Dallas residents create complete street

Draws nationwide attention

Steve Hawley, Apr 28, 10.

In two days, residents of the Oak Cliff neighborhood in Dallas transformed a run-down local street into a vibrant complete street, according to Streetsblog. The change is only temporary, but city transportation officials who witnessed the transformation are considering making it permanent.

Streetsblog reports:

With about a thousand bucks and some elbow grease, neighborhood residents transformed a rundown city block for two days, creating a vibrant streetscape — a truly complete street. They painted a cycle track, opened a pop-up café in an empty storefront, put up some outdoor seating and calmed traffic. It’s a brilliant example of how, with a minimal amount of money and a full commitment from the community, places can be transformed quite literally overnight, revealing a wealth of untapped economic and social potential.

Organizer Jason Roberts said, “We’ve got the first complete street in Dallas…. It didn’t cost millions of dollars. We didn’t have to hire consultants from other faraway places to make this happen. It took us a day. And all we did was slow the street down. We made room for everybody. For cars, for people, for bicyclists.… We’ve changed the psychology of the street.”

The project drew national attention, and Go Oak Cliff has been asked to re-create the Better Block event in two other Texas cities. The Congress for the New Urbanism will feature the project next month at its 18th annual exposition in Atlanta.

Go Oak Cliff, a community organization, provides tips for those wanting to re-create its success, including:

- Identify a location with a block of buildings that has a good pedestrian form, but lacks a complete street. Typically pre-war built areas, or former streetcar intersections.

- Assemble team of grassroots community activists, artists, and DIY’ers. If possible, work with existing area non-profit leaders or organizers (Community Gardens groups, local volunteer corps, etc.)

- Latch the Better Block to an existing event, such as an art crawl, ciclovia, fun run, et cetera.

- Work with area property owners to allow access to vacant spaces for a weekend.
...
- Create groups to develop and install temporary “pop-up” businesses to show the potential for what could be if the street had a more inviting presence.
...
- Include as many people-friendly aesthetics.
...
- Promote throughout the neighborhood, city, and more. Send fliers to local universities, schools, and more.

- You’ll more than likely need a permit to close a portion of the street.
...
- Invite your Mayor, council members, city staff, so they can see the possibilities for themselves.

Below is a video of the event, re-posted from Go Oak Cliff.

More from Megaregion

Comments

Page 1 of 1 pages