Dallas’ second deck park, Halperin Park, will open in a little more than a month, just ahead of the World Cup. The Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation and Dallas Park and Recreation announced Wednesday that the opening ceremony for the first phase of the park is set for May 9, with a weekend of events planned, including live performances by local musicians and dancers, yoga and fitness classes, storytime and arts workshops, food trucks and limited edition “Picnic in the Park” baskets, and book giveaways.
The 5-acre park spans I-35E between Ewing and Marsalis Avenues near the Dallas Zoo in Oak Cliff. When it opens in May, it will boast a playground, sprayground, a community building, an amphitheater, and space for food trucks. It is meant to stitch together neighborhoods separated by highway construction in the 1950s, restoring the street grid and providing new amenities for the community and visitors. The importance of the park hasn’t been lost on those planning it, including Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation CEO April Allen, who is also a longtime Oak Cliff resident. In a 2022 interview, she spoke about the importance of engaging the community in planning the park and making sure it represented them. More recently, she admitted to The Lab Report that not everyone has been completely won over, but she understands the layers of mistrust that come from historic disinvestment in the communities around the shiny new park. “Have we cracked the code to win over everyone?” she said. “No, and I get that. There have been a lot of broken promises to these communities.” She’s positive that once the park opens, many of those fears will abate.
The park’s website indicates that the foundation still has additional fundraising before phase 2 kicks off. It’s more expensive than the first phase, Allen told D in 2022, because the additional decking over I-35 turns the stretch of highway into a tunnel, which requires fire suppression and other safety features…