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| The Dallas Arboretum |
As part of this campaign, I always thought one of Dallas’ shamefully overlooked treasures was the Arboretum on the east shore of White Rock Lake. I really believed this facility needed to be marketed nationally so that it became a vacation destination point and a reason to bring tourists to Dallas (where they will spend tax dollars). When I was the head of the East Dallas Chamber of Commerce (then called the Dallas Northeast C of C) I tried to convince the membership to support and work for the installation of highway directional signs on Interstates 30 (at the Grand Ave. Exit) and 635 (at the Garland Road exits) for the Arboretum.
But it now appears the Arboretum is gaining in popularity even without the help of city marketing or local business support. It’s doing it simply on its own. Congratulations and job well done to whomever is handling the Arboretum’s promotions.
However, all the Arboretum’s good work may be undone by a bunch of narrow-minded residents who refuse to accept one simple fact: They live in a a city, a metropolitan area, a major urban environment. These are the same ignorant fools who blocked the construction of a high-rise condominium project a little north of the Arboretum on Garland road that could have had a marvelously positive economic impact on the Garland Road/Grand Avenue corridor, an area that desperately needs an economic shot. These jerks don’t accept the fact that Dallas’ borders are completely closed and the only way the city can grow — the only way it can expand — is by going up!
Now these same idiots are trying to block plans for the Arboretum to add much needed parking to handle the larger crowds expected for some planned new attractions. Their opposition is wrong on so many levels. One of their spokespersons, according to a story on the front page of the Metro section in today’s Dallas Morning News, is one Matt White, identified as an American history professor at Ferris Junior College. (Sorry. I’m not impressed.) White laments the fact, according to the News, that "few pieces of the Texas prairie land, which once stretched along the Interstate 35 corridor from San Antonio to Dallas, exist today." It doesn’t exist in Dallas, prof, because Dallas is a city. I hate to break the news to you, prof, but few pieces of the rolling grasslands that once was the major feature of Manhattan island exist today either. It’s a city now, too. But I can also tell you this, prof: Yesterday and today I took my golden retriever to the prairie land and the woods of Moss Park, an island of wilderness in the middle of a metropolitan area. Yes, I had to drive to Moss, but there are plenty of wilderness experiences in Dallas if you just know where to look (and if you get to them before they build a toll road through them).
But there’s another reason opposing additional parking for the Arboretum is a form of mass suicide. The visitors are going to come, whether the parking lot is built or not. And they will park their cars and walk to the Arboretum. And if there is not a parking lot for them, they will simply go to the other side of Garland road and park all along the streets where the idiots live. Then these two-faced folks will come crying to the City to do something about that and I hope the City has the courage to respond by saying "We tried, but your narrow-mindedness prohibited us from taking care of the problem. Now you gotta live with it."
This area east of White Rock lake is in desperate need of major infrastructure repair. Problem is there’s no money in the city’s coffers to make those repairs. The ironic part of all this is that the residents of the area continue to do everything in their power to keep the city from collecting the money needed to really help this area. Shakespeare would have a field day with these folks.
2 comments:
It's a park, not a wilderness - or parking lot. It's also not Manhattan where folks find ways to avoid cars. Whether or not parking is placed in parking garages, or the city rezones and buys up property to expand parking along Garland Road, or even buries a parking garage in the ground, the self-infliction of lack of vision belongs to the arboretum and planners - not the citizens who enjoy their open and free park and wish to continue to do so.
Buy remote parking from neighboring property owners. Transitioning the city's foremost park for parking is not the solution. Continuing to expand the arboretum is not the answer either. Arboretums are not DisneyLand. They're places of education and cultivation...well,maybe except this one. They keep growing and growing without taking the steps required to handle the expansion except by taking green space in the people's park. They simply expect Parks and the City Council to take care of it. How simply easy that is.
White Rock Lake is a park, not a parking lot. The neighbors are idiots? Sure. Blame them. They just want their park. Others want to use it to expand a facility that continues to fall out of favor by people who love the park. When does that expansion end? I'm absolutely certain they don't know.
Sounds like a shill for the City of Dallas to me. Both Marys, Suhm and Vinegar have had years to come up with better plans that would not compromise the environment and instead went ahead with plans to build the structure at Winfrey Point. Only because the residents filed the FOI were the plans made public. The City Manager and her disastrous plans continue to be revealed because a few residents refuse to 'roll over' and take it. The City along with the Arboretum wants to poor mouth all they want for sympathy but it's not working. Having a self taught botanist to be the spokesperson was also laughable. Another shill trying to spread the City's message.there are plenty of options for this situation but to destroy the environment is not one of them.
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