Tomorrow, there is a neat thing happening in South Oak Cliff. The Trust for Public Land, the nonprofit that helps create parks and analyze parkland throughout the city, is teaming with the Better Block to open a pop-up park near South Oak Cliff High School.
The Trust for Public Land is buying this parcel to help turn it into a permanent community park. “Tomorrow’s pop-up park is the first step in that process,” says Robert Kent, the nonprofit’s director.
You should know Better Block by now. The Oak Cliff nonprofit takes empty spaces and fills them with things for people to engage with. In December, we wrote about how they’re 3-D printing bus stops that face away from the street, keeping particulate matter away from the people waiting for them. They’ll be making things like picnic tables and benches and maybe even a little stage. The photo above this post is what the two groups are trying to bring there.
As for the future of the space: Kent says this was an “overgrown eyesore.” The principal of South Oak Cliff High approached his organization and asked them to turn it into something.
“Usually, when parks are designed the community meetings happen in meeting rooms with maps on the wall – tomorrow’s event will let the future park users actually experience their future park long before the park opens,” he said.
Recently, the Trust for Public Land found that Dallas had increased its access to parks by more than all but four American cities. Last year, just 59 percent of residents lived within a 10 minute walk of a park. Now, that number is 69 percent. And efforts like this are underway to get that number even higher.
The event starts at 11 a.m. and runs until 2 p.m. at 405 East Overton Road. The South Oak Cliff High School Marching Band will be there, and barbecue is free from Café Momentum and Central Market.
