I’m a proud TCU alum and avid Horned Frogs fan - I even used to work in City Hall for the City of Ft. Worth.  While I spent a lot of time boosting Ft. Worth (and, I’ll admit, occasionally disparaging Dallas), good things can and do happen there, too.  

For Example: an innovative and inspiring project (movement?) taking place on the other end of the Metroplex in a neighborhood called Oak Cliff – specifically, North Oak Cliff.   A few years ago, Oak Cliff was consistently mentioned in a list of places to avoid in Dallas.  You drove through – if absolutely necessary – but didn’t stop…and really, driving through wasn’t all that advisable, or so we were told.

Oak Cliff is an old neighborhood just south of downtown Dallas.  Full of  pre-WWII and mid-century homes, its location is also quite convenient to…well…all sorts of things, but perhaps most significantly the central business district.  With relatively low housing costs, and short commute times, close-in neighborhoods all over the country have experienced renaissances at various times, usually driven by young professionals and older hipsters looking for a urban feel in someplace besides New York.  Oak Cliff, too, is in the midst of its own renaissance – bootstrapped by some dedicated relative new-comers and some long-time residents who are carving out a name for their community based on tenacity, energy, and creativity.

You just have to check out the “Better Block Project” for yourselves.  The first project created a pop-up demonstration of what is possible: street-scaping, outdoor cafes, public art…the things that make PLACE matter.  They’re getting national coverage as a result (and deservedly so).  They intend to go again with a second project:  this time, a whole plaza, and the idea continues to draw ever-widening attention.  Dallas is even looking into making some of these improvements permanent.

Here’s the “After” and “Before” of the first Better Block Project demonstration on 7^th Street in Oak Cliff:

Image from CooltownStudios blog:  http://www.cooltownstudios.com/2010/04/27/crowdsourced-street-to-become-permanent

The project’s founders are central to Go Oak Cliff – a local community development not-for-profit, where they have included a page on How to Build a Better Block – taking the framework that made the first project a success and breaking it down into a brief “how-to” for the rest of us.

This is Economic and Community development 101:  involving the community in finding new ideas (in this case, a return to some old ideas!) about how to make a place vibrant and attractive again…thinking differently about the assets and resources available, and getting something done instead of waiting on “them” to come around and fix the problems.  It is art, culture, community development, urban planning, business development, and FUN rolled into one. And – proof positive – it works.  Vacant properties were used to become art galleries in the demonstration project with the blessings of their current owners.  Afterwards, “…immediately following our original better block, these vacant spaces were leased.”

Well done, Oak Cliffers.  Well done.