1 ROUND Meet the Fighters Working for Downtown

CENTRAL DALLAS ASSOCIATION ASSOCIATION

Anybody can have a good idea or spout a slogan, but the Central Dallas Association put money behind its message. Supported by corporate donations, the CDA’s Larry Fonts and his compatriots are tireless advocates who are more than willing to finance specific solutions. Is there a public perception of high crime downtown? Do older facades need refurbishing? The CDA arranged for six banks to provide a local program. Will one property owner improve his building if the one next door remains a wreck? The CDA pushed through a Downtown Improvement District for special tax assessments to share the burden equally.

THE DALLAS PLAN

The Dallas Plan, adopted unanimously by the Dallas City Council in 1994, deals with the whole city, but one of its concerns is the center city. The vision expressed by The Dallas Plan, according to executive director Karen S. Walz, offers the “Texas version” of the urban environment that attracts people to San Francisco, Miami and other major cities. A salient feature is The Plan’s action agenda of projects-the important smaller steps that lead to the overall goal. In The Dallas Plan’s Action ’96 agenda, five specific action items affect the center city-intown housing, the Dallas Education Center, linkages and gateways, marketing, and what are called “demonstration projects.”

DALLAS CITY CENTER ASSOCIATION



Not only is downtown becoming a neighborhood, it’s already got a neighborhood association: the Dallas City Center Association, made up of building owners, tenants, retail merchants and developers in the center of downtown. The geographical focus of the DCCA, led by executive director Mary Ellen Degnan, is the 18 square blocks of Elm. Main and Commerce streets that are bounded by Griffin and Harwood. Among their projects: developing a crime watch, and using the architectural services of the Texas Mainstreet project to “imagine a revitalized City Center.”

G REATER DALLAS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE



Once regarded as little more than a boosters’ club, the Chamber under chairman David Biegler, CEO of Ensearch, and president Rick Douglas has emerged as the political enforcer in Dallas. It led the charge to protect DART’s light-rail system against the lawsuit that threatened to derail it, and just recently formed a coalition to promote the new arena. The Chamber’s main mission, of course, is to market Dallas for new business development, but in recent years it has also become the main advocate for business in general and downtown business development in particular, “explaining” the business community’s concerns to a City Council dominated by financially unsophisticated politicos.

DALLAS INSTITUTE OF HUMANITIES AND CULTURE



Under director Gail Thomas, Dallas’ oldest and most interesting think tank-cum-salon has put forth challenging ideas about the center city for more than a decade, most notably in its annual “What Makes A City?” conferences, wherein nationally known planners, architects and thinkers such as Jane Jacobs and William H. Whyte share ideas with their local counterparts. The Institute’s four-year project, entitled “Dallas Visions: An Urban Design for the 21st Century” was adopted by the Dallas City Council as The Dallas Plan, and the Institute initiated and guided the construction of Pegasus Plaza at Main and Akard streets.