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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Duncanville’s Main Street has no easy fixes

By Brian Allen of Best Southwest Citizen

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DUNCANVILLE — I think there’s near unanimous agreement that something needs to happen to Duncanville’s Main Street corridor, but city leaders and business owners are miles apart on what that is.

On June 3 the city council voted to direct staff to prepare ordinances for a comprehensive use plan for the area. It envisions a pedestrian-driven model that could benefit from rail transit. City Manager Kent Cagle said rail transit is not a must for this comprehensive plan, however.

Several business owners spoke about not feeling involved in the process, or believing the council would do as it wished without taking citizen input into account.

Dan Jespersen, one of Main Street’s mainstays at Ben Franklin Apothecary said he had gotten answers to many of his questions. But he acknowledged that relationships hadn’t been forged with business owners that will need to buy into the plan for it to work.

Councilman Paul Ford, who cast the lone vote against the ordinances, said the renderings brought forth by consultant Scott Polikov would be more at home in Dallas.

The city council’s in an unfortunate fix. Many business owners along Main Street are against the plans on the table now, largely because they don’t feel they were included in the debate.

Others like real estate whiz Monte Anderson (who brought Main Station to Duncanville) think the work of Polikov could transform downtown. The council must balance the thoughts of the comparatively few people that came to council chambers with those of the thousands that take no involvement in the process.

Because one thing all sides agree on is a need to make Main Street a destination. Former mayor Glenn Repp said the Main Street Vision was about getting the people that pass Duncanville on Highway 67 and Interstate 20 to stop in town.

Stay tuned, or better yet get involved in the process yourself.


Pegasus News content partner - Best Southwest Citizen

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Comments

Robert Kelly

Robert Kelly Verified

The easy fix is to rename main street cesar chavez blvd. then all the problems will magically disappear!!

2 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

chrisdanger Anonymous

As a former Duncanite, This has been a sore spot for this city for years. Main Street, save a few businesses is an eyesore. Im all for serious redevelopment and bringing in new business, which duncanville sorely needs.

2 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

anichols Anonymous

I have been a resident of Duncanville all my life minus the time I was in college.
This town has become more of an eyesore in the past few years than ever before.
Major reconstruction of this town needs to be down to draw in young families & a good image to this town starting with Main Street.

2 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

interestedcitizen Anonymous

Everybody's copying each other. Towns are offering generic solutions, and generic solutions aren't intersting.

The problem is that cities don't have a soul anymore. They don't have groups of writers and thinkers that gather spontaneously to exchange ideas. They don't have musicians and artists. They don't have groups of technical geeks who get together to tinker and explore ideas and show off inventions. People in small towns nowadays, just stay there. They live and work and do things elsewhere.

That is one possible blessing with high gas prices. Maybe, instead of going somewhere else to find excitement or consume entertainment, people will start living where they live. They don't have to be someone else. They just have to be who they are.

2 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

David Goodspeed Verified

Funny, I remember once upon a time when DART came looking for a sales tax hike to put trains and buses in our little town. A resounding "NO" was the answer. The quiet whispers had folks worried that mass transit would bring "undesirables" to town. The no apparently did not work. We got crime, we got killings, we got pit bulls. We have to put our lives on hold every afternoon when school lets out as "all hands on deck" surround the high school (and now middle schools) for the daily fight clubs. We got empty beer bottles laying right in front of the post office door. Now, who are we still trying to keep out again?

2 months, 1 week ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )

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