December 14-17, 2015: Christmas in San Antonio
	November 27, 2015: An Evening at the Symphony
	Return to the Index for 2015

Today, Fred and I joined Steve, Mario and two friends of theirs, Eli and Kelly, for an outing downtown to Klyde Warren Park and the Dallas Museum of Art. We are meeting Eli and Kelly for the first time today.

We first went over to Steve and Mario's house where we met Eli and Kelly, who seem to be very nice guys. We then headed downtown in two cars (nobody had a vehicle comfortable enough for all six of us) and we met up at the entrance to the Dallas Museum of Art. We then walked a block or so to the relatively new Klyde Warren Park.

Klyde Warren Park is a 5-acre public park in Downtown Dallas. The park was constructed over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway; the freeway was always below grade and already partially tunneled, so all that had to be done was to cover over the remainder of a three-block stretch. The park, named for the son of a Dallas billionaire, opened 2012. The urban park is open to the public, but is operated by the private Woodall Rodgers Park Foundation. Unlike other public parks within the city, Klyde Warren Park has operating hours from 6am to 11pm. One of the park's attractions is the line of food trucks that line the adjacent street.

The park provides connectivity to the city’s flourishing Arts District from other neighborhoods, brings together cultural events and experiences, and serves as a central public gathering space for Dallas residents and visitors to enjoy.

The park features flexible, pedestrian-oriented design, offering a mix of active and passive spaces, which include a children’s park, reading room, great lawn, restaurant, performance pavilion, fountain plaza, games area, urban dog park, and botanical garden around a sweeping pedestrian promenade. A 6,000-square-foot restaurant and performance stage is in the center of the park.

It is interesting that I was able to find an aerial view of the area before the park was constructed; that view is at the right. As you can see, the Museum Tower Condominium is just beginning construction, and you can see the below-grade Woodall Rogers Freeway- long a barrier between downtown and the new urban uptown neighborhoods.

Utility construction began in January 2009, with a ground-making ceremony held in September 2009. The park opened on October 27, 2012. Construction of the park was funded through a public, private partnership including $20 million in bond funds from the city of Dallas, $20 million in highway funds from the state and federal government through TxDOT, and nearly $50 million from private donations. In March 2009, the Park was selected to receive $16.7 million in stimulus funds that were specifically for transportation enhancement construction.

Fred and I have ridden our bikes down here from home quite a few times; the KATY Trail takes us from SMU all the way to the American Airlines center, about four blocks from the park to the southwest. Today, when we met back together, the six of us walked over to the park and walked down to Savor, which is a restaurant in the main pavilion. At the northeast end of the pavilion the restaurant runs a little food-truck-like sandwich and burger shop where we had lunch. While waiting for our orders to be ready, Fred and I used my phone to take a couple of pictures:

In each of the pictures you have Mario, Kelly, myself or Fred, Steve and Eli.

When we were done with lunch, we decided to head over to the Dallas Museum of Art to have a look at two special exhibits. From the restaurant, we turned towards the now-completed Museum Tower (shown in the picture at left). As you can see, the day is quite overcast, and I suspect we'll get some rain showers before the afternoon is over. There has been a good deal of controversy over Museum Tower; on sunny days its skin reflects the sun's glare directly down into the Nasher Sculpture Center, and particularly into its outside sculpture garden. There are solutions being discussed, but right now no solution is in sight.

As we walked towards the museum, we had excellent views of downtown Dallas. As it turned out, the museum exhibits were very interesting, and we spent a couple of hours there (during which I had to go feed the parking meter where my car was a couple of times. Fortunately, it was just on the other side of Ross Avenue just a 200 feet from the museum.

After the museum, we all decided to so something that in all my years in Dallas I have never done- take a ride on the McKinney Avenue trolley. The McKinney Avenue Transit Authority (MATA), a non-profit organization, operates the M-line Streetcar. The offices and car barn are located on Oak Grove Avenue up near Lemmon Avenue. In operation since 1989, it is an example of a heritage streetcar running historic cars. The main stretch of the line runs down McKinney Avenue in Uptown. The "M-Line" name for the service was adopted in 2002, though the line continues to be commonly known as "the McKinney Avenue trolley" (or streetcar), as well being known as the "M-Line" more officially.

Since 2002, the M-line Streetcar has been free to the public, thanks to a joint operating subsidy received from Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) and the Uptown Improvement District. DART designates the streetcar as route 825 at transit stops. The M-line Streetcar connects with the DART light rail system at the Cityplace/Uptown and St. Paul stations.

We boarded the trolley on the street just south of the museum. It winds through downtown and then heads back across Woodall Rogers to head up McKinney Avenue past Hall Street, where it turns and returns to downtown via the street one block west of McKinney.

Metropolitan Dallas had numerous streetcar lines from the late 19th century through 1930s; the last streetcar ran in Dallas during the mid-1950s. During the 1980s, there was a movement to restore streetcar service in Dallas's Uptown neighborhood after some of the original rails were uncovered on McKinney Avenue. Some new rails were laid, and on July 22, 1989, Dallas saw a return of the McKinney Avenue streetcar as car 122 broke a celebratory banner.

The has been expanded twice- the first time in 2002. In this expansion, the streetcar connected with DART light rail at the CityPlace Station. This opened up the Uptown Neighborhood to commuters from the suburbs and helped lead to a revitalization of the area. The streetcar became free at this time, and the expansion increased the line's length to 3.8 miles. The line was given the name "the M-Line" in the local transit system at this time.

The second expansion took the streetcar further into downtown by extending the rail from McKinnet Avenue along Olive Street and through downtown to the Pearl DART Station. Funds for the expansion were part of a 2006 omnibus bond issue for street and transportation improvements. The Federal government provided $5 million in additional funding for the downtown loop. The new downtown loop had been open only six months when we took our inaugural ride.

As a heritage streetcar, the M-Line runs restored, vintage cars; ours was Car 636 The "Petunia". Car 636 was part of a 1910 order for 25 streetcars from the J. G. Brill Company. Petunia, a "Birney Safety Car," which incorporated numerous operational and safety improvements over earlier streetcars. It permitted one man operation and thereby allowed street railway companies to reduce their expenses. Birneys were known for their bouncy riding qualities and were never very popular with the Dallas riding public. Nevertheless, 636 ran in Dallas until 1947 when it was replaced by more modern equipment. Part of the car's restoration included shock absorbers.

636 is the first of the original cars to be equipped with air-conditioning. A single unit was installed in 2007 as a test, with three more units later installed on the roof to provide full cooling. After a collision with a cement truck in mid-2013, 636 was out of service for several months while one end of the car was completely reconstructed. At the same time it received a general overhaul that included new wheels, new roof, a rewiring of the motor control system and a shiny new plaque at the front of the car:

We rode the streetcar for a complete circuit, ending back at the museum. We enjoyed the afternoon with these new friends, returning to Steve and Mario's house to relax for a while before Fred and I headed home.

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	December 14-17, 2015: Christmas in San Antonio
	November 27, 2015: An Evening at the Symphony
	Return to the Index for 2015