Michael Davis was waiting for a customer in a parking lot on South Fitzhugh Avenue.
It was just after 2pm during the second week of the State Fair. Traffic outside Gate 5 on Robert B. Cullum Boulevard remained heavy.
It was quiet near Gate 8 on Fitzhugh Street, which straddles the 277-acre property south of Interstate 30.
For 24 days each year at the State Fair of Texas, a giant Ferris wheel emblazoned with the words “Texas Star” lights up and millions of visitors descend on the fairgrounds for a whirlwind of neon-lit rides, treats, and fried food. experience. . It is the longest running fair in America.
political issue
Parking can be an obstacle.
Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in the State Fair of Texas parking lot near Fair Park on South Fitzhugh Avenue in Dallas. (Shafqat Anowar/Staff Photographer)
More than 50 years ago, the city began enforcing ordinances that allowed neighbors to turn their driveways, yards and vacant lots into parking spaces for visitors.
Fair Park’s revitalization has often centered around a promise to reverse the harm that city-led policies have caused residents of South Dallas and its neighboring communities. The special parking program was born out of a community-driven effort to grow commerce in the community. However, residents are dissatisfied with its implementation.
Residents of South Dallas and nearby areas such as Jubilee Park and Mill City can earn money by operating parking lots or park their own cars during the State Fair with special “Fair Park Parking Permits.” ” is applied for every year. This is a unique law that requires annual renewal, and not many areas in the city have such a program.
The State Fair of Texas is a nonprofit organization that manages pedestrian access and gates to Fair Park during the event. The city is responsible for enforcing parking outside the park.
Neighbors say the fair represents weeks of complaints, including visitors parking in areas reserved for residents, tailgating and littering.
One resident said his family received a parking citation despite having a valid permit.
Fair Park is a thorn in the side of many people in the neighborhood. In the 1960s and ’70s, Dallas used prominent land to demolish the homes of black residents of South Dallas in order to expand the State Fair parking lot. They promised to use part of the land as a regional park.
Residents are still waiting.
In recent months, $5.7 million in donations raised for the park appears to have been misdirected, with nonprofit management company Fair Park First and day-to-day operations company Oak View Group asking who is to blame. are fighting over. Plans for the park are vague.
Meanwhile, city ordinances allow residents to temporarily convert their properties into parking businesses by paying a $100 license. The ordinance requires parking lot attendants to remain on the lot as long as cars are parked there.
Residents living around Fair Park require a separate free parking permit, which must be displayed on the dashboard of the parked vehicle at all times.
Operators and homeowners approach parking enforcement from a variety of perspectives. Some may find it too much. For others it’s too little.
Jubilee Park homeowner Sandra Juarez said residents can be named even if they have a permit. The Dallas Morning News reviewed her permit and the steps she took to contest her appearance despite having one.
On the first day of the state fair, Juarez had planned a social gathering at his home. She had not received permission.
When she called the city, many of the people who answered the phone did not appear to be aware of the special parking permit designated for Fair Park. Finally, a city official called back, he said.
They emailed her permission. She printed it and gave it to two guests.
“They were parked on the curb at my house and my weekend parking permit was in plain view,” she said. “They got their tickets.”
“I really enjoy the fair. I go there myself with my family,” Juarez said. “We feel like we’re not being considered. We feel like this trade show is only focused on the trade show and not on what’s going on outside of the trade show.”
Juarez took time off from work, drove downtown and filed the complaint on Oct. 6. The review could take 30 days, she said. Juarez is still waiting to hear back from the city.
The majority of permits (68% of 322) are for properties zoned for commercial use. On the residential side, 79 property owners have also received these permits.
Business owners including Davis, Phil Ziegler and Zach Thompson said parking ordinances are not being properly enforced.
From left, South Fitzhugh Avenue property owners and neighbors Zach Thompson, Michael Davis Sr., and Philip Ziegler attend the Texas Texas Opening Ceremony in Dallas on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in Dallas. Share your experience with parking ordinances at the state fair. (Shafqat Anowar/Staff Photographer)
They said commercial stores on Martin Luther King Boulevard are in violation of certificates of occupancy and minimum parking requirements. The ordinance limits parking in the area bounded by Fitzhugh Avenue, the T&P Railroad, Metropolitan Avenue and R.B. Karam Boulevard to “private roads and open lots.”
But city officials said that sentence referred to a residential area just southeast of Fair Park.
“This text refers only to one small residential area within the much larger Fair Park parking lot that extends to Interstate 30 on the north and Malcolm X Boulevard on the west,” the city said in a statement.
Last year, the city’s compliance department issued 50 notices and complaints for violations including illegal sales, unattended lifeguards, failure to display a driver’s license, parking on unauthorized surfaces and not having a Fair Park parking permit. A summons was issued.
As of October 18, 2024, the city has issued 40 citations for similar reasons.
“From the perspective of landowners, property owners, and what I say every time I send an email (to city officials), we are property owners, not sharecroppers, and we should be treated with respect. “We should do that,” Thompson said.
In response to questions from The News, city officials said, “One particular business (Davis) has persistently and aggressively complained about issues with this ordinance, and this business will be subject to all future communications.” They even told me to send it only to the city prosecutor’s office.” ”
“We do not agree that there are ‘concerns’ with this ordinance, which has successfully managed parking permits at Fair Park for decades,” the statement said.
“The City Attorney’s Office has determined that this interpretation of the ordinance is incorrect and that both commercial and residential property owners can apply for parking permits in Fair Park,” the city memo states.
Requests to amend the ordinance have been ongoing since last year, according to emails reviewed by The News. In an email, city officials said they are reviewing the ordinance, and organizers said they hope it will be amended before this year’s State Fair begins.
That didn’t happen.
City officials released the memo on Oct. 18 after receiving several requests for information from news papers.
In the statement, Deputy City Managers Robin Bentley and Deb Rastogi said they would transfer authority to oversee the program to the newly created Department of Transportation and Public Works under Gus Hankarli.
Bentley and Rastogi said the agency will review the ordinance and present proposed changes to the ordinance to the City Council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee next year, in spring 2025.
“Do you know how many times I’ve heard that they’re going to do something in South Dallas? But it’s not happening,” Thompson asked.
Thompson, a resident of Elm Thicket North Park, remembers frequenting the Cotton Bowl. He operates a car park on Fitzhugh Street and has been in business for the past four years.
He has been a vocal critic of permitting issues in his neighborhood, where city inspectors used outdated zoning information to approve building permits for nonconforming buildings. That issue is ongoing.
Friday, Oct. 4, 2024, in the State Fair of Texas parking lot along Fair Park, along South Fitzhugh Avenue in Dallas. (Shafqat Anowar/Staff Photographer)
During a recent state fair, Thompson noticed that fairgoers were not being directed to Gate 8, which faces Fitzhugh Avenue. Most of the traffic from the exhibit was concentrated on Robert Cullum Boulevard, Martin Luther King Boulevard, and Haskell Avenue.
Thompson said customers wanted to park nearby and avoid long trolley rides to the gate.
For Ziegler, the parking ordinance was life-changing.
“Being able to park your car helps,” Ziegler said. With a fixed income, the extra money he earns from parking his car helps him pay his high summer utility bills and gets him through the rest of the year.
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