NDG Viewpoint
While plans to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday near completion, few Americans are in a celebratory mood. Right now, most families find it increasingly harder to stretch their hard-earned paychecks to keep up with the still-rising costs of everyday living.
A year ago, a regular gallon of gas purchased in Dallas averaged $2.72. Last week, that same gallon cost $4.42. Mid-octane, premium and diesel prices per gallon last week ranged from a low of $4.46 to a high of $5.09, according to AAA.
Add in higher costs for other essential expenses like housing, groceries, and utilities – these preoccupations take all the time and ingenuity households can muster.
Things like land use, city planning, and bond ratings usually don’t hold much allure.
After all, elected and appointed officials are entrusted to fulfill the kinds of collective concerns that span and serve individuals, families and neighborhoods. When families and neighborhoods are strong, so is the city they all call home.
But when actions or inactions betray that public trust, it is the civic duty of all residents, organizations, and businesses to speak out and stand up for our collective futures and benefit. To paraphrase an immortal line from the feature film, It’s a Wonderful Life, “the people who do most of the living and paying and dying have a right to live, work and die in a decent place”.
Right now, the City of Dallas is at a crossroads. Without the benefit of much public participation, plans are underway that all of us will have to live with – for better or worse – unless civic champions emerge and insist that the people have a right to help shape their own futures.
Will Dallas’ aging city hall be renovated or relocated? What are the costs for each option? How can a vital municipal facility remain conveniently located for citizens and businesses alike? And how will either option be financed? How much more in city taxes will businesses and residents pay?
Similarly, will the Dallas Mavericks retain their urban profile? Or will the local National Basketball Association team search for alternative locales to realize its vision of a 50-acre mixed use development? Should the Mavericks move, what will Dallas’ tax loss be? Or conversely, what investment will the city make to keep its city-named team?
On June 03, planning consultants retained by the City of Dallas will present their second report, this time addressing repair options for the aging city hall. Hopefully it will include practical solutions to problems that have lingered too long. An earlier presentation, on May 20, addressed methods and framework.
At that time, city officials priced necessary City Hall repairs to cost a minimum of $60 million. But the municipal budget that began last October allocated only $14.5 million, according to the Dallas Morning News. Further, Chad West, the City Council’s Finance Chair estimated $50-$100 million would be required just for the facility’s deferred maintenance. More recently, this year’s Property Condition Assessment estimated renovation costs between $906 million and $1.4 billion.
Whatever decisions emerge, Dallas’ residents and businesses will both pay the price. How much, and for how long – and most importantly by whom are the questions that should be publicly answered before any final commitments are made, relocations are warranted, or related adjustments to the delivery of city services.
If those elected to lead abdicate their sworn duty, voters must remember who stood up, those who ran for cover, and those whose actions never equaled their words.
For more than 20 years, other metro areas have utilized a planning tool and process known as Community Benefits Agreements (CBAs). Their success in delivering equitable development is due to their transformation of historic adversaries into shared stakeholders.
This paradigm avoided legal logjams, facilitated more economic development, and gave residents the chance to help shape a better future for all. It also spawned a 32-page template developed by the NAACP, that enables communities to adapt unique local interests shaped by genuine public-private partnerships that include local businesses, particularly minority and women owned.
Most importantly, the people who make Dallas their home must have a say in shaping their own futures. As the city grows, so should the economic prosperity of its people. The city and its residents should face the future together and in mutual respect.
Preserving Dallas’ status as a world-class city requires all of us – government, community-based organizations, businesses, clergy and more – to achieve meaningful and lasting growth.
It’s called taking care of home.
PUBLISHER’S NOTE
On Monday, June 1, 2026, the Dallas Mavericks officially announced plans to move to the former Valley View Mall site. Their decision not to pursue the space currently occupied by Dallas City Hall creates a once in a lifetime opportunity for Dallas community leaders, nonprofit organizations, and minority trade groups to take an active role in shaping the site’s future. The North Dallas Gazette strongly urges Dallas elected officials and community leaders to explore a Community Benefits Agreements.
A strong model for a Community Benefits Agreement guidance is the 2018 partnership between Nashville Soccer Club and the community coalition Stand Up Nashville, which helped ensure that development of the club’s MLS stadium delivered direct benefits to Nashville residents. What the community cannot afford is to wait for a self-interested developer or a public official with a hidden agenda to shape the perception and future of this property. Some city officials, including Mayor Eric Johnson have already chosen to abandon the site in favor of a new Dallas City Hall location.
The Maverick’s decision drew strong disappointment from Southern Dallas elected officials, pastors, and community leaders. Council member Maxie Johnson and others publicly urged the team to reconsider, arguing that moving the franchise away from the urban core would weaken the tax base and divert economic development from communities that depend on downtown.
To minority elected officials disappointed that the Mavericks will not move to the City Hall site: take heart. Dallas leaders may soon have another opportunity to commit hard-earned public tax dollars to the team in pursuit of a third arena – one championship in forty six years since the franchise inception in Dallas in 1980.
For Minority Dallas residents and community leaders, now is the time to secure a place in the decision-making process and not be excluded from early stages of this soon-to-be development project.
Community Benefits Agreements, if strongly worded and, most importantly, strongly enforced, can be of great use to communities of all kinds. In the case of Dallas, any new kind of mass-building development such as a new city hall or a new sports stadium, absolutely needs to have a strong community benefits agreement– with direct contributions from Dallas City residents. There should be no room for questionable clauses in any agreements that favor corporations. There needs to be contractual guarantees for job priority hiring– and training– for Dallas city residents. There should not be unlimited tax breaks (ideally, none) for corporations to take city land for profit use, while the overwhelming majority of city residents will never set foot inside any sports stadium, and certainly not for free. All Dallas City Council members, the Mayor, etc., should be challenged and confronted on their vision for what improving Dallas City services and making sober choices when it comes to expenditures.