OUT FRONT To Build a City

IN THE 5TH CENTURY B.C., AN Athenian leader by the name of Themistocles cajoled his fellow citizens into a massive public works program. He argued, pushed, scolded and otherwise made a nuisance of himself until the Assembly agreed to dredge and enlarge their little harbor, thereby transforming a sleepy inlet into the world’s first great seaport and Athens into the world’s first great maritime power.

Before he died, Themistocles wrote (as quoted by Plutarch), “I was not gifted with the harp and the lyre. I was not gifted with the spear or the arrow. The gods blessed me with only one talent, to take a city small and inglorious and to make of it a city grand and confident of its future.”

When he became mayor of Dallas in the ’60s, Erik Jonsson knew little about cities and nothing about politics. A founder of Texas Instruments, he was the consummate business executive. To enlarge his vision and broaden his political education, he arranged a tour for himself and an entourage of city planners to the world’s most celebrated cities. He wanted to find out what made cities great.

The last leg of this tour took Jonsson to Athens. Standing on the balcony of his hotel overlooking the harbor on a clear night, he watched the lights of the huge container ships and the movement of the little skiffs scurrying between boats and docks. At that moment he had a revelation. All the great cities he had seen were port cities. For Dallas to become a great city, it would need a port. For the second largest landlocked city in the world behind Mexico City, this meant an airport.

Across a gulf of more than two millennia, one great mind spoke to another, and D/FW Airport was born.

The economic and social impact of D/FW is impossible to calculate. On a recent helicopter tour thai took me from Piano and Frisco over Lake Grapevine to Alliance Airport and along the Trinity back to downtown, I couldn’t help but marvel at the homes that have sprouted from farmland. Not a few big houses, but whole neighborhoods of luxury homes. Two mid-sized cities, Dallas and Fort Worth, have spawned a mega-city, and D/FW Airport is its center and its reason for being.

For his efforts, Themistocles was exiled from Athens. Even though he had led the fleet that defeated the Persians at the Battle of Salamis, he spent his last days as a guest in the court of the emperor Artaxerxes, who was appalled at the mendacity of Themistocles’ fellow citizens.

Most people in Dallas would like to forget that Erik Jonsson-in the modern context-nearly suffered a similar fate. When the question of whether to build a regional airport was put to the voters of Dallas County in 1967, it was roundly defeated. The voters, in effect, told Erik Jonsson to take his grand plan for a port and stuff it.

Democracy, whether 2,000 years ago or three decades ago or in the elections this month, is a wonderful thing to watch. Fortunately for all of us, Erik Jonsson did not pay much attention to it.

We are a city-and a magazine-that celebrates private enterprise. But private enterprise would never have built D/FW Airport. We would do well to remember that the great public enterprises also create wealth by serving as catalysts that allow businesses to grow and prosper. Even when the people do not understand this, our leaders must.