Arnold appeared on Sunday’s Inside Texas Politics and answered whether she still had confidence in zoo management after a series of bizarre incidents.
DALLAS — Construction of the city’s newest deck park is “struggling financially” and requires millions more dollars to complete it, said Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn King Arnold.
“We probably need an additional $20 million,” she said on Sunday’s Inside Texas Politics.
The so-called deck park will stretch across Interstate 35 south of the Dallas skyline between Ewing and Marsalis Avenues. It’s supposed to be similar to Klyde Warren Park over the Woodall Rogers Freeway downtown.
Arnold credits the Regional Transportation Council (RTC), part of the North Central Texas Council of Governments, for stepping in to help save the project.
“There was a need really for probably $80 million or more, but RTC has, at least to my understanding, has come to pledge at least a portion of that,” Arnold said.
In November 2021, the Dallas City Council unanimously approved a development agreement for a deck park in Oak Cliff. The project is called the Southern Gateway Park.
Developers touted it as a way to make Oak Cliff whole again after Interstate-35E split the community in half when it was constructed in the 1960s.
When asked whether the lack of money would delay the park’s scheduled opening next year, Arnold would not speculate.
The Mayor Pro Tem also represents the Dallas Zoo which is nearby Southern Gateway Park.
The zoo is city-owned but privately managed.
When asked whether she still has confidence in managers, Arnold said: “I do. And I’ve been in daily contact with Mr. Greg Hudson. And so, I have all the confidence in the world with the Zoo and with the management.”
