The Arts District, “Not a Way of Life”?

How appropriate: On the very day the Dallas City Council’s Quality of Life Committee will discuss the Arts District Master Plan — or, more specifically, the Dallas Arts District Strategic Assessment and Action Plan — Architectural Record weighs in with an overview of the project due to be finished come October. Hate to provide the spoiler, but the most interesting tidbit from the AR round-up is found near the end:

Many hope the district will evolve into a pedestrian neighborhood of mixed-uses and artistic synergies in the middle of sprawl-laden Dallas. Arts district boosters say that having a public high school helps make the area an active community; housing and retail development should also prevent the district from becoming a cultural ghetto that empties out when the theaters are dark. But [Allied Works’ Brad] Cloepfil says it might be misguided to expect Jane Jacobs-style urbanism to sprout in north Texas, and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Dallas might have to accept the arts district as a successful destination, not a way of life.