Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum

The State Fair of Texas, which has been canceled only eight times during its 134 years, and even then primarily because of two world wars, will not take place during 2020, fair officials announced Tuesday.

Amber Fletcher with Fletcher Corny Dogs said her family is in “a little bit of grieving."

“We sell about 500,000 to 600,000 corny dogs in 24 days. And each corny dog is about six dollars. So you can say the gross sales is typically close to 3.8 to 4 million dollars,” Fletcher said. “We would have to do an event every single day for a year and a half to make what we made at the State Fair.”

Brent Reaves from Smoky Johns BBQ said it will be a major hit for them too.

“The fair for us is over 30 percent of our revenue for the year. So, it’s a big blow for us,” Reaves said. “However, you do have to take into consideration just the safety and health and well-being of the fair goers.”

quixomniac wrote:Congratulations guys. we did it!

The State Fair of Texas is officially canceled

The State Fair of Texas, which has been canceled only eight times during its 134 years, and even then primarily because of two world wars, will not take place during 2020, fair officials announced Tuesday.

https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-enterta ... -canceled/

TNWE wrote:Remember, NYC's COVID situation was several orders of magnitude worse in every way (cases/hospitalizations/deaths) per capita under lockdown than Texas' has been with bars/restaurants reopened. These people love to insist that Texas should have never re-opened anything (because of blind partisan loyalties), but don't realize that under an extended pandemic lockdown, people overwhelmingly would rather live in a house in the suburbs with a car than an urban apartment/condo and be reliant on public transit. If anything, the DMag crowd should be the ones clamoring for re-opening everything, because the longer this goes on, the more people will flee the urban core (especially now that their employers are realizing that they don't need to have everyone in the office).

DPatel304 wrote:
The media seems to certainly be picking on Texas and Florida these days. I have family in England and apparently Texas is even making the news over there, which is absurd to me.

Yes things are getting worse here, but we have been open for a few months now and our deaths per capita is still relatively low. People should be cautious and taking the necessary precautions, but the media is certainly exaggerating the situation over here, IMO.

tamtagon wrote:Hopefully, the city can fast-track some of the park improvements since the pandemic is gifting the park with time to work. Get in there and double as much of the work as possible. I would love to see a dramatic expansion of working greenhouses with Fair Park approved art deco architecture - vocational programs grow all the seasonal/ornamental plants used by the Park in buildings that expand the array of Art Deco structures, and provide 'relative' climate control activities in the heat of the summer and cool of winter.

This is also a good time to put a philanthropic bug in the ear of Dallas' billionaires to establish an endowment for the park, making sure the ups and downs of municipal financing do not allow the park to fall into disrepair ever again.

THRILLHO wrote:Dallas Zoo is permanently closing the Children's Aquarium at Fair Park.

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/coronavirus-updates-dallas-fort-worth-august-13/287-40cf35ef-d791-41e6-9e3e-d782c704f17e

THRILLHO wrote:"At Dallas’s Hall of State, a Return to Majesty"
-https://www.metropolismag.com/architecture/cultural-architecture/dallas-hall-of-state-restoration/pic/106491/

Restoration finished up last month. The pictures here are incredible looking, and I had no idea they were adding a wheelchair ramp. That's great.

exelone31 wrote:I feel like the crowd for the State Fair will kind of self-select and figure out what is most comfortable for them.

The Fair won't require masks, so that will automatically keep a certain amount of people from attending.

Those that do attend, there will likely be a mixed bag of masks/no masks. I think if there are people who are uncomfortable with things being too lax, they'll probably just leave or stick to outdoor/spaced areas.

Fair Park First and architecture firm Overland Partners released these artist renderings of the plans, which would renovate the Automobile Building, Centennial Hall, the Fair Park Band Shell, the Music Hall at Fair Park, the stadium and Fair Park Coliseum.

IcedCowboyCoffee wrote:"Look: Cotton Bowl, Fair Park improvements wanted in Nov. 8 election"
- https://prestonhollow.advocatemag.com/2022/09/07/cotton-bowl-fair-park-renderings/

Fair Park First and architecture firm Overland Partners released these artist renderings of the plans, which would renovate the Automobile Building, Centennial Hall, the Fair Park Band Shell, the Music Hall at Fair Park, the stadium and Fair Park Coliseum.

The band shell is certainly an eye-catcher, and the cotton bowl concourse looks great.

Hannibal Lecter wrote:^ This will be the only vote on the projects that goes before the public. If this passes then the city has cart blanche to do whatever they want, including taking money that supposedly is going to fair park and redirecting to the convention center (or other projects). This has happened multiple times before with bond projects.

Tnexster wrote:I could believe that. The renderings don't look like all that to me, more like some paint and lipstick. There is nothing in there that looks like major makover. Park space is nice but what is the big ticket Fair Park item in this package? I have no doubt that convention center will require additional funds, good thing they'll have all this extra unspent Fair Park money to do just that.

casperitl wrote:^ which renovation was that? The one before the ice storm or the one after the ice storm that flooded the whole place out? Incompetence runs rampant there.