cowboyeagle05 wrote:I think what also has to be considered is Downtown while a neighborhood is still an island for the after-hours crowd. People don't get off work in Downtown and hang around and once people drive even to areas like Oak Lawn or Henderson, M streets, etc they don't go "Let's go Downtown for dinner" Downtown is still on the almost dead-end of development for the city. Sure the Cedars have some stuff going on and Deep Ellum is churning out destination places like clockwork but Downtown is where development, activity, and energy dies off in most people's mind. The Farmers Market is sleepy, the Cedars is still a quiet insider secret which many prefer. Main Street District has some dedicated resident customers. After that everything is mostly to the northside of Downtown Kylde Warren and North. Housing, resident oriented retail, grocery stores, shopping, etc.
This is one of those things that is true, until it isn't. More and more stuff is opening Downtown, more people are visiting, more people are living and working there, so it's only a matter of time before there is enough stuff to do where it becomes a destination.
Your'e absolutely right about what you're saying though, but I am optimistic that perhaps the Discovery District might buck the trend and help kick things off for Downtown.