Thursday morning, Wayne Smith will stand in front of Dallas’ Park and Recreation Board, show some lovely renderings of a dramatically improved Katy Trail, and put his hand out. He’s just hoping nobody bites it off.
First off, of course, the president of the Friends of the Katy Trail will talk about making the trail safer, because safety sells, especially after two armed robbers terrorized trailgoers last fall, pocketing phones and credit cards. He will then talk about strengthening the trail’s identity, because that is how you sell something — pushing the brand, not the product. He will then talk about the pretty drawings he brought with him, with the overlooks and amphitheaters and concrete benches and prairie grasslands and wider lanes.
And — because this is Dallas — he will introduce two “signature” bridges, one over Knox Street and another over Harvard Avenue. Though before your eyes roll into the back of your skull, Smith conceded they’re “a little over the top” and said that SWA Group, the landscape designer responsible for the donor-funded $700,000 master plan, “is good about dreaming up ways to spend your money.”
He will then explain that this new and improved Katy Trail will cost $40 million, maybe $50 million. Smith would really like the city to kick in some of that. Whatever the city can spare, with the Friends offering to cover the rest. He’s hoping it’ll come out of the 2017 bond package, otherwise known as the wishing well.
Smith, who renovates commercial buildings for a living and served as Angela Hunt’s appointee to the park board, is no dummy. He knows any ask is a big ask when it comes to the coming bond package, which the City Council expects to cap at around $800 million, with a giant chunk of that going toward pulling Dallas drivers out of potholes. Downtown parks will also want their share — $35 million in matching funds. Fair Park also has its hand out; so, too, will every other crumbling building this city’s put off taking care of.
And Dallas is trying to build new trails, not spruce up existing ones. Especially not the Katy Trail. Everyone wants a Katy Trail. … [visit site to read more]
Reposted via City Hall Blog
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