Jack Gosnell

When I am able to convince people that I meet or know to venture downtown with me, the result is stunning. These folks become almost evangelical about the energy and excitement of what they witness. On the other hand, those who have not been downtown for a decade, knowingly or not, are caught in the cultural bias, without even being aware of it.

We don’t have time for standard practices if we want to capture young future urban dwellers. We know what has succeeded in other markets, and what has failed. It’s time for us to aggressively pursue the simultaneous implementation of the common initiatives used by a handful of successful cities and deliver downtown retail spaces to the street wherever possible.

Squandered development opportunities and planning decisions over decades have put Dallas in jeopardy of becoming just another city. Today, hundreds of dedicated individuals are grappling with the problems caused by these decisions in a huge collective effort to reverse that damage.

You know when the City of Dallas and virtually hundreds of volunteers and professionals give a great deal of time and money to the revitalization of our downtown, it makes you crazy to see an impasse that results in a tragic and irreversible bad planning decision. I’m talking about the 12-foot-tall impermeable wall at the east end of Belo Park.

Retail opportunities are out there, but don't expect the same old thing. This time around, development decisions will be based on factors other than an infinite supply of cheap land.