Though neither Beasley nor Brown describes the CityDesign Studio plan as a model of "new urbanism," it aligns with many of the movement's principles. "We want to make sure that it's a net benefit in character and quality for Dallas itself...We want to make sure those existing communities, that we respect and honor them," Beasley says.
This community-focused change in attitude toward development is taking shape all over the world, says Beasley, a consultant for the Abu Dhabi government, and it's not simply a matter of beautification through design. A well-planned urban structure that takes into account existing culture and blends people with varying incomes has larger implications. "In taking this approach, it makes the city an economic competitor, and it provides a more balanced social and economic structure," Beasley says. "I'm now seeing that cities who pay attention to design are finding that economic opportunities are opening up to them."
Danny Fulgencio
Felix Losada advocates preserving Bajada for single-family homes.
Danny Fulgencio
CityDesign Studio director Brent Brown designed the surrounding plans for the future of West Dallas.
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The entire plan, including the protection of La Bajada, didn't come about by a happy accident. Everything that's about to happen in the area is both purposeful and organic in that it's dictated by economic conditions and the needs of the area. "Dallas is going to be different because of that CityDesign Studio," Beasley says.
Still, West Dallas' final shape hinges on the plans of large landholders like McGregor and Anderson. "This is a comic book, according to Larry Beasley," McGregor says, echoing Whitley's description of the plan's built-in flexibility. Whether McGregor sees the CityDesign Studio as a serious governor of urban planning or as an insignificant little project is hard to tell.
"What do you want me to say?" he says. "Larry Beasley said it was a comic book, so what do you want me to say? He's the one that put it together. In my mind, he said, well, it's a comic book. It can be changed. It doesn't mean anything, but it does," he says, making his stance a bit unclear but adding, "I think there are some really good ideas that came out of it."
Asked to clarify what he meant by "comic," Beasley says, "Actually, I have on numerous occasions called the drawing a 'cartoon' because it reflects only one unfolding of development events over time, whereas there are many possibilities of what comes first, second, et cetera. The sense of a cartoon is that the plan is inherently flexible. It has a set of principles and a policy statement with clear guidelines, all of which are very serious and are expected to be 100 percent achieved, but then it can unfold in many ways according to the nature of private initiatives. So the actual overall sketch plan drawing is just one version of what might happen."
West Dallas residents wonder where this is all going. "I don't have any idea," McGregor says. "Only time will tell." Well, time together with market conditions, he adds.
The only certainties are that the area has a carefully developed plan, an iconic bridge on its way to completion and a collection of land purchased by developers who intend to use it to its potential, whatever that may be. Elvove, of the La Bajada neighborhood association, has a "Not 4 Sale, Support NSO" sign on her fence and looks forward to the new development in her neighborhood. "Why not stay here and make this the best neighborhood?" she says, encouraging her neighbors to fix up their homes to transform the area from the inside out. "It's going to be fabulous...It's going to be fantastic, everything that's south of Singleton," she says. But even so, she hopes the character of the place will remain solid. "We are a humble neighborhood."
With that, she calls the white-arched bridge "an embarrassment."
"I mean what's here, give me a break," she says, pointing out the irony of the city building a fancy bridge before it had any notion of where exactly the bridge would lead or who might cross it. "What are they doing putting the cart before the horse?"
Randall White, a board member of the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce, sees her point from another vantage. "When that neighbor says it seems reversed, I understand that. It's basically like building a door into a room when you're not quite sure what the room's going to be like. But the plan for the room is in place. And you helped develop the plan. That doesn't often happen in Dallas development."
In the meantime, Losada is doing his best not to get caught up in the vague competing forces in his neighborhood, and he does his best to protect it from meeting the fate of its name, which loosely translates to "the descent."
"You can understand what this neighborhood means to me," Losada says. "Where would I find another home where I would be so comfortable?" As Losada continues advocating the NSO, the bridge's completion has again been delayed until later than November 2011; West Dallas property is being bought cheaply and at a fast clip, and to the naked eye, the area in the bridge's shadow appears mostly unchanged.
But it's clearly poised for something big, however that something takes shape.
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