Beneath a Beleaguered Downtown Dallas Overpass, Parking for Deep Ellum Or a Soccer Complex — Or Both?

Beneath the overpass separating the Dallas Farmers Market side of downtown from Deep Ellum, a few homeless men were camping Wednesday afternoon. One was lying on the sidewalk along Taylor Street, surrounded by a fort built of his belongings; another sat parked next to a column amid the trash-strewn wasteland between Taylor and Canton Street. And yet another was just out for a walk inside the chain-link fence that, in spots, droops earthbound.Here, under this gloomy 1.4-mile-long stretch of Interstate 345 linking North Central Expressway with Interstates 30 and 45, Roddrick West hopes to roll out five soccer and football fields made of artificial turf. He envisions, too, a massive "event lawn" measuring some 17,000 square feet — room enough for retail and restaurants.He promises something like the Stadio Soccer complex beneath Interstate 95 in Miami, where West worked for HKS Architects. West said he wants "an amenity for residents as well as people who work and play there." To the Texas Department of Transportation, which owns the land; to Dallas City Hall, which controls the land; and to Deep Ellum stakeholders, who have plans for this land, West pitches the idea as "a destination and a draw."   Continue reading...