Activists seek to preserve McKinney Avenue bricks

01/21/99

By Todd Bensman / The Dallas Morning News

McKinney Avenue, the historic, brick-paved spine of one of Dallas' signature neighborhoods, is set to undergo a massive renovation that will disrupt traffic and tear up sidewalks for as long as two years.

Although the project won't start until late March or early April, it already has stirred up dust.

Plans call for most of the avenue's pavement of turn-of-the century red clay bricks - the last of their kind in Dallas - to be torn up and thrown away.

Furious preservationists say replacing the street's antique bricks with concrete imitations or new bricks, as planned, will mar the Uptown neighborhood's unique flavor.

The bricks "are the whole reason why we moved here, for the charm," an angry Beverly Glenn said. "This area is so full of interesting juxtapositions between new and old. There is so much history here. It's just a shame they want to get rid of what's left of that."

City officials and project proponents, among them McKinney Avenue's largest property owners, say the crumbling piece of Dallas history is too old to support the popularity it has attracted in recent years. Its bumpy, broken surface urgently needs smoothing, and the outdated sewer and storm drain systems beneath it must be replaced, they say.

"The street has deteriorated so badly that it really is an embarrassment to the area," said Cliff Keheley, a former assistant city manager, who now runs a McKinney Avenue engineering firm. Mr. Keheley, who also serves as president of the Uptown Public Improvement District that is planning and promoting the project with the city, said his company is not involved in the work.

"For the area, it will mean we'll have a decent street that traffic can move comfortably through, instead of being jolted," he said.

Once a simple wagon route to the town of McKinney, the avenue that got its first bricks around the turn of the century has come a long way. With its restaurants, galleries, electric trolley cars and escalating real estate values, McKinney Avenue has spawned one of the city's trendiest urban neighborhoods.

But in recent years, McKinney Avenue also has become a major byway for downtown commuters - and now is showing its age.

Street closures

During reconstruction, city engineers plan to close two of the four lanes from Pearl Street to Oak Grove Avenue and divert at least 30,000 southbound vehicles per day, including DART buses, through nearby neighborhoods.

Only northbound traffic will be allowed on the two open lanes during that time.

Sidewalks along the avenue's popular pedestrian walkway also will have to be torn up and rebuilt, including the Hard Rock Cafe's "Walk of Stars," a heavily trodden tourist attraction.

It remains unclear whether the trolley cars will continue running at all times, but officials say they hope to keep them on the tracks for the duration of the project.

What counts more than the noise and inconvenience to Ms. Glenn and others is the impending loss of McKinney Avenue's antique bricks, especially knowing that other cities, such as Tyler and Fort Worth, routinely salvage theirs.

She recalls waging a successful one-woman campaign some years ago against Cambridge, Mass., to save the historic brick street that town work crews were tearing up outside her home.

She's considering a repeat performance in Dallas.

"They had to re-lay every last one of those bricks," she said. "They are part of the culture of Boston, broken, chipped and all."

But city engineer Steve Schell said the 70-year-old underground concrete base that supports the brick surface has cracked. Water has seeped through to the soil, causing the brick surface to shift and undulate. Heavy traffic has fragmented and broken many bricks beyond repair, he said.

"It has way exceeded its useful life," he said.

Money is just too tight to salvage and replace the old brick and still get everything that McKinney Avenue property owners want, said Phil Cobb, president of the improvement district's 55-member board of directors.

Plan came late

After three years of wrangling, a complete proposal for McKinney Avenue's renovation crystalized only last week when the district hammered out a the wish list it plans to send the City Council on Feb. 24. That proposal envisions remaking the street with red simulated brick, tree-lined pedestrian walkways and benches, Mr. Cobb said.

The estimated $200,000 needed to salvage and replace much of the street's old brick is just not there, he said, but volunteers may try to save some for later patchwork.

"Some people are emotionally attached to the brick," Mr. Cobb said. "We knew there wasn't going to be enough money to do everything we wanted to do with this project."

Proponents say the new road will be smoother, faster, just as charming and better than ever for commerce. Sidewalks will be replaced and shaded by up to 90 more trees. Quaint street lights, 37 of them, and park benches may be installed.

To pay for it, city taxpayers will foot most of the estimated $5 million, partly with $2.8 million from the 1995 bond election. That wasn't nearly enough for improvement district officials, who pressed the city for more.

Last week, city officials told the district they had found another $1.5 million that they could commit from various departments. About another third - at least $714,000 - will be picked up by the improvement district itself.

Enduring two years of construction on McKinney Avenue will be tough, all parties agree.

City officials say they have worked closely with merchants and property owners for two years to lessen the blow. Business entrances and apartment building access will remain open on both sides of the street, but inconvenience is inevitable.

"The good news is that the project is never going to shut the street down entirely," said City Council member Veletta Forsythe Lill, whose district includes Uptown.

Residents' fears

But some apartment dwellers have complained that news of the project was belated or downplayed by building owners. They say the project will degrade the urban lifestyle that drew them to the district, and some have asked for rent breaks.

"The problem that everyone has is that it's going to take one and a half to two years," said Kenny Schiffman, a longtime McKinney high-rise apartment dweller who runs a Web site billing himself as the "Mayor of McKinney Avenue." "It's going to be less sleep and more noise."

John Allums is senior vice president for Post Properties, which has 3,200 apartments leased in Uptown.

"We might lose a few people, but we don't see that as a significant impact," he said. "It's all in the way you manage it."

Others fear sustained disruption to business and have pressed for quicker construction timetables, even if that means paving over the McKinney Avenue bricks.

"It's a nightmare, an absolute nightmare," said Angie Douglas, who opened the P.D. Johnson's sandwich shop about a year ago. "It's not going to look like what they say when it's all said and done, and it's going to put a bunch of people out of business."

Other business owners are more optimistic, including some who intend to open right after construction starts.

"It doesn't scare us off of the area," said Irene Lacota, who plans to open a bakery on McKinney in April. "We think that when the construction is over and the whole street is new, it'll bring in even more people."

Others see the loss of a more subtle value: history.

Jack Irwin, an architect and former chairman of the Uptown improvement district, said he believes some of the big property owners should pitch in the $200,000 needed to salvage the original bricks.

"That is the one sort of lineage that we can all still touch, feel and experience," Mr. Irwin said. "They have a historic characteristic to them, and if you lose that, you lose the historical character of the street."

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