Park News

DART Rail stop at Dallas' Victory Plaza gets green space upgrade

Behold the green space. Also, how about that office building.

DART

The Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) Victory Park station, where you get off for events at American Airlines Center, has a new greenspace. Called Victory Station Plaza, it's a one-acre public green space adjacent to the DART Victory Station and across the street from the American Airlines Center.

More pertinently, it's adjacent to Victory Commons One, a new Class-A office building from Hillwood Urban, part of Hillwood, Ross Perot Jr's development company.

Hillwood Urban partnered with DART to build the greenspace, which was completed on November 19 — simultaneously to the completion of the Victory Commons building, which btw they say will offer a unique urban office environment, with outdoor rooftop terrace providing views of the Dallas skyline, plus a ground floor tenant lounge and coffee bar. Tenants only? Boo.

The plaza is the size of a football field and occupies land that was previously a parking lot. It's wedged between the above-mentioned new office building and a parking garage.

It's not much more than a patch of green with a few trees, but it's an improvement over the previous sea of cement that faced commuters as they got off the train, even if it comes to us only as the byproduct of a Hillwood new build.

A release says the green space can be used by DART commuters, arena sports fans, office workers, and Victory Park-area residents.

DART’s Victory Station opened in 2001 and hosts a larger-than-usual number of lines including DART Light Rail Green and Orange Lines, Trinity Railway Express, as well as DART Light Rail Red and Blue Lines used for special events.

The station did feature art, namely unique elements by local artist Pamela Nelson; as with all of DART's art, it reflects the neighborhood and residents it serves.

In a statement, Nadine Lee, president & CEO at DART calls the Plaza "a fantastic opportunity to provide much needed green space to the area while ensuring our passengers have enhanced access to Victory Station."

Ken Reese, executive vice president of Hillwood Urban, calls it "a terrific partnership with DART where together, we were able to bring a great new public park into an urban environment," and says it's been in the works ever since AAC was built.

"This Park space was always part of DART’s plan for this land going back 20 years to when Hillwood originally built the AAC," Reese says. "We are excited to help make this happen and enhance the neighborhood, not to mention provide great views from the office space overlooking the park."

parks downtown

happy go lucky plano

Dallas neighbor dazzles on new list of happiest cities in America

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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A new happiness study has ranked Plano one of the happiest cities in America this year, and it once again landed on top as the happiest city in Texas.

Plano has moved up on the list and ranks as the 16th happiest U.S. city in 2026. Last year, it was 17th.

WalletHub determined the happiest cities in America based on 29 relevant metrics based on "positive-psychology research" across three main categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment. As with most WalletHub studies, it compared the 182 most populous U.S. cities.

Fremont, California claimed the top spot as the happiest city nationwide for another year. Bismark, North Dakota and Scottsdale, Arizona, respectfully, rounded out the top three.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Plano across the three key dimensions:

No. 15 – Emotional and physical wellbeing
No. 22 – Community and environment
No. 72 – Income and employment

Plano and its residents have continued improving their city year after year, whether its through opening new bakeries and restaurants, inviting fun pop-ups for locals, or having a strong job market.

Plano's happiness far outshines the rest of North Texas; according to WalletHub, Irving is the 70th happiest city in the country, the third-happiest in Texas, and the second-happiest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Garland ranked farther behind as No. 92 nationally, and more DFW cities ranked even lower: Grand Prairie (No. 106), Dallas (No. 111), Fort Worth (No. 113), and Arlington (No. 119).

The report additionally found that Dallasites spend the third-most amount of time at work in the nation. The city ranked No. 180 in the national analysis of U.S. cities with the "fewest work hours."

WalletHub also emphasized that money doesn't buy happiness — after a certain point.

"For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability," the report said. "Still, income has its limits — studies show that earning more than $75,000 a year does not lead to greater happiness."

Six-figure earners in Plano aren't necessarily as happy as those who don't make as much, as a separate financial study from SmartAsset revealed these big earners are only taking home about $72,653 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living.

This is how other Texas cities ranked in the report:

No. 39 – Austin
No. 128 – Houston
No. 135 – Lubbock
No. 137 – El Paso
No. 140 – Laredo
No. 143 – Amarillo
No. 150 – Brownsville
No. 154 – San Antonio
No. 155 – Corpus Christi

wallethub plano reports