Stitching A Community Back Together with Thoughtful Development

Paul Carden remembers playing backyard football with his cousins as cars raced by in the background. Like many residents in East Oak Cliff, his childhood home was less than 500 feet from I-35. “There were no barriers or anything like that,” he said. “It’s amazing we never saw anyone crash into someone’s backyard.”

In the 1950s, state leaders traded in neighborhoods like Dallas’ last intact Freedman town–the historic Tenth Street neighborhood–for a new interstate. What began as ambitious dreams of transportation efficiency and progress ended in tragedy for those near the new road: homes and businesses and cemeteries erased from the map, and an unnatural division of a historically rich neighborhood. This interstate latched on to Oak Cliff like economic handcuffs, perpetuating a vicious cycle of poverty. 70 years later, the dark side of this highway project still haunts the Oak Cliff community. 

Paul says his parents moved to Mansfield when he was about eleven years old, hoping for a better life for him and his siblings. Oak Cliff had experienced a gradual decline since the seventies; crime was getting worse. Paul’s uncle was robbed at gunpoint on Jefferson Blvd just a few years earlier. “By the time my mother was becoming an adult, the goal was to get out of Oak Cliff,” he said. “They wanted to make sure the kids were safe.”

When you flip open a history book, where you start reading matters. If you were to read the latest chapter in Oak Cliff’s story, you would learn about the last decade or so of revitalization in North Oak Cliff and areas like Bishop Arts. If you move back a few chapters, you would learn about the difficulties and decline of the eighties and nineties. You might even think, if you started there, that it's a simple story: From less prosperity to more. But if you keep reading backwards, reaching the chapters before the construction of I-35, you will learn that Oak Cliff was at one time one of the most prosperous parts of Dallas. 

“There was a rare case of socioeconomic equality in Oak Cliff at that time. It was a place where anyone and everyone was welcome.”

— Paul Carden

Paul’s grandparents remember this time. Paul’s grandmother, for instance, didn’t learn to drive until her mid-thirties. Why? “She didn’t need to learn because everything was so walkable,” Paul said. She recalls a time when Jefferson was lined with department stores, and grocery stores and movie theaters were easily accessible. 

There was a rare case of socioeconomic equality in Oak Cliff at that time. It was a place where anyone and everyone was welcome. “I grew up with tales of older black families and white families caring about protecting their neighborhood gardens. They didn’t care who you were; they just were concerned with who had the nicest yards,” he said with a laugh.

Paul wondered what it would be like to have that again in Oak Cliff; this question followed him into adulthood.

On Saturday, March 21, 2015, Senator Royce West hosted an “Eggs & Issues” informational meeting and breakfast at The University of North Texas-Dallas. Paul, now Heritage Oak Cliff’s VP of Neighborhood Development, decided to attend. It was here where he learned about two transportation initiatives: the Trinity Parkway, a planned toll road through the Trinity River levees and the Southern Gateway Project that will add capacity and redesign sections of I-35E and U.S. Highway 67. In other words, the construction of an even bigger highway through the middle of Oak Cliff; and further separation.

Unsurprisingly to Paul, The Trinity Parkway garnered the most attention. But as the meeting continued, he and others from Oak Cliff–such as Katherine Homan of Kessler Park–voiced their concern with The Southern Gateway project designs. Katherine and Paul brought up the idea of a deck while others chimed in ideas like trenching it and using sound walls. “Despite our differences, we were united in our opposition,” he said. 

Towards the end of this meeting, the representative told Paul and others that if they didn’t like this design, they should come up with a better one. What was perhaps a moment of frustration actually led to inspiration. “Whether he expected anyone to take that seriously or not, I have no idea,” Paul said with a smile. 

Now was the opportunity to cover up this highway scar with something beautiful – and to reconnect what was lost. But how? Paul knew finance, not architectural design. And while this new Southern Gateway deck idea was gaining traction and even committed government funds, it was still just an idea on powerpoint slides.

That’s when Paul met Barry Hancock, Founding Partner of Cienda. Cienda Partners was already heavily invested in Oak Cliff; today, we have nearly $100 million worth of land acquisitions throughout Oak Cliff and West Dallas. But Barry also knew the dark history of I-35 and its impact on Oak Cliff. He cared for the community and wanted to see it flourish again, much like Paul’s grandparents. So his team closely tracked the discussion. 

“I had heard Paul’s ideas at the ‘Issue and Eggs’ breakfast and thought they were good,” Barry said. “There actually was an opportunity to stitch the east and west sides of Oak Cliff together again, and we were excited about that.”  

After further conversation with Paul and then City Councilman Scott Griggs, Cienda committed nearly $100,000 to fund the initial design process, which effectively kickstarted the entire project. “We went through a multi-month process of not only designing the park, but also talking to hundreds of neighbors and stakeholders about their hopes for this project,” Barry said.

As concerns about the park surfaced, Barry, Paul, and Scott helped lead the discussion. “People were saying we don’t need a $40 million deck park. We need sidewalks and street lights,” Barry said. “And that’s true; but we can’t use COG (North Texas Council of Government) for that kind of stuff. However, we can use it to build a deck park.”

This paradigm shift led the community to think about the project in a new way. Instead of building a bigger highway through the already separated community, we helped show how these same funds could be used to do something special and even healing for the people of Oak Cliff. 

Since then, Cienda has called many leaders and stakeholders into action. We helped form the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, which is led by President, COO and longtime Oak Cliff resident, April Allen. Other key Oak Cliff stakeholders like Lester Houston, President, Zoo Creek Park Neighborhood Association, and of course, Paul, have continued to help guide the project. 

Just recently, Mayor Eric Johnson and former mayors Mike Rawlings and Ron Kirk gathered at City Hall to celebrate reaching 75% of the funding goal to build the first half of Southern Gateway Park. 

There is a lot at stake in this project, not only from a financial standpoint but also from a community wellness standpoint. “This could have easily been another black eye not only for Oak Cliff, but for Dallas and the community as a whole,” Barry said. 

But it won’t be. Instead, this team of community leaders came together to acknowledge and repair the severed ties of Oak Cliff and ensure that the whole area actually benefits from the new construction. It’s an unusual deal, to be sure. But it’s clear that this direction will help lead Oak Cliff into a brighter future.

“Cienda has done this time and time again,” Paul Carden said. “Even if it's a wacky, creative deal, they will find a way to make it work and do good at the same time.”