A Journey Down Harry Hines Boulevard

Many of you will not know, or care, about Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas. It is totally unique for a number of reasons. It's wholesale stores. It's also Trading Companies, fashion stores, jewelry stores, fragrance stores, convenience store wholesalers, bazaars, handbag shops, rugs, smoke shops,  army stores, Sam Moon complex, cell phones, electronics, tires, and if that isn't enough, it runs right across its own cousin, The Asia Trading District.

If you did a mileage check, from start to finish, Eight miles might be a good round number, but it changes from week to week; never shortening and generally growing. It's one of those things where I don't need to  go inside any of the stores. I'm trying to get rid of things rather than buying more. The main reason, however, is that the signs, displays and physical decor of the building is where the camera gets a work out. Sometimes, it gets a bit of a challenge because of how the stores are arranged to the centerline of the street. In other words, zoning. I shoot from public right-a-ways and stay off private property. That's something you learn early on about not having your images in an editorial class. Still, the trip is like a carnival atmosphere, especially on the week ends. The ethnic bazaars, Hispanic, in particular, is like a mall within a mall.The outer mall being Harry Hines Boulevard.

 When I am out and about shooting, I make a note of things I see that I try to come back to later and check it out in more detail. Today, one item got checked off the list before I got sidetracked. The funeral coaches have begun to move up and down the expressways concerning the Friday night shootings in downtown of  five policemen. Four from Dallas Police. One from Dallas Area Rapid Transit.

As I drove past a local funeral home today, there were signs out in front that said, "Police Parking".  Just another reminder that this past weeks event took place just a couple of blocks from another day when shots rang out in downtown. It was 1963. There were two caskets and two funeral coaches then..Yes, we can't forget that Office Tippit, badge 848, was also gunned down when President Kennedy was shot. This time, it will take 5 funeral coaches to move and bury the remains of Dallas' Protectors. That is enough.

Today, as I started to mention, I was sidetracked for a bit watching the two helicopters  hovering over the Trinity River waiting for a funeral coach to carry the remains of one of those five officers to his home town, outside Dallas. When I first saw the choppers, I knew that they were waiting for a body to be moved. It's just one of those feelings you get inside after such events. Seeing the parking signs for police outside one funeral home probably was a mental precurser to knowing instinctively that most likely that was what they were looking for.

I'm glad I had the mental refresh. That's why I like Harry Hines Boulevard. Sometimes, I'll go downtown via Harry Hines because for me, it's a brain De-Stress type thing. Yesterday, shooting out side the Dallas Police Headquarters at the memorial for the officers lost, getting the images edited and up to the live news editors,  I was one of  six that had images running on the live news feed this morning. Still, the mental state required something refreshing today. I turned to Harry Hines for that refresh mode. And, as expected it even brought a chuckle later in the day, which I really needed.

I actually find humor in this sign. Kind of like a Rodney Dangerfield type humor. I can hear his dryness, What's he selling? Nickles?

One of two air beaters  waiting to pick up an escorted funeral coach transporting one of the five deceased  Dallas Policemen.

The Things You See from Afar

Saturday, just before I got so excited about some new technology that was posted earlier, the temperature was the warmest day of the new year. It was 84 F. degrees. That also means a lot of humidity in the air and distance is not as clear even if you do have a 600MM lens.

Almost two years ago, along Harry Hines Boulevard in the Medical District, there was a fair amount of excitement up and down a two mile stretch of Harry Hines. The buzz? It was the announcement that one, Parkland Hospital would build across the street from its historic location a new hospital of some 800 beds. Two, that had hardly had time to sink in when UT Southwestern Medical Center announced that they would be building a new University Hospital at Harry Hines and Mockingbird Lane in the South and West quadrant of the UT Medical School's campus, Medical Center and related care facilities. The hospital would be 400 beds approximately.

In the mean while, construction jobs have hammered out two impressive buildings for Dallas' Medical District . When new buildings go up, there is a faction of people who get excited because they realize sooner than others what a visual impression makes on the success of a new facility.

 As was discovered with the building of the Maggie One (Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge) generally, the public doesn't get excited until they can see something coming out of the ground. When the form of the bridge took shape with the lifting of the final curved fabricated piece completed the arch, people could visualize. The cable stays had not been attached, but that was alright. It was the shape from that people couldn't visualize until it was done. They could then visualize the cable stays in place. With that, they could pass judgment. Now, people use the bridge every day and complain when they can't use it for some reason, like Saturday when the north side lanes were closed for the Trinity Event going on under the bridge as well as up top.

The amazing thing to me was that people were spotting a mystery building seen for the first time from afar. "What is that?", they ask. People were heard saying, "I've never seen that before." or" we need to go check that out". When the event visitors were told that it was the new Parkland Hospital, they were blown away. Some had seen it from the near-by Green Line Dart Station, " but it doesn't look that big from there." one guy said.

Just as the TxDot worker had said to me some four months ago," the people of Dallas are asleep at the wheel".  There is a building sitting out in a field like a white elephant, unmarked and with a very big high rise garage. There probably is not one out of  five hundred people who could correctly identify the building's use let alone find the way in--if you could get that far. Since it's a government facility here in Dallas, I'm not going to be the one to disclose anything else, but the point is.....architecture is important. It establishes landmarks (good or bad) and people should be excited about the city in which they live.

Another example was a city park officials response on Saturday. When ask: "what's all that new concrete about. Is it new trails?"  The man said it's part of the bridge. His rider, came around from in front of the truck with her clipboard and said," No, it's new trails. It's the 4.5 mile Skyline Trail." I then said to her: "so the city really is doing more than what the published reports on the news  are saying, then?" She said, "we let people say what they want to say and in the meanwhile, we just keep moving ahead."

There is no doubt that while Dallas did get caught off-guard with infrastructures after the massive growth following DFW's opening (now some 40 years ago), this is one of the most progressive cities anywhere in the US. It's our city. Be proud of it. Take an interest in what's going on beyond what I call the little distractions of  5K or10K runs.  Did you know that at one time, before the demolition of Texas Stadium, from I-30 and Cockrell Hill from afar, you could see both the old Texas Stadium and the new Cowboy Stadium (now, AT & T Stadium)?

The Massive New Parkland Hospital

The new 4.5 Mile SKYLINE Trail

Didn't know the city had a full size 18 wheeler for "EVENTS"
but on the other hand: How do those stages and risers  get  out side City Hall or in front of Neiman-Marcus for Christmas Parades etc.,etc?