4 July 17 - 23, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents ‘We Are People Too’ DART riders oppose drastic changes. BY ALYSSA FIELDS M ore than a hundred Dallas- ites were messily shuffled through the packed foyer of the Dallas Area Rapid Tran- sit (DART) headquarters on the rainy evening of July 8. The sharp sound of a malfunctioning metal detector rang out as staffers and officers yelled unclear direc- tions at the people waiting to speak against the largest proposed changes to DART ser- vices in its 40-year history. As the storm picked up outside, the stale air in the windowless grey boardroom thick- ened, perhaps from the increasing humidity or the growing animosity between DART leaders and the people passionately con- demning the new general mobility plan (GMP), conceived in March. Of those who provided comments in the meeting, not one spoke in favor of the plan. “[This is] asking people to pay more for less, less reliability, less access, less equality,” said former City Council candidate Erik Wilson. “For many in Southern Dallas, our working-class communities, DART isn’t just a convenience, it’s a lifeline.” The GMP’s reduction of services in- cludes cutting bus routes, doubling para- transit costs, reducing frequency across several fixed routes and increasing fares. DART hosted 16 pre-hearings across all ser- vice areas ahead of the meeting. At each meeting, droves of North Texans represent- ing the elderly, the visually impaired, the disabled and those without cars complained about the spontaneous plan that seemed to appear out of thin air. The final hearing on July 8 stretched close to midnight, lasting five hours and 58 minutes. Preachers, politicians and pundits stood be- hind the podium, flabbergasted at the planned cuts that appear to place most of the burden on the most riders most reliant on DART. “You have to make some tough decisions, but those decisions shouldn’t be balanced on the backs of people that can least afford it,” state Sen. Royce West told the board. Among those who trekked to the head- quarters through the rain to speak against the plan were newly elected council mem- ber Lorie Blair, Dallas ISD trustee Byron Sanders and Friendship-West Baptist Church Senior Pastor Frederick Haynes. They spoke on behalf of the southern sector of Dallas, for the students who take the bus to school, the faithful riding the rail to Sun- day church, the sick taking curbside para- transit services to doctor’s appointments. “What you’re proposing like here creates problems on the backs of those who are al- ready oppressed, as it were, by a system that denies opportunity,” said Haynes over the claps and cheers of a room at capacity. The Storm Raged W alking through the space was limited to small hobbles through the crowd, and many were left to wait in the hall when the boardroom’s ca- pacity was quickly reached. Staffers working the sign-in tables beelined around people, looking for their higher-ups with questions they didn’t have the answers to, and guards stood at every corner with eyes locked on the more frustrated attendees. “I knew this stuff was big, but I was even taken aback by how big it was last night,” said Jed Ullrich, a transportation activist who is conditioned to empty board meetings where pin drops can be heard. “It was poorly organized.” Ullrich was lucky to have arrived early and be seated. He stayed until 8 p.m., but was heav- ily encouraged to leave after his 120 seconds at the podium had ended in order to make more room for the next slate of speakers. Candace Wicks also arrived early. As a double amputee and electric wheelchair user, transportation coordination is always a first priority for her. Making it to the head- quarters took a concerted effort, especially in the weather conditions, but Wicks said it was her duty to speak for the disabled com- munity no matter what. “I have to speak for those that cannot at all, that would not put themselves out there,” she said. “There was no way that I could have missed that meeting. Looking at the other people that are affected just as much as I am, shame on me if I had stayed at home. When they don’t see us, they forget us.” Wicks made sure her presence could not be forgotten. She signed up to speak on site, and was given a number and told all speak- ers would go in sequential order. So she waited patiently to hear the number 62 and say her piece. After idling in the foyer, she realized that her turn to speak had been skipped. The other people in wheelchairs around her had been skipped, too. By the time Wicks had lost her patience, she had been waiting in the hallway for over an hour and a half with no updates and no access to the boardroom. She was told they had no room for wheelchairs in the boardroom, and she would need to continue to wait outside while people not confined to wheelchairs were escorted in ahead of her. “It was frustrating,” she said. “It was just downright ridiculous.” When Wicks finally got her turn to speak to the board, she trashed her prepared speech, instead speaking from an angry but impassioned heart, attacking DART’s “spirit of dismissiveness.” “We’re sitting up in the hallway trying to figure out how to get in,” she said. “We want a smooth transition in and out, but it looked like a traffic jam, imagine living that every day.” At a point in the night, when her frustra- tion was at its highest after a staffer with DART got far too close for her personal comfort, Wicks was near her breaking point. “I was almost on the verge of tears, but I had to hold them back,” she said. “I know that there are people who can’t do what I can do, the little bit I can do.” She said the scene in the foyer was a per- fect depiction of the daily transportation and mobility issues of the disabled commu- nity, which the DART changes will only worsen. “Don’t disrespect us,” she said. “You’re playing with us. We are people. We are peo- ple, too, with a high degree of intelligence. Don’t let the wheelchair fool you. Don’t play with me. And don’t play with people who are in wheelchairs. It’s sad. It’s just sad.” How We Got Here T he new GMP was announced in mid- March, while a controversial bill, dubbed the “DART Killer,” moved through the Legislature. Rep. Matt Shaheen of Plano authored the bill, which did not pass but made it further than identical ver- sions filed in previous sessions. DART openly disapproved of the bill, which would allow member cities to reduce their tax con- tributions by a quarter, amounting to billions in revenue losses for the transit service. The GMP has been described as an obvi- ous conciliatory attempt to appease Plano, which has been slowly trying to wiggle its way out of contributing equally to the transit service as the other 12 member cities. It’s likely Shaheen will file another matching bill at the next legislative session, but riders have begged DART not to give in to the leg- islative bullying. “I won’t accept a city getting its state rep- resentative to bypass [their constituents] and all of DART as a whole, just to present a bill to gut the agency,” said Ullrich. “This stuff needs to be brought to a general vote by the people who actually use this service. It’s atrocious.” ▼ MARIJUANA ANOTHER WEED WIN FOR THE AG DALLAS RECRIMINALIZES SMALL AMOUNTS OF WEED WITH KEN PAXTON’S HELP. BY KELLY DEARMORE T exas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s winning streak continues, and this time, the city of Dallas helped him. At least for the time being, Dallas will not en- force a charter amendment approved in No- vember aimed at decriminalizing less than 4 ounces of marijuana. This decision follows a joint motion filed in June by the city and Paxton’s office. The motion requested that a judge issue a tem- porary injunction blocking the new amend- ment, which was one of several controversial propositions filling Novem- ber’s ballot. Proposition R vote totals showed voters were overwhelmingly in favor of decrimi- nalizing small amounts of marijuana, with 66% of the vote. A primary goal of the prop- osition was to decrease the number of ar- rests for low-level offenses, which have taxed an increasingly crowded Dallas jail and an understaffed police force. Paxton filed suit against the city almost immediately after the election, something he had done with several other cities, in- cluding Austin, which had passed similar laws. This latest action comes after an April appeals court ruling stating that cities can- not prevent police from enforcing mari- juana-related offenses. “Cities cannot pick and choose which State laws they follow. The City of Dallas has no authority to override Texas drug laws or prohibit the police from enforcing them,” Paxton said in a Nov. 21 news release. “This is a backdoor attempt to violate the Texas Constitution, and any city that tries to con- strain police in this fashion will be met swiftly with a lawsuit by my office.” Paxton wasn’t the only vocal opponent of the measure. Former Dallas Police Chief Ed- die Gracia spoke against it before his Sep- tember resignation, noting that in his view, 4 ounces were not a small enough amount of weed for police to ignore. | UNFAIR PARK | Adobe Stock DART has proposed new changes to roll out in 2026. No one likes them.
