In his state of the city address on Thursday, Johnson advocated for bond money for parks over money for housing. He said the bond package should allow the city to make critical investments without raising taxes. It should also include, he said, long overdue funding for a new police academy at the University of North Texas at Dallas.
“But the two biggest allocations in this bond package must be for streets and for parks,” he said. “That’s what our citizen-led Community Bond Task Force recommended. That’s what the people of Dallas want. That’s what I want as your mayor. And that’s what our city needs.”
Johnson said that the Community Bond Task Force, made up of community volunteers who had heard extensive public input, recommended $375 million in investments for streets and $350 million for parks.
Johnson called the investment in streets bold but responsible. As for the recommended money for parks, Johnson said it would be the largest investment ever in the city’s parks system. “And it will help us to achieve our goal of ensuring that everyone in Dallas lives within a 10-minute walk of a park or a trail,” he said.“For Dallas to be the economic engine of the region that it needs to be, it has to take housing more seriously and make it a greater priority." – Bryan Tony, Dallas Housing Coalition
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Some would rather see more funding in the bond package directed toward housing. A group of organizations called the Dallas Housing Coalition has been advocating for $200 million to be put toward housing in the upcoming bond package. Instead, $100 million is being proposed for housing, economic development and homelessness in the bond. Supporters and followers of the coalition plan to appear at the Dec. 6 City Council meeting to speak in favor of a larger allocation for housing.
Bryan Tony, one of the principal organizers for the group, will certainly be there. “For Dallas to be the economic engine of the region that it needs to be, it has to take housing more seriously and make it a greater priority,” he told the Observer. To Tony and others, that looks like allocating some $200 million toward housing in the bond issue.
“Unfortunately, but predictably, we have heard from a few loud voices who believe the proposed parks allocation should be cut in favor of more taxpayer-supported housing,” Johnson said during his address. He said Dallas needs housing, but that historically government is not good at playing the role of a housing developer. “Spending millions of taxpayer dollars on a handful of houses or a couple hundred apartments here and there isn’t the answer here, and it won’t reduce your rent or your mortgage a single cent,” he said.
When it comes to housing, what the city needs is real scale, according to Johnson, who said that can only be provided through the private sector. He said the city’s role should be to make things simpler for professional builders. “Improving our city’s permitting process and easing our zoning restrictions are where we can make a much bigger difference,” he said.
This is why he’s asking the Housing and Homelessness Solutions Committee to develop five new recommendations, not for programs, but for simple, innovative ways to free up the private sector to allow the building of more housing.
Tony agrees that the city should make it easier for the private sector to build housing, but he said the local government still has a role to play in building housing itself.
Johnson said while government isn’t good at building housing, it is good at parks and recreation, and that’s what Dallas should be focusing on. “Parks have an extraordinary ability to revitalize neighborhoods,” Johnson said. “They encourage private investment. They attract visitors and give our communities a gathering place. And most importantly, parks help us attract and keep families in Dallas.”
These are all things that Tony said can also be said about housing.
But Johnson claimed developers who are building in Dallas have said they want to build near parks. It’s also why plans for renovations at Fair Park and the downtown Convention Center include more public green spaces. It’s why the city is pursuing a new deck park that will tie into the Dallas Zoo over Interstate 35 in southern Dallas. “And that’s why we must press forward with an unprecedented investment in our city’s parks in the next bond program,” Johnson said.
“Today, if you go to a Dallas park, you’ll see people from every neighborhood in our city – no matter how much money they make, no matter how old they are, no matter if they are Black or white or Brown, and no matter whether they’ve had a good or a bad day,” he said. “I would say that, today, parks are to Dallas what Dallas has become to the rest of our nation: a place where we can breathe – and where promise and potential are still within our grasp.”
