Who is Mark Masinter, and how did he end up on Dallas' Henderson Avenue?
Mark Masinter has left a trail of angry activists as he tries to remake Henderson Avenue. The old East Dallas street has established and newer shops but also areas of blight. It’s a 1.1-mile street with pockets of successful restaurants, bars and shops amid disconnected gaps and crooked sidewalks that kill its walkability, especially at night.
Masinter’s vision is to connect it and make it unique to Dallas. Though he had to scale back his plans, the city council approved a version earlier this month that allows him to leave his mark on the area.
Henderson is an opportunity for Dallas, he said, to have its version of Abbot Kinney in Venice, Calif., King Street in Charleston, S.C., Elizabeth Street in Manhattan's Soho district or 23rd Avenue in Portland, Ore.