There was a time when the Fort Worth Zoo bought up every billboard on Interstate 35 outside the Dallas Zoo to let people know if they wanted to visit a great zoo, they needed to drive to Fort Worth. Most of us can remember when Klyde Warren Park was nothing more than a concrete canyon that served as a reminder of how manmade structures can divide a city and its people. At one point in our history, the entire city pinned its hopes on Boeing moving their corporate headquarters to Dallas only to be told that we didn't have the parks of a great city.
Those images are burned into my memory, but it seems like some have forgotten the tough lessons we've learned.
Dallas has been so spoiled by our recent success that we risk neglecting the very thing that got us here — our parks. We've had record-breaking numbers of residents and jobs coming back to the downtown area because we decided to focus on our parks. Our housing market is booming throughout Dallas because we invested in revitalizing our community parks. Our parks are what have given us our competitive edge over the last decade and we can't afford to let people forget that.
In 2001, when Boeing decided to leave Dallas at the alter for Chicago, city leaders made a conscious effort to improve our park system. Dallas put its money where its mouth was, approving a 2006 bond package that committed more than $343 million dollars to our parks. The voters approved the bond proposition with a whopping 81 percent of the vote. In the 11 years since then, our parks have not had a single bond proposition on the ballot.
Fast-forward to today and anyone can see that those investments have paid off more than we could've imagined. The Dallas Zoo surpassed the Fort Worth Zoo in attendance last year and is raising millions in private dollars as a result of that success. The land values around Klyde Warren Park have increased more than five-fold, providing our city budget with a much-needed boost while serving as a gathering place for people from all over town.
Neighborhood parks like Kidd Springs and Tietze are now the anchors of a housing renaissance that is attracting young families from all over the country. The immense value created from improvements in the quality of life of our residents to the increased tax revenues are what have continued to grow our city.
The current bond proposal for parks is woefully inadequate, and if approved it would be the smallest percentage for parks in decades. It wouldn't even allow the city to take advantage of all the private dollars that have been raised for match funding projects. That would result in Dallas leaving on the table more than $300 million of private and non-city money.
Parks provide the greatest economic impact to our city. For every dollar we invest in our parks we get 7 back. And for every dollar we invest in our trails we get 50 back. We can't allow ourselves to ignore the role that investing in our parks has had on increasing our tax base, improving our quality of life, and knitting the divided parts of our city back together.
We can't ignore the wisdom of those who saw the missed opportunities of the past and finally decided to make our parks a priority. Investing in our parks is what allows us to continue to fund things like public safety, streets and schools. Parks are what make our city great and we need to make sure there is full funding for our parks in the 2017 bond package.
There are two town hall meetings at city hall next week where you can make your voice heard: Monday at 6 p.m. and Thursday at 6 p.m.
Robert Abtahi is president of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board. Email: robert.abtahi@gmail.com
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