8 November 16 - 22, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents low-density areas and progressing into bus- ier areas over time, Mendelsohn believes the ability to regulate robotaxi programs in the future will also be key for these types of of- ferings, regardless of their current legality. “Cities should be able to shut down oper- ators that aren’t able to maintain service within acceptable safety and operational guidelines,” she explained. “For Cruise spe- cifically, based on their newly announced recall and previous pause in service, it ap- pears they are struggling to achieve reason- able safety levels in the communities they operate. I wouldn’t want to endanger Dallas residents with an operator already found to have safety problems in other markets, but based on Texas law, we currently have no way to regulate them.” But in the end, even if people aren’t in the driver’s seats, it is humans who will have to make robotaxis work and accept them as a safe, reliable mode of transport in the future, whatever that may look like. “I tend to think about what our expecta- tions are as people,” UTA’s Mattingly said. “Our expectations are incredibly high when it comes to air travel. There, we have super high expectations, even where the unlikeli- hood of failure is astronomical. So, that’s what the public demands in order to use those systems. I tend to believe that’s where we’ll have to be for auto travel in order for the public to accept it.” ▼ NEIGHBORHOODS MOVING A MOUNTAIN SHINGLE MOUNTAIN IS GONE. NOW, FLORAL FARMS WANTS A PARK IN ITS PLACE. BY JACOB VAUGHN L ast month, the city of Dallas com- pleted the cleanup of the former site of shingle mountain, an unholy mass of waste that towered over Southern Dallas homes in the Floral Farms neighborhood for years. Now, some residents say they want a park where the mountain used to sit. The cleanup job was finished two weeks ahead of schedule and included soil and fill removal and restoration of the site to its pre- industrial use condition. The mountain was there thanks to a company called Blue Star Recycling, which bought the land in January 2018 as a place to grind and pile discarded shingles. The company initially said only 260 tons of the material would be kept on the site, but that quickly ballooned. Eventu- ally, there were between 60,000 and 100,000 tons of waste piled about six stories tall. Dallas acquired the property in 2021 and removed the mountain of shingles from the former unincorporated freedman’s commu- nity. During this work, the city found that the filling of the site in the ’70s and ’80s contained concrete, metal and brick that had left the soil contaminated with levels of lead above resi- dential regulatory standards. That cleanup, which began in August 2023, took 2,634 truck- loads of approximately 47,412 cubic yards from the property to the local landfill. But removing the waste and the contami- nated soil was just the first step in the com- munity’s vision for the site. If residents get their way, a park will be built on the prop- erty, complete with a trail, splash pads, a playground, a community garden, a basket- ball court and several other features. The park plans were designed by Citizen HKS, the pro-bono arm of the Dallas global design firm HKS Architects. After months of community input, the final design was re- vealed on Oct. 21, 2021. It would be more than a park, though. It would be a symbolic reclamation of a neighborhood that had once become known as “where shingle mountain is.” The park is part of the Floral Farms neighborhood-led use plan that was devel- oped by 150 residents in 2018. The plan also seeks to rezone the neighborhood to remove industrial zoning uses in the hope of pre- venting another shingle mountain. Marsha Jackson, a longtime resident of the neighborhood who lived next door to shingle mountain, says a park is the least the city can do for the community. “Look at the harm that we have here,” Jackson told the Observer. “We have been permanently damaged. My health is perma- nently damaged.” She says her vocal chords have been permanently impaired by the pol- lution from shingle mountain. When Floral Farms residents first reached out to the city and their City Council member about shin- gle mountain in January 2018, their calls went unheeded, Jackson said. “So, all this harm they did to us and they didn’t listen to our calls, this [the park] is a way for them to say ‘Community, listen. I hear you,’” Jackson explained. The city did not respond to a re- quest for comment about the proposed park. Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson has long been vocal about the city having as many parks as it can. “So, why is there push back for some- thing that we ask for?” Jackson asked. She’s been told by her City Council member that before the city can move forward with a park, it needs to determine how the property will be zoned. Jackson said she’s going to keep ad- vocating for the park in the meantime. She understands there are voices other than residents in her area and that all opin- ions will have to be taken into account — de- velopers and business owners, for example. But she doesn’t think that should stop the city from supporting the park. “Sometimes people just have to take a stand and say ‘I support the community.’” Jackson added. Jackson believes her City Council member, Tennell Atkins, doesn’t want to be in the mid- dle of all this park talk. According to The Dallas Morning News, Atkins has told residents they should advocate for the rezoning of the land and the park as part of Forward Dallas, the city’s comprehensive land use plan that it is currently in the process of updating. Reached for comment, Atkins wouldn’t say whether he supported the park. Instead, he thanked the current and past mayor and the city manager for helping facilitate the cleanup and finding the funds to make it happen. As for the future of the site, Atkins said: “We’re in the process of saying ‘What’s it going to be zoned for?’ It’s a placeholder right now. We still have to go through the process of what the zoning is going to be.” Before the Observer could even finish asking about his views on the park, Atkins interrupted, saying “I cannot even address that right now.” He added: “Whatever the community wants and what it’s going to do is in the pro- cess and procedure. It’s a process and proce- dure that I’ll follow. I’m not going to get way ahead of my skis. My deal is, make sure it’s safe, and make sure we maintain it and make sure we do everything we said we were go- ing to do when it’s complete. Once we com- plete where we need to go, then I will figure out what the community thinks is best for them and find out what the community wants at that time. At this time, it’s prema- ture.” Jackson said she’s been told it could take another year before there’s any movement on the park. However, she’s also been told that a draft of the Forward Dallas plan could make it to City Council by the end of this year. She’s not sure why it would take so long to see progress on the proposed park. One vital question that’s been raised is how the park will be paid for. “Yes, it’s going to take some money, but they don’t have any problem when they’re going and using money for other parks they’re building ei- ther,” Jackson said. She understands that the land will have to be rezoned. However, she said it doesn’t seem like the city cares all that much about zoning in the rest of the neighborhood. Jackson claims there are businesses in the area that aren’t complying with their zoning, but the city appears to let it slide. To her, it’s as though the residents are being held to a dif- ferent standard than the businesses there. “I just want them [the city] to be more passionate about the community and let them know that the residents will have a say-so,” Jackson said. “We worked really re- ally hard on our voices being spoken about, the harm we have here. So, listen to us. That’s what you didn’t do at first in January 2018 when we first started complaining. This is the time now to have open ears to the community and to listen to our concerns.” ▼ CYBER CRIME PLAY OR PAY HACKERS CLAIM THEY’VE LEAKED DALLAS COUNTY DATA. BY JACOB VAUGHN T he group behind the ransomware at- tack against the county claims it has released five gigabytes of Dallas County data and that it will release more if the county fails to respond. Play, the ran- somware group that claimed responsibility for the attack last month, initially said it would be releasing data by Nov. 3 if the county didn’t pay an unspecified ransom. However, the release of data was later delayed to Nov. 7, and it looks like Play is held up its end of the bargain, according to a screenshot posted on X. “For now partially published compressed 5gb. If there is no reaction full dump will be uploaded,” read the post. It’s still uncertain what data was released, but the group has penned similar messages before as part of previous ransomware attacks. The exact same message was used when the group leaked five gigs of data from the city of Lowell, Massachusetts, after a hack in April. As a result of that attack, all city computers had to be shut down, wiped and restored, according to NBC. At one city council meeting around the time, Miran Fernandez, chief information officer for Lowell’s Management Information Systems, called the incident “the biggest reboot in the city’s history.” Prior to Lowell, the group hacked Oak- land, California, in March of this year, writ- ing on its blog at the time: “Private and personal confidential data, financial infor- mation, IDs, passports, employee full info, human rights violation information. For now, published compressed 10gb. If there no reaction full dump will be uploaded.” The San Francisco Chronicle later down- loaded the data and confirmed it contained social security numbers, driver’s license numbers, birth dates and home addresses of city employees. The city employs about 5,000 people. Dallas County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins said in an emailed statement that the county knows about the hackers’ claim. “Dallas County is aware of an unau- thorized party posting data claimed to be taken from our systems in connection with our recent cybersecurity incident,” Lewis Jenkins said. “We are currently in the pro- cess of thoroughly reviewing the data in question to determine its authenticity and potential impact.” He said he understands that the incident may be concerning to residents, employees and partners. “We want to assure everyone that we are taking this matter seriously,” he said. “Our top priority is the security and privacy of all individuals associated Jacob Vaughn The park would take up 6 acres of former shingle mountain land. Unfair Park from p6 >> p10
