We have long touted southern Dallas as a land of untapped potential that needs leadership with a willingness to embrace change and opportunity.

The best candidate to do that for Dallas City Council District 4 is Maxie Johnson, a six-year Dallas ISD trustee who is leaving the school board for a chance to serve at City Hall.

Johnson’s tenure at DISD has been marked by deep investment in southern Dallas schools and a commitment to supporting reforms that are helping to elevate education opportunities for students throughout the district.

We believe Johnson, 47, will bring that same “let’s do it” spirit to City Hall.

“I serve a community that has been underfunded and disproportionately disenfranchised,” he told us in our recommendation interview. Job 1, he said, is “creating economic development that creates jobs, that creates opportunity for growth.”

A pro-growth mindset is exactly what this district needs. Johnson has a clear-eyed understanding that the development of Halperin Park, the new deck park spanning Interstate 35E between the Dallas Zoo and north Oak Cliff, represents a huge chance for District 4 to realize new prosperity.

“It’s going to be an economic engine. It’s going to help with jobs. It’s going to be educational, and it’s going to be a place where our community can come out and have access,” Johnson said.

District 4 stretches from the area around the zoo to the northwest through the Lancaster-Kiest corridor to Buckner Road to the northeast. This swath of southern Dallas includes historic neighborhoods like Cedar Crest, places that residents are rightly proud of and that they want to see protected from haphazard development.

Kebran Alexander, 55, is Johnson’s primary rival in a three-person race. Alexander, who works for the Dallas County Sheriff’s Department, has many good qualities as a candidate. He cares deeply for the district’s people, but we aren’t convinced he is as eager to embrace the opportunities the district has.

We were surprised by his answer in our Voter Guide about whether plans in place for the coming deck park will satisfy neighborhood concerns. “I do not know enough to speak on that intelligently. I want to be more informed on the matter,” he wrote.

In our interview, he said that information has not been shared widely in the district. Johnson responded, correctly in our view, that there have been many community meetings about the park.

A third candidate, educator Avis Hardaman, 73, did not attend our candidate meeting. While she has a heart for the district, her responses to our Voter Guide questionnaire did not demonstrate the depth of knowledge that Johnson and Alexander have.

The winner will replace incumbent Carolyn King Arnold, who is term-limited.

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