Don't let toll road ruin our defining parkland

Dallas Morning News | Victoria Loe Hicks:

“Proven fact: Great public spaces define great cities. ... That's why, if we need another highway downtown, it should be built along Industrial Boulevard in the Trinity Industrial District rather than inside the Trinity River levees – the one space that has the potential to lift Dallas' public realm from mediocrity to greatness.”

Ed Cognoski responds:

Gallons of ink have been spilled debating the upcoming Trinity River referendum. Victoria Loe Hicks does a better job of distilling all that ink down to the essentials of the debate than any other writer. She understands the crux of the argument because she covered the subject for the Dallas Morning News for several years. I don't know the circumstances of her departure from the News, but the newspaper is a shadow of its former self, in part due to the departure of journalists like Victoria Loe Hicks. Just as the paper is smaller today, its vision for Dallas is constricted, too, as it lobbies mightily in favor of paving the Trinity and against that potential great public space.

Rather than repeat Hicks' arguments here, I recommend you read her piece in the News in its entirety. Don't laugh when she compares the reality of New York's Central Park with her vision for Dallas' Trinity River Park. From the dreams of such visionaries are great cities born.