2 East Dallas Mothers Are on a Quest To Fix up One Very Sad Playground

Some of Jasmine Cadena’s favorite childhood memories took place at Harry Stone Park. 

Walking home from her East Dallas school each day, she and her brother would stop at the park to run around the fields or swing at the playground. She remembers especially loving the twisty slide. 

Six months ago, when it came time to purchase a house for herself and her four children, returning to the Casa View neighborhood felt like the right choice. She was excited to continue making memories at the Harry Stone Park in this phase of her life, but when her family visited the playground, she was surprised to see it had remained virtually unchanged since her childhood. 

“It was a little bit more run-down than I remembered,” she said. “So [my children] tend to avoid the playground. My daughter actually calls it the ‘haunted park.’” 

Cadena had several concerns: she felt the equipment was outdated, and much of it appeared to be covered in rust, mold and graffiti. Some patchwork repairs had taken place over time, like the sheet of plywood installed to cover a risky climbing element, but she watched children incorporate the intended barriers as just another challenge.

She began asking neighbors whether they felt that the Harry Stone playground had been left behind, and the answer was a resounding yes. She teamed up with Karen Ramirez, another Casa View mom who has lived in the neighborhood for five years, and the duo launched a petition in hopes of getting the attention of decision-makers at City Hall. At the time this article was written, it had garnered over 600 signatures. 

They also began organizing community listening sessions, during which they compiled a list of requests to improve the playground. At the very minimum, they’d like the equipment to be cleaned of rust and graffiti, and for lighting and benches to be installed around the playground. They’d also like the play area to be enclosed because a nearby thoroughfare is notorious for fast traffic. 

The current state of the playground isn’t doing Harry Stone justice, they say. They love the recreation center and the aquatic center, both of which are relatively new. They also like the trails that surround the nearly 20 acres of green space and the accessible sports fields. But when Cadena and Ramirez’s children want to play on a playground, the families tend to leave their neighborhood in search of something better. 

“Kids will make do with what they have,” said Ramirez. “But it could be such a destination park. … If it had a really nice playground, it has just about everything else.” 

A Sisyphean Maintenance Problem

A spokesperson for the Dallas Park and Recreation department said that staff maintain each of the 214 playgrounds located across the city on a “regular recurring schedule.”

The average age of Dallas’ playgrounds is 18 years, and, admittedly, Harry Stone’s playground is “nearing the end of its service life,” which is why the wear and tear on the equipment is especially evident. According to the Dallas Park and Recreation Department, the playground was installed in 2003.

But unless Cadena and Ramirez get clever, it could be a while before they are satisfied with an updated facility. 

Because Dallas relies on playgrounds’ ability to last 20 or more years, new amenities are funded through capital improvement programs. In the 2024 bond program, which overwhelmingly supported parks as a part of Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson’s top priorities, funds were appropriated for 52 playground projects. In some cases, that means a total playground replacement. In others, shade structures, lighting or specific equipment projects are detailed, according to the city’s 2024 bond dashboard. 

Among the playgrounds slated for total replacement is the one at Casa View Park, just two miles north of Harry Stone. That project is currently in the design phase, and the projects will be spread out over the next three years as the bond is expected to be disbursed through 2029. The park department said facility conditions are taken into consideration when determining which projects will be prioritized first during the multi-year bond process. 

“We will continue to replace the playgrounds that reach the end of their service life on a rotation through future bond programs,” the park department said in an emailed statement. 

It appears to be an endless cycle: Bonds, passed on multi-year cycles, attempt to fix up the city’s highest-priority facilities. But by the time those projects are completed, others have fallen into bad shape.

In developing her list of requests for Harry Stone, Cadena came across a draft of a 2015 area plan for Casa View. She was surprised to see that the decade-old analysis of Harry Stone Park — which asked for a dog park, better playground equipment and traffic calming — was full of the same requests she’s hearing from her neighbors now. 

“The neighborhood still wants the same stuff, 10 years later,” she said. “It really is such a center for all of us to come together.” 

Cadena and Ramirez have managed to address a few patchwork problems through 311 requests, and they’re communicating with their City Council member, Jesse Moreno, to schedule a walkthrough of the playground. They said they’re hoping to get some concrete goalposts from the representative: what will it take to get someone to care about the Harry Stone playground?

Moreno’s office did not respond to the Observer’s request for comment. 

“I want to show that you can be successful in making a difference in this community,” said Ramirez. “We want to put pressure on the city to take us seriously.”