It started with the city giving a sweetheart deal to billboard companies to turn static signs hanging over the highways into bright light digital displays.
Then they came for the sides of buildings in and around downtown with “super graphics” — that is, digital billboards hanging over the sidewalks.
Then they came for the sidewalks themselves, placing digital billboards right there in the walkway, complete with Wi-Fi that draws hovering homeless people to the signal.
Now, they are coming for your parks with a plan to place digital billboards as large as 2,500 square feet inside of our green spaces.
Beware the city scrounging for dollars, because you are the product they have to sell.
Dallas City Hall went all in on the billboard business long ago, despite a city policy that called for street and highway billboards to actually be eliminated over time.
The Park and Recreation Department appears poised to get in on the action as a way to drive revenue. In a briefing to the Dallas City Council earlier this month, a top parks official gushed about the money that could be made. And it is significant. Your attention and the public spaces you paid for are truly valuable to advertisers.
We understand the impulse and even sympathize with parks leadership. Parks are persistently among the first places the city cuts when it has budget problems. And we are in a place where budget problems are going to persist in Dallas. Paying cops, firefighters and pensions has gotten too expensive for the tax dollars coming in.
But what the parks department is preparing to sell is something we might never get back.
We have no faith that our council will put up any resistance to what is a taking of public space for private profit. It has already demonstrated a near-total indifference to the way these sorts of signs interrupt sidewalks.
Exactly where these signs might land we don’t know. But advertisers want the most valuable spaces, so maybe enjoy this super graphic on your stroll around White Rock Lake?
We encourage everyone who reads this editorial to go have a look at the kinds of signs parks officials are envisioning. They included many images in their presentation to the council. These are not subtle, and they are not small.
It is a mistake to attempt to resolve our budget problems by selling the very essence of a public space. A sidewalk is designed for walking, not advertising. And a park is designed as a place of peace and recreation, not another place to have your attention stolen.
City Hall has lost the thread on the real mission. That’s a shame for Dallas.
Have an opinion about this? Send a letter to the editor using our letters form or email letters@dallasnews.com. Letters should be no more than 200 words and include the first and last name of the writer and city of residence.