6 May 15-21, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents tionist has paralyzing driving anxiety, and getting behind the wheel induces debilitat- ing panic attacks. So they take the train, the only affordable and accessible form of transportation available to them. Garcia is one of Dallas Area Rapid Transit’s 220,000 daily riders. But a new bill moving through the legislature, filed by a Plano representa- tive, could threaten the future of DART, ef- fectively immobilizing thousands of Dallasites. The bill successfully passed the House Committee on Transportation in a 9-2 vote on May 6. DART immediately released a press statement detailing the catastrophic effects the bill could have on North Texas, entitled “HB3187 Kills DART.” “This bill isn’t a tweak to funding. It’s a full-on dismantling of the DART system,” said Jeamy Molina, DART chief communi- cations officer said in the release. “The people of North Texas voted twice to fund a unified, regional transit system. House Bill 3187 completely ignores their voice and puts the future of public transportation in jeopardy.” The “DART Killer,” as it is referred to by DART representatives, is a bill filed by Rep. Matt Shaheen of Plano. It would restructure the long-standing funding process, allowing member cities to reduce their contribution by a quarter. DART collects a one-cent sales tax from its 13 member cities, but the bill would redirect 25% of that sales tax to a gen- eral fund that respective member cities could use for other general mobility projects like the construction of sidewalks, installa- tion of streetlights and improvement of drainage. The numbers may seem insignificant on the surface, but would result in the stall or delay of $3.5 billion worth of transportation projects, some of which are already under- way. If passed, the bill would eradicate 5,800 jobs, cancel future developments, and re- duce service levels by more than 30%, ac- cording to DART. Garcia, who doesn’t imagine ever being able to drive, says if DART services de- creased, they would, at minimum, need a new job and, in the worst-case scenario, consider moving to a city with better public transportation in a different state. “I take DART every day,” they said. “It gets me where I need to be. I can’t really afford to take an Uber to and from work every day.” Jasleen Cabriales also rides DART rail lines daily, hopping between the Blue and Orange lines to get from Rowlett to Dallas College’s El Centro Campus for classes downtown. She passes through the West End Station, DART’s busiest stop, which sees over 6,000 passengers a day. For Cabriales, it’s the only way she can get to school. Leo Railsback is another longtime rider of DART, having ridden as a student and now relying on the rail lines to get to work. “I wouldn’t have been able to go to high school if I didn’t have the DART,” said Rails- back, who graduated from a Garland ISD school last year. “My mom wasn’t able to take me to school all the time, so I just hit the DART. It made my life a lot easier. It makes a lot of people’s lives a lot easier.” Students May Be Affected Most While DART lines are convenient for the influx of North Texans who use them once a year while migrating downtown for a game at the American Airlines Center or south to Fair Park for the State Fair of Texas, the system is crucial for thousands of students in the area, says Tyler Wright, vice president of the Dallas Area Transit Alliance (DATA). “My understanding is that if the bill passes, the [Trinity Railway Express] goes away completely, so [students] lose any public transit access whatsoever from UT Arling- ton’s campus to Dallas,” said Wright. “That would dramatically hurt their ability to get to jobs, internships… These are students with limited means who rely on public transit to get to places in an economic manner.” Many DATA members are students whose universities and colleges are part- nered with DART, offering campus rides to students free of charge. “For the students at UT Dallas, their bus shuttle that goes through Richardson is ac- tually the highest ridership route in the en- tire system,” he said. “They love it.” Wright says many of these buses, includ- ing UTD’s Comet Cruiser, are provided through highly variable contracts. “It’s harder to maintain that service if you have less money to negotiate contracts, so you’ve got the most amount of people on a route possible, depending on it and now it is in the most danger,” he said. “It’ll probably be one of the first to be curtailed or let go.” DART in the Suburbs Wright is among the minority of daily DART-ers, utilizing the less popular subur- ban lines to travel between his home in Richardson and his office in Plano. The pub- lic transportation system has been conten- tious in Dallas’ surrounding areas, with critics citing the general lack of use outside the city center as a reason to cut funding, but the daily public transport commuter says the common argument of empty buses and railcars isn’t fully accurate. “It’s a surface-level read of the issue,” he said. “When you see empty buses, usually those buses are pretty close to the transit center, so they’ve already dropped off most of their people. [Empty buses are there] just be- cause they just left the station. I’ve ridden these routes. They pick up dozens of people.” In April 2024, the Plano City Council ap- proved a resolution to defund DART in the area if the opportunity presented itself. Sha- heen’s bill echoes the council’s wishes, but Wright says the area’s constituents see the importance of public transportation across the entire region. “I think it’s important to note that Plano, and some of these other cities, don’t even represent a majority of the DART service area,” said Wright. “Residents in these areas kind of see what it’s there for and they see the value in it. But the city councils are put- ting this forward, and they don’t even repre- sent a majority of the population area.” Riders like Wright, Garcia, Cabriales and Railsback choose DART over driving for several reasons. All in all, the four agree that cars should not be the only accepted means of transportation in North Texas. “Dallas has a reputation [of affluence], and I think it kind of reflects in a lot of the richer suburbs, which are the ones pushing the bill,” said Wright. “It is disappointing because people will speak as if this car de- pendency, this car culture, naturally oc- curred, like DNT was just built by God or something.” Wright is hopeful the bill will fail, but says his gut feelings about the issue change hourly. Despite it all, he still looks forward to DART’s next development plans, a 26-mile line that would run from Plano, through Carrollton, and end at Terminal B at Dallas- Fort Worth International Airport. The Silver Line was projected to begin carrying pas- sengers by early 2026 at the latest, but the new bill could significantly delay efforts. Wright argues that DART, as one of the only forms of public transportation in the region, is a missed opportunity for North Texas travelers. “DART has great plans to make the light rail 15 minutes. They’ve got bus coverage in 10 to 20 minutes across the entire region. When you take into account traffic or park- ing, you can get [anywhere] almost as fast as a car and 80% cheaper. I think there’s a lot of opportunity there for advocacy and for get- ting people into it, that will just not be possi- ble if we prematurely cut funding.” ▼ PUBLIC SAFETY O.K., CHIEF AT SWEARING-IN, NEW DALLAS POLICE CHIEF PROMISES TO RECRUIT MORE OFFICERS. BY ALYSSA FIELDS “L ook, listen and learn” is the new police Chief Daniel Comeaux’s plan for his first days as acting leader of the Dallas Police Department DPD. Though he took the oath on April 23, the of- ficial swear-in ceremony, presented by city manager Kimberly Bizor-Tolbert, was held on May 6 for a crowd of civil servants. “I want to understand what Dallas needs, what needs to be done, and then how we should do it,” Comeaux said during his ac- ceptance speech. “I will work shoulder to shoulder with all of the officers, but not just the officers, with the community, with all of my partners, the local, federal, and state law enforcement, the fire department, the chief… I’m committed to lead with integrity, honesty and respect. I can assure you we will be a team.” Comeaux was announced as the 31st chief of Dallas police on April 11, following a nationwide search. The New Orleans native has more than thirty years of experience in law enforcement, last serving as special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Houston Field Division be- fore his move to the Big D. The Dallas transplant is entering the force at a tumultuous time, when retention and recruitment remain primary concerns in maintaining the city’s reputation as one of the safest major cities in the country. “I need every single person that works for the Dallas Police Department, and not that just works for the Dallas Police De- partment, but that lives in Dallas to become an effective recruiter for us,” he said. “We have to hire more officers. I can tell you ev- ery day since I’ve been on the job, I have talked to the recruiters. I have talked to that section. We’re coming up with plans that not only are we going to hire, but we’re going to retain them, we’re going to keep them here.” The comment comes in light of the pas- sage of Proposition U in the November election, which requires Dallas to hire 900 new officers, bringing the total count to 4,000, or face legal action. The proposition does not explicitly state a deadline, but the organization behind the charter, HERO Dallas, recommends that the city achieve the quota in three to five years if it wants to avoid a lawsuit. Recruitment has been a pressure point for DPD since the last chief, Eddie Garcia, packed up for a job in Austin. The interim chief, Michael Igo, who was passed up for the permanent position, grappled with the city council recruitment requirements set to slowly get closer to 4,000. The city continuously lowered recruit- ment benchmarks after Igo described Adobe Stock There are four existing DART light rail lines covering 93 miles and serving 65 stations. New legislation could drastically alter DART’s future. Unfair Park from p4 >> p8
