Mary Lou Montes Zijderveld
                             

12/29/03  Who do they think they're kidding?

Just the the same morons who bought the arena propaganda.  Downtown parks are the latest Dallas Managed News promotion.   It's one more round of the favorite anthem of Our Downtown Betters.  You know the chorus --

"Well, no, the last big ticket deal we sold you
Did not deliver  all we promised you,
But, this one will, this one will, this one will --
Give us more of your hard-earned taxes to spend
for another big scheme with no beginning, no end,
and we'll come back for more, we will, we will."

At the risk of being Belo-like, every time DMN runs an editorial or story promoting their Downtown parks (which we can't afford), DallasArena.com will run another piece about why we don't need to build three new campgrounds for Downtown street bums.
 

Not to ignore their historic and traditional significance, but Fair Park and the Cotton Bowl are proven money makers for Dallas taxpayers.   Both facilities are city owned and have paid for themselves over and over -- but the ODB have never allowed City Hall to reinvest those earnings back in the facilities.

Might be just as well.  Look what happened to the Farmers Market when City Hall and former Councilwoman Lordi Palmer messed with that money maker.

During the 2003 Texas/OU game, the toilets stopped working on one side of the stadium.  Both universities want more seats and the Cotton Bowl spruced up and up-dated, but our Mayor says "No".  That's not what Belo wants.

What Belo wants, Belo gets -- and we get to pay for it.  Apparently, their polls show most of us recognize it's a stupid idea to build three new parks Downtown (or anywhere else) when we are not maintaining our current park inventory, the DMN has a public relations campaign to get what Belo wants.
 

Downtown Parks: They're key to region's economic health 12:04 AM CST on Sunday, December 21, 2003

It generally takes more than one flower box to landscape a yard. . . .   Major change is needed to make downtown attractive both for new development and greater use of existing development. This change is important to the city at large for both economic and cultural reasons. The stronger downtown is, after all, the greater the city's tax base, and the healthier our region is overall. . . .  a hefty price tag on developing three parks in the heart of downtown . . .  between $16 million and $21 million. But weighed opposite the economic development that could be generated by the green space ? an estimated $495 million ? the sum becomes the picture of reasonableness.    Indeed, investing some $20 million, plus land acquisition costs, to spur an estimated half-billion dollars in economic development is a no-brainer in most circles.    Some City Council members say they feel a bit overwhelmed by the options and the price tags attached, and, yes, there are a lot of challenges before the council these days ? Fair Park, the Trinity River redevelopment, a downtown hotel and much, much more. But the parks plan is the one plan before the council where the numbers are relatively clear and the prospect for economic return most tangible. . . .

Is that the most outrageous claim you have ever heard?  Waste $16-21 million on "three parks in the heart of downtown", and Belo promises better than 23 times that back in "economic development".  That's a bigger return ratio than the ODB promised for the arena.  Of course, we got a lot less development from the arena than promised, but that's being nit picky. 

If Belo promises, there are those who believe, but it's another Bad Deal for Dallas taxpayers. 

I wish one of our smart real estate readers would tell us how many projects they have developed next to a city park.  There's one city park with a lot of new development around it - Lee Park and Arlington Hall on Turtle Creek.  Those projects were in the works before we were sure we could raise the funds to restore Arlington Hall, but again nit picky details.
 

There is absolutely no instance of economic development directly or indirectly related to a city park -- much less where we would get 23 times our investment in the park .  If we spent $200,000 or even $500,000, using Belo's ratio, we could expect over $11 million in development as a direct result.  Do you really believe that?
 

Remember downtown's displays? 07:16 PM CST on Tuesday, December 23, 2003 By HENRY TATUM / The Dallas Morning News

. . . when I was a child, our family didn't limit our Christmas lights tour to neighborhoods. We also went downtown. That's right, downtown.     We did it for all of the animated figures in the store windows. What stores, you may ask. Well, among others, there were Titche-Goettinger, Sanger-Harris, Volk's, Jas. K. Wilson, E.M. Kahn, Linz, Cokesbury, Irby-Mayes, Woolf Bros. and Neiman Marcus. Only Neiman's still is around and lighted beautifully.    By today's standards, the displays would be pretty tame. But they were magic during my childhood. . . .  It all was fantastic for impressionable young minds. We wouldn't have missed our downtown tour any more than I would have missed Saturday night movies at the downtown theaters when I was a teenager. . . .  I bring up my Christmas memories to remind city officials that downtown Dallas thrived in the earlier days not just because it actually had stores and movie theaters but because it knew how to promote itself.     The Christmas dressing was done to make downtown a destination point, long before competition from the suburbs prompted an exodus of stores and theaters.     Downtown Dallas won't regain any semblance of a retail footing until it becomes a destination point again. That won't come from trying to re-create the Christmas memories of my childhood. But it will come from bringing elements to downtown that generate the same kind of sizzle.    The downtown parks plan, submitted to the Dallas City Council last week, is the best proposal I have seen for accomplishing that. . . .   parks on Main Street next to the historic Municipal Courts Building, adjacent to the old Republic Bank Tower and next to the 70-story Bank of America Plaza.    Think what those parks could look like during the holidays. They could be alive with lights and decorations. But unlike the store windows that brought me downtown in December, the parks would keep the area alive with activity 365 days a year. . . .  they need to do is figure out how to pay for it. But the price tag must not get in the way of a project so important to downtown. . . .

 
I'm not quite as old as Hank, but we are contemporaries and friends.  Since it is highly unlikely the DMN will post my response to Hank's column, here's what I sent to him:
 

I'm all for parks and green space -- natural parks in spaces where Dallas taxpayers have access to them and are not be afraid to use them.

Parks are important components to urban life.  My old Oak Lawn neighborhood had Lee Park on its East End and Reverchon Park on the West, and Turtle Creek was just a couple of blocks South of us.  It was a lovely place to live until it became over-developed.  The density came from the area's proximity to the Park Cities --  not because of the city parks because Lee Park (formerly Oak Lawn Park) and Reverchon were part of Pres. Roosevelt's WPA projects during the Depression.  If that neighborhood's re-development occurred as a result of the parks, it was over 60 years in the works. 

Are we supposed to spend $16-21 Million on new parks and wait 60 years to see if we get results?

This Downtown Park shell game is so silly, it's not funny.  It's blatantly overblown, and deceptive at best. 

Let's see -- we voted on one Trinity Project, but we are not going to get Con Jerk's version because we can't afford it and it wasn't feasible, and the numbers were bogus and so many other reasons.  We are on the 3rd version of the Trinity Project, and we can't afford it either without further neglecting other park properties. 

I still don't know anyone who admits to voting for the original Trinity Project.

Our "back to basics" Mayor is taking us down another expensive rabbit trail with these ridiculous Downtown parks that are going to be havens for street bums and other lowlife.

When the ODB wanted us to lose our minds and go for the 2012 Olympic Summer games, our Mayor debated then County Judge Lee Jackson (big proponent of all things ODB).  She wiped him out, but her best tool was a children's book she had with her called "Give a Mouse a Cookie ...".

The book's basic premise is never give a mouse a cookie, because then he'll want a glass of milk.  Give the mouse a glass of milk, and then he'll want ....

A more Dallas version of that truism would be -- never give the ODB one big ticket project, because then they'll want a bridge.  Give the ODB a string thing bridge, and then they'll want you to pay for something at the end of it ...

Our Mayor needs to find that story book and read it again. 

Parks are not going to bring people back Downtown.  Some people are living Downtown now, but they need places to shop and doctors and dentists.  When Downtown was the hustling, bustling scene from mine and Hank's childhoods, Medical Arts Hospital was right next to Republic Tower.  You could run over on your lunch hour and see your dentist or your doctor or get your eyes examined.  Medical Arts Hospital got demolished so another eventually empty office tower could be built.

Greed killed Downtown.  When Raymond Nasher and others were planning and building office complexes in North Dallas and even out of the city limits, they intended and succeeded in stealing tenants from Downtown without one concern for the consequences to the city.  It is only fair for Raymond Nasher to put his sculpture collection back Downtown, since he was part of the 70's raiders who pillaged Downtown and then turned their back on anything South of Northwest Highway.

Belo talks a good line as a Downtown booster, but they print The Dallas Managed News in Plano. 

When Belo brings that big print and distribution center back inside Dallas city limits, I may be ready to support their three Downtown parks.

The Dallas Managed News did nothing to help the Lee Park Conservancy raise money to restore a CITY-OWNED facility in Oak Lawn.  The Dallas Managed News is doing nothing to encourage just the minimum maintenance at the Cotton Bowl in South Dallas to keep it marketable.  The Dallas Managed News supports destroying the Houston Street viaduct (formerly the Oak Cliff viaduct), which was built in 1912 and connects Downtown to Oak Cliff.

Dallas taxpayers have the same relationship with Belo and The Dallas Managed News as Charlie Brown had with Lucy.  He knew every time she ever held that football she pulled it away just when he ran up to kick, causing him to fall flat on his rear.  Still, every time she later promised to be good, he fell for it and consequently landed on his rear again.

Belo and Our Downtown Betters know full well who they are kidding, and they fully expect to fool enough of us again (or buy enough votes again) when they promote the next big ticket project with another deceptive promise of a windfall for us. 

Like Charlie Brown, we will land on our rears again when Belo talks us into another Bad Deal!

No money for cops and firefighters, but plenty for Belo's 3 parks.