Dallas in October part 1: The city
 

In October I was in Dallas for a transportation planning conference. I'd never visited Dallas before, so it was an interesting chance to see the city. Here are my photos, with a few thoughts attached.

Downtown:

I was surprised to not find any part of downtown Dallas where there seemed to be a critical mass of cafes, shopping, or nightlife. Maybe I just missed that street (I didn't have a local to tell me where to go). Not that I expected Manhattan, but I did maybe expect it to be more like downtown Denver.














I love this:




You'll see more light rail in part 2.




The park-built-atop-a-highway is nice.










Uptown:

I asked several Dallas natives where they'd live if they wanted to be in a walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood, and every one of them to a tee listed Uptown as their top preferred answer. Naturally, I went to check that out.

It's a pretty fascinating place, simply because it's so new. It appears that a lot of the recent urban-format residential infill in Dallas has gone to uptown. I don't know what it looked like 20 or 50 years ago, but it's clear that it's a lot different today than it was in the 20th Century--in a good way. Oh, it's still transitioning. I still saw a lot of surface parking lots, especially at things like grocery stores that are typically slower to welcome urban-format layouts. But it's clearly in the middle of a seismic shift.

Actually, more than anything, Uptown reminds me of Arlington, VA: Clearly this was suburban a generation ago, but there's been enough recent infill that it doesn't feel that way any more. And it's legit urban infill, not an isolated new urbanist town center.






Nice details for a recently-built building:






Deep Ellum:

I'd heard of Deep Ellum before arriving, and expected it to be the answer to my question from above. Nobody said Deep Ellum, which surprised me. When I finally went there, I understood why nobody said it: It's walkable, but it's mostly commercial. Nobody said it because people *go* there, but not a lot of people *live* there.






The Cedars:


I stayed in an Airbnb in The Cedars neighborhood just east of downtown, which clearly used to be the ghetto but is now transitioning to be more middle class. This was my street, one block from a light rail station. The modern rowhouses are interesting and were nice inside, but the giant garages and gated entry were off-putting.




Texas State Fair:

Now this place is cool. Art-deco with a western flair. This was the highlight of the city for me.




















This seems... unintentionally appropriate.




Only in Texas (and maybe Detroit) does the artwork glorify cars.




We do get trains too.




See you in part 2.

Great pictures!

Downtown Dallas is teetering on the edge of reawakening. The neighborhoods surrounding downtown seem to be in good shape though. It's like a big donut right now.

The Esplanade at Fair Park is one of my favorite places.

Dallas Dallas I sing for you. You are an amazing city for pure business, what a southern giant!

Nice job, thanks for the tour. I love checking up on Dallas every once in a while. It still looks a little behind on the ball on the great inversion trend. But, there is a decent amount bubbling up underneath the surface. It will be interesting city to watch over the next 10-15 years.

Really enjoyed this! Thanks!

Great photos, great light.

I've been to Dallas 5 or 6 times and still never managed to make it over to Fair Park. My loss, obviously.

I liken Dallas to sort of a mega version of Charlotte, and I know that's not an ideal comparison, but they both feel very similar to me. New, shiny, and moderately interesting at points.

Ft. Worth (at least downtown) on the other hand, feels very different, and more like you would expect a medium sized SW city to feel like.

In all fairness, I have not been to Dallas since 2008.

Great shots of Dallas! Enjoyed this tour. Thanks for sharing your pictures and information about your visit.

Congrats and greetings from Madrid, Spain.:tup:

thanks for the pics. I see some nice new stuff since I was last there 6 years ago.

this.

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Great shots.

Main Street and Commerce Street between Griffin and Harwood are going to be where most of the downtown life is found. There's a small pocket around Dealey Plaza/West End that will get better as that area of downtown continues to re-image itself (it used to be much more happening 20-30 years ago).

Deep Ellum has quite a bit of housing and office space, it's just non-traditional so it's not typically seen by the regular eye. Lots of co-op and loft space. There's a lot of big projects for housing starting now including a high-rise apt building at Hall and Main/Elm and a large hotel/office/housing development is going in at Elm and Good-Latimer. Quite a bit of housing in that area is actually in the adjacent Farmer's Market District which is an easy and interesting (art-filled) two block walk to Commerce Street.

Uptown is really nice and is changing a lot. You will have the urban/semi-urban mixed development there for a long time as the zoning is mixed-density. The intersection at McKinney Ave and Lemmon Ave is the least urban area of the neighborhood. West Village, State-Thomas, etc are very walkable, urban and vibrant. State-Thomas being my favorite area in Central Dallas.

Fair Park ...This is the largest collection of art deco architecture in the U.S. (I believe). Besides the state fair taking place there, you can visit year-round as there's several museums and performing arts venues. This was pretty much the arts district before the new one formed downtown on Flora Street.

Next trip, be sure to check out Knox-Henderson, Oak Lawn/Turtle Creek, Lower Greenville and the Bishop Arts District/North Oak Cliff. Lots of character in those areas!

Nice pictures! Looking forward to more!

Well done.

i've been out here for about 6mo now and went out to lower greenville with a work buddy - it was hopping today in the 70 degree weather. i keep trying to draw comparisons with atlanta, and va-highland seemed to be the closest approximation i could come up with.

dallas is a pretty nice place to be. i'm enjoying fort worth (closer to work afterall) but dallas seems to be where it's at. enjoyed white rock lake a lot, and the gay district around cedar springs has been a lot of fun too.

Yes, Lower Greenville is most definitely the Va-Hi of Dallas. Especially on the North end in the M Streets area at Greenville and McCommas. Having the Granada Theater, Food Truck Yard and a Trader Joes gives Lower Greenville a bit different of a vibe, but I totally see the similarities. Even the housing is somewhat similar as you tend to see more craftsman style homes in those residential areas on that side of Dallas.

The Cedar Springs strip in Oak Lawn was voted #1 gayborhood in the U.S. a year or so ago. It is a lot of fun. :tup:

Cool pics! I had to travel to Dallas late last year for work, it was my first time to there but not my first time to TX. It was okay but I am not sure I could live there. I really liked Uptown and Turtle Creek.

I felt that way also but I like Charlotte a little more.

Cirrus, I know you were just a tourist passing through, but do you by chance have any more information about this building below? It is one of the best reproductions of classic style that I've ever seen, and I think it's brilliant. I mean, plop that in the middle of The Strand in London and you wouldn't have a clue it wasn't 150 years old.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1608/2...37904d78_b.jpg

Well here it is on Google Maps. It seems to be called "West Village" or possibly Lennox at West Village (I'm not sure whether the "Lennox" includes this part of the building or not).

I agree it's very well-done.

The State Fairgrounds shots were excellent!

So much more needs to be done to promote walkability in downtown Dallas....

Thanks for the extra info! That whole area is quite well done for a new development. Very interesting stuff.

yep totally agree with these recs. i would add if you take the mckinney trolley you can stop off to eat/drink a lot of places. also, i would say that lower greenville strip is even fairly hipsterish, for example, so there is that too here and there. i find downtown dallas is constantly evolving and slowly, but steadily filling in and being more pedestrian friendly, but yes they have a ways to go. its nothing like ft worth that is for sure, which is more traditional, but there is nothing wrong with that. i find downtown dallas to be gearing up to be a reallllly big city someday.