Why I Live

There are those who see downtown Dallas as a modern jungle-noisy, teeming with dented cars and roaring buses, crawling with a strange mix of denizens-street people, cops, lawyers and punkers with partially shaved heads, earrings in the strangest places and tattoos not just on their arms, but on their faces. ‧ That’s one perception. But downtown Dallas is also the Mavericks and the Stars. It’s the Meyerson Symphony Center, museums, art galleries and the theater, v. where you go for parades, street festivals and tourist traps. Downtown Dallas offers the best entertainment and night life available in North Texas. ‧ And that’s the yin and yang of downtown. In life there are ! and negative forces; good and bad. You can’t have one without the other, and nature makes sure they

always balance out. That balancing process goes on everywhere all the time, but it’s easiest to see downtown. ‧ I’ve always been attracted to the big city. When I was a kid, my grandmother lived about two miles west of downtown on Commerce Street. When we drove through downtown on our way home (torn her house, with the huge buildings towering majestically above us like steep cliffs in a canyon, it always seemed awesome to me. Even inside our car, I could feel the excitement that is an integral part of the city.

All these years later, I still get excited when I’m downtown. You can’t help it. Stand on a busy downtown street corner and you’ll know what I mean. You can feel the pulsating, pounding beat of the city reverberating all around you. Stroll down the street and you can feel the hustle and bustle of people living their lives, rushing to work or to catch the bus. The excitement is contagious.

1 moved to Deep Ellum in 1989 at a time when [ was tired of suburban living, tired of living in a place where everything looked the same-my house, your house, the next guy’s house. Where working in the yard is a pas-rime and where it seems all roads lead to the mall. 1 wanted a change and in downtown, I found the perfect mix.

Although I like loud, blaring, hard rock music, I also happen to like easy listening, jazz and even 01’ Blue Eyes himself. That’s why my Deep Ellum loft suits me so perfectly. I can have the rush of the big city or enjoy the serenity of a beautiful sunset from my rooftop high above the busy streets below. “Aren’t you scared?” people often ask when I tell them I live downtown. People assume the center of a large metropolis like Dallas must be a dangerous place. And it has its dangers. But every place is dangerous. The suburbs have driveway robbers, serial rapists and child molesters.

Statistically, malls are tar more dangerous than anything downtown has to offer. I’ve only witnessed one armed robbery in my life and it was at a grocery store in Garland. The worst mass murder in our state’s history occurred at a cafeteria in the small town of Killeen. In recent years, the downtown area actually has become much safer.

I’ve always enjoyed watching people and there’s no better place for that than downtown. Where else can you see a millionaire businessman, a working mother, and a street person who owns nothing more than the clothes on his back and a bag of empty cans, all on the same street corner?

Most parents probably can’t imagine raising their kids in a downtown environment but the kids I’ve met downtown have been some of the smartest, most well-balanced kids I’ve known. They are confident, inquisitive and street-smart. They have more than book smarts, they have savvy. Because there is so much diversity downtown, I think they are more tolerant of racial and cultural differences than the average suburban kid. They learn to embrace those differences rather than fear them.

Nancy and David Whitenack, neighbors in the building where my wife and I live, moved to Deep Ellum 12 years ago. Their 10-year-old son has grown up downtown. The only negative they see in raising him here is they don’t have a back yard where he can play. Although our building does have a secured parking lot with a basketball goal, as well as a beautiful rooftop garden, it’s just not the same as having your own private, grass-covered yard. However, even in that negative, there is something positive. Yin and yang.

The Whitenacks don’t have the option of sending their son out to the back yard to play by himself like so many suburban parents do. Because of this, they spend more time together. They spend their weekends in-line skating around Fair Park with their son or having a Sunday picnic at the Arboretum.

Many people tend to think of the big city as a cold and unfriendly place where everyone is just another anonymous lace. To me, that sounds more like the suburbs. Prior to moving downtown, 1 lived in the same house for five years. I rarely spoke with any of my neighbors. When I moved away, I didn’t know any of them by name.

By contrast, when I first moved to Deep Ellum, practically all of my neighbors stopped by to introduce themselves. Today I know people on every floor of our six-floor building and, thanks to our dog, I share friendly hellos with virtually every dog owner within a half-mile of our loft. Ironically, downtown living has given me a raste of small-town living.

As Dallas’ intown housing boom continues to gather steam, I look forward to an even more vibrant and versatile downtown. There will be more business and job opportunities available, as well as more conveniences such as corner grocery stores. When I first came to Deep Ellum, there were few choices for housing. At that time, most new residents had to do extensive remodeling to make a space livable. The firsi building I moved into didn’t have a shower or a kitchen. The only thing available in the CBD at that time was the Manor House Apartments. Not only does the abundance of new apartments ensure new residents will have plenty to choose from, but it may also spark some competition among the developer who are trying to fill their new units, making this an ideal time to move intown.

We’ve already come a long way. Just 10 years ago, downtown turned into a ghosr town at night. As the office workers poured ontc the highways to head to their homes in the suburbs they took the heartbeat of the city with them. The West End was new at the rime and hardly anyone had heard of a place called Deep Ellum. Each new residen who moves intown breathes more life into the area. I look fotward to a time when Dallas will rival such cosmopolitan giants as New York City or San Francisco.