DART
Sam Crutsinger
whole light rail station?
Does anybody know why there's two stations book-ending Deep Ellum? That's
literally 3 or 4 blocks. You can walk the distance in a few minutes. Why
spend millions of dollars to build it at all?
What's the projected impact increase to having 2 stations instead of just
one? The "Baylor Station" is going in right behind Pepe's and Mito's. That's
far more central to Deep Ellum than the "Deep Ellum Station."
If I was running the plan, I'd Deep SIX the Deep Ellum Station and spend the
money on putting the tunnel BACK but maybe fix it up a bit so it's not so
narrow and so it could support the train going overhead.
I don't see that location providing significant benefit to the community
that the other station wouldn't already be providing. That Deep Ellum
station got railroaded into our neighborhood (pun intended). There was a
plan B that I heard about that did NOT involve filling in the tunnel. I
don't think it was ever given a real chance and now they've totally
disrupted traffic flow in the whole neighborhood as they spread the work out
for miles instead of working in sections that would decrease impact on
neighborhood businesses.
I'm all for them putting in light rail access, IF it runs till 3am on the
weekends. Deep Ellum is a district of bars and clubs. If the trains stop at
10pm, they won't be accepted by the Deep Ellum patron demographic. I know
that it will bring more people to the neighborhood, but is one station at
Malcolm X not enough?
I don't know how it all fits together yet, but I can't help thinking that
DART is involved in purposefully choking Deep Ellum off for the inheritance
or something. The only way it could be handled worse would be if they ripped
up the other two sides of Deep Ellum to complete the moat.
Who's got some answers here? Who lobbied for that second station? They
didn't think of it on their own. They wouldn't volunteer to build 2 stations
in a half mile without some guns pointed at them. No two stations are
remotely that close together anywhere else on the whole DART map.
--
Sam Crutsinger
Media Kingpin / CTO
Confidence Bay
http://www.confidencebay.com/
Edit in confidence... Anywhere.
Ron Cole
nothing compared to the cost of building the stations and tracks through
deep-elm.
The tunnel was a love hate situation, dark, narrow and prone to
flooding, I for one will not miss it but I think I am in the minority on
that.
Why build 2 stations in deep elm, it makes no sense to me.
If you consider the DART intuitive to improve development around DART
stations I would guess that someone has big plans for deep elm,
Something like a big Mockingbird station.
My guess is anything thats mot over 2 stores tall gets bulldozed and
replaced by new buildings with several floors of expensive condos.
Ron
Sam Crutsinger
> The tunnel was a love hate situation, dark, narrow and prone to
> flooding, I for one will not miss it but I think I am in the minority on
> that.
The flooding was probably a symptom of the degrading sewer system here in
the neighborhood, but it's flooding was pretty damn rare. We're talking
about a handful of days every year. I never saw that as much of a burden.
I'll give you narrow. I think it should have been rebuilt as a slightly
wider tunnel, like a few meters, but keep the vintage feel.
> If you consider the DART intuitive to improve development around DART
> stations I would guess that someone has big plans for deep elm,
> Something like a big Mockingbird station.
> My guess is anything thats mot over 2 stores tall gets bulldozed and
> replaced by new buildings with several floors of expensive condos.
That's what has me concerned. The evidence is all starting to point to a
West End marketplace getting thrown up in here. I want to see the new
amendments to PD269 and understand what it allows and who's pushing for the
changes.
It's the fact that so much about this neighborhood is happening in the
shadows and under the table that bugs me.
James Michael
> whole light rail station?
> Sam Crutsinger
Sam:
For what (little) it may be worth, the OFFICIAL explanation I've heard
DART provide for burying the Tunnel is that, given the proximity of
even more historically significant structures nearby, they had no
choice but to locate the station where they are, and because of the
Tunnel's structural unsoundness, to bury it.
I realize this isn't the main thrust of your question and doesn't
address the reason for two stations, but to achieve any kind of
understanding at all of their motivations, I think we have to at least
consider that statement.
Relating to their public art project, called Deep Ellum Gateway,
that's intended to in some way compensate for the loss of the Tunnel,
I've begun the post DART ART, and hope you'll join in. I'd value your
input.
James Michael Starr
Sam Crutsinger
wrote:
>> Does anybody know how much it's costing to fill in the tunnel and build a
>> whole light rail station?
> For what (little) it may be worth, the OFFICIAL explanation I've heard
> DART provide for burying the Tunnel is that, given the proximity of
> even more historically significant structures nearby, they had no
> choice but to locate the station where they are, and because of the
> Tunnel's structural unsoundness, to bury it.
Yeah, I heard that one, and the guy who was saying it had a look in his eye
like he knew he was dumping a load of BS on our heads. He also said "Look,
the tunnel was supposed to be destroyed years ago but they put it off until
this plan came through."
Here's the current overhead view:
<http://www.google.com/maps?ie=UTF8&z=18&ll=32.785083,-96.787663&spn=0.00221
,0.003986&t=k&om=1>
Now I know they're talking about the Union Bankers Building when they talk
about other historical landmarks, but if you look at the land over the
tunnel, that building is not in any danger of being effected by any tunnel
expansion. If anybody were to be effected it would be the historical
apartment building that went up around 1998.
That's a load of crap and they shoved it down our throats. Now they'd
probably say that it's too late, but I don't see where it's too late to
rebuild the tunnel and scrap the whole Deep Ellum Station in favor of a
stronger, wider tunnel with the Baylor/Deep Ellum Station combined into one
at Malcolm X.
Something is rotten here and I've got half a mind to ask my own independent
structural engineer to evaluate the situation and get them exposed. The CFO
of my company is a civil engineer down in Austin and she spent years
evaluating and designing bridges. Now she does full blow highway designs.
When I described the traffic situation to her around Deep Ellum, she said
that it sounded like someone totally skipped over doing any traffic flow
planning at all.
Oh, and what are we saving the Union Bankers Building for? Is anybody going
to ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING WITH IT? Sure, I love the building, but right now
the only people living in it are squatters.
I wouldn't be surprised if that building was at the center of the whole
issue. Maybe the owner wants it attached to the DE Station so they can get
it renovated using DART funds or something. Something isn't right with all
this.