Anyone rooting for downtown Dallas was begging for mercy by the end of day Tuesday.<\/p>\n
We were still licking our wounds from the announced departures of\u00a0AT&T<\/a> and Fifth Third Bank<\/a> (Comerica before a merger). Then we were knocked down this week by three back-to-back reports that the Dallas Mavericks<\/a> had chosen the Valley View mall site for their new arena, that Neiman Marcus<\/a> was shuttering its iconic downtown flagship and that the Stars<\/a> would leave the city core for Plano.<\/p>\n You would think these events might have humbled the Dallas City Council to commit to turning things around. But if you were praying for a come-to-Jesus moment, the council failed<\/a> to reward your faith.<\/p>\n Mayor Eric Johnson sent a statement calling on the city to assert itself in the competition with the suburbs. He\u2019s right about that, but he couldn\u2019t resist a dig at his opponents on the debate about the future of the City Hall building: \u201cWe must fight for the city of tomorrow rather than worship decaying, outdated government buildings from bygone eras.\u201d<\/p>\n Many people would agree with the mayor about looking past the building to the larger question about what downtown can be. But his acerbic tone won\u2019t bring people along with him, particularly the council colleagues he needs to support a renaissance plan.<\/p>\n At a council meeting Wednesday, Johnson nodded to the suburban competition, referring to\u201cthe wolf\u2026up the tollway,\u201d which we read to mean Plano, where AT&T and the Stars are headed.\u00a0<\/p>\n Plano is an aging inner-ring suburb that has gone through peaks and valleys. It has been as much a regional partner as a competitor. What Plano has is a council aligned on a vision and willing to move on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n If that makes Plano a wolf, then is Dallas the sheep? Disparaging Plano is a losing strategy.<\/p>\n Other council members did no better. Council member Maxie Johnson, of Oak Cliff, issued a statement asking the Mavs to not \u201cturn your back on Southern Dallas.\u201d As we read it, the statement turned the Mavs into villains for making a business decision that we think was influenced by the city\u2019s own bad politics. Our newsroom colleague Brad Townsend reported that the Mavs governor, Patrick Dumont,<\/a> felt uneasy about becoming the face of a tear-down-City-Hall movement when relocating to that site hadn\u2019t been the Mavs\u2019 idea.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, council members Jaime Resendez and Adam Bazaldua \u2014 on opposite sides of the City Hall debate \u2014 argued with each other on Facebook while the council was being briefed about World Cup preparations. The tension carried over into a briefing about repair estimates for City Hall.<\/p>\n Downtown\u2019s problems predate the fight over the future of the I.M. Pei building. They go back to the sluggishness in cracking down on homeless encampments and the lack of a strategy on how to retain anchor businesses. This slowly unfolding disaster can be traced directly to the dysfunction around the council horseshoe and years of poor policy decisions from city management. Now council members are pointing fingers at everyone but themselves.<\/p>\n We have to move forward. Council members are doing their jobs when they test assumptions and debate in good faith, but a majority needs to coalesce around a big-picture strategy and develop a plan to rescue downtown. Maybe start by curbing the sniping, online or otherwise.<\/p>\n Our leading civic groups also have a role to play. They should offer ideas and unite around a strategy. And when election time comes in November 2027, they should support candidates who align with that vision.<\/p>\n We don\u2019t need social media warriors or snippy lines. We need leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Have thoughts about this?\u00a0<\/strong>Send a letter to the editor\u00a0using our letters form<\/a>\u00a0or email\u00a0letters@dallasnews.com<\/a>.\u00a0Letters should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone rooting for downtown Dallas was begging for mercy by the end of day Tuesday. 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