By BJ Austin, KERA Reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-749884.mp3
Dallas, TX – The State Fair of Texas draws more than 3 million people to Fair Park each fall. But when those crowds are gone, there's not a lot of activity in the 277 acres that house the nation's premier display of Art Deco Architecture.
Daniel Huerta, Fair Park's general manager, works out of an office in the historic Centennial Building. He's watching some important tenants go: the Cotton Bowl game to the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington; the Dallas Opera to the new, downtown Winspear Opera House; Museum of Nature and Science exhibits to the new, West End Perot Nature and Science Museum; and the Train Museum to Frisco for more exhibit space. Driving his golf cart through the Park, Huerta believes those gaps will be filled quickly by new events and venues.
The big new thing is a summer midway. State Fair President Erroll McKoy announced "Summer Place Park" at the annual Friends of Fair Park luncheon.
McKoy: "The goal is to open an 18-and-a-half acre, gated and themed midway by May 1, 2010. The park will have all the trappings of a small Six Flags: 26 rides, shows, lots of shade, lots of water elements and teenagers running the rides, and also including a pay-one-price ticket."
McKoy says a feasibility study predicted 500,000 in the first year. And there will be a new way to get to to Fair Park. DART Light Rail arrives in September 2009, with front gate service in time for next year's State Fair. Friends of Fair Park President Craig Holcomb says DART rail service to Fair Park is going to be a huge boost.
Holcomb: "The statistics say we will get a 20 to 30 percent permanent bump in attendance. In our case, that's about, in non-Fair time, 600,000 people. Our goal is to get that up to a million people."
From his golf cart, Daniel Huerta says in addition to the annual college football classics, the renovated Cotton Bowl will host international soccer.
Huerta: "You kind of get a sense of the stadium from here, so..."
Austin: "What all are they doing over there?"
Huerta: "We're adding approximately 16,000 more seats to the stadium, which will take our capacity right to 90,000 seats."
But, it's not just rides, fried food, and football, Fair Park is adding some class. Huerta says they're restoring the Embarcadero building murals, which have been painted over for years. And designers of the fountains at the Bellagio Hotel in Vegas are creating a water and light show on the Esplanade.
Huerta: "Now this is the Esplanade Fountain. Basically, we're going to be re-doing the fountain - gonna be really phenomenal with music and lights. Our future plan is at some point to provide dining underneath each of the porticos. So if you can imagine people coming out and seeing the great murals, the historic murals, the historic sculptures, and the art, and also enjoying a water show while you sip on a glass of wine or eat your sandwich. I think it's going to be a great venue for us."
Will it be enough to bring year-round visitors from North Dallas and beyond to the low-income neighborhood that surrounds Fair Park? Four blocks away, on Martin Luther King Boulevard, half a dozen men hang out in a parking lot, smoking and talking. A couple of men sit in lawn chairs near the sidewalk, sipping from bottles in brown paper bags. 20-year-old Chastity Watson waits at a bus stop, and says she understands why some people might be scared to come to this area.
Watson: "I ain't gonna say it's bad over here. But I could see why people would be scared to come over here cause look how it look. And all they see is people walking around, standing on every corner, begging for money. Ain't nobody want to come to that."
Reginald Gates is President of the Black Chamber of Commerce. His office is on MLK, near Fair Park. Gates welcomes park improvements and year-round activities with what he calls skeptical optimism. He says even the biggest annual event, the State Fair, has not added much at all economically to the surrounding neighborhood. In order to attract year-round visitors, Gates says Fair Park, the city, and the neighborhood must clear hurdles of race and misconceptions about crime.
Gates: "It's no more or any less than anywhere else. And it's that kind of reality that doesn't oftentimes get told."
BJ: "How much of this do you think is race and socio-economic?"
Gates: "Oh, I think a great deal of it is. And that's a real one for me. And I think probably you'd get someone who doesn't live this experience who would say oh that's not the case. But, how can you dismiss that. It's pretty obvious to the eye, as well as the way we live, north-south. So it's pretty obvious to me."
But Fair Park General Manager Daniel Huerta believes the best days of Fair Park lie ahead. And he revs up the golf cart to show off the renovated Cotton Bowl from a different angle.
Huerta: "You're not gonna believe this. It just looks so different. We're really excited. It's all falling into place. Really, it's a great time for Dallas, and a great time for our city."
BJ Austin, KERA News.