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EDITOR’S NOTE WHY WE CAN’T AFFORD TO IGNORE FAIR PARK

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One weekend several years ago, I introduced the city to a bright young Boston writer. After an urban tour-a swing by the Dallas Farmer’s Market and Arts District, a pause at the grassy knoll, a drive down Armstrong Parkway and Swiss Avenue and around White Rock Lake-we went to Fair Park. Not Starplex, not Ramses the Great, but Fair Park, the park most people won’t really see during these next few weeks of the Slate Fair.

I was determined to show off the closest thing we have to a natural resource, even at the risk of having to explain why almost no one else would be there to appreciate it. 1 hoped my visitor would see what I saw-a rich historical and architectural monument from a time when the city’s grand visions became reality.

We cruised the Esplanade, studied the names that wrap the Hall of State, marveled at the art deco detailing in the doors and fixtures. And we talked about the emptiness-why few Dallasites use what is probably the city’s greatest asset.

We all know where some of the “vision” has gone. Much of the money that fed grand ideas well into the Eighties has evaporated. And when there is less to go around, less happens. But has that become an easy excuse for letting the park slide into ruin?

In fact. Fair Park is something Dallas didn’t really deal with in the good times. Sure, $18 million was spent to spruce the place up for the 1986 Sesquicentennial, and yes, the Science Place and the Hall of State received a fresh face and some new energy. But even when the economy was bustling, everyone knew Fair Park needed more help.

In the years since, not much has changed, a fact that plagues Craig Holcomb. executive director of Friends of Fair Park. First, the place still struggles with an identity crisis- the park is only about seven blocks from Deep Ellum, yet people talk about the South Dallas neighborhood like it’s a poor relative in the next county. As Holcomb points out. many visitors think there’s only one road leading to the place-the State Fair and Starplex traffic backed up on 1-30 confirms that.

You could fill a book with what we don’t know about the park. Just ask Deb and Jerry O’Brien at White Horse Gallery. Earlier this year the O’Briens, who offer walking tours of Fair Park, discovered that some local hotel induslry folks believe the park is only open during the State Fair.

Then there’s the issue of com-mitmeni: All you have to do is look at the recent failed effort to fund Cotton Bowl repairs with a I-cent hotel tax-“a devastating blow,” says Holcomb-that fell during the city’s attempts to lure a World Cup soccer match to the bowl.

But there is some hope. Construction has begun on the Museum of African-American Life and Culture, and there is also serious talk of regularly scheduled rubber-tired trolleys that would swing from McKinney Avenue, through the West End, past Old City Park, to Fair Park, and back. Finally, the new Fair Park Development Plan attempts to answer the question: How do you create more attractions that are going to be available every day? The blueprint includes, in the first phase, a year-round midway with upscale restaurants. The later phases of the plan include bringing back live theater and a new aquarium.

The plan recently was approved by the City Council and is now in the hands of an “implementation committee’-a politically and corporately powerful group charged with figuring out where the money’s going to come from.

A key word that surfaces again and again in Fair Park discussions is “privatization.” Is that how the aquarium should be handled? And the Cotton Bowl? Holcomb predicts it will be a year or two before we either see an impact or end up with “just another plan.”

In these harder times. Fair Park may seem to be a luxury we can’t afford. On the contrary, as we talk about the future of the urban core. Fair Park is one place we can’t afford to lose.

If you remain to be convinced, take the unpretentious White Horse Gallery tour and see the park when there are no midway distractions. The tour is free, and it’s enlightening.

Next time you’re out there, study the restored, golden Tejas Warrior above the Hall of State entrance and stroll the Grand Allee du Meadows behind the Dallas Civic Garden Center. After all, this is what we showed the Queen of England last spring. It’s time for all of us to take a look, too.

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