The City of Dallas city plans to make long-overdue investments near Forest Lane and Audelia Road, aiming to revitalize the area and address residents' frustrations with ongoing crime.
When Tena Faye looks out over the broken concrete parking lot that now makes up a large portion of what's left of the Forest Audelia Village strip center, she sees progress.
"People will want to come back and live here again," Faye said.
Faye, a self-described Midwestern transplant who moved to Dallas a decade ago, says she has seen a subtle change in the area around Forest Lane and Audelia Road in far Northeast Dallas.
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The corridor around Forest and Audelia has long suffered from a lack of connectivity with areas south of Interstate 635, instead crowded with several multi-family housing complexes, isolated from amenities like a library or a park.
It has remained one of Dallas' most dangerous areas for more than a decade, plagued by a variety of property and sometimes violent crime.
Faye said Wednesday she expects the pace of change to pick up with the groundbreaking of a new 1-acre park that will take shape in what is now a parking lot.
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"This is really for the kids," Faye said. "What we give them now will determine where they go later."
Dallas Park and Recreation director John Jenkins says the park will feature a playground, spray grounds, and what he calls a grand lawn.
“They’re going to appreciate that the city has stepped in and going to create a positive experience in this entire complex for them," Jenkins said.
Additionally, the park completion late next year or early 2026, will serve as the springboard for redeveloping part of a now city-owned building into a community center.
"We’re going to see kids playing, families playing," Jenkins said. "We won’t see the negative element that was out here before.”
District 10 council member Kathy Stewart, whose district encompasses parts of Lake Highlands and Northeast Dallas, says while small in size, the park will have an outsized impact.
"This says we do care about what happens at Forest and Audelia," Stewart said. "We’re not going to be just about enforcement, we’re also going to be about improving the quality of life.”
