Dallas by foot
You no longer need a car (or a truck) to enjoy city
Asphalt and concrete have defined Dallas since a north-south “central expressway” was envisioned in the early 1900s for a stretch of railroad right-of-way. Travel by anything other than an automobile can be challenging and sometimes impractical.
However, there is a promising alternative — call it Walking Dallas. The development of the Uptown neighbourhood, abetted by the expansion of Dallas’ cultural district and millennials moving into the area, means a car is not a requirement.
Ground zero for enjoying the city on foot is Klyde Warren Park. Philanthropists and city planners put a roof over a freeway canyon that separated Dallas’ downtown from Uptown. Add grass, flower beds, trees, a dog park, a sound stage and food trucks, and the result is throngs of pedestrians.
The “burbs” haven’t disappeared and corporate moves to outlying cities are business-page headlines. Mass transit is improving, but not comparable to the Northeast, and, let’s face it, it’s too hot in July or August to walk in daytime.
But autumn with temperatures in the 21 C to 32 C is arguably Dallas’s best season.
WHAT’S NEW
Near Klyde Warren are hotels like the US$600-a-night ZaZa or family options under US$200. It’s a short walk to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science — a 15-storey cube where kids can race against videos of a tyrannosaurus or a Dallas Cowboys running back.
RATHER RIDE THAN HOOF IT?
In Deep Ellum, east of downtown, Local Hub Bicycle Co. rents bikes for US$35 a day. “We’ve had people from all over the world get a bike for the whole week,” says co-owner Justin Shannon. Ride the Katy Trail, a 5.6-kilometre linear park that starts near downtown, or pedal to the Trinity Groves entertainment district and Dallas’ latest landmark, the soaring Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge.
The old-fashioned McKinney Avenue Trolley follows a 7.2-kilometre elongated loop to the Nasher Sculpture Garden and the Dallas Museum of Art, both highlighted by Michelin, as well as Uptown’s brasseries.
The President George W. Bush Library is a short cab ride to the shady campus of Southern Methodist University, former First Lady Laura Bush’s alma mater. The museum has a replica of Bush’s Oval Office and includes a 6.7-metre section from the fallen World Trade Center. While there, visit SMU’s Meadows Museum, called Prado on the Prairie.
Walking Dallas should include the downtown Sixth Floor Museum, dedicated to the “life, death and legacy of President John F. Kennedy.” It’s located on the sixth floor of the building on Dealey Plaza from which shots were fired on Nov. 22, 1963, killing Kennedy as he passed by in a motorcade.