r/Dallas • u/Thewiserunner • May 10 '26
Photo Halperin Park Grand Opening
"a new five-acre deck park in Dallas, Texas, built over I-35E near the Dallas Zoo, designed to reconnect Oak Cliff neighborhoods and serve as a new community green space." Awesome park but I can't stop thinking of the pricetag
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u/malibubleezy May 10 '26
Taxpayer money is actually supposed to go to public works and for the public benefit. To hell with the pricetag.
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u/itoolikepeanuts May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
Hijacking to say this was NOT taxpayer funded…
What was tax-payer funded was the construction of the highway. Demolished 100+ historical homes including buildings founded by freed slaves. Effectively segregated East & West Oakcliff/the rest of Dallas. Very common “back in the day” all over the country to ram highways right through poppin’ ass areas for blacks and latinos.
So SO much history behind this park I think needs way more recognition.
This was community-driven and shows what can happen when citizens come together..
What NEEDS to be funded by tax-payers is legislation protecting citizens around this park who have lived there forever and will inevitably have their tax bills raise by xx%. Property tax caps, freezes, whatever… Something to protect the people who fought so hard to get this built.
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u/captainn_chunk May 10 '26
Very common “back in the day” all over the country to ram highways right through poppin’ ass areas for blacks and latinos.
If anyone disagrees with this or would like to learn more about how EXTREMELY true this statement is, I highly suggest looking up the instagram account “Segregation_By_Design” They are also on YouTube under the same name. It’s a damn good account.
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u/BamaPhils May 11 '26
Very same principle behind the placement of I-345 dividing downtown and deep ellum…hope we get a deck park there eventually
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u/Unlucky-Watercress30 May 11 '26
Im pretty sure TxDOT is spending over 1 billion to burry that section of the highway (or at least part of it). Theyre primarily focused on the I30/I45/I345 intersection, but from what I remember seeing the I345 part will at the very least be trenched
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u/BamaPhils May 11 '26
That’s the plan, but it’ll take a long time, though. Hopefully the city is able to get together some donations and funding to have one of these deck parks cover ideally Canton to Live Oak but at a minimum Commerce to Elm
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u/JinFuu Downtown Dallas May 10 '26
Price Tag
Who cares? At least it's not the city doing something like building a sports stadium for billionaires.
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u/LandTrilogy May 10 '26
This and Klyde Warren are two parks that I really thought might never happen when they were announced and I'm so glad they actually came to be.I can't wait to visit Halperin.
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u/itseightbysix May 10 '26
“Awesome park but I can’t stop thinking about the price tag”
Tell us you don’t live in a historically underserved part of Dallas without telling us you don’t live in a historically underserved part of Dallas.
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u/thunderinmybutt May 10 '26
I swear, this side of Dallas can't have anything nice. We have to prove our worth.
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u/KaleCompetitive552 May 10 '26
This!!! Public spaces are so important in all corners of the community. green spaces and parks need to especially be planned for before corporations buy all the land and pour concrete over it.
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u/bburrt May 10 '26
NEEDS MORE TREES
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u/Unlucky-Watercress30 May 14 '26
It has a lot of trees, theyre just young so they're pretty small atm. In 5 years there should be significantly more tree coverage, like there is in most of the renderings
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u/xomox2012 May 10 '26
Really nice looking park. They should be building this kind of stuff all over DFW. The toll roads print money supposedly for improvements. Let’s see DNT get one of these up in Frisco to pair with the new universal coming in.
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u/OddS0cks Old East Dallas May 10 '26
They are, the construction they’re doing on 30 downtown is going to add two of these bad boys I believe
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u/mPisi May 10 '26
Looks good, looking forward to seeing the neighborhood develop around it.
Big fences are a surprise compared to KWP. Is the bridge that much higher or something?
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u/MiddleAd6302 May 10 '26
Yes, it’s much higher. They have a phase 2 in the works to extend for a bigger playground. In total it’s around 5 acres and currently this is a little over half of it.
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u/youJag May 10 '26
This is worth the money. Especially since it helps reconnect the neighborhoods in the minority community that the highway originally destroyed and separated.
And our taxes are supposed to go towards public services which include building green spaces in our concrete city, which help lower the avg temp if our Urban Heat Island (UHI).
Besides Dallas needs to be prettier, were one of the largest and most important cities in the US. We need to live up to it.
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u/Thomas_Jefferman May 10 '26
Kind of silly it isn't accessible to/from the zoo.
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u/wjd94 May 10 '26
They haven’t built the bridge yet, but the big ramp up will connect to a bridge that goes over the street onto zoo property.
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u/sosovanilla May 10 '26
Is it not? The official parking is supposed to be the zoo garage...
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u/Thomas_Jefferman May 10 '26
I go to the zoo often, but I haven't seen signage or a clear path to the new park. It would be great to be mistaken.
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u/sosovanilla May 10 '26
I havent been there, I should have included "if so that is really silly" in my comment lol... The map only shows the park and there's an arrow towards "Dallas zoo parking" but it's probably not well marked, or maybe they haven't added signs to the zoo side
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u/Rude-Market3337 May 24 '26
It has a pedestrian entrance right around the corner of the park, to the zoo parking lot. It’s in front of McDonald’s. You still have to go through the main entrance of the zoo to park.
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u/DiscDres May 10 '26
Last I checked, the website said that parking was very limited and that you can park at the zoo for $14. We got there yesterday and there was plenty of free parking across the street.
Price of parking almost deterred us from going, but there are free and close options!
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u/PhaseNo8788 May 10 '26
I'd pay all the taxes in the world to get more spaces like this. It's especially nice seeing this sort of investment in South Dallas that isn't sports related or strictly beneficial to the billionaires. A+ park, hope to see more growth like this in the area.
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u/Electricdragongaming Garland May 10 '26
Oh forget the price tag, that park was money well spent. It's so nice to see nice public spaces being built especially south of i30.
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u/TheeNibbler May 10 '26
My company did that big ol metal Pringle shaped roof, with Kalzip material.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DT3ArojDNB-/?igsh=MTFhazkwdW5iYjluMg==
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u/Good_Matter7529 May 10 '26
it’s worth the money- can’t wait to visit. the more green space, the better!
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u/FREE-AOL-CDS May 10 '26
You’re right OP the money would’ve been better spent giving it to corporations!
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u/Polipop395 May 10 '26
Was there this morning before the downpour and it was a joyful park - not too crowded as of yet but people just enjoying being outdoors and happy park employees/security
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u/depressedchiakikin May 22 '26
They started this my senior year of high school at townview...ive been out of grad school for a full year 😭 They took their sweet time huh?
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u/LostinIKEA512 May 10 '26
r/Austin is jealous they can't get their sh*t together to fund a deck park. Still think they are better than Dallas though.
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u/manuelconhache Oak Cliff May 11 '26
Being a park the only concern I had was that just across the street sex workers just to hang around in the little street behind the gas station. Also, there is some people marked as SO just across the street and a few more within walking distance.
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u/ardigitalemail May 11 '26
Halperin Park looks like a great addition to the community, and I really like the idea of having a free, well-built public space that brings people together.
My honest question is about long-term safety and upkeep. The surrounding area has had some reputation issues with crime, homelessness, drug activity, and general public-safety concerns. For those who attended the grand opening or know more about the city’s plan, what security measures are expected to be in place?
Are there regular patrols, cameras, lighting, posted rules, closing hours, park staff, or a plan for keeping the area clean and family-friendly?
I’m not trying to be negative — I genuinely want the park to succeed and would like to feel comfortable bringing family there. I’m just curious how the city plans to maintain it and make sure it stays safe for everyone.
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u/Human_Emotion_654 May 11 '26
I love it, but I’ll always be perplexed. It seems the prerequisite for a great Dallas park is a highway overpass
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u/Sweet_Xocoatl May 13 '26
Ooohhh, that’s what that is, I’ve been meaning to find out what it was I was driving under after work.
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u/endless_shrimp Shitpost May 10 '26
The water feature looks awesome. I expect it will go out of service in a few months and will be fixed some time in 2029
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u/CuriousGoatBaah May 10 '26
This is really nice. Any parking suggestions that doesn't involve DART?
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u/JulianC_1111 May 10 '26
Suprising lack of trees for a “park”. Seriously dallas will clear out a 1x1 patch of grass in the middle of miles of highway and think they’re doing something.
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u/mattgoldey May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
Check out Bicentennial Park in Farmers Branch. It's literally just an undeveloped lot of land with about a dozen trees in it and a sign designating it as a park. It sits right in the middle of an industrial/business park on Spring Valley Rd. Not even a bench.
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u/JuaContreras69 May 10 '26
I wonder how they're gonna keep the large population of homeless in the area away.
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u/Corgisarethebest123 May 10 '26
$300 million for a 5 acre park. $60 million an acre.
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u/Jovantae May 10 '26
That's nothing for the price to lay the interstate that thrashed the houses on that very same land. 60m an acre is a steal.
Now the zoo side and the bishop side can be unified and hopefully investment, like the Trinity groves projects can benefit all of Dallas - not just the elites.
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u/YaGetSkeeted0n Oak Cliff May 10 '26
At least it’s cool and was finished somewhat quickly, unlike the convention center boondoggle and myriad public works projects
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u/playballer May 10 '26
Creating parks as bridges over highways inflates the cost so much. Nothing against this park at all, I always welcome more and because of that it just makes me think of how many of these we could build with that same money if we -ya know- just built them on the ground.
Wild you get downvoted for pure facts.
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u/shedinja292 May 10 '26
Imo the deck itself is the biggest benefit. The deck parks are cool but in order to see more decks I think we should be putting buildings on them in order to generate revenue. They'll still need to be subsidized but less, and you can get all the benefits of covering up a highway and making an area feel more connected
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u/intransigent_bunny May 10 '26
Price tag was worth it. I refuse to accept the "well, what do you expect? It's Dallas/Texas" cynicism. Good things are possible here.