on Mar 02, 2020
Trinity Park Conservancy publishes Equitable Development Toolkit for Harold Simmons Park
At the end of January, Trinity Park Conservancy published the Harold Simmons Park Equitable Development Toolkit & Implementation Roadmap. This guiding model for equitable park and neighborhood development, developed in partnership with HR&A Advisors, includes policies, advocacy efforts, initiatives, and partnerships that are grounded in three questions:
- How can Harold Simmons Park be built equitably?
- How can the project make a more equitable Dallas?
- How can we mitigate against the unintended consequences in and around the park?
The toolkit emerged from the Conservancy’s commitment to leverage the $150 million investment in the new Harold Simmons Park, a 200-acre park that will connect three distinct neighborhoods representing a microcosm of Dallas’ extreme racial and income segregation, to benefit the park’s neighboring communities. Some of HR&A’s recommendations address the investment decisions and practices of the Trinity Park Conservancy, such as establishing equitable policies and practices for park management and operations.
The toolkit also confronts the reality that large private investments typically gentrify, displace, and disrespect neighboring African American and Latinx communities that feel destabilizing impacts without receiving the benefits of value creation. Recommendations of partnerships, policies, and investment provide a roadmap for preventing involuntary displacement and promoting wealth creation and community ownership, essential elements of achieving the Conservancy’s equity vision.
Check out the Equitable Development Toolkit here
Learn more about the Harold Simmons Park Equitable Development Plan here