan.  360 calls for building connectivity through an enhanced pedestrian environment; programs like bike sharing and pedicabs; long-range development of a streetscar; reworking our systems of streets (i.e. some one-way to two-way conversions); and infill development.  Initiatives like these, and many more to come – some tomorrow, and some perhaps a bit longer in the making – will ultimately bring our 15 districts together into a wholistic urban experience.

It’s a new day in Downtown Dallas. Come see what we’re talking about!

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