Do Dallas parks improve equity and ‘intergenerational wealth?’ Some council members question that

Dallas Parks and Recreation officials — and a third-party consulting firm — say the city’s parks system is even more valuable than the last time it was examined nearly seven years ago. That’s according to a presentation during Monday’s Parks, Trails and the Environment Committee meeting.

According to the briefing, the parks system contributes to the city’s commercial real estate value, is driving the “sustained economic development” in Dallas and “meaningfully leading to equitable outcomes.”

But some council members questioned the firm’s data, the timing of their presentation — and how the parks system really adds to equity in the city.

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold represents District 4 in southern Dallas. She says for her constituency, the narrative is different.

“I’m trying to figure out how you can use this data to say its going to promote all these attributes,” Arnold said. “But here we have parks in our communities but we’re not seeing those benefits.”

The briefing comes after the city’s bond taskforce voted to recommend nearly a third of the city’s capacity go toward parks and recreation.

In late November, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson used a portion of his State of the City address to defend the $350 million dollar parks and trails bond allocation — citing that when invested in correctly, the city gets “more bang for [the taxpayers] buck with parks and trails” than with anything else the city uses tax dollars on.

‘Even more valuable’

Candace Damon is the chair of the board at HR&A — the consulting firm hired by the city to evaluate the parks and recreation system in 2016. She says that study was focused on demonstrating that the city’s park system generates substantial economic value.

“What we did in that study was to compare how Dallas is investing in its park system to how similarly situated cities are investing,” Damon said during the meeting. “And then to estimate the value…of the park system in terms of how it contributes to real estate value, to tourism spending and to green infrastructure.”

Damon says when you look at those categories, the city’s park system produced around $678 million a year that “otherwise wouldn’t be rolling around in the Dallas economy,” and conservatively yields a 7 to 1 return on investment for every dollar spent. That’s despite the system being under resourced at the time of the study, according to Damon.

This year, the firm compared the 2016 data with current economic conditions and factored in more recent investments the parks department has made.

“And what we concluded is that if anything, the park system is even more valuable than it was in 2016,” Damon said.

But committee members questioned the findings — and asked for more information about how the data was collected.

“I’d like to see it broken down on how you are qualifying the return of investment and why is it done at such a broad level,” District 7 Council Member Adam Bazaldua said. “We have parks in our park system that shouldn’t even be compared to each other especially when we’re talking about profitability.”

Bazaldua said he still had questions about how this presentation about the parks system value worked with what the department has asked for in bond allocations.

The consultants also claim the Dallas parks system contributes to equity citywide — like “helping to build intergenerational wealth.” But some council members were not satisfied with the presentation and again asked for more information about the data collected for the study.

“Did you look at data that related to the lifeline of individuals in southern Dallas neighborhoods with the parks that exist now?” Arnold asked. “Do they not contribute anything at all?”

Damon said the firm did not look at health outcomes in southern Dallas compared to health outcome sin other parts of Dallas in 2023. And the original study did not look at equity either.

“We looked at tourism, we looked at environmental, we looked at commercial real estate value increments,” Damon said. “We think that analysis holds up…in addition we think that there are almost certainly significant equity outcomes that have been achieved and will be achieved with appropriate investment in the future.”

Damon says that assumption is based on “detailed analysis of other cities” compared to Dallas.

‘The bottom line’

The briefing is another chapter in the parks and recreation saga. As part of his reelection campaign, Johnson pushed for Dallas to be a leader in green spaces around the nation.

Since then, the city’s community bond taskforce — which is chaired by the president of the Dallas Parks and Recreation Board — voted to recommend a third of the city’s bond capacity go to the parks system.

Shortly after, a land group specifically focused on creating new parks in cities across Texas, briefed council members about a plan to use city-owned land for 15 new greenspaces.

The proposal also comes at a time when council members have directed city staff to evaluate the same real estate portfolio for other uses — like more housing or funding options to pay for billions in unfunded liabilities in the city’s Fire and Police Pension System.

Johnson also claimed during his late November address that the parks bond allocation is necessary — and it is “what the people of Dallas want” and what he wants “as your mayor.”

Critics of the bond recommendations say some of that money should be used for more housing. Currently, $100 million has been recommended for housing and homelessness.

Johnson said “historically government is simply not good at playing the role of a housing developer.”

Council members say while the understand the importance of greenspaces and parks — but say there are more pressing issues the city needs to deal with. Those include maintenance of current park facilities — and focusing out what Dallas residents say they need most.

“The bottom line is…we’re not against the parks,” Arnold said during Monday’s meeting. “It’s just please let us not try to show that the parks will be the great hope that will take us across the mark…we can take our families to the park, but we cannot live in the park.”

Got a tip? Email Nathan Collins at ncollins@kera.org. You can follow Nathan on Twitter @nathannotforyou.

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