Community, Connection & Cars

Robert Mundinger
Jul 21, 2017 · 10 min read

The Trinity River Project began for me when I was in 7th grade. The $246 million bond program passed on May 3, 1998 and I was very happy. I remember the front page had several renderings of the park, which is when I grew excited. I was just old enough to know that our city needed a park like this and just young enough to believe it would actually happen. Then I saw the projected completion date….2012. Nevermind, I’d be 28 by then…too old to enjoy it. (I actually remember thinking this) Now that time has come and gone, and more than half my life has passed since that moment.

I would like to present my case that the tollroad negatively affects community and livability in our city on the heels of the Greater Dallas Planning Council coming out against the road after drawing the similar conclusion that it:

does not contain elements that will contribute to enabling a livable urban core and increasing social cohesion is likely to create physical and social barriers between and among communities.

Fabric

Social cohesion is largely dependent on infrastructure. If all you build is highways, you get the type of car-centric development that doesn’t engender human connection. Look at these four corners.

Four parking lots in what should be one of the most vibrant people-centered places in the city. That Truluck’s is brand new. And that’s not rare here — If it’s not a parking lot, the building will have walls around it with no link to the street or surroundings. We have areas that you drive to, do whatever it is you have to do, then drive off. These are simply one off destinations, not places.

Turns out, Austin has a truluck’s in the heart of their city that was re-modeled at the same time as ours. The difference is drastic.

The Austin version is what we should be striving for in the core. That’s the kind of interaction design that encourages community and innovation. Even our suburban Truluck’s are more urban:

Southlake Trulucks

This is a picture of downtown in 1939:

Try to picture that anywhere in the city during a normal business day. That’s social interaction and it has drastic implications on a city and its people.

Citylab recently called Dallas the city with the best architecture per square mile, which is great — we do have some amazing buildings, but I think one commenter nailed it by summing up what is wrong with this distinction:

Our so called ‘gems’ are just isolated islands lacking any greater context than themselves. Peter Simek calls the desire to create this type of superficial, outwardly impressive facade ’Dallas Brain’ and Angela Hunt has points out the same in arguing that we should think small. We should be planting seeds in the soil, not laying concrete on top of it. Forget iconic, isolated architecture, focus on natural, integrated livability. If we’re so desperate for something to be ‘world class’ how about we strive to create an environment that allows it be something that our people create, not some fucking building.

Community

Livability is about more than placating hipsters who want to longboard to work. I don’t care about that, but I care about community and without any chance for connection we lose our sense of collective ambition as well. The kind of neighborhood cooperation that fosters the civic engagement that cities need — volunteering in schools, public meetings, organizing for a cause. In ‘Bowling Alone’ economist Robert Putnam comprehensively pores through data on why and how America has lost it’s sense of community and connectedness since the early 1960s. We are isolating ourselves, and in turn doing less together which isn’t so great for shared sense of purpose or trust. Here are some telling charts from his book showing a decline in our togetherness.

philanthropy
trust
morality
PTA

Those things sound cheesy, as Rawlings seems to acknowledge when he says <span class=”fullquote”>”Coming together is more than Kumbaya.”</span> But Putnam reminds those who might trivialize the concept that <a href=”/views/livability/social_capital”>’Kumbaya’ and social capital are real things</a>, and they have dramatic and long last effects to

children
schools
obesity
crime
temperment
health
civic
tolerance
equality

What the hell does this have to do with a tollroad? Put simply, this:

…. Leads to this:

….which is the opposite of this:

One of Putnam’s main culprits for our loss of community is the car.

If you think Dallas is civic-minded, consider that out of the top 25 most populous cities in the country, Dallas ranked 24th in voter turnout for mayoral elections.

Innovation

Another advantage of a dense, connected fabric is innovation. Several studies have shown that patents and GDP increase with urban density. One of those studies was conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia in 2006 which found that patent intensity is highly correlated with employment density, holding other variables equal.

Citylab discussed these findings and found both the ‘social interaction potential’ of a city along with its infrastructure to be reasons for the greater productivity. The benefits of this social interaction potential are why San Fransisco is currently seeing a massive tech boom shifting from the more suburan enclave of Palo Alto. CNN’s coverage of this migration quotes a real estate agent:

Information is the new currency and that currency is gushing through the streets of San Francisco”

Also stating :

If you’re in your 20s (or) 30s, you want to live in a vibrant environment where you’re surrounded by like-minded people. Where there’s a lot of interesting cultural stuff to do.”

This rearrangment is so striking the Brookings Instituion and Harvard have come up with a name for these new centers: Innovation Districts. They are:

”physically compact, transit-accessible, and technically-wired and offer mixed-use housing, office and retail.”

Where are these happening? Here’s a nice list of about every large city in the US except Dallas. One of these districts in Stockholm is being built as an extention over a highway. That’s connection.

Menu

“The Trinity Parkway is one critical piece to creating a city of choices”

That’s a quote from the mayor in his editorial with the Dallas Morning News that seems to indicate a belief that adding a tollroad in the core of our city on top of a potential park increases the number of choices our citizens have. He goes on to say that he wants our city to have:

’an appealing menu of options.’

I like menus and I like options. But in our city, we don’t have options. Any type of urban living isn’t on our menu. If you want to walk to work, good luck. Bike to work? I hope you don’t have to use our on street bike lanes.

Take transit to work?

We don’t yet have a reliable, dense system to easily replace a car.

Peter Simek points out, maybe this is a mindset thing that goes back to his days in the restaurant business. Pizza Hut isn’t a place you walk into and look at the menu above the counter with you hand on your chin and take some time — “hmm, I wonder what I want….” No, you call and you know what you want before you pick up the phone. It sells ONE thing. No one goes to Pizza Hut just to order wings or breadsticks…they’re complements — not replacements. A pizza chain is a vertical business: it serves one type of desire, but a city cannot and should not be like this — cars and highways should not be the only option. Even places like McDonald’s are trying to serve more horizontal markets, adding breakfast foods, fruit, coffee, chicken fingers, salads. They’re not just adding burger after burger — instead they’re diversifying to meet a broader audience. We’re the pizza hut of cities…we might have a few bike trails and DART but they don’t replace the car for anyone but the rare hyper-urbanist and those that can’t afford a car. In 2009, Pizza Hut tried to rebrand as a more varied chain by changing its name to ‘The Hut’ without changing it’s core business. The move was universally panned because everyone knew it was ridiculous. This is how I feel when I see the mayor say:

‘We dream of a walkable city, full of green space and hike-and-bike trails’

in the middle of an editorial pushing for the tollroad. Putting up a false exterior to mask an unchanged interior. In Chicago, if you want to have an urban lifestyle you can. You want to live in the suburbs, go for it. You want to take the subway to work you can. Bike, walk, drive, live by a lake — That’s options, and diversity naturally follows. When the middle of your city looks like Frisco, where is the choice?

All people want is ONE livable urban environment, instead Dallas is currently a ‘city of option.’

Attractiveness

People want an urban environment, and if we don’t provide that option they will go elsewhere. Look at Austin, whose downtown borders the Colorado River. Like Houston, their urban river has been turned into a park with trails and natural space in the heart of their city. They did that in the 1970’s — see if it’s history sounds familiar:

People in Dallas are desperate for this . Klyde Warren is packed…THIS is the type of congestion we should be trying to relieve.

There is currently $40 million sitting at the city that is being held hostage by the road. If it’s built, it’s used for the road. If not, it could be used for a park between the levees. The skyline trail cost $6 million and it’s 4.5 miles long. Think about how far $40 million could go to transforming the flood plain into beautiful place. These are the decisions we should be making to try to keep and attract innovative, interesting people who will help give the city a diverse population that bring balance to our culture. The more options we provide, the more we get different types of people who might prefer one option over the other. The draw of Town Lake in Austin is allowing for an explosion in the downtown market. They have a vibrant tech, music and art scene. They attract tourism and business.

In Dallas, I know several people in the city who are going to leave. There’s too much isolation, not enough community and diversity. These are people who organize events, volunteer in schools, come to community meetings, care about their surroundings. I’m pissed off that they’re leaving, because they’ve made our city better. And we’re certainly not attracting anyone. Being from Texas, I might be inclined to say if they don’t want to come here, then screw ‘em. But how about keeping our own? This statue should be in Dallas, but Stevie Ray Vaughn left for Austin. Maybe he would have stayed if we didn’t destroy our Blues District by building a highway over and through it. And look where his statue is in Austin — right on the river bank. Perfect place for a tollway.

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Robert Mundinger

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Founder of TheMap — technology, cities, mapping

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