Hotel is only part of the solution

Now that the City of Dallas has taken the first giant steps toward the construction of a convention center hotel, someone must realize that this hotel is only part of the solution and is, in and of itself, not going to make Dallas a destination for major conventions.

In my post yesterday I wrote the reason Dallas can't compete with the so-called Tier One convention cities is because Dallas is dull. There is no other way around it. Put yourself in the place of a Dallas conventioneer. Once the day's convention activities are done and you have cleaned up for a night on the town in your downtown convention center hotel, what are you going to do next. Where are you going to go? The best prospects are room service and ordering up a movie in your room.

I'm going to put this assignment square on the shoulders of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau. That is the organization that stumped mightily for this hotel. Now I want to see that organization put together a blueprint for adding some zip to downtown Dallas.

The city's idea of downtown redevelopment involves converting vacant office spaces into residences, trying to lure additional retail businesses and corporate headquarters downtown and adding another rail line or two or three. All that is fine, but it doesn't do anything to add to the excitement value. Downtown Dallas must spring to life when the sun goes down, not go to sleep.

Sure, there are a few options "in the neighborhood"--Victory, possibly, and Uptown. Deep Ellum, if you ask me, is dying. But neither is really within walking distance of the site of the proposed convention center hotel and everyone knows cab service here leaves a lot to be desired. I would not like to be stranded in Uptown anytime after 11 p..m., hoping to flag down a passing taxi. A year or so ago, I was stranded on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf around 10 p.m. and couldn't find a cab and that is far more cosmopolitan than Dallas.

Dallas has some wonderful quirky little theater groups spread out in various places around the city. Someone needs to find downtown space for them and give them incentives to relocate and remain active in downtown. We need to do more to exploit and expand the musical offerings in the Cedars area (DART should provide every conventioneer with a pass that gives them free rail rides between the convention center and the Cedars stations and passes that provide free shuttle service to conventioneers between the proposed hotel and such destinations as the West End, Victory, the Arts District and Uptown) and we need to give nightclubs incentives to locate downtown. The same for restaurants -- and I'm talking about every kind of restaurant, from elite French cuisine and the fine steak houses, through Italian, Chinese, Thai, Tex-Mex, sandwich shops to boutique McDonald's like the ones franchisee Karen Skinner has become known for in this area.

Something needs to be done with the Majestic Theater. That place should be active at least six nights a week, at least 50 weeks a year.

And we need bars. Boy, do we need bars. There are no real general population bars in Dallas. OK, there's Louie's and there's the Inwood Bar & Grill, but is there something like that downtown? Is there a stand-alone Cheers type place where folks can gather for a great drink? (My definition of a great bar, by the way, is any establishment that serves liquor and does not contain a blender.)

So that's the assignment I want someone to take on and I guess the Convention and Visitors Bureau is the logical choice since it has so much to gain by enlivening downtown Dallas. That, combined with the proposed hotel could turn this whole area around, but the hotel by itself is not going to do the trick. It will help, but it won't be the ultimate solution.