Spending an uneventful weekend in Plano with Collin County Republican

by Scot Walker of Collin County Republican

Last weekend, I had a friend from out of town visit me. We were two married men with kids who wanted to relive the glory days of our youth and go out on the town and party. Since I rarely go out anymore to places that don't have either a giant animated mouse or a bounce house, I didn't really know where to take him.

I knew I wanted to get something to eat, maybe see a movie, get some drinks and see some live music, preferably jazz. So I went to my laptop and started searching for venues in Plano, where I live.

I started off with Shops At Legacy. I figured I could ignore their ban on Christmas tree lighting ceremonies for this one time since it was a special occasion.

There are lots of restaurants there, so the food was covered. I had several different kinds of foods to choose from, at different price ranges. This was great.

There is a movie theatre there too, so I checked to see what time the #1 movie started, Watchmen. Unfortunately, Angelika Film Center is an art house movie theatre, which means it doesn't show the blockbuster movies. It shows independent movies. Watchmen isn't showing at Angelika. Well, I guess we could go eat at Shops At Legacy and then cruise over to Stonebriar in Frisco to see the movie.

OK, after the movie, how about a bar with maybe a jazz trio to sit back and have some drinks and talk about old times with my friend. We could go back to Shops At Legacy. No can do. No live music, no jazz, no bars. Hmm. Well, I guess we could go down the North Dallas Tollway to North Dallas or Addison for some live music and drinks. There's a movie theatre down that way too, along with restaurants. Shoot, why not just go there and spend the whole evening? That's what we did.

Why is Plano compelling me to spend my entertainment dollars in other cities? It's 2009, why can't I go to Shops At Legacy, or Downtown Plano for that matter, see a blockbuster movie, get dinner, see some live music, play some billiards, maybe do some dancing with my wife on the rare date night?

Why doesn't Plano have an entertainment district? There are two obvious locations for this already built – Shops At Legacy and Downtown Plano.

Downtown Plano doesn't even have a movie theatre. Why not? It desperately needs an anchor. I'm sorry, but a cute little boutique with antiques isn't a big draw for me. Restaurants are scattered all over North Texas. Why do I need to go out of my way to go to Downtown Plano for food? What makes it special?

Shops At Legacy has plenty of food and even has a movie theatre, but the movies Angelika shows are not popular so people go to Stonebiar across the street, and there's no live music, no pool tables, no bars.

Somebody in Plano needs to take the initiative on this issue and make some changes to the laws on food an alcohol sales. Plano has a multimillion dollar deficit and there are millions of Plano resident dollars being spent in other cities for no reason at all.

Plano should have bars. It doesn't because of a food requirement by the city. There used to be a nice bar in Shops At Legacy called Martini Park. They couldn't sell enough food so they closed their doors. This is insane.

We are wasting millions of dollars to have a DART light rail station in Downtown Plano but we haven't given the folks who live south of us a reason to come up to Plano. With a rail station, Downtown Plano should be a regional destination where people want to go to. There isn't anything there that isn't anywhere else.

Plano has been focused on making the light rail successful by trying to jack up the residential density around that area. What they should have been doing all along is making that area an entertainment district where people from all over Plano would want to go to.

I should be able to travel to Downtown Plano or Shops At Legacy and see a blockbuster movie, have a great dinner, see some live music, do some dancing, even go to a comedy club.

Why can't I do that? Why must I drive to another city and give them my dollars?

And while we are on the subject of me giving other cities my sales tax dollars, let's stop this nonsense of giving The Colony millions in liquor sales. Plano should start selling liquor. There's no logical reason not to. Plano residents are buying liquor and drinking it in their homes. Why make them drive to The Colony to buy it and give up that sales tax revenue? Again, this is insane. Maybe at some point in the future we can become truly civilized and I can buy tequila for my margaritas in the same grocery store where I'm buying my steaks.

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Jason Rice says:

::Downtown Plano doesn't even have a movie theatre

It has multiple performance venues instead.

Try live theater, man. I think it's more fun than canned cross-promo market-blitz mega-chartbuster pablum. I mean, do you really need entertainment that was formulated to sell you a new car with heated seats and a matching insulated themed lunch bag with color-coordinated zero-calorie vitamin energy sports drink?

And what is it about people always complaining about places they WANT to live not selling liquor.... "when you can just walk down the street and buy it" ... in places they DON'T want to live. (Cause? Effect? Am I on Mars, here?)

"Oh, but a liquor store in MY back yard won't be a slovenly rundown eyesore with dangerous types hovering about."

This confuses me. (But then, so does most of my daily life)

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8 months, 1 week ago
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Scot Walker says:

It's a silly, pretentious point of view that all live theatre is good and all film, or all popular film, is bad. Most live theatre on the community stage level is bad, from my own personal experience of acting in them, but maybe it was just me.

I love performing arts, but I was in the mood for a movie.

But you are missing the point - the point is you can't force the public to do what you think they should be doing. If you don't build what the public wants, they will go someplace else. This is the problem with the old downtown Plano area.

Plano is giving millions and millions of dollars in tax payer money to try to revitalize that area of town and have failed. My point is if they put what the public wants in that area, the city wouldn't still be subsidizing that area.

It's Retail 101 to have an anchor to attract people and downtown Plano doesn't have one. What is so special about that area that would make someone who lives at Coit and Parker go there?

Angelika has a tax abatement of 50%. Why? Because they show movies that don't make a lot of money. So Plano is purposely sending people to other areas and getting a lot less sales tax revenue because of it.

"And what is it about people always complaining about places they WANT to live not selling liquor.... "when you can just walk down the street and buy it" ... in places they DON'T want to live. (Cause? Effect? Am I on Mars, here?)"

Have you ever been to Addison or The Colony? I don't see this cause and effect you are talking about.

I lived in California for years. And even though every single grocery store sells liquor, I never saw any drunks hanging out in the parking lot. They are grocery stores just like ours, except they have an aisle with liquor. Wow. How controversial! :)

I want to live in Plano because of the excellent schools, the low crime rate, the convenient shopping located near me, and the easy access to four expressways (DFW Airport is now a 20 minute drive on 121). Selling liquor wouldn't change any of that.