Deep Ellum Pop-up Park

Pop-up park takes over central block in Deep Ellum with movies and good times

Key intersection in Deep Ellum will host a temporary park.

If Klyde Warren's too crazy for you lately, then head to Deep Ellum this week for a novel concept called a pop-up park. We've seen pop-up shops, but the Crowdus Park Pop-Up is a temporary park, set up on Crowdus Street between Elm and Main, beginning April 29.

The park is conceived as a way to show the neighbors and the city what it would be like to have a plaza in the heart of Deep Ellum.

It's one of a series of events around Dallas being coordinated to coincide with the 23rd Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU), an annual event that brings together planners and other urban-minded individuals to talk about the restoration of cities. The 2015 CNU is in Dallas for the first time, and it takes place from April 28-May 2 at The Adolphus.

The Crowdus Park pop-up will entail shutting down that stretch of Crowdus for four days, to install seating and other pedestrian-friendly features, says Brandon Castillo, of Ash+Lime Strategies, one of the groups that's organizing the park, which was designed by architecture firms TBG and Callison.

"The idea of a park on Crowdus is something that's been percolating in the neighborhood," Castillo says. "Rik Adamski, my partner at Ash+Lime, worked on a planning committee for CNU, and we decided Deep Ellum would be a perfect place to do a demonstration of a temporary public place."

Crowdus Street will be shut down from April 29 to May 2. Programming will include food trucks, live music and performers. There'll be two film screenings: Book of Life, a locally produced, family-friendly movie by REEL FX, will be shown on Wednesday at sunset, with an introduction by director Jorge Gutierrez. Napolean Dynamite will be shown on Thursday at sunset.

The pop-up is similar to the "better block" concept, in which a block is taken over for a brief period of time, usually a day, and re-cast with pedestrian-oriented features, to help inspire new ways of looking at neighborhoods. Dallas hosted a couple of better-block projects in 2012, including one on Knox and one in Oak Cliff.

"Doing the park for four days is stepping it up," Castillo says. "But events like these are tools that people use to enliven their neighborhoods. It isn't going to necessarily impact the street itself, but the goal is community engagement, and making our city better."

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Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

Photo by R K on Unsplash

This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

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