It is official. Garrett Boone is the City of Dallas’s first-ever Greening Czar!
Dallas loves its parks and has become a national model for excellence in developing innovative green spaces. According to Trust for Public Land, the City of Dallas and its nonprofit partners have brought new parks and trails within a 10-minute walk of nearly 300,000 residents over the last few years. However, more than a quarter of Dallas residents still do not live within a 10-minute walk of a park. That is why it is time to take our efforts to the next level, and Garrett is the perfect person to advance this initiative.
For decades, he has quietly championed transformational park projects across Dallas. He serves on numerous boards of organizations, such as The Boone Family Foundation, the Trinity Park Conservancy, and Greenspace Dallas — all of which are leading efforts in Dallas to protect the environment and create beautiful outdoor gathering spaces for residents and visitors to enjoy.
In addition, I appointed Garrett the chair of the City of Dallas’s Parks & Trails Committee formed as part of the 2024 Bond Program development process. This committee will identify opportunities to create and enhance trails, recreation centers, and parks — which is one of this administration’s top three bond program priorities. Garrett’s service on this committee will complement his new role as Dallas’s Greening Czar.
You may be wondering, what does a Greening Czar do? Well, that is largely up to Garrett to decide. However, he will start by reviewing the inventory of vacant, unused, and underused city-owned land that the Dallas city manager produced last year at the request of this administration.
Garrett will bring the right stakeholders to the table to determine the highest and best uses of available parcels of city-owned land in Dallas — be it transformation into a playground, sports court, pocket prairie, community garden, or traditional park. He will identify the public and private resources required to execute his vision and achieve meaningful results soon.
Nothing is off the table. Quite literally, Dallas’s city limits are Garrett’s only bounds — all 386 square miles of this city are fair game.
Creating new green spaces out of the land the city already owns can improve the quality of life of countless residents, children, and families across Dallas. This announcement supports this administration’s vision for a greener and greater Dallas for all!
Another win for Dallas
The Dallas Business Journal selected the $500 million Goldman Sachs development coming to Victory Park as the best real estate Deal of the Year. The new 800,000-square-foot office campus will span three acres and become the regional base of operations for New York-based Goldman Sachs. It is ranked among the largest office developments that Dallas has seen in decades!
The financial firm will create or retain 5,000 jobs in Dallas as part of the development. And Goldman Sachs expects the number of its employees working in Dallas to continue to grow.
Aasem Khalil, head of the Goldman Sachs Dallas Office, said the firm’s site selection team rejected consideration of Dallas suburbs. He emphasized the importance of an urban firm like Goldman Sachs with a younger workforce being located as close to the core of the city as possible.
Dallas residents benefit from major developments such as the Goldman Sachs Regional Hub that bring jobs and new life to our city. The new campus on North Field Street is the first phase of a larger development spearheaded by Hunt Realty Investments that will transform 11 acres of underused property on the northern edge of downtown into a vibrant, mixed-use community with an almost two-acre park.
Goldman Sachs plans to start construction later this year, and employees from its offices in the Trammell Crow Center, Irving, and Richardson will migrate to the new campus in 2027.
Dallas is well-positioned to win the future and will remain a preferred destination in this fast-growing region!
A special birthday
On Tuesday, it was a joy to celebrate the boy who turned this man into a dad — William Johnson.
William’s ninth birthday was made extra special thanks to the Classical WRR 101.1 FM team. We listen every morning to this station on the way to William’s school, and on Tuesday, he was absolutely thrilled to hear on the radio his name and a message from his dad read by morning host Kurt Rongey — followed by a fantastic march by John C. Heed.
Now under the management of KERA, Classical WRR 101.1 FM is completely commercial-free. It is community-funded and powered by listeners who value this locally owned and operated station.
This iconic institution enhances the cultural life of Dallas. Thank you to the entire team who made possible Tuesday’s March of the Day!
Until next time…
