Follow-up: What happened to South Dallas’ Malcolm X Plaza? 

Neighbors say the temporary improvements fell short of long-term impact

In summer 2022 South Dallas neighbors watched as a vacant parking lot on Malcolm X Boulevard transformed into the “Malcolm X Plaza” — a colorful meeting space with basketball goals, a sports court and outdoor seating.

Two years later, the lot sits empty except for a discarded chair and some scattered old clothes and rags. Weeds grow in between the cracks on the now-faded painted cement.

“It is another person coming to use non-profit dollars that they have to spend to help out the poor little Black folks, the poor little minorities, and nothing was poured into the community of substance,” says Tramonica Brown, executive director of the nonprofit Not My Son. At the time, her office was right across the street from the parking lot-turned-plaza.

Brown says neighbors were upset about how the plaza came to exist, and now wonder what was even the point.

“Wanting to create a transformative space is awesome,” Brown says. “But if you don’t have all of the pieces to the puzzle, can we make this last — especially in South Dallas?”

Malcolm X Plaza was spearheaded by Child Action Poverty Lab (CPAL), which partnered with Better Block, a nonprofit that gives communities tools to grow their neighborhoods. Together, with a $100,000 grant from the Santander Foundation, they converted the vacant lot into a plaza for three months — from June through August — during DFW’s fourth hottest summer on record.

On the plaza’s opening day, TV crews and newspapers celebrated the renovated space with live music and food, focusing their coverage on community togetherness. Dallas Free Press’ story focused on the plaza’s overarching goal of reducing violent crime in the neighborhood.

Goal: Reduce crime in South Dallas with a pop-up gathering space

At the time, CPAL’s senior analytics director Owen Wilson-Chavez said their research had found that this particular city block in South Dallas was 564 times more likely to see violent gun crime than any of the other 35,744 blocks in the southeastern section of the city.

Wilson-Chavez said studies showed that gathering spaces reduce crime. CPAL had seen it before in a Better Block pop-up in the Vickery Meadow neighborhood in northeast Dallas. 

Rachel Tache, CPAL’s director of neighborhood insights, told us in February in an email that during the Malcolm X Plaza’s three months of existence, crime fell 55% in the immediate area of Malcolm X Boulevard and Marburg Street, and arrests decreased by 20% between 2019 and 2022. Over this same period, there was a 212% decrease in violent offenses within a half mile of the plaza. 

Tache emphasized in her email that many different activities that were occurring in the area during the project period, and cautioned against attributing the changes to any one intervention.

Wilson-Chavez no longer works at CPAL, and Tache is in a different role at the organization as a community psychologist. Patrick Averhart, CPAL’s current director of neighborhood insights, says that “we didn’t waste our time. It did affect crime. It did have an effect on the neighborhood.”

Averhart also continues to lead the United People’s Coalition, a mutual aid nonprofit and a CPAL community partner that handled a lot of the on-site programming for Malcolm X Plaza.

“The philosophy behind reducing crime was engaging the people with direct services, with programming, with activities,” Averhart says. “We hosted a birthday party and, two weeks later, we hosted a candlelight vigil. Communities need these spaces for a plethora of reasons.”

Averhart worked closely with CPAL as general on-site management for the plaza project. He spent many afternoons simply handing out cold bottled water and hygiene products.  He even helped negotiate the space, connecting CPAL with Oak Hill Baptist Church, which owns the vacant parking lot. Averhart’s uncle Corey Jackson was pastor at the time. He has since moved to another church in Fort Worth. 

Avehart shared that, in conversations with neighbors, his team heard testimonials from individuals who said they stopped stealing because the essential items they needed each week were being provided through the program’s efforts.

“If you reduce the need of a community, they are less likely to commit violent crimes because of said need,” he says. “People aren’t inherently violent. They are put in situations that make them violent.”

Krista Nightengale, executive director of placemaking nonprofit Better Block, says the crime data that CPAL gathered was really valuable because it showed what could happen when a community felt ownership of a space. 

“In three months, to see such a reduction was really fascinating because it was the community that activated the space for the three months. It was really beautiful. It was low-key stuff — like movie nights, they had exercise classes, some basketball games. It wasn’t stuff that was super expensive or took forever to organize.”

Challenge: Short-term projects don’t yield long-term transformation 

Averhart is quick to acknowledge that Malcolm X Plaza was not given enough time to really transform the neighborhood. However, that was never the plan. 

“Is three months enough to make a long-term substantial change that the neighborhood needs? No. Absolutely not,” Averhart says. “That’s one of the toughest parts of doing place-based work — when you have to shut down shop because there wasn’t a long term plan made. It’s 100% disheartening.”

Nightengale says ultimately, the church needed the parking lot back. But, there are other limitations that make it difficult to maintain a plaza pop-up. One of the main issues, she says, is Dallas’ permitting process, which limits pop-ups to less than 60 days.

“There are little loopholes that you have to keep jumping through,” Nightengale says. She’s also quick to add that the Dallas special events permitting department is aware of the problems and is working with Better Block to create some changes. 

Since the Malcolm X Plaza, she says Better Block has found more success in partnering with neighborhood organizations, such as community centers located next to the spaces they hope to transform. She says they’ve even turned Better Block’s parking lot into a small basketball court with some seating. And while it’s not active everyday, it’s turned into another space for students to hang out after school.

Nightengale says property ownership can be tricky, and that’s why a temporary project is often much easier to negotiate. There are contracts and insurance and liability fees. 

“Maybe the property owners are not local; maybe they don’t want to make any changes. They may not be completely willing to do a full permanent change on a space, or that negotiation will take years versus a few weeks.

“I think property ownership is the first part, and then figuring out the permitting around it, and then what elements go into that space. And what kind of longevity the space may have,” Nightengale says.

The tale of two vacant lots: MLK Food Park versus Malcolm X Plaza

Nightengale points to the MLK Food Park as a success story. 

The community surveys leading up to the original food park three years ago showed that neighbors wanted healthy, non-fried options and a place to sit down and eat. The vendors listened, and those who served vegan and vegetarian options were successful.

“They showed it with their wallets,” Nightengale says. “That’s why a pop-up is interesting — because you can test out different elements like that.”

Nightengale says there was concern that no one would come to the food park in South Dallas, but they had 5,500 people come through on the eight active days that the park had vendors.

Nightengale says if you look at the original location of the MLK Food Park, it’s also returned to a vacant lot. However, the food park lives on because urban planner Dee Powell took the idea and ran with it.

Nightengale says she understands the frustration that neighbors feel as different nonprofits seem to come in to test ideas in their communities, then disappear.

“I absolutely think that’s fair,” Nightengale says. “The worst thing you can do is over-promise and under-deliver. So, it’s heartbreaking to hear.” 

Averhart agrees. 

“Resources are scarce in this work that we do,” he says. “A lot of times things that aren’t good for data and observational reasons that should be implemented long-term don’t get implemented. That’s just the nature of the beast.”

He says their work did show that creating a public space is effective, and what was learned from the Malcolm X pop-up is fueling projects that he’s working on around the city.

“The information and data that was collected was to show that this does work. It is effective. If properly supported and given proper resources — it can make long-term substantial change.” 

Is that enough for South Dallas neighbors who are back to looking at an empty parking lot?

“It was big dreams for what it could have been,” Tramonica Brown says, “restoring Malcolm X.”

In an earlier version of our story, we reported that Rachel Tache no longer works at CPAL. She continues to work at CPAL, but transitioned from director of neighborhood insights to another role last spring.