Impactful Projects in Arts and Parks Make the Difference Between Living in and Loving Dallas
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Dallas has a lot of neighborhoods with a lot of different styles of homes. The uniting factor throughout the city is the Parks and Rec Department and the Office of Arts and Culture. Those two departments do not just give us a reason to like living in Dallas, they give us a reason to love living in Dallas. Yes, Dallas is a hub of big business, but what is the point if at the end of the day you cannot enjoy your neighborhood park or an art installation that makes you think?
On more than one occasion, I have said that if I had my druthers, I would designate all my tax dollars go toward those two departments as well as our library system. Regardless of the neighborhood where you live, those three departments feed our souls.
All that to say, I am proud to give you my top five Most Impactful Projects in Arts and Parks for 2025. It’s been a true pleasure to write about the Parks and Rec Department and the Office of Arts and Culture this past year. I look forward to 2026 and being able to tell you how these departments continually improve our neighborhoods and our city.
Please know that I wish you and your families a holiday season filled with peace, grace, and love. May the best of your past be the worst of your future as we ring in 2026!
“Operation Goat” Underway at Bachman Greenbelt
The goats! The goats have arrived at the Bachman Greenbelt and they will play a big role in reclaiming more than 40 acres of green space, much of which has been overrun with invasive privet.
“Operation Goat,” as I have dubbed this endeavor, commenced on Friday, April 18, when 200-250 goats were dropped off at the Bachman Greenbelt. There is so much to like about this story. But mostly, it’s about the goats.
Defenders of Cool Have a Park to Call Their Own with Bachman Lake Skatepark Opening
Defenders of cool have a park to call their own as the Bachman Lake Skatepark opened this past Saturday. Before city officials delivered any speeches, the overwhelming review of the new statepark was in: “This is so gnarl man” a skater said as he came out of the bowl.
The $4 million facility is the last of the 2017 bond package and it brought the most emotion not from skaters who remember skating at Bachman Lake in the 1980s but from elected officials and park board members.
“The most important people to thank are the voters,” said a visibly moved District 6 Councilman Omar Narvaez. With only 30 days remaining in office, Narvaez acknowledged that this will be the last ribbon cutting during his tenure. “There are so many positive things happening in Bachman Lake Park. Enjoy this, love this. People are going to enjoy this park with their kids and grandkids.”
New Park Honors South Dallas Trailblazer and Signals the City’s Green Commitment
The late Judge Charles R. Rose left a legacy of serving his beloved Highland Hills neighborhood as a justice of the peace, a Wilmer-Hutchins School Board Trustee, and as an advocate for his South Dallas neighborhood. When he passed in 2019, the community felt that loss.
This past weekend, however, the Highland Hills neighborhood paid tribute with the official grand opening of the Judge Charles R. Rose Community Park.
From Survival to Revival: Bonton’s Floodgates Become a Symbol of Art, Homes, and Hope
The residents of the South Dallas neighborhood of Bonton are writing a new chapter for the place they call home, and it comes in the form of fresh food and public art. An area of town that is still recovering from years of city neglect and biblical-like flooding from the Trinity River, the collective will of Bonton residents is ensuring that they honor the history of their neighborhood, while setting a new path for the next generation.
Bonton is located five miles southeast of Downtown Dallas, where the Trinity River bed meets the Great Trinity Forest. When the original Dallas Floodway was built in the 1930s, this series of levees and pumps protected downtown from Trinity flooding. Watershed gates helped keep flood waters from reaching surrounding neighborhoods.
But whenever the city closed those gates, it kept the flood waters inside Bonton in order to protect other neighborhoods. It wasn’t until the mid-1990s that the city built the Rochester Levee to protect its namesake and surrounding neighborhoods.
Reverchon Park Reopens: ‘This Is the City of Dallas Baseball Cathedral’
If you build it, they will come. Or, in the case of the Reverchon Park Baseball Field, if you save it from private interests and renovate the park from top to bottom, then you will have the past, present, and future come and enjoy what is undoubtedly one of the true gems of the Dallas park system.
“This is just like it was,” said Joe Harrison, a member of the 1965 W. W. Samuell High School Spartans baseball team. “We thought we had died and gone to heaven.”
The Spartans are the only baseball team in Dallas ISD history to ever win a city and a state baseball championship. While the state championship was won in Austin, the city championship was won at Reverchon Park Baseball Field.
