Community Park Saga
The empty parking lot where homes once stood.
What does the Fair Park management’s story of possible donated-fund mismanagement have to do with the promised 14-acre community park to be built on the historic park’s eastside?
We don’t know because the management overseer Fair Park First and day-to-day park operator OVG360 aren’t telling what donated funds, if any, are involved. While they hide and bicker, those in bordering neighborhoods, for whom the planned park is intended to serve, can’t have much trust that the park will materialize anytime soon, or at all.
The stakes are high because there is no meaningful Fair Park restoration without building that 14-acre park.
The planned community park is regarded by many as a symbolic atonement for the city swinging the wrecking ball at the bordering Black neighborhood in the 1960s and 1970s where some 300 homes were bulldozed to make way for a parking lot. All for a 4,000-space concrete slab that fills up once a year during the State Fair of Texas’ 24-day run. (For a detailed story, read this 2021 D Magazine article).
The legacy of those homes and the people who lived in them is just as much a part of Fair Park’s history as the revered Texas-Centennial era art and architecture, and the country’s largest state fair. It’s easy to see how possible financial misconduct, if it involves funds tied to the park, would inflict more harm than just your garden-variety grift. It could undermine any trust Fair Park First has built with the neighboring community that has had little reason to trust the city or the state fair.
It’s no coincidence that the planned green space would be sited just west of S. Fitzhugh Avenue where it would replace a large portion of that parking lot with green spaces, walking paths, playgrounds and an outdoor performance stage.
Recent History
When former Mayor Mike Rawlings formed the Mayor’s Fair Park Task Force (MFPTF) in 2014, the task force recommended raising millions in public and private money to execute plans to build that community park, as well as transferring management of Fair Park from the city to a non-profit.
In 2020 the Dallas City Council approved the non-profit Fair Park First’s master plan to build the 14-acre eastside green space on a large swath of those parking spaces. The master plan also includes additional, smaller green spaces, but the master plan made it clear that the community park would be a priority. In January 2023 Fair Park First announced it had reached “final phase of design, permitting and construction documentation.” Today, the parking lot remains intact and 2026 is the latest projected completion date, according to a March 6, 2024, Dallas Morning News article.
Fair Park First has raised $44 million in donations, pledges, partnerships and governmental grants, according to reporting from the Dallas Morning News. The goal is to reach $85 million, and the amount raised from private donors, and the subject of potential fund misallocation, is $17 million, according to the reports. It’s unclear what part of the $44 million is designated for the community park.
It's got be a tough job trying to raise the rest of that money while accusations of malfeasance and reports of park-management dysfunction hang over Fair Park. Sounds like the Fair Park managers and the city have a lot of cleaning-up to do before they actually do the right thing.
The iron-fence view of S. Fitzhugh Avenue from the parking lot. The master plan calls for removal of fence.