The “Can this really be Dallas?” view from atop an old railroad trestle on the city’s west side hints at the glorious potential of the proposed Five Mile Creek Trail.
Even with the trees and undergrowth in hibernation, this tucked-away spot near the creek’s headwaters is a meditative canvas of nature’s pastoral handiwork.
I would have spent the entire balmy January afternoon up there, but many more stops awaited in my west-to-east exploration of the route envisioned for a 12.9 mile hike-and-bike trail connecting dozens of underserved Oak Cliff neighborhoods.
It’s a good thing I did climb back down through the bramble onto Coombs Creek Drive, not far from the Westmoreland DART Station. There I stumbled upon an ugly example of why this trail needs to be built now, not later.
As cars ripped around the sharp blind curve underneath the trestle, Eduardo and Jasmine Hernandez kept careful watch as they picked their way through the gravel shoulder of the sidewalk-bereft street.
They know it’s a dangerous walk, especially with their two young sons in tow, but this is the only route to the closest grocery store.
While Five Mile Creek Trail would be a welcomed recreational asset connecting into the rest of the city’s trail system, it also would provide desperately needed infrastructure to keep families like the Hernandezes safe.
The trail — an engineering puzzle involving multiple highway, rail and creek crossings — is a costly endeavor, estimated at $70 million.
But an avalanche of available federal and state funds makes now the time for local leaders to dedicate the city’s portion of the needed money.
Dallas has set a fast pace in growing its trail network, but look at the maps and you’ll see a big gap across Oak Cliff.
The Texas office of Trust for Public Land, responsible for so many transformative green space projects locally, aims to fill that hole with the Five Mile Creek Trail.
The nonprofit’s plan, in partnership with residents and the Dallas Park and Recreation Department, would provide connectivity across southern Dallas and create opportunities for all of us to enjoy the natural beauty of the watershed.
Linking to Chalk Hill Trail on the west, the route would begin near the Westmoreland station and follow the creek greenbelt along Pentagon and Five Mile parkways before crossing I-35E and I-45 then plugging into The LOOP trail.
Since the City Council approved the Five Mile Creek Urban Greenbelt master plan in 2019, Trust for Public Land has purchased and put 125 acres under park development as part of its efforts to correct the systemic inequities that permeate southern Dallas.
The nonprofit-city partnership opened South Oak Cliff Renaissance Park in November 2021 and expects to finish Charles R. Rose Community Park this year. The design for Woody Branch is underway and the final park should open in 2025.
Now comes the harder part of the project, the trail, which Trust for Public Land wants to begin building next year and complete by 2030.
In yet another chapter of this city’s sorry history when it comes to southern Dallas and racial equity, the promise to devote resources to Five Mile Creek stretches back to the 1944 Bartholomew Plan.
That blueprint envisioned Five Mile as the equivalent of what already was planned for Turtle Creek. A decade later, then-park director L.B. Houston made headlines when he questioned why the city continued to delay action on the southern Dallas asset.
Still nothing happened.
Today the Turtle Creek corridor is one of the premier urban green spaces in the country. The changes promised 78 years ago for Five Mile Creek can be found only in planning records.
That’s a wrong Trust for Public Land — with a strong assist from Mayor Eric Johnson — wants to right.
The almost 187,000 residents living near Five Mile Creek include about 57,000 children. Black residents account for 61% of the area; 33% are Latino. Low-income households make up 51% of the population.
Only 54% of this area has convenient park access, compared to the 73% average for the city as a whole.
Also among the sobering research Trust for Public Land showed at the Dec. 8 park board meeting is the prevalence of health problems in the watershed area, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression.
The trail would connect residents not just to other Oak Cliff neighborhoods and additional trails, but to 17 parks, two colleges, two light rail stations, three hospitals and 10 schools.
One of my fellow explorers was Taylor Toynes, park board member, Trust for Public Land national board member and CEO of the nonprofit For Oak Cliff.
Throughout our tour, Toynes pointed to the dangerous crossings with which pedestrians currently contend. “A five- or 10-minute walk doesn’t seem like a long way until you have to do it under circumstances like not even having decent crosswalks,” he said.
Growing up in a home just across the street from the greenbelt, Toynes often played in the creek. Today his nonprofit operation sits nearby in the former Moorland YMCA.
“The greenbelt and creek are already beautiful just off of what God did with them, but as we put the love and care into it and build the trail, the community will feel seen,” Toynes told me.
Creating connectivity through the neighborhoods and educational opportunities for children is a big step forward, he said. “This can change the entire landscape of Oak Cliff.”
Trust for Public Land has worked hard to give residents the lead in planning. The nonprofit is about to create a community committee specifically to address neighborhood wants and needs in each trail segment.
Planners also want to make sure the new route complements the area’s few existing trails, such as Runyon Creek, near the University of North Texas at Dallas, and Honey Springs-Cedar Crest, near South Oak Cliff High School.
In addition to private fundraising, Robert Kent, Texas state director of Trust for Public Land, said his group is applying for money from newly available federal and state sources.
The federal dollars are mostly 80-20 matches with local funds, and the Dallas mayor is determined to find a way for the city to ante up its share.
In his November State of the City address, Johnson singled out the Five Mile Creek project and the need to “bring this long-overdue infrastructure into Oak Cliff.”
Most immediately, he wants to secure $15.4 million to fund the first several miles of the trail’s western end, much of which is already designed.
Johnson has considered several options, including using a portion of the $20 million in city sales tax revenue currently earmarked for its racial equity effort.
His current plan is a partnership with the Regional Transportation Council to expedite and fund the project. Having the RTC’s support — which translates to funding and infrastructure expertise — would be a huge benefit.
Subsequent cost-share funds might come from the 2024 bond program, which is in early planning stages.
The lead gifts of the $6.3 million Trust for Public Land has raised so far came from the Boone Family Foundation, Lyda Hill Philanthropies and the Eugene McDermott Foundation.
Park board president Arun Agarwal acknowledged Dallas is home to a number of great green-space projects competing for funds. The key, he said, is where city dollars can be best leveraged.
Given the many neighborhoods the Five Mile Creek Trail would touch and its connections into the bigger system, “this is the best return on the city’s money,” he told me.
Park department assistant director Ryan O’Connor, also part of our trail tour, said the Five Mile Creek project is “the perfect confluence” of growing interest in building out the trail system, City Hall’s focus on equity and the strong possibility of federal and state money.
Neighborhoods across Oak Cliff deserve the same robust trail system so many of us in other parts of the city already enjoy. This isn’t about spandex and expensive bikes but a way for people to exercise, enjoy the outdoors and get to work and retail.
“We wouldn’t stand for this kind of inequity in Lake Highlands, much less Preston Hollow,” Kent said. “Families like the Hernandezes need this trail right this very second.”
