4 May 14 - 20, 2026 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents cooperation between campus partners, such as the African American Museum and Texas Discovery Gardens, through shared programming to increase visits. The second draws on community events like weekend farmers markets to create a draw for residents. “Too many of our residents only experi- ence Fair Park through the State Fair, or through Dos Equis shows, or through Broadway Dallas, or going to one of the mu- seums,” Ryan O’Connor, senior deputy parks director, said. “But we need people. We need and want people out there all the time.” Opening Fair Park to South Dallas residents was also a leading reason for the plan to replace parking lots on the northeast side of the campus with a 10- acre community park. Plans for the park stalled for years before the Dallas City Council approved an agreement this spring to allow Fair Park First to raise the $40 million required to build it. With a groundbreaking expected by the end of 2026, the park will have a 44-tent vendor area, green space, fitness amenities, picnic areas and a community pavilion, according to plans presented to council. Shaw said the park represents progress toward a better future for Fair Park, where she said, “I want to see openness.” “I want to see people. If I go to the back area, because I’m usually open there by the Women’s Museum… and I walk all the way over to the other side, the park will be be- hind there. So over there, I would like to see more life and little kids. There are no kids over here. Where are the kids? You know that they exist. We have two full schools, but there’s no life over there.” “I would like to see shops in or around the hotel, and then the park on the back. And I don’t know why we’re having the ho- tel in front, but it needs to be visible so peo- ple know it’s there.” The Plan Plans for Fair Park have been a dime a dozen since 1936. The Fair Park First debacle is fresh in the memories of many Dallasites, while public-led management has time and time again failed to cover the necessary op- erational and maintenance expenses. O’Connor said he knows residents will be skeptical of the plans and may wonder what has changed at the official level. He said, with the failures of private and public mod- els in mind, that a hybrid model utilizing private partners with city oversight presents the best path forward. “It’s just so clear that this is the path that will yield results,” O’Connor said. “We’ve done it fully ourselves. We fully privatized. Both had their significant issues, but imple- menting this, this hybrid model of strategi- cally partnering with, you know, companies that are really, really successful in certain ar- eas, it’s just so clear that that’s the right way to do it.” As outlined by staff, the city could con- tract with private partners to provide secu- rity, parking, janitorial service or event management. The city has already approved a nearly $2.5 million contract with Visit Dal- las to provide event-booking and sales ser- vices for major events, a third pillar of the staff’s plan for the grounds. The park department is also planning to contract a private partner to run day-to-day operations at the Cotton Bowl, the epicenter of Fair Park which hosted major artists like Bruce Springsteen and Ozzy Osbourne in the early ‘80s. O’Connor said staff traveled to the Rose Bowl to study its operations, and that the proposal to include a non-profit in the stadium’s running is largely based on the model they saw working in Pasadena. In ad- dition to football games, the Rose Bowl also hosts community markets and major con- certs, something the Cotton Bowl could benefit from. The Cotton Bowl recently received a $140 million renovation, funded by the 2% Dallas receives from hotel occupancy tax re- turns under the Bremer Bill, and the funds can also be used for a variety of projects around the grounds. Along with luxury suites, air conditioning and new concourses, which will allow the stadium to continue hosting Texas-OU through at least 2036, the renovations also brought sorely-needed up- grades to backstage facilities. O’Connor said the upgrades should help draw artists. Jenkins, who has been with the depart- ment for 33 years and led it since 2020, said the Cotton Bowl is the first step in a plan to help create a self-sustaining revenue stream to fund Fair Park operations. Which is espe- cially important, he said, considering Dallas’ growingly constrained city budget. “Once we get the activation of the Cotton Bowl going,” Jenkins said. “That’s going to be another revenue stream to come in. So we can put the pieces in place right today, but I need that bigger revenue stream, so I can start tackling some of those other bigger things.” Park Hospitality Officials hope that revenue stream can come from the potential redevelopment of park- ing lots around the planned community park into a lodging and entertainment district. The district could include a hotel, retail and possibly even a sports venue. Under the pro- posal, surface lots would be replaced with structured parking facilities. Based on conversations with industry leaders, Jenkins said there is “significant” interest in developing a portion of the cam- pus into a mixed-use district. Staff will study the potential for redevelopment and begin requesting proposals from developers in the next few months. He also said that, along with interest from the business community, city officials have rallied behind the plan more than what he’s seen in the past. “It’s the first time I’ve seen this type of support from the political community,” he said. “I just haven’t seen this type of momen- tum before, where everybody’s trying to get behind Fair Park.” According to a briefing delivered to the City Council Parks Trails and Environment Committee on April 4, the plan would create revenue for Fair Park through lease agreements that would “mostly or fully fund all park and facility maintenance and operations.” Jenkins said that a mechanism to ensure revenue stays in Fair Park and isn’t diverted to the general fund will be crucial, and that state legislators may need to get involved as they did with the Brimer Bill in 2022. The plan calls for any new development to conform with the existing character of the park. Jenkins wants to see the district take on a Western feel and said it will need to have a symbiotic relationship with State Fair operations, which have been criticized for hamstringing opportunities for year- round activation in the past. “It has to be something that also, when the State Fair comes around, it kind of complements the State Fair,” Jenkins said. “We’ve got the cattle back there anyway. It needs to be something that you want to come from all across the world to go have that experience in Fair Park, in this enter- tainment venue. That’s what we’re look- ing for.” The director has an ambitious goal, which O’Connor said may be aggressive: to start development in 2027. He is close to re- tirement, and said creating a long-term plan that sets the fairgrounds up for success is “personal” to him. “We’re gonna be looking back two years from today, because you’re gonna see every- thing in motion, and we are gonna be look- ing back saying it was the best decision we ever made,” he said. “And I do feel like the surrounding community is finally going to say, ‘That’s the pride’ because that’s still their neighborhood. Fair Park is still their front door, and they’re going to look back and say with pride that they have this in their neighborhood, and that’s what I need them to feel.” Fair Skepticism Ken Smith, 72, lives in the South Dallas home he grew up in. He’s also served on community boards, worked for the city of Dallas and currently leads the South Dallas Revitalization Coalition. Smith agrees that Fair Park could be an “economic engine operating on all cylinders for the benefit of everybody,” but said he doesn’t have faith in the city’s ability to re- verse its fortunes. “You’re talking about a concept,” Smith said. “And I’m talking about the persons who oversaw the privatization that failed miserably in every aspect, are the same peo- ple resurrecting it.” He was one of the lone dissenting voices in approving the Community Park agree- ment with Fair Park First as a member of a task force organized to oversee the agree- ment. The information provided to the task force was insufficient, he said, leaving him with many of the same questions he had be- fore the nonprofit’s takeover. “We don’t know clearly in the commu- nity what the role of Fair Park First is,” he said. “It’s the exact same issue as it was in 2018. We don’t know where they’re located.” Along with allowing the nonprofit to oversee planning for the community park, language in the council resolution approving the agreement with the nonprofit also al- lows for “FPF to raise funding for the entire Fair Park.” While O’Connor said nonprofits will have a role in the future of Fair Park, he added “that’s not to say they will be manag- ing anything.” However, an operations model update delivered to the park board in October noted that “a non-profit or qua- si-governmental operating model may or- ganically develop over the next 3 to 5 years.” “It really doesn’t matter what they’re try- ing out,” Smith said. “The city is trying to do a mea culpa and save face. You oversaw seven years of basically setting Fair Park back multiple years after the whole privat- ization divide. So we’re not even starting off in the same place. We’re starting off behind where we were seven years ago. How do you account for that?” Smith said he has no confidence in the city’s ability to revitalize Fair Park due to turnover at the city council and fragmented departmental management. The only way forward, he said, is giving the community a stake in Fair Park. “I think that’s up to the citizens and the community to put on its big boy pants and think like leaders, and we need to work on that,” he said. A Fair Future from p3 Photo by Mike Brooks Fair Park has a large collection of 1930s art deco-style buildings that need restoration. >> p6
