Jason Roberts

Jason Roberts' Friends Are Organizing a Kessler Theater Benefit to Pay Off His Cancer Bills

The Fundrazr campaign Jason Roberts' ex-wife launched last month to help pay the mountain of medical bills that accumulated during his battle with cancer has raised $8,530, which is respectable but falls far short of the $40,000 goal. So, Roberts' supporters are hoping to make up some of the differ ... More >>

How Jason Roberts Beat Cancer, Survived Divorce and Lived to Fight for Better Blocks

It was June, a few weeks after his long-shot run for Congress and his marriage both came to an end, and Jason Roberts couldn't shake the nagging weariness that had dogged him through the campaign. He felt constantly as if he'd just racked himself on his bike frame. It was an odd feeling for Roberts ... More >>

Look! Up in the Sky! It's Jason Roberts Riding a Unicorn to the White House for that "Champions of Change" Award

One time I was talking down the street and I saw Jason Roberts leap a tall curb with a single bound. No joke. He barely broke a sweat under that tweed cap. Then he shot rainbow beams from his eyes that turned all the concrete into an organic garden tended by underprivileged children who tend hives o ... More >>

Jason Roberts Won't Endorse. We Advise Marc Veasey and Domingo Garcia How to Woo the All-Important Hipster Vote

Now that the race for North Texas' newest congressional seat has officially been whittled down from a dozen to just two, it has transformed from an entertaining, no-holds-barred political cockfight with several amusing sideshows into a ethno-geographical scramble for endorsements. A mess, in other, ... More >>

The Race for Texas' New Congressional District Is Going To Be Very Interesting. And Crowded.

Let's just call it: Everyone in town is running for Congress. Okay, not everyone, but the race for the newly-created, much-argued-over Congressional District 33 has gotten very, very crowded, especially on the Democrats' side. Last night we watched as former Dallas city council member -- and may ... More >>

Watch as Jason Roberts Spreads the Gospel of Building a Better Block on the OU Campus

Whilst browsing through the YouTube moments ago I stumbled across the video you see above, which was just posted by the TEDx'ers: Jason Roberts on the OU campus talking, at times breathlessly, about how to build a better block on January 27. It's but the first in a long line of similar presentations ... More >>

Over Dinner at a Fort Worth Olive Garden, Michelle Obama Heard All About Oak Cliff

​Maybe you saw KXAS-Channel 5 last night -- why, yes, that was Jason Roberts and wife Andrea seated next to First Lady Michelle Obama at a Fort Worth Olive Garden last night. But, but ... how'd the would-be congressional candidate and the missus land the seats? And what did they talk about? Beside ... More >>

Is Jason Roberts Serious About Running for Congress? He's Certainly Thinking About It.

​A few moments ago, Jason Roberts tweeted: "Exploring a run for Congress. With redistricting up in the air, it's going to be an incredibly short campaign for the primary." As long as we've been covering his doings, I've never known the Better Block-er to be ... silly, let's say. Nevertheless, I ca ... More >>

Dallas Is the Worst When It Comes to Cycling to Work? Gee, Can't Imagine Why. No, Wait ...

​I've been trying since daybreak to reach Max Kalhammer, the city's bike coordinator, to talk about the not-at-all-surprising results of the Alliance for Biking & Walking's 2012 Benchmarking Report, which says we're one of the worst big cities in the entire country when it comes to people ridi ... More >>

If City Can't Pay for Bike Lanes on Jefferson Viaduct, BFOC Will Try to Find the Money

Bike Friendly Oak CliffClick to enlarge Jason Roberts's look at the problems cyclists face when trying to ride the Jefferson Viaduct.​Jason Roberts broke the news yesterday: Israel "Dallas" Torres, 32 years old and an experienced cyclist, was hit by a car Saturday afternoon while riding on the Jef ... More >>

Coming (Slowly, As Usual) To An Oak Cliff Intersection Near You: The "People's Plaza"

Photo by Danny HurleyAt the very first Better Block, way back in April 2010. Will it also become the first to go permanent? Again, wait and see.​Way back last April, the energetic, civic-minded hipsters over at Better Block turned the area around King's Highway, W. 7th St. and N. Tyler St. in ... More >>

City to Spread Gospel of Complete Streets Far and Wide, With Workshops and Pilot Projects

​The poster at right is for what could be the best Better Block event yet, scheduled to take place in and around the parking lot of R.L.'s Blues Palace No. 2 in the shadow of Fair Park -- an institution. Jason Roberts, QB for Team Better Block, says there are several choirs lined up to perform -- ... More >>

Above the Trinity River, Playing and Talking and Eating and Sitting on a Bridge Meant for Cars

​First there was a Better Block; then, a Better Boulevard; then, just yesterday, a Better Bridge. Of all the efforts to temporarily transform a piece of the city into something other than what it is, yesterday's brief installation atop the Cedar Crest Bridge, which connects Oak Cliff to South Dall ... More >>

Before Walking, Biking Across "Better" Cedar Crest Bridge, Learn How to Do It Yourself

Click for a much better look at what might become of the Cedar Crest Bridge.​On Friday we took a ride down Cedar Crest Boulevard over the Trinity, which the city's spending millions to makeover as a half-vehicular, half-hike-n-bike bridge -- but not before Jason Roberts and the Better Block-ers se ... More >>

That Katy Trail-to-Bishop Arts Trinity Trail is Ready to Go. Now, to Fund and Fix the Streets.

​If, say, during your lunch break this afternoon you were to dip between the Trinity River levees, you would see the trail Jason Roberts first promised back in June -- the one that, when completed, will link Bishop Arts on one side of the river to the Katy Trail on the other side. It's nothing par ... More >>

In Oak Cliff, a Twin Towers Tribute

Courtesy Jason Roberts​If you happen through the intersection of Beckley and Jefferson in the next few days, you will see this scene -- two 20-foot-tall cargo containers painted white. The installation, which is being put into place at this very moment, is not yet finished; Jason Roberts, the man ... More >>

Are You Tough Enough for the Return of The Living Plaza In Front of Dallas City Hall?

​This would be ... what, round three? And here you thought the Living Plaza was a one-timer. Nope. It may be a 192 degrees tomorrow, but that's not going to stop the City Hall staffers who've taken over where Jason Roberts, Brent Brown and William Whyte started. And so, beginning at 11:30 tomorrow ... More >>

A Better Ross Ave. and "Tactical Urbanism"

​At some point the conversation below, concerning the plan to create a so-called quick-win trail that would link Bishop Arts to the Katy Trail across the Trinity, took an odd swerve, with someone insisting that Jason Roberts, Andrew Howard and the rest of the Better Block-ers are trying to "kill t ... More >>

"Welcome to the Future of the City of Dallas." Though Ross Could Use a Few More Trees.

Photos by Leslie MinoraJason Roberts took a moment to celebrate the birth of his brainchild, Ross Avenue as a much-improved Better Boulevard.​Yesterday afternoon, the stretch of Ross from North Hawkins to Pavilion temporarily became a pedestrian oasis of sorts as cars slowed into a narrowed t ... More >>

The Power of the Pop-Up Shop

Photo by Taryn Walker​Wednesday afternoon photo intern Taryn Walker stopped by the Living Plaza, which made its return to Dallas City Hall ... and not for the final time, as organizers within OCP headquarters now expect it to become a monthly event, at least. Yet again, bcWORKSHOP's shipping-conta ... More >>

What Do a Better Ross Ave., Dallas Bike Plan & Complete Streets Have in Common? This Item.

​The photo you see above was taken and sent our way today by, who else, Jason Roberts, for whom I happened to have many questions. So, good timing. As always.First thing's first: That's Three Sheets's double-decker, which will be rolled out at the end of the month as part of that Better Boulevard ... More >>

Boxed In, or: Once Again, From Oak Cliff, the Call for All of Dallas to "Think Small"

​Since it's Follow-Up Wednesday here, may I direct your attention to a piece Jason Roberts posted this morning on Go Oak Cliff, which is more or less a response-slash-reaction-to Schutze's piece yesterday about that Oak Cliff Walmart planned for Fort Worth Ave. Not to reopen Tuesday's still-fresh ... More >>

Because, Apparently, You Don't Need to Spend $1.5 Million on a Dog Park. In Oak Cliff, Anyway.

FIDO Oak Cliff co-founder Michael Reagan, left, and Jason Roberts on Saturday​Remember back in February, when council member Ann Margolin said, sorry, but she just couldn't support spending $1.5 mil in bond funds on a dog park, which the city couldn't afford to maintain in the first place? No. Of ... More >>

Jason Roberts and the Better Block'ers Dare You to Build a Better Ross Avenue in Three Days

​One week after turning the front of Dallas City Hall into the Living Plaza, Jason Roberts -- who'll sleep when he's dead -- sends word of yet another project: the 72-Hour Challenge to turn a stretch of Ross Avenue downtown into a complete street. There are some details on the Better Block website ... More >>

In West Dallas, Where William Whyte's Vision of a Living City Hall Plaza Is Finally Coming to Life

Gary Buckner with one of the 10 or so chairs they're making out of old pallets for next week's Living Plaza in front of Dallas City Hall​My copy of William H. Whyte's 1988 book City: Rediscovering the Center arrived today, and right there, on Page 123, The Organization Man writes of his attempt to ... More >>

QR Signs of the Times, Past and Future, Are On Display Around White Rock Lake. Today Only.

Courtesy Jason Roberts​Took the visiting mother-in-law to White Rock Lake yesterday, and as we were leaving, the wife espied a sign like the one you see above in this photo posted by Jason Roberts to his Facebook page last night. Turns out it's part of that BlockCamp project about which we wrote i ... More >>

What Can You Do With an Old DISD Portable? How About Make a New House in South Dallas.

Jason RobertsZac Lytle and the former Dallas ISD portable they're hoping to turn into part of a senior-housing development in South Dallas​Earlier this morning, Jason Roberts posted to his Facebook page the photo you see here, along with the note: "Zac & his non profit are taking former school ... More >>

Jason Roberts's List of Dallas Ordinances He'd Like to See Tossed in the Trash This Year

​At the end of last month, Patrick Michels was at City Hall for that Complete Streets-Bike Plan-Better Block jam session, where Jason Roberts and Andrew Howard were greeted with "great acclaim" by council members no doubt eager to implement and then claim the pair's restorative ideas as their own. ... More >>

Some Lessons Learned From Walmart's Expansion (At Least, Its Move Into Oak Cliff)

The development residents were hoping for, more or less, on the spot of Fort Worth Avenue where Walmart's expected to go​On Tuesday, you no doubt recall, the city sent word that Walmart's opening 14 new locations citywide -- among them, three in the southern sector, including on the vacant lot at ... More >>

Jason Roberts's Thoughts on Last Night's Streetcar Town Hall at Methodist

​The city, North Central Texas Council of Governments and Dallas Area Rapid Transit held that streetcar town hall last night. Among those in attendance was Jason Roberts -- who, in addition to his myriad other titles and endeavors, is an Oak Cliff Transit Authority board member and the former head ... More >>

First, a Better Block. Now, a Better App? An Effort to Open Source the City of Dallas.

​Take a moment and peruse the apps listed at CivicApps, a competition launched by the city of Portland last year for which cash prizes were handed out in such categories as Most Useful, Best Use of Data and Most Original. Portland's hardly the only city using apps to make city l-i-v-i-n better. Ne ... More >>

A City (and City Hall) For All: Jason Roberts's Hopes and (Wet) Dreams For Dallas in 2011

​There may have been an Observer staff meeting this year during which Jason Roberts's name wasn't brought up. Maybe one. The rest of the time, we were either talking about Jason Roberts or talking about how we should probably write about Jason Roberts, except that we were over-covering Jason Rober ... More >>

Kids Do Want to Ride Their Bikes to School. But Bike Racks and Safe Streets Would Help.

​Bike-riding the few blocks to F.P. Caillet Elementary back in the day was certainly no big deal -- it certainly wasn't revolutionary, it certainly wasn't news. It's how we got to school. Flash-forward three decades, and our neighborhood -- same one in which I grew up -- stages a Bike to School Da ... More >>

On a Barren Stretch of Arts District Street, the Sudden Creation of the Public Square

​Jason Roberts has a few thoughts about how well yesterday's Arts District Better Block-ing went; there's a highlight below. But long story short: It wasn't just about the food trucks (ate from three, only one of which I'd visit again -- and then, just for the salted-melon snow cone) and the crêp ... More >>

Better Block's Moving From Oak Cliff to the Arts District. And It's Bringing Food. And a Piano.

Better Block​Jason Roberts has uprooted his Better Block-ing from the narrow, pedestrian-unfriendly streets of Oak Cliff and is planting that sumbitch in downtown Dallas -- the Arts District, specifically -- this weekend and this weekend only. (For now.) He directs our attention to this morning's ... More >>

Billy Joel Rocks a Better Block, or: How an Oak Cliff Experiment Is Turning Into a National Movement (and a Website and a Book!)

Billy Joel recently did a version of Oak Cliff's Better Block Project in his hometown of Oyster Bay​This afternoon I stumbled across this website: The Better Block: A Planning Tool for Urban Retrofit . Which, of course, refers to Jason Roberts's twice-executed Oak Cliff experiment in which the peo ... More >>

So Now It's "Blues, Bandits, and BBQ" And Better Block Redux on September 12

Danny Hurley​In late June, the Better Block project -- which, in April, transformed the dangerous intersection of Kings Highway, W. 7th Street and N. Tyler Street into a pedestrian-friendly plaza -- reached the pages of the Houston Chronicle. And, some time after that, it found its way to Anderson ... More >>

Oak Cliff Activists--Between Their Bikes And Gardens And Chickens And Goats--Seek To Redefine Their Community Without Destroying It

Dallas Storms the Bastille in Oak Cliff, Leaving Organizers Très Suprised by Massive Turnout

Jason Roberts, via FlickrEarly in the Bastille-stormingHere's hoping your relationship with Big Chief White Cloud, the god of parking, isn't just one of those Christmas-and-Easter things, because if you intended to get to last night's Bastille Day celebration in Oak Cliff's Bishop Arts District, hav ... More >>

Dude, Sweet Bike Rack! Or: Making Something Brand-New Out of Century-Old Rail Line.

Andrea Roberts​What you see above is the new bike rack in front of Dude, Sweet Chocolate in the Bishop Arts District -- which I mention because, as Bike Friendly Oak Cliff points out this morning, it's made from 107-year-old streetcar rail. So it's, ya know, art. Writes Jason Roberts in the blurb ... More >>

The People's Plaza: Come Fall, That Better Block Experiment in Oak Cliff Will Become Permanent

Danny HurleyWhat it looked like in early April, when Oak Cliff-dwellers took back the street for the Better Block Project​When Jason Roberts first introduced the Better Block Block project in late March, he did so with the caveat that it was "a 'living block' art installation" intended to prove it ... More >>

Something Mysterious is Cooking in Oak Cliff

​North Oak Cliff residents who earlier this year set up a temporary café as an example of how a livable community might look are making their vision more permanent with a new restaurant. The team behind the project - Jason and Andrea Roberts, Eric and Amy Cowan and Eno's founder Matt Spiller ... More >>

Oak Cliff Activists Say Dallas Can Keep its Slogan. They've Got a Better One.

​Says Bike Friendly Oak Cliff and Go Oak Cliff, the slogan you see above is intended to counter the more familiar Dallas motto: "Live Large. Think Big." It's precisely that kind of thinking, writes Jason Roberts, that got the city where it is today, for better or worse. Hence this new slogan, pres ... More >>

In Oak Cliff, Temporarily "Rezoning" Seventh Street to Create a "Better Block"

​Over on Bike Friendly Oak Cliff Friday, Jason Roberts introduced "The Better Block Project" -- or, as he describes it, "a 'living block' art installation" intended to prove it's possible to turn an area zoned "light industrial" into something that's actual livable and walkable. The area will enco ... More >>

Targeting Crime (Stats)

​This morning the city council's Public Safety Committee will take a longer, harder look at the 2009 crime stats. At most meetings, they're just tallied up and dropped into the chart you see up above. But this morning council members will be briefed on the rise and fall of crimes committed within ... More >>

A Lance Armstrong Gateway in the OC?

Courtesy Bike Friendly Oak CliffClick to expand the vision for Bishop Avenue with bike-only lanes between Methodist and Bishop Arts​Another day, another bike plan for Oak Cliff. But Jason Roberts, founder of Bike Friendly Oak Cliff, says the Seventh Street proposal and another for Bishop Avenue ar ... More >>

Dallas' Former Bike Czar Tells Newbie Riders to Go Play in Traffic

Oak Cliff Transit Authority Hopes City Will Still Consider Streetcars on Continental Bridge

​Like we said Friday, once upon a time the city had hoped to turn the Continental Bridge into a streetcar-pedestrian park mash-up -- that conceptual rendering you see above didn't come outta nowhere. But one anonymous $10-million donation later, and, as Jim noted upon his return from City Hall yes ... More >>

So, That Dallas Streetcar Grant Application? It's Really the Oak Cliff Transit Authority, Sorry.

Courtesy the Oak Cliff Transit AuthorityOne of the original streetcars that ran through Oak Cliff long, long agoJason Roberts -- a Happy Bullet, co-founder of the Art Conspiracy, Texas Theater-rehabber and, for the purposes of this item, Oak Cliff Transit Authority board member -- sends word that th ... More >>