No Plans For Women's Museum Building, But Summer Place Park's Still Set to Bow in 2013

• While I agree with you about forming a trust to keep the park funded and keeping the Women's Museum open, I have to raise an eyebrow at keeping the fountains going.  In the grips of the 2nd year of what is predicted to be a near-decade long drought, are pretty fountains something we should be worried about funding? I've never actually been to the State Fair, I hear it's nice.  It'd be even nicer if a year-round midway brings revitalized life to the surrounding neighborhoods.  dont think that'll happen.

• Hey Chris, do you know how much the City has put into Fair Park the last five or so years? It is tens of millions of dollars. From the Esplanade fountain reconstruction (regardless of whether the fountain runs all the time) to the expanded Cotton Bowl to the murals that have been restored and/or replicated, the amount is pretty impressive. Fair Park hasn't looked this good in decades. Say what you want about the management (which is a pretty valid point), but to say that the City has been 'cheap-ass' on trying to maintain and upgrade Fair Park is ignorant.

• Would people go year round? Surely there's been a study done on this. Also, if it does go year round, where is the Carnie Colony going to be located at?

• Bob, the real message im trying to get across is the fact the city has no business running Fair Park. I'm just of the belief that private non-prof entites like FoFP and the State Fair can run the property better and more efficently than the city does now, not to mention create a true economic generator for the neighborhood year-round. Like the Dallas Zoo, which has improved greatly in the short time its been placed in non-city hands, Fair Park is a jewel in our cities crown that has been treated w/ disrepect and dishonor by an ever increasing cheap-ass city who refuses to step up to the plate. I'd rather see a Fair Park that is a full-time enriching experience year round, not an afterthought that attracts the occasional flea market or antique show in the off-season

• I make $800,000 a year god dammit!!  I am smarter than all you haters!!

• 1.  Who is the "you" in your statement?  The Museum is not part of the City of Dallas--it rents the building.  The Museum, though affiliated with the Smithsonian, has its own administration and budget--it is not supported by the Smithsonian in D.C., the City of Dallas, or the State Fair of Texas.  It stands (or falls) on its own.   2.  The Esplanade Fountain IS owned by, and run by, the City.  The funding for this Fountain IS the City's responsibility.   3.  McKoy runs the State Fair organization, which is another tenant of the city-owned park.  For the most part, the City and the State Fair work cooperatively to plan and operate Fair Park, but each has its own jurisdiction, and its own funding, and its own administrators.  It's easy to confuse all this, but, when you start blaming people for this or that, it's better to blame the folks who are truly responsible for the mess, not some bystanders who didn't cause the problem and who have no way of fixing it.

• How does the State Fair of Minnesota operate their facility year-round and make a profit?  Does Fair Park management ever talk with other operators? 

• Amen-the city seems to be hell bent on killing off Fair Park.

• Im waiting for the John Wiley Price Memorial "Black Hole Of Logic" Ride myself..It's like a Himalaya with a 3ft. tall bobblehead statue of JWP in the middle yelling out "Whites Can Go To Hell" over and over to a dubstep soundtrack...

• But we'd love to get a look at State Fair President Errol McKoy's master plan for Summer Place Park, which is also said to include a water ride of some kind involving ... flames? "It looks like a cross between a log flume and drag racing," explains Winters... If it as well designed and built as the standing wave in the Trinity, I expect this to be an excellent source of lawsuits against the city/State Fair. I propose the name: Crash n' Burn.

• When you lack funds to keep open a Smithsonian institution such as the Dallas Women Museum or keep the fountains going during other times of the year, its another reason to take the city out of the "Fair Park" business, as it needs to be ran by a private trust. I just dont get this city, we have a crown jewel w/ this park and we're rubbing it in the dirt. Heres hoping Errol McKoy and others can come to the rescue of this orgainzation sooner than later.

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