Robert B. Abtahi

Bikes, Brunch, and Bureaucrats

I stopped by Dallas City Hall last Wednesday to listen to Gil Penalosa, Executive Director of 8-80 Cities, give an amazing presentation about complete streets, bikes, and public spaces. As Rudy Bush noted, turnout was a bit sparse but at the end the floor was opened for questions and one audience member asked Mr. Penalosa how he thought his presentations to the City Council and City Staff were received. At the time it seemed like a softball question that would illicit a watered down “everyone was excited” type of response. I severely underestimated Gil Penalosa.

After giving a brief disclaimer about not being politically correct and being a straight shooter he proceeded to essentially throw city staff under the bus. He responded that the council was quite enthusiastic but when he met with city staff; one third of them seemed interested, one third were skeptical, and one third were asleep. This was after Penalosa explained that his goal is to focus on the three legged stool of municipalities; one leg is the elected officials, another is the city staff, and the last leg is the community. Another audience member asked him how he thought his plan would work in a city manager form of government and I’m not sure if he was quite sure what was being asked but it does highlight something that we often ignore in terms of how our city works, the powerful role that unelected officials play. 

So if the people want something and the elected officials want the same thing, one would think you will get a harmonious transition to that new idea or concept. Not so in the City of Dallas (see bike lanes). I’ll use my brunch in Deep Ellum this morning as a prime example. Everyone agrees that it’s important to revitalize Deep Ellum, the council has voted for complete streets, tax abatements, and other public tools to spur private investment. The Deep Ellum stakeholders are firmly behind those plans and have been impressively open minded with various proposals. So with all of that time, energy, and political will by two legs of that three legged stool Penalosa emphasized — Why is it that we still have parking meters that run from 7am to Midnight on Saturdays and Sundays?

I’ve thought about it for a while and still can’t come up with an answer. Sure it might be revenue but those meters have to be a minimal source of revenue for the city. Perhaps they don’t want people leaving cars there overnight? Wouldn’t it be better to allow overnight parking in a bar district? Aren’t you essentially enticing people to drive after having too much to drink? Sure the cost of paying a meter is pretty inconsequential but in today’s world how many people carry a roll of quarters around with them on a regular basis and isn’t it just an unnecessary barrier to getting more people to visit Deep Ellum? I’m guessing the real reason is because they’ve always been there and always operated during those hours and no one has bothered to deal with it. 

It all goes back to the Penalosa’s three legged stool concept. Nothing will ever get done unless you get all three of those legs in sync with each other. Sadly, it’s often the city staff leg that is hardest to get on the same page. It usually takes an extremely involved community, a relentless and patient council member, and nauseating repetition. That’s an organizational issue that has to be fixed.

It’s pretty embarrassing that a man takes the time to stop in our city to give a presentation about concepts that are working everywhere else in the world but the impression he leaves with is that a third of the staff was asleep. The only way things are going to change is if citizens and elected officials do the same thing as Gil Penalosa did, call out that wobbly leg of the stool and hope it tightens up. If not, then it might be time to go out and get a new leg. 

Disclaimer: If you are a City employee that I know, have worked with, or just simply happen to be reading this blog post… I’m not talking about you, I’m talking about those OTHER city employees.