Southern Gateway Park construction begins as neighborhood future is still uncertain

A big ceremony Thursday marked the start of park construction on a bridge over the R.L. Thornton Freeway near the Dallas Zoo.

Boosters say the Southern Gateway Park will help Oak Cliff the way Klyde Warren Park did on a bridge over the Woodall Rodgers Freeway between Downtown and Uptown Dallas.

“I want this to be the moment that people point to and say, this is when we stopped talking about putting money in Southern Dallas and actually did it. This is when we put real infrastructure in place,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said. “This is going to be a catalyst and spur growth in this area like we have never seen before.”

People in the 10^th Street neighborhood beside the new park have yet to see the benefits.

The neighborhood was a Freedman's town where freed slaves settled.

It was severed in the 1950s when the original freeway was built.

The just completed I-35E reconstruction project called the Southern Gateway included the bridge structure on which the park construction is getting started now.

Dallas City Council Member Carolyn King Arnold, who represents the 10^th Street neighborhood, said the park must also be a feature that stitches the neighborhood back together.

“This particular project will make or break that community,” Arnold said. “We don’t want 10 Street to be a ‘what used to be.’ We don’t want the communities around here to be what used to be. It is what ‘is’ and what ‘is going to be.’ But it’s going to take all of us.”

Ghost steps along the streets in the 10^th Street neighborhood mark the places where many more houses once stood.

Robert Swann represents the neighborhood on the Dallas Landmark Commission, which is responsible for protecting historic structures.

Swann said old dwellings are disappearing fast in the 10^th Street area, partly due to land speculation for the adjacent park.

“When you are bleeding, and 10th Street is bleeding, it’s been bleeding for decades, you don’t go to get symbolic stitches. You want stitches you can see on the ground,” Swann said.

At the park ceremony, there was music from two different bands symbolic of Oak Cliff culture.

Instead of the bridge signing event that was planned for dignitaries, rainy weather drove the event into a large tent on the bridge.

Visitors signed paper butterflies that were then pinned on potted shrubs to symbolize what may come in the park.

“When completed it will be a beautiful green space with trees, playgrounds, activities and every other amenity you could want in a park,” Southern Gateway Green Foundation President April Allen said.

Mayor Johnson said the nation’s attention is on Dallas with projects like the Southern Gateway contributing to that.

“This place will look fundamentally different in 25 years because of what we’re doing right here today,” Johnson said.

The owner of a large parcel of vacant land adjacent to the park and outside the 10th Street neighborhood has plans for a large mixed-use development.

Hudson Henley spoke with NBC5 a year ago. He also attended Thursday's ceremony. A portion of the old car dealership he owns along the freeway has been demolished but Henley said new construction plans are not finalized.

Swann said he hopes the change will include a vibrant historic Freedman’s district, unlike the change that occurred in another Dallas Freedman’s neighborhood.

“Whether it will be fundamentally different, being more of a heritage tourism asset to the city, or if it’s different the way North Dallas became different, it’s called uptown now,” he said.

Swann suggests restoring a creek that ran through the 10^th Street neighborhood before the freeway was built. It would use a portion of the 10^th Street underpass below the freeway as a water feature to boost new development and neighborhood restoration.

“This is a change they could make for the better,” Swann said. “This is green space, but it’s real authentic green space that goes deep into the history of 10^th Street Freedman’s town and the history of Oak Cliff.”

While the 10^th Street neighborhood’s future is unclear, the park is clearly on the way.

Fundraising is 95% complete for the first phase of construction on the completed bridge structure.

A second phase requires additional bridge construction.

Texas State Senator Royce West who also represents the neighborhood, said he will pursue state money to help with that. But West said plans must also go forward to include $15 million for the second phase in a planned 2024 City of Dallas Public Improvement Bond Referendum and win voter approval.

“You do your part in the city and I will assure you that we’ll do our part in the state,” West said.

The first phase of the Southern Gateway Park is due to open in 2025.