That’s the opinion of Monte Anderson of Options Real Estate, who is also the president of the North Texas Congress for New Urbanism. After attending the meeting reviewing plans for bike lanes on Bishop a couple of weeks ago, Anderson began feeling like the City of Dallas may have — finally — changed its attitude toward new urbanism.

“For the first time ever — and I’ve been to a million road meetings — right out of the box it was a thoughtful design for the kids and the mom, for the runner and the biker, and for businesses because I think that’s good for business,” Anderson says. “I realized they’re drawing the good stuff right up front; we’re not having to fight ’em after they draw the bad stuff.

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“We’ve been working on a number of people throughout Dallas to get them to think differently for a long time — smaller roads, more bike and pedestrian oriented,” Anderson continues. “There are more people now in City Hall and on staff to say, “Let’s do better than what we’ve done in the past.”

That isn’t the only praise I heard recently from Cliffites toward City Hall. Brent Jackson, the developer of Sylvan Thirty at Fort Worth Avenue and Sylvan, mentioned that “working with the city on 48 Nights was an A+.” It could have been a complicated process drowned in red tape, but it wasn’t, Jackson says.

“I think the city is really starting to sense what they have over here, and what they have in general — an opportunity to tap into this entrepreneurial spirit.”