Principles in Action Series: The Better Block Project in Dallas
 This is the seventh in a series of articles highlighting the recipients of the 2011 Celebrating Leadership in Development Excellence (CLIDE) Awards Program. Held every two years, the CLIDE Awards Program recognizes programs and projects that exemplify NCTCOG’s Principles of Development Excellence. The Better Block Project in Dallas was a recipient in the category of Raising Public Awareness. Award recipients are BetterBlock.org, Go Oak Cliff, City of Dallas, and Andrew Howard Transportation Planning.
The "Better Block" project is a demonstration tool that acts as a living charrette by actively engaging communities in the "complete streets" build out process while providing feedback in real time. In April of 2010, BetterBlock.org organized the first “Better Block” project, where they identified a blighted block in Dallas and revisioned it into an active, viable destination. "Better Blocks" accomplishes this by focusing on increasing an area’s perception of safety, stimulating economic activity in blighted or vacant corridors, while implementing "Complete Streets". The project took place over two days, involved multiple businesses, residents, and non-profit organizations, and lead to a complete new model for cities to utilize when looking to revive neighborhoods and communities.
The benefits gained from the Better Block Project included a heightened perception of safety, increased economic development, enabling of multi-modal transportation options, and an improved quality of life for the community. A block that was once gray and cut-off was reactivated by filling storefronts that had sat vacant for years with businesses and seating residents outdoors to enjoy the space, all of which has now motivated the city to change its existing ordinances to allow for more Better Block projects to help other blighted areas.
The “Better Block” project exemplifies many of the Principles of Development Excellence. It promotes Efficient Growth by emphasizing redevelopment of blighted or vacant corridors and promoting reinvestment opportunities in neglected urban village centers. It is a huge proponent of Efficient Mobility Options as seen in its emphasis on “Complete Streets” as part of its model. It seeks to minimize the emphasis of a block or corridor on automobile use while providing the safest environment possible for pedestrians and bicyclists to commute to neighborhood activity centers and other nearby amenities.
The Better Block Project promotes the Principle of Quality Places by helping to strengthen the identities of the region’s diverse communities through preservation of significant historic structures and natural assets, creation of new landmarks and gathering spaces, use of compatible architectural and landscape design, and support for the activities and institutions that make each community unique.
The ultimate goal of Better Block is to create historic yet modern neighborhood centers throughout the region that include a range of retail, transportation, and housing options. This will be complimented by a pedestrian friendly environment that may include future alternate transportation modes in the form of street level rail (streetcars). The renewed infrastructure and ‘neighborhood feel’ will continue to attract new and interested parties as residents of the region experience pedestrian oriented streets and sidewalks that provide unlimited possibilities and access.
Currently there are several Better Block projects underway around the country with many more in the early planning stages. Examples of successfully completed projects in the North Central Texas region are Tyler Street, Deep Ellum and Oak Cliff neighborhoods in Dallas, as well as downtown Fort Worth. For more information, please visit the BetterBlock.org website.
For more information about the CLIDE Awards Program and the Principles of Development Excellence, visit www.developmentexcellence.com or contact Rob Seeds, Environment & Development Planner, at 817-695-9224 or rseeds@nctcog.org.
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