Lewisville Center for the Creative Arts - An example of why Lewisville needs big thinkers.

When I was running for mayor of Lewisville, I met with a friend of mine who happens to be the former mayor of Frisco, Kathy Seei. Lewisville has so much potential, and I wanted to see what she thought about some of my big ideas for the city. I am determined to make Lewisville a Media & Entertainment friendly city. When I told her about my idea for a high end entertainment venue in Old Town, she said it sounded like the Arts of Collin County project that Frisco, Plano, and Allen were working on together. After hearing more about the project, I realized that it was much more than what I had in mind, but it featured many of the elements that I wanted. Imagine having a multipurpose venue that could host everything from a local ballet recital to a U2 or Harry Connick Jr. concert. I envisioned the city trying to purchase the mostly abandoned shopping center that's South of Main Street right off of Mill St. A Lewisville Creative Arts Center could be the center of attraction for the new Lewisville Old Town Square that this would create.

When I discovered that Lewisville already had plans to build a Center for Creative Arts, I was pleasantly surprised. After seeing the plans for the Lewisville Center for the Creative Arts, I was once again surprised, but this time it wasn't as pleasant. Don't get me wrong, it's a beautiful structure. With a price tag of $10 million dollars, though, it really needs to be more versatile than it is. The auditorium seats 297 people. Compare that to the 2,100 people that the Frisco facility will accommodate, or the 6,300 guests that the Nokia Theater can accommodate. Lewisville can and should be a destination city in its own right, but we need to think bigger, and save our hard earned dollars until we can do it right. The last thing we need is to construct a beautiful and expensive facility that doesn't quite do it for the city. We really need to encourage big thinkers to run for office in Lewisville. Compare the Lewisville recreation center to the Flower Mound Community Activity Center if you still don't know what I mean. Here are some images of the Lewisville Creative Arts Center, and you can read about the Frisco Creative Arts Center below.

I would like to know if John Gorena or TJ Gillmore, the candidates in the City Council place 4 runoff election, would support holding off on the Creative Arts Center until we can do it right. If either of them let me know, I'll update this post.