A win.

Browder Street will remain solely for feet

Dallas: Council member scraps funding for two-way traffic plan

12:00 AM CDT on Tuesday, June 27, 2006

By DAVE LEVINTHAL / The Dallas Morning News

Pedestrians, not vehicles, appear to be the winners of a big battle over downtown Dallas' little Browder Street.

Without any objections from her City Council colleagues, council member Angela Hunt deleted more than $323,000 in proposed 2006 bond program funds designed to convert what's now a popular footpath into a two-way roadway open to automobiles.

Without bond funding, Browder Street's transformation "is off for now," City Manager Mary Suhm said.

As far as Ms. Hunt is concerned, the Browder Street debate is over. For good.

"In my mind, it won't change. This is not a critical project," she said of her decision to cut bond funding for Browder Street's vehicular conversion. "Putting it in the bond presupposes that we're turning the street into something it shouldn't be."

In recent weeks, downtown residents have submitted petitions to City Hall containing hundreds of signatures that seek to keep Browder Street between Commerce and Jackson streets closed to traffic but open to the type of recreation – lunching, lounging, dog walking – that they've enjoyed in recent years. Even though Browder Street is considered pedestrian-only, cars and trucks often cut through it.

Some area businesspeople, however, wanted Browder Street opened to vehicles to provide better traffic circulation for a cluster of new businesses that have sprouted nearby.

"Hopefully, her decision to take out the money for the street upgrade reflects what the majority of downtown businesses and residents want," Mayor Laura Miller wrote in an e-mail.

E-mail dlevinthal@dallasnews.com