the council also voted to use $650,000 in Cedars TIF money to restore the Blum House and the Rall House<\/a>, the latter intended to one day serve as leasable office space. Conrad said the conservancy has also committed $550,000 to both houses. Yet not a cent has been spent, save for $270,140 paid to SWA Group for a site study and \u201ceconomic and operations analysis\u201d approved by the Park Board in 2023 and expanded earlier this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Preservation]()
<\/p>\n
Preservation Dallas Executive Director Sarah Crain has been City Park’s chief operating officer until the city took back the park in 2024 — five years after the Blum House, seen here, had to be closed due to mold, rot and a flea infestation. There’s money for a restoration that has not yet begun.<\/p>\n
Robert Wilonsky\/Staff writer<\/p>\n
I called SWA\u2019s managing principal Wednesday to see how goes the look-see intended to result in that City Park master plan, but never heard back. In the meantime, the Park Board has assembled a City Park task force, which is supposed to begin holding community meetings sooner than later. A February 2024 Park Board presentation said the city had hoped to have a \u201cnew management partner\u201d for City Park by spring 2026.<\/p>\n
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John Jenkins, director of the Park and Recreation Department, said Wednesday the city has only enough money \u201cto stabilize the buildings, but I don\u2019t have any for revitalization.\u201d At the moment, he\u2019s just trying to find someone to keep the doors open to a visitors\u2019 center that is locked most mornings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought we had the right manager to get the place moving, but we\u2019re back to trying to find someone with a track record of running these kinds of venues,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s been a setback. Once I can get the right manager out there, with the right expertise, regardless of what condition it\u2019s in, there are still opportunities for more programming. Unfortunately, we haven\u2019t lived up to that yet. That\u2019s the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah Crain, Preservation Dallas\u2019 executive director, served as tour guide on my latest sojourn to the city\u2019s first park. Until the city\u2019s takeover in 2024, Crain served as City Park\u2019s chief operating officer and knows this property better than most, down to the last rotting roof, sagging floor and water-stained wall. She comes out here once a month to check on the place, though every hole in every wall and every locked door makes her wonder why.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to say this place was a bad boyfriend,\u201d Crain told me after our walk. \u201cYou love it so much, but it never treats you right, and it never loves you back. But it was the best job I ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"One]()
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One of the original Park Avenue houses still on its original foundation, which would be a code violation in any other part of town<\/p>\n
Robert Wilonsky\/Staff writer<\/p>\n
Because of her staff, she said. And her neighbors in the Cedars, \u201cour best champions.\u201d And the guests, \u201chundreds of kids from across the city who came to experience that tangible history.\u201d She said there was nothing like getting to City Park first thing in the morning \u201cand being able to see the historic outline of our buildings set against the backdrop of downtown Dallas. You don\u2019t have an experience like that anywhere else in town.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Except, that historic outline is in lousy shape. And it\u2019s not getting any better.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose buildings are fragile,\u201d Conrad said. \u201cThere are real concerns about structural issues with some of those buildings. And that requires the city\u2019s investment and constant attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the midst of yet another budget shortfall, the city manager has asked Jenkins to cut $15 million out of the park department\u2019s $122 million operating budget. So, yeah. I get that Old City Park isn\u2019t at the top of Dallas\u2019 List of Things to Be Concerned About. Probably doesn\u2019t even make the first page. Or second.<\/p>\n
![\"This]()
<\/p>\n
This fountain’s been at City Park for 109 years. It worked, at some point. Probably when it wasn’t in several pieces.<\/p>\n
Robert Wilonsky\/Staff writer<\/p>\n
That\u2019s always been the case, especially in the midst of financial turmoil. History provides a pretty solid roadmap: The Panic of 1893 was the first downturn to hit the nascent city hard. And as a result, City Park, then one of young Dallas\u2019 crown jewels, lost its funding.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt was unfortunate but undoubtedly to be expected that when Dallas was faced with its first civic crisis of any magnitude, it chose to sacrifice beauty, open spaces and recreational facilities in order to lighten the burden on civic finances,\u201d wrote those three Tech students in 1976\u2019s history of the park system,.\u201cIt seems that all the speeches made about the need for parks as places for children to frolic in peace and safety \u2026 were only superficial rhetoric.\u201d<\/p>\n
City Park really needs that new plan. And this town really needs a new script.<\/p>\n
Correction at 10:50 a.m. July 10:<\/strong> An earlier version of this column incorrectly referred to the Panic of 1893 as the Panic of 1983.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I spent a little more than an hour Wednesday morning walking Old City Park \u2013 long enough to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":928743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,358,326036,325799,290171,329440,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-928742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-texas","tag-tp-dallas-city-hall","tag-tp-downtown-dallas","tag-tp-dallas-city-council","tag-tp-parks","tag-tx","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116903765879203731","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=928742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/928743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=928742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=928742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=928742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}