Mark Lamster has been The Dallas Morning News’ architecture critic for the past six years. In that time, he’s challenged architects and residents alike, forcing readers to better understand how buildings shape the way in which we move about the city. He’s written a book about the architect Philip Johnson, the controversial figure behind the Crescent development, Thanks-Giving Square, and Fort Worth’s Water Gardens, among others.

But that’s not why we invited Lamster to come on EarBurner. No, he got into a Twitter tiff with Mark Cuban over the Mavericks’ obviously hideous city jerseys. And, as Lamster put it, “good design is good business.” So we had him pick up a microphone. Show notes after the jump.

100 Trunk Avenue, at the northern edge of Deep Ellum, is a patch of grass in an empty lot. That’s it. It’s sandwiched between the Case Building’s apartment parking garage and flanked by precious few trees. It’s across from the Continental Gin Factory, which used to host art studios before it was sold last year—and ousted more than 50 artists from their studio spaces. It’s a rare piece of disuse in Dallas’ densest entertainment district.

Last weekend, an artist teamed up with an urban planner to reinvision the lot. In came the pop-up vendors and artist booths. They hooked up an amp and a microphone for musicians. And about 3,000 people over two days showed up to shop, gawk, talk, and listen. The pitiful patch of land was briefly transformed into the Creative Market.

“This was a strong first step,” said urban planner Amanda Popken, who helped organize the event. “Hopefully, the city will consider further how this space can be considered as a valuable asset for the community.”

There is one way the story of America’s cities is told, most notably by economist and social scientist Richard Florida, that attributes the resurgence of the city to the so-called “creative class.” According to this narrative, young people seek out cities that already possess three key ingredients to contemporary urban success: talent, technology, and tolerance. These upwardly mobile young professionals help revitalize urban neighborhoods and drive a demand for more walkable, multi-functional neighborhoods.

At its best, this vision of the urban renaissance has led to the reclaiming of once derelict neighborhoods and a resurgence of urban life that has helped the city reassert its status as the premiere economic, social, cultural, and political drivers of modern life. At its worst, this process has revved up economic forces that have led to displacement, housing shortages, widening income inequality by neighborhood and region, and other social-economic ailments that are often looped-in under the term “gentrification.” Florida himself backed off his bullish championing of the impact of the “creative class” in his recent book The New Urban Crisis, a sort of apology for his earlier work.

But what if there is another story to be told about the revival of American cities that has nothing to do with young, tech-oriented, upwardly mobile (and predominantly white) Americans? What if successful urban neighborhoods have nothing to do with the so-called “creative class” and are instead built on the backs of a more enterprising, community-rooted group of Americans?

The city believes a key corridor between Deep Ellum and East Dallas is in need of a road diet. Money from the last bond package is allocated to shrink the lanes of Columbia Avenue as well as portions of Abrams Road and Main and Commerce streets. Plans call for improved sidewalks and dedicated cycling infrastructure. The goal is to provide a safer experience for pedestrians and also motivate more ground-level retail, restaurants, and storefronts.

“The main thing has been balancing all the competing needs from the businesses, residents, transit users and bike users,” said Christina Tuner-Noteware, the city’s assistant director of Mobility and Street Services. “There are a lot of competing interests and complementary interests in this corridor. We’ve had community meetings, making sure we’re taking all of those interests into account. Trying to merge them all into one complete plan has been a challenge. But it’s been a fun challenge.”

This strategy is part of the city’s Complete Streets initiative, which redesigned Lowest Greenville and is being enacted on Henderson Avenue near Central Expressway. But it was driven by residents who, in 2017, started a petition to shrink Columbia. They called the three mile stretch one of the “most dangerous and under-utilized roads in Old East Dallas.”

“There is no way to make a seven-lane road safe,” says Nathaniel Barrett, the developer and Old East Dallas resident who started the petition. “It’s one of the highest injury and death corridors in Old East Dallas.”

Columbia is essentially a six-lane highway—seven lanes, when there are turns—that leads into Main Street on its way to Deep Ellum. The street is so wide because of decisions made in the 1970s. Back then, the city promised an efficient system that would allow some 40,000 cars to easily flow from the city’s core to points east. More lanes meant more capacity into downtown—seemingly. Fast forward almost 50 years and data from the North Central Texas Council of Governments show that just 14,000 to 19,000 vehicles are using the road daily, well below projections. Something needed to change.

Now, the wide street feels unsafe for pedestrians. Walking Columbia, from the point where Abrams ends, is uncomfortable at best and treacherous at worst. What sidewalks exist are overgrown with weeds, deeply cracked, sometimes gravelly, and consistently uneven. The sidewalks stop at driveways into businesses, and sometimes disappear altogether after the interruption. The road itself is so wide that crosswalks take nearly as long to walk as it does for the traffic light to change. Cyclists essentially share the road with drivers.

“We’ve got a long way to go before we’re a truly bicycle-friendly city,” said Councilman David Blewett, whose district includes portions of the makeover. “What I’m hoping for is that we encourage protected bike lane benefits, even if it means fewer land miles but more usage. It’s going to have to be safe. Safety is a huge component of bicycles and pedestrians.”

The good news: the projects are (mostly) funded. The Columbia project has $4.25 million bond dollars going toward it, and the adjacent Abrams project has $3.75 million. The pending Commerce project — from Good-Latimer Expressway to Exposition Avenue near Fair Park —will cost $9.7 million. Design on Commerce is projected to wrap up around December of next year.

The Columbia Avenue project will take 15 months. Design plans should be finalized by the end of the year. Construction should start in July 2020 and the project should be finished by the summer of 2021. The road will go from six lanes to four, which the city believes will slow traffic and allow for a design that is friendlier to pedestrians.

Buried near the 40-minute mark of the surreptitious recording of House Speaker Dennis Bonnen and the far-right Empower Texans head Michael Q. Sullivan was a brief exchange that spelled out the antipathy many in the state Legislature feel toward Texas’ cities:

Dennis Bonnen: In this office, in the conference room at that end, any mayor or county judge who’s dumbass enough to come meet with me, I told them with great clarity, my goal is for this to be the worst session in the history of the legislature for cities and counties.

Dustin Burrows: I hope the next session is even worse.

Dennis Bonnen: And I’m all for that.

The quote made it around certain Twitter circles yesterday morning. The plain language explained what plenty of bills have done in recent legislative sessions: kneecap urban areas from passing policy the Lege doesn’t want. Last year came reform bills that capped the rate at which cities can raise property taxes. The Lege banned red light cameras. It blocked cities from charging private telecommunication companies for using public right of way, particularly concerning when you think of all the impending 5G infrastructure.

Houston estimates that not charging telecom companies for right of way will cost it $27 million per year. Taken altogether, the bills passed by the Lege will create a $44 million annual shortfall for the city of Dallas by 2023, according to a budget forecast. Even Moody’s found the property tax reform law would generate “minimal” homeowner savings but would “hurt local governments substantially.” That sounds like a plan to screw local governments more than provide relief to taxpayers.

Burrows, the Lubbock state representative who was also heard spouting off on the tape, later added, “We hate cities and counties.” He told Sullivan he had pitched the governor on taking away what cities can use from sales tax to pay for economic development, public transit, or other services.

These strategies aren’t new.

Uber Advanced Technologies Group chief Eric Meyhofer talks to the Dallas Morning News about the company’s plan to map downtown Dallas and decide whether to bring in self-driving cars. If it decides to go for it, riders here will get their choice between robot drivers and real people.

And if you ask for a ride from one address to another and those two addresses fall within the route set that self-driving cars serve, you’ll get a notice that says, ‘Hey, you’ve been paired with a self-driving car. Would you like to try that or would you like to have a driver partner pick you up?’ So you get to choose. And what happens is when you get a choice, you’re more empowered and you are more curious and you have more of a tendency to lean in and be bold.

I’m not entirely sure how I feel about Meyhofer classifying hopping in a two-ton vehicle using Uber’s tech as “bold.” But we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that classification speaks more to his gauge for the temperature of consumers right now—that is, his perception of our perception of the risks of autonomous driving—rather than the risks themselves. I hope that’s what he’s saying.

Anyway, it got me curious about feelings toward self-driving right here in Dallas. In March 2018 in Tempe, Arizona, a 49-year-old woman on foot was struck and killed by one of the autonomous Ubers while crossing the street, launching a discussion about the speed at which autonomous cars were hitting the market and causing the company to shut down testing for nine months. But Uber has revamped the Volvo since then and says it has made other serious changes to its safety culture.

Even after testing started back up, the rollout has been slower. In Dallas, starting in November, Uber says it will merely operate its self-driving cars with human drivers to begin to map the city and capture everyday driving scenarios. Only then will it decide whether to operate actual self-driving Ubers here.

All that considered, a poll: