When is the last time you heard someone say, "Come to West Dallas"?

A few years back, then-Mayor Laura Miller told a roomful of West Dallas Chamber members, "Get ready. They're coming. You don't want them crossing the new Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, then turning around and going back."

Even the Dallas Observer — in its relentless criticism of the Trinity's Santiago Calatrava-designed bridge — hasn't quite yet caught on that when it smirks about the "Bridge to Nowhere" ... West Dallas is the "Nowhere" at the end of its world.

That's all right.

We're aware of West Dallas' history. We also understand how ethnically diverse people, disparate income brackets, and vacant commercial real estate can combine in some peoples' minds.

All that does not phase the West Dallas Chamber of Commerce. We're aware of what's ahead and what's possible for West Dallas. We know it's just a matter of time. Our opportunity is to manage the growth and the arrival of new investment in a way that honors our past, respects our residents and creates a new kind of place...

...a place that is just steps away from the Trinity River Corridor Project and just minutes away from the rest of the best of North Texas.

That's why we don't say, "Come to West Dallas." Instead, we suggest you "get over here" and become an integral part of the future of Dallas.

We believe you will wish you had.