1. With today’s opening of the new DART Green Line, Dallas now offers the largest light-rail system in the United States, but ridership levels are still below places like Atlanta and Houston. There are a myriad of explanations for why Dallas-area residents don’t take public transit, but one of them wasn’t mentioned in the DMN article, only implied. In the piece, Mockingbird Station is cited as the “only station where significant mixed-use development has taken place.” My question: what about the Cityplace Station, which sits mere steps from the continually expanding West Village development? Or the Park Lane development which sits across the street from Park Lane Station? The omission, I believe, is indicative of a transit culture that doesn’t know how to see pedestrian connections between stations and services, and therefore considers public transit not useful (this is not aided, it must be said, by the fact that connections are often not architecturally obvious).
2. When discussing education, students often don’t have the chance to the take the floor in the public debate, which is why I found this forum on improving African-American students’ performance interesting. Some of the student feedback:
“Unfortunately, our kids feel that it’s wrong to be smart in class and do their work,” said Monterrio Jones, a Samuell High School senior. “Let go of the act of racism or saying, ‘She’s not teaching me because I’m black.’ No, we need to stand on our own two feet like our ancestors who did it with all odds against them.”
[Devaughdric] Ross said he’s a straight-A student, despite being raised by a single mother who died last year.
“Will I stop here? Will I let these battles, these heartaches, these struggles keep me down? Which I refuse to,” Ross said.
3. The Cowboys won again, finishing off the Colts in an exciting overtime victory that meant nothing.
