“The money isn't finalized yet, but it’s on the docket for a vote,” West says. “Skatepark funding will be in the bond proposition along with recreation centers and large funding items like Klyde Warren Park, The Dallas Zoo, and Gateway Park — all of which have huge marketing pushes behind them so we are benefiting from being associated with those other projects.”
West, who was first elected to council in 2019, says that parks are usually one of the safer items up for vote. The push could actually benefit skateboarders tremendously, allocating $2.5 million for various skateparks to be built across the city. This is a separate deal from the $4 million Bachman Lake Skatepark, which will begin construction this year.
“I think you’ll find that [skateboarding] is welcome in a lot of areas,” says West. “My neighborhood will take another park. Let’s try not to shove it into a neighborhood that doesn't want it. Personally, my kids are interested in skateboarding, and I just frankly think the sport is pretty cool.”
West’s district in Oak Cliff is scheduled to receive $1 million in skatepark funding. Another $1 million will go to revamping St. Francis (Lakeland Hills Skatepark), a Dallas “prefab” park built in 2007. A third, yet-to-be-decided Council District will receive the leftover $500,000 — an amount that would have been portioned out to Glencoe Park had it not been for neighborhood resistance that blackballed the project indefinitely.
“There’s a lot of opportunities all over the city for a skatepark,” says West. “It doesn’t have to be right there at Glencoe. I purposely held fundraisers up at Birdie's Eastside [restaurant], to get supporters and opponents of the Glencoe Park to show up and support a skatepark that is not controversial.”
West’s idea for an Oak Cliff skatepark at Westmoreland Park received support on the inside since it was first thought up, he says.
“We approached city staff, and they told us they did have some excess funds left over. If we could privately fundraise then they would match us dollar for dollar,” West says. “The bond was just sort of a nice coincidence that it was happening at the same time we were getting the wheels rolling.”
The new bond deal changes things significantly for the Oak Cliff skatepark project. So far, along with the nonprofit group Skateparks for Dallas, West has raised over $100,000 for an Oak Cliff skatepark from donors including from The Kessler Theater and Longhorn Ballroom owner Edwin Cabaniss as well as a $25,000 donation from Monty and Sarah Bennett of the Ashford Group.
“We’re raising money to try and get phase 1 constructed for the skatepark, and if the bond goes through with $1 million we want to enhance that skatepark and add additional elements to it," West says. "We’ve talked about doing phase 2, but it’s not fully vetted out yet.”
The original deal with city staff was to privately fundraise $400,000, and the city would match that amount for an $800,000, 12,000-square-foot skateboarding facility at Westmoreland Park. The new $1 million in funding could go toward phase 2 of the Westmoreland Park project, to include amenities like bathrooms and water fountains, or it could go toward other park builds throughout the district. That is if the bond goes through in the first place.
“It can drive you crazy if you fixate on end dates ... Really to keep your sanity and keep moving forward you have to have endurance and play the long game with this. It’s exciting." – Skateparks for Dallas founder Clinton Haley
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Once the money is approved by the City Council for the bond, the voters have the final say, sometime in May. In Oak Cliff, however, the park is well on its way — even if the voters don't show.
“Councilmember West's goal is to make this happen before we get the bond money, to make this kind of the next park that is built,” says Dr. Clinton Haley, who started the nonprofit Skateparks for Dallas in 2017 and is thrilled to see his years of advocacy bearing fruit.
“It can drive you crazy if you fixate on end dates, " he says. "Really to keep your sanity and keep moving forward you have to have endurance and play the long game with this. It’s exciting."
Haley can’t kickflip, but he’s been cited as a major influential force when it comes to recent developments in skatepark builds around North Texas. Even with his recent successes, he is quick to remind us that the bond must still be approved by in May to be real.
“Whoever shows up is who shows up, that’s the way it is, and decision-makers have to listen,” Haley says.
It's a good thing for him that he’s got friends on the inside. We're no longer in the '90s, and skaters these days generally enjoy the freedom of avoiding turf wars against neighbors and property owners. Dallas is still considered a skatepark desert with Lakeland Hills Skatepark as the sport’s only public domain in town. Meanwhile, (often multiple) public skateparks can be found in pretty much every major city around the country.
But Hayley is confident about what the future may bring, and plans to keep the positive momentum swinging forward until skate oases become accessible to anyone who would use them in neighborhoods across the city. At this point, it’s only a matter of time until Dallas steps into the 21st century on this one.
“There are so many decision-makers at the city level now that are on board with public skateparks that it's just a matter of time,” he says. “It’s good. My son is 16 now, by the time all these are built then he might be off to college, but I realized along the way that this is much bigger than us. “
