You've likely already been dreaming about what you'd do with $1.5 billion if you won the Powerball. But let's face it: You're more likely to get drafted into the NBA than win the Powerball tonight. And we've seen your three-pointer.
Just for fun, think instead about what you'd do for Dallas residents if you became an overnight billionaire. Your good deeds could help your neighbors and yourself. This kind of money could change the world you live in and immortalize you as Dallas' hero.
Given that opportunity, here's what we'd do with the money.*
*Except we probably wouldn't; we'd buy an island and never see any of you people again. But go with us here.
Fix every pothole in the city
So many potholes, too little money in the City of Dallas Street Services budget. It's a decades-old problem that just keeps getting worse. And it's not just the potholes. Dallas streets (there are 11,700 lane-miles of them) are in bad shape. Number crunchers at City Hall say it would take $900 million to turn our bumpy roads into easy streets. A $1.5 billion Powerball win would cover that, plus change. --Norma Cavazos, events editor
A bunch of H-E-B grocery stores in Dallas
We love Central Market, the H-E-B-owned gourmet grocery store chain. But what Dallas shoppers really need is an H-E-B, or several, in Dallas proper. Serious Texans sing H-E-B's praises as if it were the only place in the state to buy affordable meat and produce. And that sounds really great for Dallasites. Some of the closest H-E-Bs are in Waxahachie, Ennis, Burleson and Cleburne, a.k.a. not close enough to grab dinner on a weeknight and head home to Dallas. (Our business writers do have intel that H-E-B is buying parcels of land in the Dallas area, but so far, no confirmation on when or where.) We're guesstimating that an H-E-B store might cost $25 million, which means if we spend the entire $1.5 billion, we'd land 60 H-E-Bs in Dallas proper. Is that too many? --Sarah Blaskovich, entertainment editor
100 miles of a bike superhighway connecting the northern suburbs to Dallas and Fort Worth
A 64-mile bike superhighway is in the works that will eventually connect Fort Worth to Dallas. We'd like to pay for that trail system to connect the northern suburbs to Dallas and, by way of this trail, Fort Worth. A 2012 study ranked the percentage of bicycle commuters in the country's 70 largest cities, and Plano came in dead last. This could be a way to cut down on rough work commutes with the added benefit of helping North Texans get in a healthy dose of stress-relieving exercise each day. The math is a little fuzzy, but go with us: If $20 million will complete 12 miles of this system, then $1.5 billion would buy us 937 more miles. That's way too many miles for a Collin County to Dallas connector, so let's just say we spend enough money for 100 really awesome bike miles in Dallas-Fort Worth as a whole. We're going to give the rest to the SPCA, because we love puppies. --Brentney Hamilton, social media manager
Save the St. Patrick's Parade 37,500 times
It's hard to forget that time in 2012 when Mark Cuban saved the Dallas St. Patrick's Parade and Festival. He wrote a check for an estimated $40,000 so all of us could drink green beer and holler at floats on Greenville Avenue like we have for the past 30-some years. Now: The St. Patrick's Parade is not in jeopardy for 2016; the date has already been set for March 19. But if it were in financial jeopardy in the future, our $1.5 billion would afford us a $40,000 donation more than 37,000 times. Now that's something to drink to. --Sarah Blaskovich, entertainment editor
Fix Museum Tower's glare
In August of last year, the owners of Museum Tower in the Arts District decided that the luxury high-rise's glare was no longer their problem. Since the tower's $200 million construction, it has been a thorn in Dallas' side. The sun reflects off the building's outer glass and down onto the Nasher Sculpture Center. The Center argues that it is harming the gardens and the delicate sculptures housed under a roof specially designed by Renzo Piano. For three years, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension researched a fix for the glare but in August decided to forgo the $1 million plan that would have reduced the glare by half. Surely if we put in $5, $10 or even another $200 million of our winnings toward Museum Tower, we can stop the glare. As for the remaining $1.3 billion, investing it in the Dallas art scene seems like a good plan. --Hannah Wise, staff writer
1 Playboy Mansion, relocated
The infamous Playboy Mansion just went on the market for $200 million, with the catch that Playboy patriarch Hugh Hefner gets to continue living there for the rest of his life. (He's currently 89, so do the sketchy guesswork math on that one yourself.) "But GuideLive," you say, "the mansion is in Los Angeles! How does owning it benefit Dallas?" Well, with the rest of our lottery winnings we'll move the mansion to D-FW stone by stone a la the Luthor mansion in Smallville. Then we can spend some of our billions hosting cool parties with our home theater, gym, tennis court and more. Nobody has big house parties in Dallas right now, right?
OK, so it's not the most practical investment, but at least we'll have a fun story to tell. --Britton Peele, geek critic
Put more deck parks over highways
It's no secret that Dallas is a concrete jungle. The addition of Klyde Warren Park -- built over the highway, genius! -- seemed to be just the greenery to make this asphalt city pop. Sure, it cost $106 million, but the vibrant community built in that green space shows it was money well spent. Our Brandon Formby reports there's interest in another deck park in Dallas. Let's put at least one over one another busy highway. Technically, with our $1.5 bil, we'll be able to afford 14 deck parks, but let's save our change for now. The parks will need maintenance, activities, and, while we're dreaming, really awesome bars. --Tiney Ricciardi, beer editor
37 TVs from Jerry World
With so many binge-worthy shows available right now, there is definitely a need to be close to a TV screen -- a big one. With $1.5 billion, we could buy 37 of the video screens at AT&T Stadium, which are estimated to cost a cool $40 million each. We'd place them around Dallas, but strategically: They weigh 1.2 million pounds each. These new super-screens would let us Netflix and chill all day. --Mandi Thomas, sales and marketing consultant
