Protest Time

3 rallies in downtown Dallas likely to cause a traffic car-tastrophe

One rally will begin at Dallas City Hall.

Courtesy photo

Downtown Dallas promises to be a crazy cluster on Saturday, January 20, when three groups will take to the streets with peaceful rallies and marches.

In response, the city will close off numerous streets around the Central Business District. Projected attendance varies for each event, with the largest attendance expected to be 6,000. Road closures will make getting through downtown difficult between 10 am and 2 pm.

Events include a rally to impeach President Donald Trump, part of a nationwide initiative, with identical events being organized in cities across the country.

In Dallas, the rally will take place from 11 am-2 pm, with a meetup at Dallas City Hall followed by a procession to the JFK Memorial on Commerce Street and a return to City Hall.

The following streets will be intermittently closed to traffic from 1-2 pm:

Marilla Street – All west bound lanes closed from Akard Street to Young Street
Akard Street – All south bound lanes closed from Marilla Street to Canton Street
Canton Street – All south bound lanes closed from Akard Street to Lamar Street
Lamar Street – All north bound lanes closed from Canton Street to Commerce Street
Commerce Street – All east bound lanes closed from Lamar Street to South Griffin Street
South Griffin Street – All south bound lanes closed from Commerce Street to Young Street
Young Street – All east bound lanes closed from South Griffin Street to Marilla Street

There will also be an one-year anniversary commemoration of the Dallas Women's March, which is also part of a national observance of the day one year ago that large groups of people wearing pink knitted hats congregated to stand up for equality, justice, and inclusion.

The Dallas event begins at St. Paul United Methodist Church at 1816 Routh St. and proceeds through Uptown to end at Pike Park at 2807 Harry Hines Blvd.

The city will close traffic from 10 am to 12 noon on the following streets:

Routh Street – All north bound lanes closed from Wade Street to Maple-Routh ConnectionJan
Maple-Routh Connection – All north bound lanes closed from Routh Street to McKinney Avenue
Maple Avenue – All north bound lanes closed from McKinney Avenue to Randall Street
Randall Street – All south bound lanes closed from Maple Avenue to Harry Hines Boulevard
Harry Hines Boulevard – All south bound lanes closed from Randall Street to the Pike Park entrance

In the afternoon, a smaller event called March for Life will begin at the Guadalupe Cathedral and cross over St. Paul Street before ending in a parking lot at Griffin and Wood streets. The following streets will be intermittently closed from 1-3 pm:

Flora Street – All north bound lanes closed from North Pearl Street to Crocket Street
Crocket Street – All south bound lanes closed from Flora Street to Ross Avenue
Ross Avenue – All south bound lanes closed from Crocket Street to North St. Paul Street
North Saint Paul Street – All south bound lanes closed from Ross Avenue to Wood Street
Wood Street – All east bound lanes closed from North St. Paul Street to South Griffin Street

Parking meters will be restricted from 10 am to 3 pm on Wood Street from South Griffin Street to South Saint Paul Street.

downtown politics

Park news

New I-35 deck park in southern Dallas moves closer to spring 2026 debut

Courtesy rendering

Renderings for Halperin Park.

A massive deck park spanning Interstate 35E in southern Dallas is set to open in late spring 2026. Called Halperin Park, the five-acre community space has been under construction since 2017 and will be completed in two phases:

Phase One (finishing in late spring) will include the section from Ewing Avenue to Lancaster Avenue and will feature a pavilion, amphitheater, playground area, interactive fountains, a second level overlooking the Dallas Zoo and the highway, and a large event room for every dining and special events.

Phase Two (to be completed over the next five years) will add the park section toward Marsalis Avenue, with an additional pavilion and extra gathering space.

The project is being developed by the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation and built by the Texas Department of Transportation. Funding comes from the North Central Texas Council of Governments, as well as the private Halperin Foundation, which donated $23 million in 2024 and secured naming rights.

In January, the Dallas City Council approved spending up to $8 million to complete Phase One for spring completion.

The public-private initiative will create $1 billion in economy impact over the next five years, according to a study by UNT Dallas.

Rendering of Halperin ParkCourtesy rendering

A park with purpose
Developers say the park aims to integrate the west side of Oak Cliff, which was somewhat segregated with the construction of I-35 in Oak Cliff in the 1960s, leading to low-income communities and generational poverty.

The project started nine years ago, when the Texas Department of transportation planned a reconstruction of I-35 and began gathering neighbors’ feedback. The result was a plan to widen bicycle and pedestrian lanes in the service roads alongside the highway, and to build a deck over the highway between Ewing and Marsalis avenues, adjacent to the Dallas Zoo. (Similar Klyde Warren Park's "deck park" concept.)

While the project faced some skepticism at first, it later gained momentum as private supporters continued to join.

“Forty percent of the Dallas population lives in South Dallas, yet this segment only accounts for 15 percent of the tax base,” says April Allen, President and CEO of the Southern Gateway Public Green Foundation, citing the opportunity to address the economic equality in the area through the development of the park and all the business it can bring.

Rendering of Halperin Park.Courtesy rendering

Neighborhood pride
For Allen, this project is personal. The Toronto-born executive first moved to Dallas 22 years ago to work at Neiman Marcus, after getting her engineering degree in Canada and her MBA at Harvard. Oak Cliff felt like the right place for her as an intown neighborhood, with a confluency of cultures, local pride and an entrepreneurial spirit, as she describes it. Her first Realtor told her Oak Cliff was “not the right place for her." Instead of choosing a different neighborhood, Allen chose a new Realtor.

She has lived on the same street in North Cliff since, now raising her two kids with her husband, an Oak Cliff native, whom she credits for her further understanding of the neighborhood, its roots and civic dynamics.

Under Allen’s leadership, Halperin Park is focused on a community-first approach that provides support to the neighbors through programs around health and wellness, after-school activities, local food trucks and markets, and educational workshops to help expand homeownership and financial acumen.

To highlight the history and culture of Oak Cliff, they will feature an annual Walk of Fame, lifting up the stories of those who contributed to Oak Cliff history, with the first one happening as part of the inauguration of the park, organizers say.

They will provide their own 24-hour security team to ensure a safe place for families and kids, with clean and well-lit crosswalks.

Given their proximity with the zoo, parking will be available on the East side of the park at the zoo site, with a walkway to the park. They are working on parking options for the West side.

“We want to create a space for community growth and more business in the area," says Allen. "We are already seeing this come to life with projects such as East Dock, and we are excited for future investment that the park will bring."

parks