Decades after Dallas stole homes from Black residents, final plans set for new Fair Park greenspace
- Dallas Morning News
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/commentary/2022/04/14/decades-after-dallas-stole-homes-from-black-residents-final-plans-set-for-new-fair-park-greenspace/
City Hall’s original promise to build a park for Fair Park’s neighbors, a pledge broken time after time, was part of its ugly ploy to force hundreds of Black families from their homes in the 1960s and 1970s.
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More than 50 years later, no new greenspace — no matter how wonderful — can ever make up for those families’ losses or the city’s shamefully unjust behavior. But it can be a small step toward healing for a part of our city traditionally othered by those inside Fair Park’s walls.
Construction on the $85 million project, which also will add a parking structure near Gaisford Street, is set to begin in January.
The park looks fantastic. All of those trees! The space will be even more incredible when the oaks fully mature.
I really want to see how this turns out:
Luallen got most excited talking about the “fog tree,” which may involve the replanting of a large live oak that will likely need to be moved from the Fair Park Coliseum due to renovations there. Delicate misting lines would be entwined in its branches and lights installed throughout to create a “living fountain.”