Photo by Lisa Sutton Whitten

The Woodrow Wilson High School baseball team beat Adamson High School in its recent bi-district series, two games to one.

Next the Wildcats take on Rockwall-Heath High School. The first game is at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Rockwall. Game two is at 1 p.m. Saturday at Randall Park Field. If a game three is necessary, it will follow game two at Randall.

Winfrey Point by Justin Terveen

Good Morning America’s Sam Champion was at the Dallas Arboretum last week filming a segment for the nationally syndicated morning show. It was a huge coup for the arboretum — its installment of the much-lauded Dale Chihuly exhibit was broadcast to more than 5 million viewers all over the country.

That same morning, dozens of White Rock Lake neighbors gathered at nearby Winfrey Point to protest, petition and picket the Arboretum’s use of Blackland prairie for overflow parking during the exhibit, which is expected to boost the arboretum’s already staggering visitor numbers.

For the arboretum, it was the worst possible timing. Neighbors upset about damage to White Rock Lake, however, might call it poetic justice.

At the very least, it’s extremely ironic.

Between the Chihuly exhibit opening and the parking mayhem, we’ve probably mentioned the Dallas Arboretum on our website a record number of times over the past week. That’s taking into account that on a normal basis, the arboretum probably receives just as much, and possibly more, press from us as anything else we cover.

Some of you may be sick of hearing about it. Some of you may be upset that we’re still covering the Chihuly exhibit. Some of you would be fine with seeing the prairie paved over.

That’s why I love living here. We all have different perspectives, and have so much to learn from one another. And it’s never boring.

The dilemma in this situation, for those of us who aren’t experts on ecosystems, is that it’s hard to know what or whom to believe right now.

Do we believe the Dallas Arboretum, which told us in last Friday’s press release that Winfrey Point being an endangered ecosystem “could not be further from the truth,” that “non-native grasses and plants at Winfrey Point need to be kept under control and appropriately mowed or eradicated,” and that “those unfamiliar with the situation are being misled by those with an agenda”?

Or do we believe the neighbors behind the Save Winfrey Point and Pave the Lake websites, who continue to argue that Winfrey Point’s Blackland prairie should be protected, who tug on heart strings with photos of a bird’s nest near the grasslands, and who accuse the city and the Arboretum of conspiring behind the scenes to deflect questions raised about environmental studies?

I’ve been trying to wrap my head around all of this, and to be honest, I’m a bit brain tired. At the end of the day, I don’t know if it matters whether Blackland prairie is an ecosystem worth preserving. The issue for me — and, I would guess, many of you — is that Winfrey Point is part of White Rock Lake Park, and turning parkland into parking isn’t acceptable. Especially in a city where it’s rare for a large swath of green space to be set aside for public enjoyment.

Right now, the city’s approval of using grass at White Rock Lake for parking is only as a temporary overflow parking lot. While the city has conducted a study examining the possibility of a permanent parking lot at Winfrey Point, it’s one of many possibilities, and nothing has been decided, as Christina Hughes Babb pointed out in yesterday’s thorough overview of recent events.

My hope is that the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden will continue to live up to its name, that the City of Dallas and its Park and Recreation Department will honor their commitment to our green spaces, and that they, along with White Rock Lake neighbors, will work together to find more creative and appropriate solutions for parking than using our parkland.

We’re thankful to Harryette Ehrhardt — one of the founders of the Swiss Avenue Historic District who was interviewed for May’s story on how it came to be — for sharing some of her historical documents with us.

No doubt there’s much more to Swiss Avenue’s history than the collection we have available for viewing, but we hope you enjoy these small pieces, and better yet, see history for yourself at this weekend’s Mother’s Day Home Tour.

This week, May 6-12, is National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Week, and Dallas Academy is inviting the community to an anti-bullying presentation Wednesday.

The Child Mind Institute will present “A Parent’s Guide to Bullying” at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 9. It is free and open to the public, and childcare is provided.

RSVP to mail@dallas-academy.com.

Hollie Higgins and her friends from Little Forest Hills can be found most Sundays inside Lake Highlands Presbyterian Church. Yesterday, they picked up trash on the eastern shoreline of White Rock Lake as part of the congregation’s Mission:Possible! project.

“It’s reactionary,” Hollie answered when I asked why she was spending the day in community service. “This is the neighborhood where we live, work, play and grow.

We’re called not just to receive but to give.”

Parishioners divided up tasks at a variety of venues, including handing out free water to joggers and bikers at the lake, giving homemade cookies to on-duty firefighters and scrubbing clean the northeast substation of the Dallas Police Department.

“It’s a privilege to have them here,” Officer Reed Barry told me while church members mopped the floor and shined surfaces. “It feels good to be appreciated.”

“Some of our members thought it was a little radical,” admitted Peyton Strouth, Director of Worship and Music, “their reaction was all over the place. It is kind of odd to change up the Sunday schedule and not have normal worship, but it’s a growing age.”

Participants began with a prayer at the church, asking for the “ability to change our neighbors, our neighborhood and ourselves.”

Genevieve Kpelly and her team then fanned out to Laundromats, passing out free coins to surprised strangers. “Some screamed at us, but most were very happy,” she said. “One man had just moved to the area and was looking for a church. He says he plans to come join us.”

Chuck Ramsey took a group to visit the elderly. “Some of these people have families in other parts of the country and some have none at all,” he said as he guided me from one room in the Alzheimer’s unit of the Villages at Lake Highlands to the next, chatting with patients. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to have no one to visit.”

Reverend Anne Cameron was one of several members writing letters of encouragement to prisoners in the Polunsky Unit, which houses Texas’ Death Row and Supermax prisons. “Jesus told us to feed the hungry, clothe the poor and visit the prisoners,” she said. “Anytime we do that, we encounter God.”

If it’s possible to be both exhausted and rejuvenated at the same time, members arrived back at the church at mid-day feeling good about their work. Waiting for them, hot off the grill, were chicken breasts and hamburgers courtesy of Dallas Police officers wanting to express their appreciation.

You can see my photo slideshow of the day here.

The surprise is not that the bosses downtown thought it would be a good idea to to turn a pristine vacant lot into parking for an event celebrating nature. The irony is usually so thick around here that it can be suffocating. And City Hall has long been a proponent of similar sorts of silliness — remember the plan to make Greenville Avenue four lanes (and, when that failed, three lanes)?

No, the surprise was that everyone downtown was so surprised that people thought that their plan was a crummy idea. Poor Sheffie Kadane, whose city council district includes Winfrey Point. He looked, when interviewed on TV, as if Martians had come to earth and he was the only who could negotiate the peace treaty. And he didn’t want to do it.

Still, after all these years and after all the protests, the elite at City Hall refuse to acknowledge that they don’t always know best. Or that they should even be questioned about their decisions. This episode was chorus and refrain — the semi-secret plan to do something, the City Hall shrugs when the first objections are made, the City Hall arrogance when the objections didn’t go away, the City Hall insistence that the world will end unless its plan is OK’d, and the City Hall acquiescence to the objections without actually acquiescing.

The more things change, right?

In case you need a quick recap of last week’s episodes, the Dallas Arboretum in preparation for the Dale Chihuly exhibit, which they expect and hope will open to much fanfare, received the city’s permission to use the grass at Winfrey Point as a temporary overflow parking lot, to be used when and if the first many-hundred spaces over two separate lots fill up.

Neighbors Ted and Hal Barker — who have been complaining for years about people, cars and city staffers disrespecting the prairie surrounding Winfrey Point to very limited avail — were incensed.

Ted Barker has long fought for the protection of grass at the lake. Despite that smile, he really is incensed. He's probably just glad for the newfound support.

In somewhat related events, the brothers became even more upset once they learned of a study conducted by the city examining the possibility of a permanent parking lot at Winfrey Point. They learned of said study via an open records request that revealed about 25 different scenarios for parking solutions at and near the lake, this being the most inflammatory of the bunch.

Hal explains in the below video interview.

Armed with this information, they have rallied droves of supporters and gathered some 4500 signatures (and counting as of Sunday afternoon).

The Arboretum folks spoke to the media Friday afternoon. They told us they hired an expert, Dr. Robert O’Kennon to study the grasses around Winfrey to determine if they are indeed part of an endangered ecosystem, native and pristine, as the Save Winfrey Pointers say they are and O’Kennon says, “Almost all of the grasses at Winfrey Point are non-native invasive species. I identified 15 species of non-native grasses, some of which are very aggressive.”

He’s saying that the grass needs to be mowed and prevented from spreading and destroying “other regions of White Rock Lake park with native flora.”

He adds that the term “Blackland Prairie”, which is what Save Winfrey Pointers say they are trying to protect, is just a hot-button, fancy term for a type of soil. “There are 12 million acres of Blackland Prairie in North Texas, he says.”

Prairie in need of protection or destructive, out-of-control grass and plants?

Furthermore, Chairman of the board at the Arboretum Brian Shivers says, “Those unfamiliar with the situation are being misled by those with an agenda.”

Below, the gist of the press conference:

The Save Winfrey Point site has a point-by-point response to the Arboretum’s press conference and press release.

Over the weekend, I observed Saturday that despite the exhibit opening, a kids’ baseball game and a large running event at Winfrey Point, there was no carmageddon or chaos. Protesters marched peacefully on the Arboretum and some were at the point asking for signatures. The Dallas Running Club members managed to make use of the few hundred spaces behind the DRC clubhouse at Beachview, behind Doctors Hospital. The running club, which holds monthly events at Winfrey, has been forbidden to park on the grass there, under threat of ticketing and towing.

One runner noted that he doesn’t really know about all the nature and grass stuff but that it seems unfair.

“Like they won’t let us runners park there, but Arboretum guests have permission—basic unfairness.”

Advocate photographer Jeanine Michna-Bales got a behind-the-scene glimpse at the Dale Chihuly glass-art exhibit at the Dallas Arboretum just before the show opened this past weekend. A few weeks ago we let you know about the vast amount of manpower it takes to put on a show like this.

It runs through Nov. 5.

Hal Barker has been protesting parking on the grasslands at Winfrey Point for years. Now people care.

UPDATE: “Officially, today, the 192nd Civil District Court of Dallas County dissolved a Temporary Restraining Order and Temporary Injunction that was brought against the Dallas Arboretum earlier this week. The injunction was an attempt to halt parking at Winfrey Point, an area of White Rock Lake Park,” from a press statement by Dallas Arboretum. We will post the video of the press conference later this evening. 

UPDATE: The Arboretum has called a press conference for 2:30 this afternoon. We will be there. I will tweet twitter.com/chughesbabb

At 9:45 a.m. today (Friday) about 50 people are gathered at Winfrey Point awaiting word from a court hearing.

“We just received a call from the courthouse. They are coming to mow the grass,” a woman, phone in hand, shouts.  The people — all donning savewinfreypoint.com T-shirts — begin mobilizing a protest.

“Do not park your cars on the grass,” longtime White Rock activist Ted Barker says. “They will ticket you.”

The Save Winfrey Pointers are fighting, immediately, the Dallas Arboretum’s plan to build a temporary parking lot for overflow Chihuly-exhibit parking.

But there’s more, says Hal Barker, Ted’s brother and, according to the brothers, the “document expert”.

Hal acquired documents through an open records act that show a study and a proposition for a large parking structure at this part of the lake.

“All the grassland you see from the old folks home at Emerald Isle to the lake north and west will be paved,” he says.

In the open records filing, he received about 25 engineering maps. The one he describes is the “worst-case scenario”, but he fully expects it to come to fruition if we the community doesn’t do something about it.

“I think it’s very possible that in 20 years the Arboretum, at the rate it is growing, will need this.” It is entirely possible, too, he says, that public outcry will make a difference.  “The public response is key,” he says.

I am following this and will report soon with more photos and video. Meanwhile, here’s a quick, raw interview with Hal Barker.

UPDATE at 11:16 a.m.: Robert Wilonsky with the DMN is reporting the the City of Dallas and the neighbors who obtained a temporary injunction against Arboretum overflow parking at Winfrey Point have reached an agreement. They’re supposedly in the process of working out legal details right now, and an announcement of some type is expected in in the next hour.

ORIGINAL STORY at 9 a.m.: A hearing is expected this morning after the City of Dallas filed legal paperwork seeking to set aside the temporary injunction blocking the Dallas Arboretum from using grassland at Winfrey Point for potential overflow parking from this weekend’s opening of the Chihuly exhibit at the Arboretum.

The injunction was obtained after neighborhood residents protested the city’s plans to parking cars on grasslands surrounding Winfrey’s baseball fields and after neighbors used Freedom of Information Act filings to obtain various city plans to pave portions of Winfrey’s grasslands for parking, as well as consider building a two-story garage for about 1,000 vehicles located on about the same location as the baseball fields.

Some of the city’s plans can be seen on the savewinfreypoint.com website.

We’ll let you know the outcome of the hearing as soon as information is available.