Waiting in line for several hours in the sun, rain, or snow is a way of life for hundreds of Dallas residents who rely on the Inspired Vision Compassion Center for a bag of groceries. What if that could be a more pleasant, dignified, even enjoyable experience?
District 5 Dallas City Councilman Jaime Resendez and Better Block Executive Director Krista Nightengale have a big idea to turn a massive, boring parking lot into a “tactical new urbanism project” with nodes of art, music, and recreation.
The pair is asking for community volunteers to join them this week as they “transform a space into a place” at Inspired Vision Compassion Center in the Bruton Masters Village Shopping Center in Pleasant Grove. Resendez and Nightengale say they hope the effort will spur economic development and revitalization.
“We were asked to look for a potential project in Pleasant Grove by the council member, and we explored a few different sites,” Nightengale told daltxrealestate.com. “Most of them were parking lots. This one really stuck out. It was probably because I went in late in spring or early summer and saw all these people lined up in front of the space, overflowing into the parking lot, standing and waiting. People are standing in this line for hours.”
Inspired Vision Compassion Center
About 1,800 families are served daily at Inspired Vision Compassion Center. In addition to groceries, the center’s vision is to provide clothing, shoes, a barber shop, and medical care.
Guests park in the parking lot, but there’s also a lot of excess space, Nightengale explained.
“It’s kind of a twist on our normal work where we would reallocate full spaces from the cars back to the people,” she said. “We’re providing shade and seating, which are always the two things everyone asks for no matter what part of the world we’re in. We’re also formalizing the process of waiting in that line by using paint and some design elements. And we’re doing something we’ve never done before. We’re restriping the parking lot.”
They’re also adding green medians and a temporary basketball court.
“We wanted to make sure this project extended out into the community so even if you’re not coming into the center or the parking lot, you can still see there are some things happening,” Nightengale said.
Councilman Resendez, whose office is funding the reimagined space, said the project brings “heart and soul” to his vision for the area.
“This is an exciting project for District 5 as we continue to work to improve the Bruton Road/Masters Road area, building on the award-winning Smart City pilot project in the Red Cloud neighborhood,” he said in a press release. “Better Block is a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing blighted areas and building social infrastructure, and we are confident that reimagining part of the Inspired Vision Compassion Center parking lot to be family-friendly will help to foster a sense of community in the surrounding area.”
Fostering a Sense of Community
Community volunteers will gather for painting and building Wednesday through Friday to prepare for “Opening Day” from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 18.
“We’ll have a couple of workshops on each day,” Nightingale said. “On Saturday, those nodes will be activated. We’ll have lots of musicians out there. KNON will have some DJs out there performing. We have a basketball clinic, a jewelry maker, a face painter, and some food out there for sale.”
The Better Block is hosting an AARP-sponsored design competition for six teams to create vendor stalls with digitally fabricated materials.
“The goal is that they would be easy for anyone to set up and use,” Nightengale said of the vendor stalls.
Why is this project so important for Dallas and District 5’s Pleasant Grove community?
That’s a loaded question, Nightengale says.
“It’s community engagement,” she said. “It brings people together and lets them test out some concepts and bring a little joy into a space. In the work that we do, a lot of times we are working with community members who have been told, ‘You’re in the bad part of town’ or, “This feels unsafe.’ Over time people really start to believe that and instill it. Through this process, folks are reminded that not only do they have beautiful spaces in their community but they have beautiful neighbors. They can work together and highlight the beauty that is there.”
