New Trolley Turnabout Coming to West Village

PCC Car in San Francisco

A new turnabout in West Village will allow the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority to begin running PCC cars from Toronto. Currently only double-ended cars run on the line connecting the Art Museum with the West Village. The turntable also is being constructed adjacent to m DART’s Cityplace West subway entrance. It's expected to be a tourist attraction, as well as a practical tool to re-orient the streetcars. A recent article in the Dallas Morning News compared it to Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco. Efforts are also under way to loop the streetcars through the Dallas Arts District.

The PCC name comes from the design committee formed in 1929 representing the Presidents of various electric street railways. The Electric Railway Presidents’ Conference Committee, or ERPCC, was tasked with producing a new type of streetcar that would help fend off competition from buses and automobiles. It hasn't quite lived up to that task, but is currently helping provide alternatives to automobile use. 

Studies have shown a positive impact on real estate values from streetcar systems.

Suburban Philadelphia Trolleys (PA) (Images of Rail)
Pittsburgh Streamlined Trolleys (PA) (Images of Rail)
San Francisco's Market Street Railway (CA) (Images of Rail)

The Price of a Nice Townhome in the Suburbs

I still remark when I see the real estate listing prices for the townhomes in Southlake Town Center. Granted, they are very attractive and Southlake (with the possible exception of Grapevine which has a slightly higher walk score) is probably the most walkable area in the Mid Cities.  The prices, however approach a $1,000,000. That does get you an impressive four or five bedroom home with little in the way of exterior maintenance in a nice area, but you could buy a three bedroom stand-along home near downtown Grapevine in the low $200,000. 

The look of the community in Southlake is the model of the future, however. My guess is they'll be making  units that are smaller and more affordable. That will help achieve the density necessary to make self-sustaining neighborhoods. Neighborhoods like Grapevine will also begin looking more to this model. Grapevine will before long have the advantage of a rail connection to Fort Worth and DFW airport. Public transit is an obvious missing component to these new urban neighborhoods in North Texas. 

175 Summit Avenue, Southlake TX 76092

1506 Main Street, Southlake TX 76092

(Reprint) 1985 Yearbook: Carroll High School, Southlake, Texas
(Reprint) 1969 Yearbook: Carroll High School, Southlake, Texas
(Reprint) 1986 Yearbook: Carroll High School, Southlake, Texas

The Urban Neighborhoods of Dallas

Victorian-Era Home in Dallas

Dallas has a history stretching back to the mid- 19th Century, but the boom of the 1980s seems to have changed it forever. The metropolitan area is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States. It's also the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.

Given its also located on a prairie without geographic confines or natural barriers, its a wonder there are any skyscrapers ar anything that grew to reflect in some way the typical notion of a city with a downtown core surrounded by neighborhoods. But its my understanding that has been the criticism of Dallas, that there's no downtown. It's also one the city is working hard to overcome. 

The area is undergoing a transition as dozens of residential conversions and new high rise condos bring more permanent residents downtown. The number of residents downtown has doubled in the last decade to reach just shy of 30,000. Moreover the nearby neighborhood of Oak Lawn has had a ten percent increase in population since 2000 and has about 40,000 residents. 

Buildings in Downtown Dallas

An improvement over Oak Lawn is an area on the opposite side of Turtle Creek/Katy Trail known as Uptown. The number of vacant lots here is far fewer and the neighborhood is both more walkable, without the pedestrian threats of busy streets such as Lemmon and Oak Lawn Avenue which cut through the neighborhood of Oak Lawn. 

Most of the buildings in downtown Dallas and the surrounding neighborhoods are from the past 40 years. It's also apparent from the buildings the area has become more dense over time. In the example of Oak Lawn, there are scattered single-family homes from the period of 1910-1930 around on large lots. One can assume the area was once primarily filled with these "streetcar suburb" type homes. As they have been demolished, apartment and condominium complexes have been filled in, in many cases without much thought towards planning. Instead of facing the street, many are lined along a narrow alleyway and sit four deep on the lot. 

I've long been an advocate of an organic building process that lets structures be replace piecemeal slowly, but the two neighborhoods give me pause. It seems clear that in the uptown area, structures have been cleared and replaced in large sections. The result is a better consistency and street scape. Of course this would not be the case if the structures had been replaced with the same type of structures, or at least the same orientation.

The other interesting neighborhood is known as State Thomas, which according to Wikipedia contains the largest collection of Victorian-era homes remaining in Dallas. These are mixed in with a variety of very attractive newer condominium buildings, with commercial uses such as restaurants mixed in. 

Another neighborhood that has been brought to my attention is known as Oak Cliff. It seems to have a number of advocates out there. I paid a visit myself and from my initial inspection, I can say with relative certainty the Wikipedia statement about State Thomas is not at all accurate. Perhaps it would be true should you add the word "restored" before "Victorian-era." 

From what I know, these neighborhoods, plus downtown are the most urban neighborhoods in the city. With a little luck, one of them will soon be home.