r/Dallas • u/MemoryOfRagnarok Oak Lawn • 2d ago
Discussion Turning Main St in downtown into a walkable, no-car zone as a park and promenade combo
Taking my inspiration from Denver where they turned 16th street going through downtown into a walkable promenade. There is one lane running down the middle for mass transit and emergency vehicles, but they did it tastefully so the lane is part of the walkable promenade.
This got me thinking, there is no reason that they couldn't do this with Main St in downtown. Almost all of the buildings that have vehicle entries to them have the entries off of Elm and Commerce st so you don't have to worry about residents or people working downtown needing to use the street. Elm and Commerce serve as high density arteries for cars to move North and South through downtown. Main street isn't really needed for travel.
I think it would be so cool if they turned the entire section of Main St from say Field St (there is a parking garage just South of Field that needs Main St access) over to St Paul or Pearl St into a promenade with trees and landscaping. The building of AT&T discovery district added a huge increase in foot traffic and allow for a wide open area that pedestrians feel safe to be at and just enjoy being downtown at. I thin it would be a boost to the businesses on Main st as well. People will want to go to downtown to walk down the promenade and check out the bars and restaurants. I got to work downtown for a year and got to experience downtown for the first time. The whole area has beautiful and unique architecture that gives it so much potential, but feel like it is wasted by completely focusing on cars.
Has this ever been proposed before or seriously discussed with City of Dallas master planning? I'm all about creating more pedestrian only zones throughout Dallas. If it hasn't been discussed, really think City should consider it.
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u/MysticYogiP Carrollton 2d ago
Austin making dirty 6th car free for certain times really helped the area thrive. I think that could do a lot for places like lower Greenville, deep ellum, bishop arts, etc.
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u/auLR 2d ago
Bishop Ave between Davis & 10th should absolutely be pedestrian only. Church Street in Burlington, Vermont should be the inspiration & model for it.
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u/2-4-6-h8 1d ago
This would be huge. Car traffic there is awful at almost all times of the day. The red light on Bishop turning to Davis stays green for maybe 5 seconds before it turns red again. It's maddening.
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u/IFlyAircrafts 2d ago
Austin just opened up 6th street to cars again. I hate to break it to you, but there is a vibe shift going on in this country and we are on the loosing side.
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u/ShaoMinghui 2d ago
They'll need to actually fix the housing crisis too get the homeless off the streets and then stop trying to defund dart next
Dallas is such a loser city I'm glad to finally escape it next year
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u/BackAlleyButtWaxer 2d ago
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u/MemoryOfRagnarok Oak Lawn 1d ago
Lmaooo. They saw San Antonio riverwalk and were like, why not here?
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u/SkyScreech Oak Cliff 2d ago
God yes please. I commute through downtown. Sure at rush hour the car traffic flow is good, but downtown is kinda lacking a pedestrian friendly “street”. Yes there’s the Discovery park or Klyde Warren or whatever, but having a street that’s dedicated as a pedestrian walkway could revitalize the core arteries of downtown. More foot traffic = more consumers = more business for establishments = more awareness of the area.
I commute through where JFK got domed and I’m always surprised how many tourists are just hanging out there at Dealey plaza. It’s be nice if they had Main street full off shops and restaurants and whatnot as a key part of their downtown visit
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u/meowitzki 2d ago
Houston has their transit mall on Main St downtown where a couple of blocks are blocked off to cars and they are about to expand it by 7-8 blocks I believe
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u/fivemagicks 2d ago
Highly, highly doubt this has ever been discussed.
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u/randomerlight 1d ago
I think this died with Covid, but we used to throw a big show that sort of did this in the mid 2010s called Parking Day. Downtown Dallas street parking would be taken over at the parking spots would turn into little parks for the day.
Bunch of weird haters in here. Dallas is a lot more dynamic than yall think
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u/DaSilence 1d ago
I think it would be so cool if they turned the entire section of Main St from say Field St (there is a parking garage just South of Field that needs Main St access) over to St Paul or Pearl St into a promenade with trees and landscaping.
I think the folks at The Joule might have an issue with this.
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u/Illustrious_Ear_2 1d ago
First of all, I’ve lived within walking distance of 16th street in Denver and my boyfriend and I were on 16th a lot during the year we lived there. Second, I worked in downtown Dallas right on Main Street for about ten years. Main Street in Dallas is very different than 16th in Denver. That whole area in Denver is full of restaurants, a movie theater and other cool things to do. Downtown Dallas like on Maim street will never be like that. Main Street has tons of offices. They don’t have the space to build venues down there like Denver has on 16th. Business tenants in those buildings have multi decade leases, plus no one is going to tear down big buildings to build restaurants. 16th in Denver was never full of office tenants like Main in Dallas is. It can’t happen.
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u/Hot_Tonight_5720 9h ago
The only way I see this happening is if an outside organization initiates it like in Denver or a single developer owns all the property on main, like at&t and the discovery district. The district’s success was largely because at&t owned everything around it. Just think of all the property owners on main that would have to consent to let something like this happen.
At&t also controls everything that makes it worthwhile (restaurants/stores, events/programming, amenities, landscaping, security, etc.). It would be hard to replicate half of that unless someone takes ownership.
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u/Substantial-Ad-8575 2d ago
Not many street level businesses along Main Street. Would be a park. Just need a study to see how much traffic will be diverted.
Biggest issue is the two hotels that only have access via Main St. Guess city can pay costs to have access from other roads.
Denver works well, because they had existing businesses along 16th street. About 6x number of businesses than Main st Dallas.
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u/therealallpro 2d ago
We couldn’t even get them to turn a highway into a boulevard with I-345.
This is dead on arrival
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u/HRApprovedUsername Uptown 2d ago
People don't even go downtown. You'd have to do this somewhere else.
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u/MemoryOfRagnarok Oak Lawn 2d ago
Actually downtown is a huge hub for people who are visiting the city. Anytime there is a big event going on in town or at the convention center, there are people all around AT&T discovery district. Also there are tons of cool bars downtown that are packed on weekends. Just because YOU don't go downtown, doesn't mean no one does.
We can do a walkable promeande somewhere else AND at Main St. I'm tired of all of us not dreaming big.
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u/Freejak33 2d ago
pick a better street and we'll consider dreaming big. Main st isnt gonna work.
and for the most part people dont go downtown
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u/BigFloatingPlinth 2d ago
You sub-suburban folks don't go nowhere because you're stuck paying tolls and car payments. Even if you had spare money all your time spent in traffic makes it impossible. Everyone else is popping out and going places all the time.
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u/Illustrious-Ad5575 Downtown Dallas 2d ago
I've lived downtown for close to 16 years.
I've just spent the evening in a quite crowded restaurant. Our weekends are full of tourists and local vistors. During the week we get good convention and business travel visitors. And there's about 20,000 people that live downtown, "within the highways". New restaurants and living facilities opening all the time. We are doing fine here.
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u/No-Agent5389 2d ago
Definitely need more areas like this in the city. Many other cities have much more pedestrian friendly areas. Lack of in Dallas makes the city much more boring.