This morning, The Wall Street Journal's Ben Casselman is taking four news items concerning Dallas and trying to make of them a trend, which is: We no longer like our cars. First up, the City Plan Commission's attempts today to wrestle with the idea of "form-based zoning," which, as we pointed out last month, is "intended to create opportunities for developers to build the community's vision," so long as it more or less looks like a walkable West Village. Then there's Schutze's buddy Christopher B. Leinberger's report from last year that ranks Dallas near the bottom of the country's 30 most walkable cities.
Then, Casselman mentions last week's I.B.M. study that ranked Dallas as one of the worst cities in which to commute. On top of that, he peeks into The Bubble and brands Highland Park's thoughts about turning Mockingbird Lane into a toll road (probably illegal, by the way) as another example of "congestion pricing," a la NYC's failed attempt at taxing truckers. All of which adds up to one thing, says The Journal: "They’re walking in Dallas." Really? --Robert Wilonsky
