City leaders, urban planners, developers and others are gathered today for a conference, presented by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture and the Trinity Trust, that has an intriguingly open-ended title: “What does Dallas want to be?”
We asked three participants in the day’s events to answer another question: What should the city want to be?
City needs to nurture diversity, Sara Mokuria writes
Stop for a minute and look at it. Dallas has one of the most beautiful skylines anywhere. I love it from every angle, in every season and time of day. And because I’ve seen my city evolve and grow, I know it can be much more than just a pretty face.
Our city struggles with the burdens of the past and present. We stare at each other across an economic divide that takes the form of a river and a highway — both man-made. Often, though, we turn our heads and try not to see how this divide has cut short the hopes and dreams of more than half of our city’s residents. We see this in social segregation, racism and abuse of power and opportunity. It glares back at us as gross disparities in safety, access to healthy food, health care, housing and education. And while Dallas County leads the state in domestic violence deaths, the most accessible mental health care facility for many is our county jail.
We are a city wealthy and powerful enough to nourish the energy and ability of all her residents. We are brimming with some of the most creative, driven, talented people in the world. Dallas should want to leverage these, our natural resources.
Dallas should want to be a city that recognizes the cultures of her people as assets, not liabilities. For every policy and development plan, Dallas should ask early and often, “How will this affect those who still struggle on the margins of our great city?”
Dallas should want to be a city where black and Hispanic men feel as safe in their interactions with the police as their white counterparts.
Dallas should want to be a city where the public invests its children in a public school system that is developing the next mayor, as well as future CEOs, world-class painters and poets.
Dallas should want to be a city defined by her public space; every neighborhood should have 21st-century parks, libraries, recreation and cultural centers.
Finally, Dallas should want to be a city that pulls from its deep racial and gender diversity for compassionate, well-informed leaders of government, nonprofit, arts and business.
Sara Mokuria is a senior research associate at the Institute for Urban Policy Research at the University of Texas at Dallas. Reach her at sara.mokuria@utdallas.edu.
Reaching out the key to success, says Catherine Cuellar
Among the reasons I’m proud to call Dallas home, our city has always been international and cosmopolitan. Our history and current demographics should be embraced, honored and celebrated. But inclusivity should also be reflected in the mentoring, education and advancement opportunities for our future leaders.
At the recent CityLab conference in Los Angeles, David Paul Sheard, a council leader from Kirklees in the United Kingdom, said cities are essential because they allow us, as residents, to share our skills, space and stuff. The more Dallasites share our “three S’s,” the more invested we each become in relationships as neighbors and in the success of our entire city. Absent these relationships, it is easy to view persistent challenges such as racism, poverty or injustice as someone else’s problem.
Enrique Peñalosa of Bogota, Colombia, said an advanced city is not one where the poor use cars, but rather where the rich use public transportation. Though I grew up in North Dallas, I’ve lived most of my adult life in southern Dallas, frequently riding a bus, light rail, or the new, free hot pink D-Link (recalling a Hop-A-Bus without bunny ears). Historic neighborhoods, including downtown, are more walkable than newer suburbs, and downtown now offers a complete network of bicycle paths, allowing me to get around most days without my car. As a result, I’m far healthier and more engaged with my community than when my daily commute required a TollTag. With new Santa Fe Trestle Trail and Continental Avenue pedestrian bridges crossing the Trinity River, DART light rail service to D/FW Airport and the streetcar and McKinney Avenue Trolley expanding, Dallas has renewed a sense of possibility.
But to be a great city, every family must have opportunity to be educated and engaged. Our schools remain segregated by class and race, and preschool is inaccessible or unaffordable to many, widening the opportunity gap for middle-class families. Measurement drives accountability for results. Instead of boasting about Dallas’ prosperity by citing how many billionaires live here, what if we measured how few residents live in asset poverty or risk homelessness — the working poor, disabled, elderly and mentally ill? We should instead track the number of impoverished families uplifting and stabilizing themselves by moving into the middle class. If we cultivate communities and systems that can only be found in cities, all our residents can live well, learning to enrich their lives and making our city even greater.
Catherine Cuellar is CEO of the Dallas Arts District. Reach her at cc@dallasartsdistrict.org.
Find greatness in small places, Monte Anderson says
There was a time when Dallas was an efficient place to live. Jobs were closer because of passenger trains, street cars and buses. Transportation was uncomplicated, and housing was built to scale. All of that led to a good life.
My thoughts are from the perspective of someone who has spent his entire life in southern Dallas County. Growing up, I watched as friends moved away, first from north to south Oak Cliff and from there on to Duncanville, DeSoto, Cedar Hill and points beyond. Over the past several years, those same people have moved farther south to Midlothian, Waxahachie and Red Oak. Where will they move next? What will it take to make southern Dallas attractive?
We’ve used our cars to run away from our fears and, in the process, have spread our resources so thin trying to cover massive areas. We need to realize that all the money in the world cannot make this area a great place.
What makes great places are the neighborhoods that provide the necessities on a daily basis. For instance, our office is currently in a small commercial district next to residential neighborhoods and parks. I can open my office windows, watch children walk by after school and ride my bicycle to appointments. I can walk to get lunch, to the library or to get a haircut. All of this makes me happy because it gives me a chance to slow down while getting necessities done.
We were programmed to believe that BIG places are better when small places like Bishop Arts, Highland Park Village or downtown Duncanville are the ones we love. We were taught that anything simple and small could not lead to greatness.
I am hopeful that we will see the trends turn around like we have in the Oak Cliff areas. We can do this by recognizing that many small developments connected together are much more sustainable and affordable. The city will have to relax the zoning and code (not including safety issues) to allow this to happen in some areas. Credit assistance for small developments will need to become a top priority. Last, but not least, don’t build us any more freeways!
My only fear is that once these places become popular, we will super-size them and take away their character.
Monte Anderson is president of Options Real Estate, which specializes in southern Dallas County, the owner of the Belmont Hotel and the founding president of the Congress of New Urbanism North Texas Chapter. His email is monte@optionsre.com.
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GO AND DO
What: “What Makes a City?” conference, presented by the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture and Tthe Trinity Trust
When: 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday
Where: Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St.
Tickets: $60 for institute members, $75 for nonmembers
More info: Go to www.dallasinstitute.org
