A couple of weeks back we mentioned The Future of Downtown Dallas Forum scheduled for today at the Dallas Convention Center -- 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., for those with nothing better to do (like, um, work? U2?). Anyway, like we said back then, it's being hosted by the Berkeley-based urban planning firm to whom the city gave $515,000 to hash out yet another downtown master plan back in April. Last week, DowntownDallas's Kourtny Garrett clued in readers of her blog to the name of this latest plan: Downtown Dallas 360. She had this to write about the moniker's origins:
Someone posed the question to me, "shouldn't it be called Downtown Dallas 180", if we're really looking at turning things around? Aside from all of the circular references I've outlined above -- I paused on this for a moment..logical comment. However, head over to the library and check out photos from, say, 1950. Theater Row was thriving on Elm Street. We all know the laundry list of department stores that drew people Downtown from miles away (via bus, I might add - even ladies dressed in their white gloves and hats for tea at Neimans). A streetcar buzzed down Main Street. Hmmm... I'd say we're coming full circle - with a little 21st century modernization in the mix.Merten's hoping to head over to the DCC at some point today.
