{"id":27420,"date":"2025-10-30T06:48:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/27420\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T06:48:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T06:48:06","slug":"dont-let-city-hall-hamper-downtowns-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/27420\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t let City Hall hamper downtown\u2019s future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas has long been a city of vision and ambition. From its iconic skyline to thriving neighborhoods and pioneering businesses, ingenuity and leadership have been the hallmarks of our progress. Today, we must resurrect that same boldness to ensure our central business district doesn\u2019t wither away.<\/p>\n

We recently addressed a group of civic, nonprofit and business leaders who support one of our downtown treasures: Klyde Warren Park. Without any doubt, the trailblazing success of Klyde Warren Park vastly surpassed our collective expectations, both in improving the city\u2019s tax base and in bringing the city together in what has become its town square. <\/p>\n

During this program, there was intense discussion about the lack of strategy and urgency in revitalizing our central business district. There was a collective recognition that we must act now, before the city\u2019s core atrophies further. <\/p>\n

Thankfully, we have seen important recent initiatives in reversing downtown\u2019s decline, including the all-important \u201cSafe in the City\u201d initiative and various incentives for downtown development. <\/p>\n

Opinion<\/p>\n

Get smart opinions on the topics North Texans care about.<\/p>\n

By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n

One critical piece in revitalizing downtown concerns City Hall itself. Although it has long been a downtown landmark, the truth about this building is stark. It\u2019s falling apart. <\/p>\n

With obsolete fire and electrical systems, a deteriorating roof, water seeping into the foundation and a sinking parking garage, the very structure of City Hall is at risk. As city staff recently reported to a council committee charged with evaluating options for City Hall, the tax dollars necessary to make the building viable measure in the hundreds of millions, while the cost of relocating to one of several existing buildings with ample space (a model that other well-run cities are following) would represent a small fraction of the cost of rehabilitating the building. <\/p>\n

And that\u2019s without accounting for the enormous economic development opportunities relocating City Hall presents, particularly as the city embarks on its new multibillion-dollar convention center. <\/p>\n

Vacating this strategically located but underused site would unlock billions in private investment throughout downtown, turn southeast downtown into a vibrant hub of jobs, businesses, and residents, and aid downtown revitalization by filling a currently empty tower. <\/p>\n

Reversing downtown\u2019s decline in this way also would aid important efforts to grow South Dallas, particularly by giving us the boost that is indispensable to revitalizing and creating the all-important corridor from downtown to Fair Park.<\/p>\n

It falls to the City Council to balance the costs and benefits of staying or going. The stakes are high. Relocating city government isn\u2019t just about spending taxpayer money wisely; it\u2019s about saving the heart of downtown. No city can thrive if it allows its core to decline. We must act now before ours declines as well.<\/p>\n

Some may regret losing an iconic building, and we appreciate those sentiments. Preserving a city\u2019s history, though, isn\u2019t about holding onto a crumbling structure that would cost hundreds of millions to rehabilitate. It\u2019s about advancing our civic priorities to ensure our citizens are safe and prosperous. <\/p>\n

The city can\u2019t afford to dally. It\u2019s time to act boldly and urgently, as Dallas acts when it\u2019s at its best.<\/p>\n

Lucy Billingsley is partner at Billingsley Company. Craig Hall is founder and chairman of HALL Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas has long been a city of vision and ambition. From its iconic skyline to thriving neighborhoods and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2353,102,104,103],"class_list":["post-27420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-commentary","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}