The Deep Ellum Foundation secured a $2 million grant to advance the Dallas Cultural Trail, promising to revitalize local historic neighborhoods.
DALLAS — Building on legacy takes time and can come with growing pains.
“There have been legacy business owners who have been here over 60 years who have been made promises, and the promises have been deferred,” said Zac Thompson, Southside Parking Owner.
Thompson owns a parking lot right across from Fair Park. “People have to leave out of South Dallas/Fair Park to get basic grocery stores, eating places,” said Thompson. “They might as well play their music, walk it out because they’re not going to stay here.”
Thompson and many others are committed to staying and preserving that history.
That is why he’s pleased to know that almost three miles away, the Deep Ellum Foundation received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to move forward with the Dallas Cultural Trail.
“This is a boom for us,” said Stephanie Keller Hudiburg, Deep Ellum Foundation Executive Director.
She said the Cultural Trail will revitalize historic neighborhoods through art and mobility. “The goal is to really put at visitors as well as Dallasites’ fingertips the richness of the culture that we have here in the city of Dallas,” said Keller Hudiburg.
In a statement, Congresswoman Julie Johnson (TX-32) said, “As Dallas County continues to grow, it is critical that we make the right investments in our communities to upgrade infrastructure and expand safe public transit…I am grateful that this funding coming to the Deep Ellum Foundation from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will do just that. In Congress, I will continue to look for ways we can bring funding back home to uplift our neighborhoods.”
The trail is a roughly $40M project that is in its beginning stages of funding. It will connect Dallas Arts District, Deep Ellum and South Dallas/Fair Park through art installations, historical markers and businesses along the trail. “It’s going to be really exciting to be able to make sure that people that come here and don’t know about it, are able to access that in a way that they didn’t expect,” said Keller Hudiburg.
Thompson’s expectation is to be included. “We have people who are about to lose their homes because of high taxes. You see gentrification,” said Thompson. “We’re pro the trail, but we got to be pro-South Dallas Fair Park.”
For more information on the project, click here.
