Community History Exhibits Published

We recently wrapped up our Dallas Neighborhood Stories project in partnership with the Dallas Public Library (DPL) with three digital Community History exhibits published to DPL’s blog, Booked Solid. The communities in focus were West Dallas, South Dallas, and Red Bird.

We began each community history effort in late 2019 with one full day of archiving at the local library branch, which led to multiple follow-up interviews and one and one meetings with longtime community members. This project is a small piece of a process that will take years, even generations of Dallasites, to truly give justice to each neighborhood’s robust history. 

Check the exhibits out at each link below - and be sure to share with folks who might be interested!

West Dallas Community History 

South Dallas Community History

Red Bird Community History

The contributions, which range from documentation of West Dallas residents’ struggle against lead contaminated soil to memorabilia from Carter High School in Red Bird, will help to reshape a narrative that has long been dominated by the history of white Dallasites. This work is an effort to strengthen awareness of our city, celebrate the diverse places that give it character and texture, and create platforms for active dialogue about its history and future. 

The West Dallas portion of the project was featured in KERA News.

With these small exhibitions, we hope to encourage more people to record their personal history with the Library and help expand the collection.

See a preview from each neighborhood below:

This project was funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and Humanities Texas. 

Joppa Neighborhood Stories

Joppa, sometimes spelled Joppee, or Joppie, is Hebrew for “beautiful” or “new beginnings”, and is also the name of one of the Dallas’s few preserved freedmen's towns that remains today. Sitting just north of I-45 and Highway 12, it is nestled between the Trinity River and the Union Pacific rail lines, with the Great Trinity Forest just to the east and the Joppa Preserve to the south. The other side of the river has seen millions of dollars of investment in golf courses, an equestrian center and a neighborhood park expansion. Joppa is primarily shotgun houses that have stood in the neighborhood for generations. Currently, about 500 people live in Joppa

Land grant certificate granting Robinson F. Smith a portion of the land where Joppa is now located.
Texas Land Grant. Dallas, Texas: 1837. https://s3.glo.texas.gov/ncu/SCANDOCS/archives_webfiles/arcmaps/webfiles/landgrants/PDFs/3/3/7/337356.pdf

The land where Joppa currently sits was once inhabited by Native American tribes. When people of European descent colonized the area, they divided up the land, creating “land grants” transferring ownership of Native American land into private hands. The Joppa neighborhood is on land that was granted to Robinson F. Smith and Lorenzo Van Cleve, who were each “given” 800 acres of land in 1845, in exchange for their service in the Army of Texas. The surrounding area was also divided up amongst former soldiers of the Republic of Texas - just north of R.F. Smith survey was the Dugland McFarland survey, and north of that another Lorenzo Van Cleve survey. Over time, that land was further divided up amongst family and other colonizers. 

Joppa area settled by freeman Henry Critz Hines
During the Civil War, southern white owners of enslaved people sought ways to ensure that enslaved people would not become free. While Texas was a southern state that upheld slavery, it did not see a lot of fighting or much presence from Union soldiers. Southern Confederates saw Texas as a potentially safe place to resettle, lay low, or send enslaved people until the war was over. Henry Critz Hines was an enslaved person sent as property from Missouri or Alabama to Texas for protection until the end of the Civil War. He was sent to the Miller Plantation, a plantation on the Lorenzo Van Cleve survey north of today’s Joppa. In addition to the Plantation, the Miller’s also ran one of a few local ferry companies that shuttled people across the Trinity. After the end of the Civil War and the declaration of the Emancipation Declaration, many formerly enslaved peoples who had been on the Miller Plantation stayed in the area. In the early 1870’s, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad was built, making its way north from Houston, reaching Dallas in 1872. It’s believed that it was around this time that Henry Critz Hines settled in Joppa. Historian Donald Peyton said in a 1991 Dallas Morning News article that “when the slaves were freed, Miller gave Hines the ferry which was used to cross the Trinity River. The railroad had been built and the ferry was becoming outdated. But Hines still prospered.” Soon after other formerly enslaved persons at the Miller Plantation or other East Texas plantations came and settled in the area. 

Establishment of New Zion Missionary Baptist Church
Churches have always been an important part of the Joppa community. New Zion Missionary Baptist Church was founded in 1882 by Reverend and Sister Haverty, Deacon and Sister J. Floyd, and Deacon and Sister Pierce, at a home on the corner of Ervay and Colonial. The church relocated to its present location in Joppa in 1888. According to the New Zion’s current website “The church building once served as a schoolhouse, a temporary pediatric clinic for our children and a voting place for this precinct.” Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church is known to be the second oldest church in the neighborhood.

It was around the time of the New Zion’s relocation to Joppa that the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Railroad was constructed, arriving near Joppa in 1886 with Miller’s Station. While the area remained agricultural, the new local infrastructure brought increased development, including the establishment of Honey Springs, a nearby town settled around a H.&T.C. station of the same name. An article in the Dallas Morning News indicates that in 1888, Henry Critz, the founder of Joppa, was living in nearby Millers Switch. A 1930 article written by the grandson of W.B. Miller wrote that Critz continued to operate the Miller Ferry until 1890, when a flood washed out the landing. The Miller’s Ferry Bridge was built soon after, making the ferry service obsolete. 

Early Dallas map showing homes, churches, and infrastructure. Street, Samuel M. Sam Street's map of Dallas County, Texas. Dallas, Tex.: Sam Street, 1900. Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/2005625344/

Families continued to make their home in Joppa. The Sam Street’s map from 1900 indicates that there were at least 7 families in that area at the time, including the Harrel’s, the Pierce’s, the West’s, the Curry’s, the Horn’s, and the Allison’s. 

Mrs. Laura Belle Foster and Mr. P.H. Foster (center and left) and their family. Photo courtesy of Mrs. Delveeta Thompson, Mrs. Foster’s grand daughter, right.

Neighborhood Organizing
Over the coming decades more residents continued to settle in Joppa. Neighborhood organizer Laura Belle Foster (nee Davis) first moved to Dallas in 1924. After a time away to attend college in California, Mrs. Foster returned to Dallas for good, moving to Joppa when the South Central Expressway expanded and displaced her family and other residents in the Black neighborhood of Queen City. In addition to raising 2 children, she taught Sunday School at Mt. Moriah Baptist Church, was on the Board of Directors of the Dallas Negro Chamber of Commerce, served on the Board of Equalization for the Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District, among many other civic commitments. Under the Dallas Negro Chamber and led by Mrs. Foster and her husband P.H. Foster, in 1948 the South Central Civic League was organized to fight for community programs and services, stating:

THE OBJECTIVES ARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. To get better bus services.

2. To get traffic signs for our schools.

3. To get better mail services.

4. Annexation to the city of Dallas

5. To get better sanitation for our community,

6. To get fire plugs for our safety

7. To get water for our community 

Ms. Shalondria Jackson, current President of the South Central Civic League, shares a story about Melissa Pierce

Mrs. and Mr. Foster and their daughter made Joppa’s first street signs out of lumber they purchased, digging holes and installing them throughout the neighborhood.In addition to the fight for city services, Mrs. Foster and other residents fought for civil rights. Mrs. Foster's grand-daughter Mrs. Delveeta Thompson described that fight in her text “Joppa History Report”:

Many residents suchs as the Crowders, Lovely, Sorrells, Miles, Hosus, Blacks gathered together to support these efforts with their biggest battles for the school and the right to vote. Laura Belle has Commissioner Jim Tyson, Senator Oscar Mauzy, City Officials Mike McKool and Royce O. to assist in their right to vote and later assisted in getting our long established polling places at the oldest church, New Zion Baptist Church.

The Joppa area in 1930. Image courtesy of the City of Dallas

Joppa Schools 
From when it was formed in 1927 until the district was dissolved in 1970, Joppa was in the Willmer-Hutchins Independent School District. Black students were not allowed to attend white schools and had to attend schools for Black students, which districts were not eager to build or invest in. For many years there was no official school building in Joppa. New Zion Baptist Church was used as a school, or students walked to another neighborhood, sometimes having to cross through dangerous conditions to get there. Mrs. Thompson described how Joppa’s school, the Melissa Pierce School, came to be:

My mother and my uncle, they ended up with a lot of students from this neighborhood having to walk the railroad track over into South Dallas. They used the church partly as a school for the community, but when my mother and uncles and those that grew up with them out here, were actually walking the train tracks, they were going to high school then would had asked Southern Pacific Railroad to hold the trains up during the time that all of the students from this community around my, my group, my mother and my uncles age would have to walk the tracks so that they could walk safely over and then they will stop the train so they could return safely back to the neighborhood. That really lit the fire, that there was a school that was needed in this neighborhood. So for my grandmother explaining it to me, then Ms. Melissa Pierce, knowing that this is what needs to be done. My grandmother rather went to the Wilmer Hutchins school board and asked them for a school. And of course in that day it was not going to happen, and it didn't happen. They did tell my grandmother, unless you come up with the land, we're not building your people a school at the time….Mr. Hitt was the superintendent and the president of Wilmer Hutchins school board. The building sat on Illinois not far from here. And my grandmother would get people together on their days off and sit under a couple of trees with pallets, what they call pallets, you know throw blankets of quilt and have lunch and sit in trying to get them to get them a church, a school, you know, or a building for them. Not not just to keep having it in the church, but to be actually able to have an official school building. So needless to say, when they did say buy the land and then we'll build it - my grandmother said put it in writing. You know, Ms. Melissa Pierce was present, so Ms. Pierce. told my grandmother: "Definitely I can donate the land." And so that's how it came about. All of the land for the school building as well as a football, baseball field so the kids wouldn't have to worry about not having enough room for those particular activities. 

According to Mrs. Thompson, Melissa Pierce was a formerly enslaved person whose family acquired land after emancipation. The Sam Street’s Map has a Pierce family in Joppa, indicating they were one of the earliest settlers of the area. A 1948 Dallas Morning News article described a new 4-room brick building that would be built for Black students of the district, and would consolidate four segregated schools. The Melissa Pierce School was dedicated on September 28th, 1952. The City of Dallas’ National Historic Registry application for the Melissa Pierce School says that:

The building was constructed to accommodate grades 1-12 and those who attended the school recall that the smaller building contained the elementary grades. The classrooms in the larger building, with the attached gym/auditorium, were for middle/high school students. Two areas which were later added on for classrooms, one to the side of the gym and the other to the side of the smaller classroom building, have since been demolished.

Unlike white schools, the Melissa Pierce School started in October instead of September to accommodate local White farmers who wanted Black students to be available to pick cotton in the late summer. Parents didn’t want their children’s education to be interrupted. In 1954, the Dallas NAACP organized parents in the Joppee community to demand admission for students into the all-white school, Linfield Elementary. They were denied by the Principal of Linfield stating the Texas Education Agency called for segregated schools. 

The Joppa area in 1940. Image courtesy of the City of Dallas

Joppa annexed into City of Dallas 
In the late 1940s and 50s, the City of Dallas annexed a number of towns and unincorporated areas around Dallas. The nearby town of Honey Springs was annexed in 1946. Joppa was annexed into Dallas October 3, 1955. Despite being part of Dallas, Joppa continued to be part of the Wilmer-Hutchins school district. Joppa resident Edgar Green described his experience with being bussed to WHISD after grade-school:

I went to elementary and some junior high (at Melissa Pierce). Then finished my junior high at Bishop, Bishop Heights, and my high school and at Kennedy. I went, some of my elementary was, at the A.L. Morney down in Hutchins. You know, bussed, I was always bussed, but not to the white school, the black schools. Then when desegregation came, then they took some of the black kids to the white school and some of the white kids to the black school. 

In 1970, facing potential federal prosecution for failure to integrate WHISD schools, the Wilmer-Hutchins ISD board adopted a plan to integrate the district by August of that year. Melissa Pierce School was “phased out”, with the lower grades sent to Wilmer and Hutchins elementary schools. The building was subsequently auctioned off in 1972. In August 1970, more than 1,000 white residents of the Wilmer-Hutchins district who were unhappy with the prospect of integration, fought for the annexation of southern Wilmer-Hutchins district into the nearby, mostly white, Ferris school system. The southern half of Wilmer-Hutchins was 90% white, while the northern half was 90% Black. In November of 1970, the motion was approved, Wilmer-Hutchins ISD was dissolves - the southern half of the school district was absorbed by Ferris ISD, and the northern half absorbed by Dallas ISD.  

The Joppa area in 1962. Image courtesy of the City of Dallas

Ms. Claudia Denise Fowler shares a story about Ms. Charlie Mae Jackson

Infrastructure
The South Central Civic League continued to fight for improvements in the neighborhood. Up until the 1970s, residents would carpool to public transportation. The neighborhood organized to get bus service along Carbondale, which would take residents to the end of the Ervay Streetcar line in South Dallas, or to downtown. In an interview, Mrs. Delveeta Thompson describes the work of Mrs. Charlie Mae Jackson, who led the South Central Civic League from the 1990s to 2000s, to improve infrastructure in Joppa. A 1955 street map shows that the neighborhood was practically divided in half, connected only via Carbondale Street. Edgar Green describes the division: “Fosters crossing Honey Spring Branch - that's the river, the creek that runs through here, they called this Honey Springs. You know, believe it or not, before that you had to come out and go down Burma road and then go down here to Carbondale to go to the other side. We only had, you know, one way to get to the other side.” Mrs. Foster worked with residents to have a direct connection built between the two halves of the neighborhood. And on May 15, 1999, a plaque was placed near Gethsemane Missionary Baptist Church, declaring it “Foster’s Crossing” in dedication to South Central Civic League leaders Laura Belle Foster and P.H. Foster. Although Mr. Foster passed away before the project was complete, Mrs. Foster was able to see the street and travel Foster’s Crossing herself. 

Foster’s Crossing wasn’t the only infrastructure improvement residents have fought for in recent years. For decades, crossing the train tracks at Linfield was the only way in or out of the neighborhood. Throughout its history, at-street-grade crossing of the trains proved not only a nuisance but a danger to Joppa residents. In the 1990s, residents organized to get bond funding from the City to build a bridge over the train tracks. Mrs. Delveeta Thompson wrote of the push for the new bridge:

This was due to the loss of many lives of loved ones needing an Emergency Medical Unit/Paramedics Assistance, but they were detained for long periods because a train moving 100 plus freight cars, switching freight cars or what we and our ancestors experiences as non-moving freight cars with a waiting period of 30 minutes to one hour and 45 minutes. Southern/Union Pacific showed no compassion nor have any regard to the life-threatening situations of husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, grandparents nor children and uncles/aunts.

Program for the opening of the Linfield Bridge. Courtesy of Mrs. Delveeta Thompson

But the bridge project was delayed, faltering a few times until in 2007, the neighborhood celebrated the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Freedman’s Town Memorial Bridge, which provides another connection to Joppa, over the railroad tracks. And while the bridge was hard fought, some residents don’t feel that the solution fully addressed the problem. 

I would have said that ain't wide enough, how are pedestrians supposed to get across it? I would have said that because it's common sense. But when people don't involve enough people or where people that might have some knowledge about some things that you might not have knowledge about - you don't get to pool all that knowledge together to come up with a good viable situation, a solution. And that's what I think happened to the bridge.

Program for the unveiling of the Joppee Historical Marker Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. Courtesy of Mrs. Delveeta Thompson

Joppa Today
In the past decade the neighborhood has continued to see change. Over 100 new homes have been built, bringing new residents to the area. While the Melissa Pierce School remains closed, residents would like to see it returned to a community use. Since there is no school in the community, students go to school at South Oak Cliff, Roosevelt, or other schools throughout Dallas. In 2015, South Central Park, with a gazebo and splash pad was opened. The following year the neighborhood celebrated the unveiling of its historical marker at the park. The South Central Civic League continues to operate to this day, fighting for the neighborhood. In addition to working toward building a community multipurpose center and putting in place a neighborhood stabilization overlay, fifth generation Joppa resident and current Civic League president Shalondria Galimore was a vision for the neighborhood:

What we're trying to do now is to further stabilize what we actually have and to preserve what we have now. We want to be at the table when economic development comes in to see what that looks like and what's best for the community. I think that we need mixed income in the community to help stabilize because Joppa will not be able to survive on the present income or the present voting role that we have actually at this time. We need to work with the companies that are around us that have been neighbors that have tried to be friendly neighbors, and to let them know what our thoughts and desires are and how they can help us attain or further sustain those goals that we have.

2019 State of Dallas Housing Report: Heirs Property

Each year, bcANALYTICS releases its State of Dallas Housing Report, a data-driven assessment of the housing landscape in the city. In 2019, rather than releasing the report in a single document, we have decided to roll it out over the course of three installments in order to be more responsive to current needs and changes as the City of Dallas begins to implement its first ever Comprehensive Housing Report. 

Our analytics team has been working hard and the first installment of the State of Dallas Housing is here! This report assesses the scale, distribution and impact of heirs property on neighborhoods and individuals in Dallas County. 

Read the full report here!

Community History Harvest at the Dallas West Branch Library

Residents of West Dallas are invited to join us on Saturday, April 27th at the Dallas West Branch Library from 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm for a community history harvest. This will be the first event in our collaboration with the Dallas Public Library to further the digitization and oral history aspects of the Neighborhood Stories program.

Folks from across the area are invited to share photos, documents, and oral histories about their community, to be recorded and digitized for the Dallas Public Library’s public collection. Participants will also receive digital copies of their photos and documents, preserving these important artifacts for future generations to learn from.

In consideration of time, we ask that residents bring up to five artifacts to be digitized. Examples of items to bring include:

• Family or school photos

• Yearbooks

• Menus from local restaurants

• Property surveys or maps

• Church programs

We are looking forward to learning from and with the residents of West Dallas’s neighborhoods about the local history and how their communities experienced change during the Civil Rights period and beyond. The topics to be explored include the role of city planning, development, and school desegregation with the ultimate goal of understanding how historic inequities have shaped the communities we see today. The collective neighborhood history gathered from the archival event, interviews with community members, and our research about the area will culminate in an exhibition at the Dallas West Branch Library.

[bc] encourages any individuals and organizations who are interested in participating in this effort to reach out to Lizzie MacWillie, Associate Director, who will lead the project. Stay tuned for future updates on the details of this digitization event.

This project has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

[bc] Receives Common Heritage Grant from the NEH

We are excited to announce that we have been awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to partner with the Dallas Public Library for a new project which will further the digitization and oral history aspects of the Neighborhood Stories program through events and exhibitions in the neighborhoods served by the Library’s Polk-Wisdom, Dallas West, and Martin Luther King Jr. Branches.

This collaboration builds off of several years of work by [bc] to collect and preserve Dallas’s local histories as they relate to changes in the physical and cultural form of the city. Through oral histories and physical artifacts like photos and documents, the project will document how these changes have had an impact on Dallas’s historic communities of color and how residents experienced cultural and demographic shifts in their neighborhoods during the Civil Rights period and beyond.

Topics to be explored include city planning, development, and school desegregation. Ultimately, [bc] hopes to advance a greater understanding of the way in which historical inequities have had a role in shaping the communities we see today. Given various efforts currently taking place across the city to better understand issues of racial equity and how future development may impact vulnerable communities, the project will leverage this momentum to engage Dallasites in a re-examination of local histories.

Project activities will begin in 2019. [bc] encourages any individuals and organizations who are interested in participating in this effort to reach out to Lizzie MacWillie, Associate Director, who will lead the project.

Stay tuned for future updates on the dates and locations of digitization events in these three locales.

This project has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Hurricane Harvey Disaster Recovery Guides

Image Credit Lafayette, TN, February 8, 2008. George Armstrong/FEMA Photo Library

Since Hurricane Harvey, we have been working alongside our partners and residents of communities affected by the storm. Building off our work to empower community members with the knowledge to drive the future of their communities through projects like the Land Use Colonia Housing Action (LUCHA) and the Disaster Recovery Leadership Development program in partnership with the Texas Organizing Project, [bc] will produce a series of graphic Disaster Recovery Guides to aid residents of Harris, Aransas, Refugio, and Nueces Counties in accessing disaster recovery resources to aid them and their families in their recovery, in conjunction with the disbursement of federal funding allocated to these four counties. This project is supported by a generous grant from the American Red Cross.

We look forward to providing further updates on our progress to engage diverse community members throughout this process and to sharing the Disaster Recovery Guides, which will be available in 5 languages, via our website.

To learn more about how you or your organization can get involved with this project, please contact us at inform@bcworkshop.org

Funding for this project provided by:

A Road Map to Dallas' Equitable Development

Vea a continuación la traducción a español.

WHAT IS THE JPMORGAN CHASE PRO NEIGHBORHOODS GRANT PROGRAM?

Partnerships for Raising Opportunity in Neighborhoods (PRO Neighborhoods) is a $125 million, five-year initiative to provide communities with the capital and tools they need to support locally-driven solutions and address key drivers of inequality across the country.

The program uses an equitable development approach to economic growth by helping cities implement comprehensive strategies that address barriers to economic mobility.

WHAT IS EQUITABLE DEVELOPMENT?

Equitable development works to ensure quality of life outcomes are equitably experienced by those currently living, working, and moving into a neighborhood (i.e. affordable housing, quality education, living wage employment, healthy environments, and transportation).

Equitable public and private investments, programs, and policies in neighborhoods will meet the needs of residents (specifically communities of color) and reduce historical and current disparities (Adopted from GARE).

WHERE IS IT HAPPENING?

This pilot program will be developed with partners in three Dallas-area neighborhoods identified in the City of Dallas Comprehensive Housing Policy as being vulnerable to rapid transition:

•  The Forest District in South Dallas/Fair Park

• The Bottom neighborhood in East Oak Cliff

• West Dallas’ Census Tract 205

WHY ARE THESE PARTNERS WORKING TOGETHER?

Through our collective approach, we recognize that deliberate, collaborative planning is necessary to ensuring the equitable development of these neighborhoods and supporting economically vibrant and diverse communities. This includes access to affordable housing, vibrant neighborhood centers, small business growth, healthy food options, parks, and arts and culture.

The PRO Neighborhoods Planning Grant will expedite, institutionalize, and expand our existing collaborative efforts, enabling us to learn from one another and, together, build a roadmap for inclusive development in Dallas.

——————-

¿CUÁL ES EL JPMORGAN CHASE PRO VECINDARIO GRANT PROGRAM?

Asociaciones para elevar oportunidad en vecindario (PRO Vecindarios) es de $125 millones, la iniciativa de cinco años para proporcionar a las comunidades con la capital y las herramientas que necesitan para apoyar soluciones impulsadas localmente y abordar los principales impulsores de la desigualdad en el país.

El programa utiliza un enfoque de desarrollo equitativo del crecimiento económico ayudando a ciudades implementar estrategias integrales que aborden las barreras a la movilidad económica.

¿QUÉ ES EL DESARROLLO EQUITATIVO?

Desarrollo Equitativo trabaja para asegurar la calidad de vida equitativa de los resultados experimentados por quienes actualmente están viviendo, trabajando y moviéndose en un vecindario (es decir, la vivienda asequible, educación de calidad, viviendo el empleo asalariado, entornos saludables, y el transporte).

Equitativa de las inversiones públicas y privadas, programas y políticas en barrios va a satisfacer las necesidades de los residentes (concretamente las comunidades de color) y reducir las disparidades históricas y actuales (de la GARE aprobado).

¿EN DONDE ESTÁ SUCEDIENDO?

Este programa piloto se desarrollará a través de la colaboración con socios en tres vecindarios del área de Dallas identificados en la política de vivienda como los más vulnerables a la transición rápida:

• El "Forest District" en el Sur de Dallas/Fair Park

•  El vecindario "The Bottom" al este de Oak Cliff

• Zona censal 205 en "West Dallas"

¿POR QUÉ SON ESTOS SOCIOS TRABAJAN JUNTOS?

A través de nuestro enfoque colectivo, reconocemos que deliberado, la planificación colaborativa es necesaria para asegurar el desarrollo equitativo de estos vecindarios y apoyar económicamente vibrante y diversas comunidades. Esto incluye el acceso a una vivienda asequible, vibrantes centros vecinales, el crecimiento de las pequeñas empresas, las opciones de alimentos saludables, los parques, las artes y la cultura.

La subvención de planificación PRO Vecindarios acelerará, institucionalizar y ampliar nuestros esfuerzos de colaboración existentes, lo que nos permite aprender continuamente el de uno del a otro y, juntos, construir una hoja de ruta para el desarrollo inclusivo en Dallas.

Bridging the Block Wrap-Up

This fall [bc]’s Bridging the Block project set out to hear from Dallasites about some of the challenges they face when trying to use the sidewalks of Downtown Dallas. Through a series of design meetings and a tour, participants identified the biggest problems hindering mobility, and workshopped design solutions. The most pressing issues singled-out included broken and narrow sidewalks, steepness of driveways, a lack of curb cuts, visibility issues, and poles or debris blocking the public.

[bc] and participants concluded that recognizing an issue can be the first step to solving it, and that people often don’t recognize something is a problem unless they have been personally impacted by it or know someone who has. This understanding framed the approach to the final installation: not only would the final product include a method to address the issues seen and discussed, it would also make it a point to highlight the issues and the various populations they alienate on a daily basis.

The final work is a kit of parts that together create different configurations of temporary “bridges” on the sidewalks of Marilla Street between City Hall and the Farmers Market - a stretch of sidewalk in such poor condition that it is extremely difficult to navigate. These “bridges” are mobile installations that raise awareness of accessibility issues in public space and celebrate creating a city accessible to everyone. To accompany the bridges, [bc] built a series of signs featuring pictographs and text that explain the challenges the ramps address. As a whole, the installation uses color, texture, and modularity to create awareness about the breadth of mobility challenges and experiences in public space.

There will be another opportunity to see the installations at the #MarillaMakeover Grand Opening on Friday, Nov. 16, 11:30 am - 2:00 pm.

The Bridging the Block project is supported by AARP and coincides with the #MarillaMakeover Project currently being led by Downtown Dallas Inc. and the City of Dallas’ Planning and Urban Design Department.

Bridging the Block

This fall [bc]’s Bridging the Block project will be installing temporary “bridges” on the sidewalks of Marilla Street between City Hall and the Farmers Market. These “bridges” will be a group of mobile installations that aim to raise awareness of accessibility issues in public spaces and celebrate creating a city accessible to everyone.

We have held several community design meetings to hear from people about their experiences as a pedestrian in downtown Dallas and the ways they would approach addressing the issues at hand. The meetings set out to identify accessibility issues and have conversations about who would be impacted by these limitations. We learned from participants about the challenges of broken and narrow sidewalks, steepness of driveways, a lack of curb cuts, visibility issues, and poles or debris blocking the paths.

The conversations touched on whether minimum accessibility requirements were sufficient in addressing the needs of all. One issue identified was the challenge of navigating textured pavers found at crosswalks with a walker. Another topic of concern was safety and the small but important design decisions that could address this concern—from street lights to reflective materials that would indicate the presence of a pedestrian to oncoming traffic.

The Opening Day Lunch and Conversation will be on Friday, Nov. 2, 12:00 to 1:30 pm. You will have another opportunity to see the installations at the #MarillaMakeover project Grand Opening on Friday, Nov. 16.

The Bridging the Block project is supported by AARP and will coincide with the #MarillaMakeover project currently being led by Downtown Dallas Inc. and the City of Dallas’ Planning and Urban Design Department.

Macon Starks Update

The Macon Starks project is a housing development at the intersection of Macon and Starks Streets in the Bonton neighborhood. This housing project, which began a couple years ago, was met with a few delays along the way, but we are pleased to announce that the five senior housing units have been built and all are currently occupied. This project is a partnership between East Dallas Community Organization and [bc].

The units are a mix of duplex and single family dwellings centered around a communal garden space with raised planter beds. We look forward to advancing our design practice through different housing typologies serving the various populations of our cities.

Harold Simmons Park Public Workshops

[bc] is serving as a consultant to the Trinity Park Conservancy, bringing our skill set in public interest design to engage Dallas' communities around the future of Harold Simmons Park, 200 acres along the Trinity River. Engagement efforts will focus on discovering how Dallas residents currently use parks and public space while encouraging them to re-imagine what this area could be. This understanding will inform the design of the 200 acre Harold Simmons Park.

Join us as we support the Trinity Park Conservancy in envisioning the future of the Harold Simmons Park as a public space that connects Dallas residents to each other and nature. Starting September 15th, the Conservancy will host 10 public workshops across the city to reimagine our river. For more about Harold Simmons Park, click here. Click here to RSVP to the upcoming workshops.

Smart Growth for Dallas Focus Forum Update

As we gear up for the final two Smart Growth for Dallas Focus Forum conversations on Parks and Public Space for People of All Abilities (August 9th) and Designing for Equity in Parks and Public Space (September 6th), we have been reflecting on the thoughtful conversations we’ve had had so far.

In our first panel discussion in May, moderated by Dr. Ivonne Audirac of the University of Texas at Arlington's College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA), we had a compelling conversation about the issues of urban development and the impact of public space design on neighborhood vitality. Our panelists Aaron Abelson of HR&A Advisors, Brianna Brown of Texas Organizing Project, and Brent Brown of the Trinity Park Conservancy joined us at Better Block to talk about how public space design can contribute to the perpetuation of neighborhood disinvestment or be a catalyst for new development and neighborhood desirability. You can listen to the conversation online.

The second panel discussion in June was moderated by Alfreda Norman, Senior Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, where we discussed the issues of race and ethnicity in public space design. Our panelists Bobby Abtahi, President of the Dallas Park and Recreation Board, Isaac Cohen, a Landscape Architect at Studio Outside, Delia Jasso, former District 1 Council Member, and Yui Iwase, New Roots Coordinator at the International Rescue Committee joined us at the Dallas Black Dance Theater to talk about how a city with a long history of segregation might approach current and future public space design in a way that supports equity and access to public space for all of its residents. You can learn about the history of Dallas’ public parks and residential racial segregation within the city in [bc]’s Race and Control of Public Parks and listen to the panel conversation online.

Stay tuned for more information about the upcoming focus forums!

Smart Growth for Dallas, an initiative led by the Trust for Public Land, buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, and Texas Trees Foundation, seeks to combine community insight and science to promote quality public spaces and green infrastructure in Dallas. To unpack the issues highlighted during our community engagement process, Smart Growth for Dallas will be hosting a series of 'Focus Forums' to explore the challenging topics of race and ethnicity, urban development, and accessibility within our public space design. The closing discussion will seek to knit together the prior conversation by exploring the specific role of design in bringing equity to public spaces. Through these conversations we hope to uncover forward-thinking ideas about planning and public space design in Dallas by bringing together groups whose work directly relates to each theme.

Smart Growth for Dallas Focus Forums

Learn more about Smart Growth for Dallas!

Smart Growth for Dallas, an initiative led by the Trust for Public Land, buildingcommunityWORKSHOP, and Texas Trees Foundation, seeks to combine community insight and science to promote quality public spaces and green infrastructure in Dallas. To unpack the issues highlighted during our community engagement process, Smart Growth for Dallas will be hosting a series of Focus Forums to explore the challenging topics of race and ethnicity, urban development, and accessibility within our public space design. The closing discussion will seek to knit together the prior conversation by exploring the specific role of design in bringing equity to public spaces. Through these conversations we hope to uncover forward-thinking ideas about planning and public space design in Dallas by bringing together groups whose work directly relates to each theme.

The first focus forum, "Equitable Development & Public Space" will be held on Thursday, May 17. A panel discussion moderated by Dr. Ivonne Audirac, of the University of Texas at Arlington's College of Architecture, Planning and Public Affairs (CAPPA), will convene key stakeholders to explore the issues of urban development and the effect of public space design on neighborhood vitality. This moderated forum will discuss how the design of public spaces can impact neighborhood strength and urban development, through exploring how public space design can contribute to the perpetuation of neighborhood disinvestment or be a catalyst for new development and neighborhood desirability.

Joining us as panelists are Aaron Abelson of HR&A Advisors, Brent Brown of the Trinity Park Conservancy, Brianna Brown of Texas Organizing Project, and Cynthia Salinas of the Esperanza Building Blocks.

Stay tuned for more information about future focus forums as their dates and locations are announced!

Dallas Cultural Plan Public Engagement

As a partner in the team with Lord Cultural Resources, HR&A Advisors, and Idyllic Interactive, [bc] is working to engage Dallas's residents for the Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs' Dallas Cultural Plan 2018. Through a year-long process, the Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) seeks to gather community input on how residents experience culture in their daily lives and how the city can continue to stay arts-friendly. 

The public engagement process for the Dallas Cultural Plan kicked off with a series of four events this September. At the Dallas Museum of Art, the Dallas Children's Theatre, Walnut Hill Recreation Center, and Southwest Center Mall, attendees participated in a series of activities which included realtime digital mapping, drawing stories of cultural experiences, and building ideal cultural communities. 

Through October and November, Community Conversations at South Dallas Cultural Center, Oak Cliff Cultural Center, Fretz Park Recreation Center, Bath House Cultural Center, Pleasant Grove Branch Library, West Dallas Multipurpose Center, and Moody Performance Hall provided forums for residents to share their visions for arts in their neighborhoods.

The Community Conversations will engage residents of all 14 districts within the City of Dallas. The series resumed for the new year at the Grauwyler Park Branch Library on January 11, 2018. In January/February 2018, we'll continue engaging residents through Community Conversations at:

• Paul Laurence Dunbar Lancaster-Kiest Branch Library, Thursday, January 25, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
• Audelia Road Branch Library, Tuesday, January 30, 6:00pm - 8:00pm
• Renner Frankford Library, Thursday, February 1, 6:30pm - 8:00pm
• Thurgood Marshall Recreation Center, Thursday, February 8, 6:30pm - 8:30pm

This phase of outreach also includes a series of discussions focused on specific art mediums, cultural institutions, and practicing artists. Upcoming opportunities include:

• Literary Arts in Dallas, Wednesday, January 24, 7:30pm - 9:30pm
• Making Public Art in Dallas, Thursday, February 1, 6:00pm - 8:00pm

Don't miss your chance to share your thoughts, hopes, and dreams for Dallas's cultural future through this once-in-a-decade opportunity. Be on the lookout for future events on the Dallas Cultural Plan event calendar. 

Even if you can't make it to an event, there are other ways that you can get involved! Take the Dallas Cultural Plan Survey to help us understand the diversity of arts and cultural activity occurring across Dallas and in your neighborhood.

You can also contribute to Dallas’ Arts & Culture Ecosystem Map by entering locations where you go to to create, experience, or learn about arts and culture in Dallas here—please enter only one location at a time, but you can submit as many responses as you'd like.

The Neighborhood Toolkit can be used to facilitate a conversation with friends, neighbors or co-workers on your own time. Email engage@dallasculturalplan.com to tell us about the date, time and location of your meeting!

Check out photos from Dallas Cultural Plan activities that have taken place thus far in the gallery below!

Activating Vacancy Downtown Dallas Recap

For the Activating Vacancy Downtown Dallas, a National Endowment for the Arts-supported project in partnership with Downtown Dallas, Inc., two artist teams worked with community members to create works of public art to activate spaces in Downtown Dallas. Through a call for proposals, artists were tasked with devising a project in response to public space priorities, identified through our Community Audited Public Space (CAPS) process and a Community Advisory Committee. Two series of works were created through a community-engaged process: the WonderPhones and MAY I // a blessing project. Project teams engaged with community members through a variety of workshops and community gathering events, which included project tours and a culmintaing public interview with the artists. 

WonderPhone

The WonderPhone is an interactive payphone that connect the people in downtown Dallas to the city and each other. The team combined old and new technology to allow people to listen to content and play and record their stories. Five WonderPhones were created, placed in colorful enclosures in various locations downtown and popping up at events.

The WonderPhone team (Rickey Crum, Gray Garmon, Katie Krummeck, Edward Li, and Justin Childress) worked with local high school students, architects, historians, designers, urban planners, musicians and essayists to create and record engaging Dallas- or phone-related content for participants to enjoy. Audio content ranged from personal stories of memories downtown to future imaginings of new possibilities for Downtown, as well both curated and newly created pieces that focus on the history and architecture of downtown Dallas. Interactive prompts ask participants to share reactions to specific questions (and hear responses live) as well as follow instructions to participate in immersive experiences exploring downtown.

The artists said, "We hope that the WonderPhone will inspire participants to listen and think deeply about the lived experiences of the citizens of Downtown Dallas as well as engage participants in activities to help them observe Dallas in a new light and reflect on their own participation in the city."

MAY I // a blessing project

MAY I // a blessing project is a walkable installation of blessings written by local young women for the Dallas community, manifested large-scale. The artists Ruben Carrazana and Janielle Kastner worked with a group of young women (ages 12-18) who wrote specific declarations of hope for themselves (MAY I), for their community (MAY WE), and for their spaces (MAY THIS SPACE).

The team issued an exhortation to the city: "We believe these young women don’t need us to 'empower' them, they need us to acknowledge they already have the power to speak life into their community. We call these declarations blessings as they begin with the word 'may' - a word that summons into existence that which isn’t here yet. Our work as artists has been taking their words and manifesting them in unexpected places downtown in a bold, surprising, even defiant manner. In a world that asks them to shrink, MAY I radically insists young women take up extraordinary amounts of space. We encourage you to join these young women and manifest your own blessing in your spaces, tagging #mayiblessdallas."

Our partner DDI will continue to use the artworks to activate spaces in downtown Dallas. Check out photos of the artworks and the AVDD events below!

This project was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). To find out more about the National Endowment for the Arts visit www.arts.gov.  

To find out more about our project partner Downtown Dallas Inc., visit www.downtowndallas.com.

Pre-Construction Clean-Up at 1208 E. 10th Street

[bc] received a Safety Grant from Texas Mutual to support our purchase of ergonomic office equipment and safety equipment to keep our staff safe at the Tenth Street Neighborhood Resource Center construction site. 

In the Tenth Street neighborhood—one of the last remaining and perhaps the most intact of Dallas's historic Freedmen's Towns—we’re working with residents to help build local capacity.  We're renovating a historic home at 1208 E. 10th Street to serve as a Neighborhood Resource Center.  When completed, it will become a repository for essential resources, a site for activities that promote technical learning among residents and strengthen community cohesion, and a residence for a [bc] architectural designer who will hold open office hours to assist the community with technical advice.

The Neighborhood Resource Center will support residents in their efforts to address the pressing issues they've identified in their community, such as vacancy, redevelopment pressures, and the disrepair of historic homes in the neighborhood.  

In preparation for construction activities, [bc] and community members visited the property to conduct preliminary site clean-up.  Activities included leaf-raking, trash pick-up, and bamboo and brush clearing.  Check out the photos below!

Staff benefitted from the use of coveralls, safety glasses, gloves, ear protection, and hardhats purchased through Texas Mutual's generous grant.  We're so grateful for this support!

[bc] is grateful to all those who have provided support for the Tenth Street Neighborhood Resource Center: The Real Estate Council Foundation, The Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, Inc., the Hillcrest Foundation, the Hoblitzelle Foundation, and Bank of America. 

Welcome Hafsa Ambreen!

Learn more about Hafsa Ambreen here!

Hafsa Ambreen is a Design Associate for buildingcommunityWORKSHOP. She plays a dynamic design role in the office and is part of several projects taking place in and around Dallas.  

Her interests include design research, community based design, and design as a tool for advocacy. Her professional work has included working on the design and fabrication of an entirely cardboard set for a production of Rose and Cavalier by Victory Hall Opera. While working for the Charlottesville-based research initiative Thriving Cities, she completed research, created diagrams, and designed layouts for a series of city case studies.  

Hafsa holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from the University of Virginia.