Source: City of Richardson.
In yesterday's special Tuesday edition of "Where Am I Wednesday?" we were in southwest Richardson, specifically in the Richardson Heights neighborhood where the City of Richardson has encroached with new sign toppers branding residential streets as "Heights." What is wrong with the "Richardson Heights" sign toppers already in use, you may ask? That's the subject of today's speculation.
When the City of Richardson updated its master plan for what everyone called old downtown Richardson (and by everyone, I mean of course me), they hired some consultants to come up with the simply awful name "the CORE District." (You know, like New York City is the "Big Apple" and Richardson is the "Core.") Perhaps realizing that branding mistake, ever since the City has emphasized the sub-districts within the CORE, even going so far as creating separate logos for them (see above).
The "Lockwood" logo looks like a keyhole so I get it. The "Downtown" logo looks something like a "D" so I get it, I think. The Chinatown logo has kind of a Chinese flower vibe going, so OK. But what's the inspiration for the Interurban logo? Given that the City seems to be going out of its way to fill the Interurban sub-district with even more auto-centric businesses, is the logo meant to give off racetrack vibes? Or the district's life blood circling the drain? If so, mission accomplished. Then there's the "Heights" logo.
In yesterday's blog post, I've already covered the fact that there's no neighborhood called "Heights." There's the nearby shopping center, Richardson Heights Village, which is in the CORE District, but those sign toppers the City has erected are not at the shopping center. They are on residential streets. I think the City is over reaching here. Let the residential neighborhood decide for itself what sign toppers it wants in its neighborhood. For that matter, let the businesses in Lockwood, Chinatown, Interurban, and downtown decide for themselves as well.
On Facebook, Lauren Decker reports that the City's lack of collaboration with neighborhoods extends beyond this one incident.
We’ve had issues with the sign toppers in Highland Terrace as well. One neighborhood street sign was topped with a “China Town” sign when it was clearly not China Town. On another sign, the city took down one of our Highland Terrace toppers that a neighbor on that street specifically paid for, and was replaced with one of these new sign toppers by the CORE. There was no communication between the City with the neighborhood association prior to the sign changes. That neighbor reached out and we talked with the City and they quickly made the corrections. But still. Communication needs improvement, which is rather ironic in this situation.Source: Lauren Decker.
Well said. I'd expect nothing less from the author of The Richardson Independent.
Also on Facebook, Jeffrey Davis, president of Heights Park NA, chimes in.
There was a sign topper issue in Heights Park Neighborhood also. After bringing the issue to the cities attention, they were more than happy to resolve the issue to our satisfaction. Communications from the city to the neighborhood associations prior to work being done could have been better, however we should be thankful that we live in a city that is willing to admit that a mistake was made and bend over backwards to correct it.Jeff Davis President Heights Park Neighborhood Association
Source: Jeffrey Davis.
By my count, that's now three neighborhoods in which "mistakes" were made. That tells me that the City is taking promotion of its commercial districts as a higher priority than meeting the desires of its residential neighborhoods.
None of these mistakes is serious, in themselves. But they are symptomatic of a broader problem, one that is serious. That's a problem of communication with the public. Add this case to the lax treatment of neighbors of Point North Park when parkland was taken for construction of a water storage tank; and to the case of lack of notification of neighbors that mature trees along Renner Rd were going to be sacrificed for utility construction; and to the case of the still unexplained delay of five hours before issuing a "boil water" notice when the Holly Water Tower lost all pressure, and I'd say something fundamental is wrong at City Hall. Quickly correcting mistakes is the least we can expect. What we need are more basic changes at City Hall to prevent mistakes from happening on a regular basis. All of the cases cited here stem from a failure of communication.
"What we've got here is failure to communicate."
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