How You Can Help Build a Deck Park with the Power to Transform Oak Cliff
Dallas Morning News Editorial
Dallas Morning News
Concrete highway canyons and economic disparities have long plagued Dallas — and sometimes the two go hand in hand.
That’s why the new deck park planned for Interstate 35E just south of downtown holds such promise. Known as the Southern Gateway Public Green, this 5.5-acre park is an opportunity to unite the eastern and western pieces of Oak Cliff. In addition to providing green space and recreational activities, the park would connect the Dallas Zoo and surrounding neighborhoods — many of them struggling — with the fast-developing Jefferson Boulevard and other parts of successful North Oak Cliff.
The Southern Gateway deck park could do wonders for the area’s economically starved neighborhoods. Consider that within a one-mile radius of this project, median household income is nearly $14,000 less than the citywide average of $46,644 and household net worth is only about half of the city median of $24,029. Not only is there a lack of restaurants and amenities on the eastern side of the planned park, but many neighborhoods are beaten down by drug houses and other crime.
The funding for the foundation of the deck park is already in place: Regional transportation officials have committed $40 million as part of the Southern Gateway highway redevelopment project; Dallas has committed about $7 million in bond money to the project.
City leaders now are counting on Dallas’ philanthropic community for the $32 million in private funds needed to build out the park itself. Formal fundraising gets under way in the fall for this worthy endeavor.
Dallas attorney Mike Gruber, who heads the project, calls it “a park with a purpose.” Expected to be completed in 2022, the Southern Gateway Public Green will not only have the recreational features that you might expect of a park, but also will include community health resources, education programs and restaurants, wellness and education programs.
The changes that are sure to come with this project must be managed wisely. So it’s good news that deck park leadership is committed to improving the neighborhoods around the green space — seeking to improve housing, streets and sidewalks while reducing crime and blight in the area.
The park team is meeting with residents, nonprofits and faith leaders to determine how to equitably improve the area without pushing out longtime residents to the forces of gentrification. Paul Carden, a commercial real estate developer who grew up in Oak Cliff and a member of the deck park committee, says it well: “It’s more akin to trying to steer the river (of development) close enough that it waters the fields, but not so much that it floods them.”
Dallas is a generous place, made up of well-heeled philanthropists and other concerned residents who care deeply about the city’s future. For Dallas to prosper, the city needs to lift up traditionally neglected neighborhoods. The deck park project is a transformational opportunity that is worthy of all our support.
