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Dallas has a history of ruining great neighborhoods. I've heard over the years how cool the lower Oak Lawn neighborhood (between Oak Lawn Ave and Turtle Creek Blvd) was in the 1960s and '70s. It was home to many artists and shop owners selling antiques. The Sale Street Fair attracted people from far and wide each year. Today, it's home mostly to large office buildings and residential highrises.  It was way cooler than Congress Avenue in Austin is today, so they say. In my own time here I have seen McKinney Avenue go from a bar-hopping destination to a quieter street filled with highrises and upscale restaurants. Some of the changes, like the addition of Whole Foods, have been good but I imagine many feel a sense of loss. If you want to be a little rowdy and have some fun, McKinney Avenue isn't what it used to be. So what's happening to Deep Ellum?  Before COVID-19, the art galleries had mostly moved out and a lot of restaurants moved in. There have been several larg...

Google Alerts got me thinking about the different ways this headline was written.  I have ranked them in order of best to worst IMHO. Man Hit and Killed by Commercial Jet on Airport Runway in Austin (People) Man hit, killed by landing Southwest plane after security breach at Austin airport (ABC News) Jetliner Hits, Kills Man on Austin Airport Runway (Bay News 9) Jetliner hits and kills person as it lands at Austin airport (MSN Now) Southwest Airlines jet coming into land hits and kills a man on Austin Airport runway (Daily Mail) Southwest Airlines plane strikes, kills man on runway in Austin (Dallas Morning News) Southwest Jet Hits, Kills Man on Austin Airport Runway (NBC5 DFW) Southwest Airlines jetliner hits and kills person as it lands at Austin airport (CBS News) Southwest plane's engine damaged after person struck, killed on runway (WSBT 22) Now I'll try… Man dies after being hit by jet landing in Austin (Me)

Dallas doesn't rank high in walkability, but there are places to walk and more people doing it. We're often looking for different scenery, so one-night last week we headed to the West End. The timing was perfect to capture a sunset from the top of a parking garage across from the new Holocaust Museum. 

There are quite a few bike rides in Dallas with a skyline view, but this is a new one for me. The view isn't new- we see it frequently from the car. It's much easier to stop and take a photo from the bike. Going across the Margaret McDermott Bridge is a nice ride, but the trail connections at either end need some work. 

As we worry about COVID-19, wear masks and keep our distance, the question is coming up as to whether in the long-term dense urban areas will suffer the most from the pandemic. Will the trend toward walkable urban areas reverse in favor of suburban-style sprawl? They might, but I would bet against it. There will be a fear of being in confined spaces with big crowds and more of us will be isolating ourselves, but our need for social activity won't change. If we're working from home, having our groceries delivered and streaming movies, the opportunity to get out and about - to be with, but not so close to other people - will be more important than ever. If you look at infections, sure New York got hit hard, but America's suburbs hardly provided a fortress . Anywhere people come into contact is an opportunity for the virus to spread. Isolation can also become a liability if a contagious virus eventually arrives. Of course, we can only see the real impacts from the rearv...

Looking for ways to get out of the house and keep with social distancing guidelines, we headed to Mesquite and Samuell Farm . While far outside the Dallas City limits, it is one of those oddities in American urban geography because it is owned and maintained by the City of Dallas. ... Many people expect businesses to open back up and there is increasing debate over whether people with weak immune systems have a right to control the activities of everyone else. Even if you could get around the moral issues, I suspect COVID-19 is far less discriminatory than we were led to believe early on. For example, an article in the Washington Post reviews how people in their 30s and 40s are succumbing to COVID-related strokes.  Some are also pointing to Sweden which resisted drastic lockdown measures. They typically fail to mention how having universal healthcare makes it possible to even consider such an approach. Sweden's story may not be completely written yet, so let's hol...