Our goal for low-income residents should be more than just subsidizing their rents; it should be to make them homeowners - real stakeholders in the city.

Our goal for downtown should be to host and attract the finest museums, galleries, operas, symphonies, retail shops, restaurants, businesses, residences and the most talented people.

A downtown tower for the poor is a very 1990s type solution for downtown, suggested when Dallas was devastated by the economic disaster of the 1980s. Some people then thought that loading up downtown with affordable housing was the economic silver bullet for Dallas . The city was at a crossroads. Should downtown Dallas become an urban reservation for poor people, supported by the county state and federal government? Or should downtown Dallas become a vibrant city center offering the best of Dallas and generating tax revenue from which the entire city would benefit.

Fortunately, the cultural leaders had a vision for a vibrant city. The Meyerson Symphony Center , designed by I.M. Pei, was built; Ray Nasher built the Nasher Sculpture Center designed by Renzo Piano; ground has been broken for the mile-long forty-story bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava; and Norman Foster has designed the Winspear Opera House and Josh Remus designed the Wyly Theater which are being built. Aesthetically dynamic projects such as these serve as a magnet for more inspired development and people.

An example of this is the new luxury high-rise being developed by Lucy Billingsley. It is designed by Dallas modernist architect Lionel Morrison and will offer retail, offices, and luxury residences right next to the Arts District.

Let's compare the impact of a subsidized tower for the poor with a Dallas tower for the rich. The luxury tower will have residences costing between $500,000 and $3 million. Each of these residences will generate $10,000 to $60,000 a year in tax revenue for the city.

The tower for the poor, in contrast, requires the city to subsidize the developer almost $10,000 a unit for each of the 200 housing units, 100 of which will be inhabited by the homeless and the other 100 costing the tenants $384 a month in rent.

The proposed downtown tower for the poor plays on the myth that there is a shortage of low-income housing in Dallas . In reality, the city has an abundance of low-income housing. Dallas has over 1,000 single-family homes appraised by the city for under $10,000, many of which are vacant. There are 5,000 single-family homes on the tax rolls for under $20,000. Many of these will eventually be demolished if they are not inhabited.

Rather than $10,000 of city and grant money going to subsidize each unit in a downtown tower for the poor, this subsidy could buy single-family homes outright for each homeless and low-income family intended for the tower. Rather than Dallas showing off the homeless and poor next to the Arts District, we should let the homeless and poor show off the single-family homes they could own.

A downtown tower for the poor not only fails to capture the dreams and talents of the low-income residents, it is bad city planning. How many new restaurants, grocery stores, and retail stores are 200 downtown housing units for the homeless and low-income going to attract? On the other hand, luxury high-rise buildings for the wealthy will attract the sort of downtown amenities that all of Dallas has been clamoring for.

Simultaneous with reinvigorating downtown, Dallas should strive to give low-income residents the opportunity to buy a home. The city could easily establish a database of affordable homes in Dallas . Churches, non-profits and professional organizations could help match these affordable homes with low-income families. A mortgage payment on even a $20,000 home is less than half of what most low-income families are now paying in rent for government housing.

When it comes to downtown, we should keep our focus. Economics and aesthetics are intertwined. We should commit ourselves to build the most exciting, pleasing, and vibrant city in the nation - a downtown with the finest cultural offerings, flourishing commerce, and one that attracts the brightest business people and city leaders who will sustain the vision of a vibrant city center that will draw people from miles around.

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