Richardson Mayor Paul Voelker led a walk today, accompanied by two former mayors (Gary Slagel and Steve Mitchell), the mayor pro tem (Janet DePuy), and about two dozen members of the public. We "explored the Core" as the mayor put it. We walked from the Lockwood District, across Belt Line Rd to the Heights Shopping Center, across Central Expressway to historic downtown Main Street and on to Greenville Ave., then south Polk Street, then back to the Lockwood Distilling Co. for drinks. We stopped frequently for the mayor to explain the history and ongoing and planned redevelopment.
For years, I've criticized parts of the City's redevelopment efforts, but I have to admit that the mayor makes the best spokesman for the City's efforts in this area. While I'm not ready to concede on all points, I'm also not saying categorically I was right and the City was wrong. If the City had waited until everyone was pleased, possibly nothing might have ever gotten done. As President Theodore Roosevelt said about the construction of the Panama Canal, "I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate, and while the debate goes on the Canal does too." Richardson downtown redevelopment does, too.
‘Between life and death there is a library,’ she said. ‘And within
that library, the shelves go on for ever. Every book provides a chance
to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be
if you had made other choices . . . Would you have done anything
different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?’ "
