Patricia Cox, when she was a little girl, would walk to Show Hill from the home of her family in Dallas’ historic Tenth Street district. Show Hill had a nearby laundromat and barbecue restaurant, as well as the only movie theater in Oak Cliff at the time that Black people could visit. Above the cinema, there was a hotel where many Black entertainers stayed. Cox, who is now 80 years old, recalled seeing Sammy Davis Jr., Ike, and Tina Turner. “I was with my father, who worked as a bartender in the Dallas Athletic Club. He would say, “Honey, that is so-and-so!”
Tenth Street, a community located just south of the Trinity River Floodplain and originally a freedmen’s town after the Civil War, grew in prosperity thanks to many Black-owned businesses. Cox recalled that as the 1950s came to an end, “I saw my teachers leaving the area,” she said. “I thought, ‘What’s happening?’ “
Construction of the R. L. Thornton Freeway (also known as Interstate 35E) was to blame. The construction of the R. L. Thornton Freeway, also known as Interstate 35E, ripped through the heart of Tenth Street, altering the fabric of this community irrevocably. The Star Theatre, which was the anchor of Show Hill and the movie house that anchored it, closed in 1959. All the other tenants followed it. The land where Show Hill once stood, just a few blocks from the highway, is now empty.
More than 60 years later, another public-funded infrastructure project is set to transform the corner of Oak Cliff. The Southern Gateway Park will be built on a deck that covers a portion of I-35E, just south of the remnants of the Tenth Street community. The $52 million park (the first phase, which is the construction of 2.8 acres) was the result of a compromise between local and state officials who wanted to win the community’s approval for a new expansion of this scar left by the interstate. As in other major American cities, the building of highways in Dallas has a long and tumultuous history of racism. It’s been harmful both by accident and design.
Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, a nonprofit organization, was established to supervise the construction of the park. The project is a joint public-private venture between the City of Dallas, the North Central Texas Council of Governments, and the Texas Department of Transportation. The park’s supporters regularly tout its potential to “stitch back” together a community that was once divided by I-35E. Cox and the other residents of Tenth Street remain cautious. Cox stated, “It won’t benefit us.” “It will be beneficial to those who build apartments, homes, restaurants, etc.”
Cox, president of the Tenth Street Residential Association, and many of her neighbors worry that the park will encourage speculative investments in land and new developments, which will drive up the property values around the park, pricing out residents who cannot afford higher property taxes. They think that public officials won’t be able to stop this gentrification. Tenth Street residents are not against the idea of building a new park. The history of sales pitches has led them to be suspicious.
Since the park’s first proposal in 2015, residents on both sides of the highway have been divided by these concerns. Residents on the west side, where rapid growth has led to an influx of white professionals living in historic neighborhoods like the Bishop Arts District, were the first to support the project. Those living in the majority Black and working-class areas of the east joined several Dallas City Councilmembers to oppose the park.
Tiffinni Young, a city councilwoman from Oak Cliff, told the Oak Cliff advocate that it was “disingenuous” to claim the project would unite the communities. Scott Griggs was the then councilman who represented the neighborhoods west of the park’s site. He supported the project. Carolyn King Arnold, the councilwoman representing Tenth Street at the time, referred to the park as “lip gloss on a pig.”
The opposition to Southern Gateway Park within City Hall dwindled as new council members were elected. Helped raise money for the project. It’s not clear why she changed her mind. Texas Monthly repeatedly requested interviews with her staff, but they never responded. Some Tenth Street residents are suspicious of her shift. Larry Johnson, a member of the neighborhood association board, said that this is the question everyone asks. “Why does someone who opposed the deck park raise money to support it?”
The Southern Gateway, Public Green Foundation, held a series of meetings in an effort to close this trust gap and dispel fears that the deck will worsen gentrification. Brittani Hite, an equity consultant who worked with the foundation in 2020, acknowledged that there was a great deal of distrust within the community. “There’s a legacy of broken promises that have been made. So it’s hard for some to believe that this new green space is going to provide opportunities that benefit the people who are there.”
Following these meetings, the foundation developed a lengthy “equitable development plan,” which features 46 recommendations, ranging from the creation of cultural programs and features, such as historical exhibits to recognize the communities of color who have long lived in the area to policy solutions, such as incentivizing landlords to only gradually increase rents–potentially a tough sell in a state that severely restricts any form of rent control. “The concern about gentrification and displacement is a concern of ours as well,” April Allen, president and COO of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, told me. “Which is why we’ve been intentional about the approach to equitable development.”
Yet it remains to be seen whether any of the proposals in the equitable development plan will be carried forward if the park gets finished. Only one phase of the proposed two phases of decks upon which the park would sit has been constructed by TxDOT. A recent federal omnibus bill set aside $7.75 million for the park’s second phase, and the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation has said it hopes to begin construction in June. However, it still needs to raise another $13 million to complete the first phase. At this point, it’s anybody’s guess when that will be. The toothier recommendations for ensuring equitable development, such as “rent stabilization,” go far beyond the capacity of the foundation and would require state and local policymakers to act.
Where there has been movement, the details remain sketchy. About $10.5 million generated from a tax-increment financing district in the area has been earmarked to help homeowners near the park repair and keep their homes. However, exactly how the funds will be distributed still needs to be worked out. On top of that, whether $10.5 million will be enough money to protect the existing homeowners–and if it will be distributed quickly enough–is difficult to assess.
As the clock ticks and the market shifts around the future of Southern Gateway Park, Allen says additional approaches are being considered. Among these is the creation of a community land trust, which could provide a mechanism for preventing displacement of low- or fixed-income residents by acquiring and securing land and then offering renewable ground leases that allow owners to stay in their homes without facing the pain of increasing property taxes. It’s a concept that’s been tried in other cities, including Austin, Atlanta, and Oakland. Johnson of Tenth Street told Texas Monthly he attended recent meetings about community land trusts but walked away skeptical that one would solve the neighborhood’s problems. “I don’t think it’s such a bad thing,” he said. “But a lot of us are concerned about the owner not owning the land.”
Other ideas, such as property tax freezes for select communities, are also being considered, but they would require legislative action. A bill proposed by state representative Yvonne Davis, who represents a chunk of southern Dallas, would allow taxing entities to offer tax freezes to homeowners in rapidly gentrifying areas. The chances of the bill passing are unclear, and few are counting on it. “We’re trying to do everything we can both from a policy perspective and in terms of how we use our relationships and connections to mitigate displacement,” Allen said. “If we could have our policy makers help us make this less of a potential detriment for folks, I think we would have less of the kind of knee-jerk reaction that this will be bad for them.”
About a half mile south of Tenth Street is Brentwood, a small neighborhood of modest single-family homes, some of which are already being flipped into luxury properties. It’s not a historic former freedmen’s town, but it is a predominantly Black and Hispanic community. Audrie Austin, president of the Brentwood Neighborhood Association, is less pessimistic about the park than her Tenth Street neighbors to the north. “I don’t see the park as a negative thing,” she said. “I think it’s a great thing. But I’m still concerned it will push a lot of people out. People ask, ‘Can the city do development without that happening?’ I believe they can. But will they?”