Bike Friendly Richardson

New Garland Neighborhood Guard Rail

Living on the east side of Richardson, we find ourselves traveling into Garland quite a bit. Like with my neighborhood, the houses are older, middle-class homes that have been warn by the years, but still hold their own. The neighborhoods are quiet and feel quite safe.

What I find interesting is the difference in what each city puts into it’s infrastructure. Over the past couple of years, it appears that both cities had the goal of putting up structures to protect their neighborhood’s outside alleyways from the main thoroughfare traffic of Arapaho Road.

The city of Richardson built and updated beautiful, brick retaining walls that enhance the beauty of their aging neighborhoods. In contrast, Garland just recently put up an unattractive guard rail. Not to compare one city to the next – Garland is a nice town with nice people – but, it’s really nice knowing that the city that we’ve decided to settled in, is investing in maintaining street appeal and property value.

Richardson Neighborhood Brick Wall

Edit: It’s occurred to me that in my efforts to praise Richardson, this post may have come off a little negative towards our neighbor Garland. That was not the intent. Although these guard rails are not best display of aesthetics, they are functional at keeping the neighborhoods safe. Also, in contrast to Richardson, Garland has had great success in reviving their downtown infrastructure. You can read a little about it here.