This past weekend I went to Dallas for the ACP College Media Convention where we covered topics ranging from opinion writing, to media law and ethics, to leadership development, and so on. Having said that, this blog entry is not about the convention. It’s about Dallas.

Dallas has the most empty downtown area I have ever seen. Perhaps there are other downtowns that are emptier, but I was shocked to see how few people were out there during weekday business hours. At some point during the convention one of the attendees was complaining about Dallas. A Dallas native turned to him to proudly claim her Dallashood, to which I responded by asking her if their downtown was always this dead. Her response: yes, it is. I rest my case.

No, actually, I don’t rest my case.

The dilemma of a dead downtown led me to wonder what the future looks like for Dallas and how it can get there. There are at least a few challenges to a bright future that were quite apparent during my trip:

• According to the Dallas Morning News, the crime rate in the downtown area is extremely high. As empty as the area is, it’s worth mentioning that the numbers are probably highly skewed due to a low residency rate. Nontheless, the arrogance I encountered among the local vagrants on the DART light rail system gave a bit of a clue as to how much free reign these folks have in the area.
• While DART was an incredibly convenient system to use, the ticketing system was very confusing for tourists, one of the key constituencies that are needed to liven up downtown. While on the one hand, if you ride a certain distance you have to get a “2 Zone Pass,” there are really no signs that adequately indicate what constitutes a 1 zone ride or a 2 zone ride.
• The Trinity Rail Express (TRE), a commuter train that operates between Dallas and Fort Worth (with a connection to the airport) does not operate on Sundays or holidays. So for anyone — like us poor college students with limited budgets — who have to leave a convention on a Sunday and get back to the airport, we have to scrimp around for some kind of transportation. There were no low-cost alternatives.
• It’s also worth noting that the same ticketing confusion exists on the TRE system, only worse. You know what’s really odd? DART has the more complex layout, but TRE has more complex ticketing machines. How bad was the pricing? When we were at the TRE airport station, a TRE employee was there to offer assistance. I told him we were going to Union Station, and he proceeded to show us how to use the ticketing machine to get the proper ticket to go to that station. The machine wouldn’t take my money, so he told me to go to the other machine at the other end of the station to get my ticket. Not only did he fail to accompany me to the other machine, but he also told me to purchase a 1 zone ticket, even though I really needed a 2 zone ticket!
• For anyone who rides into Dallas via TRE, the first glimpse of the downtown Dallas area is something special. It consists of the downtown skyscrapers in the background and a Hooters in the foreground. How’s that for a welcome?
• There is no sweet tea in Dallas.

Taking a look around, I noticed a couple of competing articles from back in 2001 regarding DART’s effect on the downtown area’s office occupancy rates. The first comes from the Dallas Business Journal. The high occupancy rates and slower than normal property value appreciation present Dallas with an awful truth: Dallas has the worst CBD in America. On the other hand, the second article points out that the drop in vacancy rates after the DART implementation is statistically significant. Who has the more valid point? Considering that both articles are dated from two years ago, both articles have merit. While statistical tools aren’t really needed to be able to tell how obvious it is that office occupancy rates remain low, the apparent survival of West End restaurants is a sign of life. Other signs of life:

• Usage of DART appears to be widespread, despite the lack of actual warm bodies walking the sidewalks. That means there are at least some people out there somewhere.
• The physical infrastructure is available and ready, and office space is apparently cheap enough to warrant less vacancy.

Now I’m no expert on Dallas. My research on that city is so barren that this entire blog entry deserves to be taken with a grain of salt. But in any case, if I were Dallas, I would make sure to cultivate cultural and educational institutions as the key elements that would attract residents and businesses at a more desirable scale.