Good morning folks,

I gotta start your day off with a cool story we reported about on Friday evening. A 22-year-old student from Japan, who’s in school in Pennsylvania, decided he was going to bike 1,200 miles from Pittsburgh to North Texas to see Team Japan play in the World Cup. 

Sato Yuto’s voyage started on May 17, and Yuto arrived at Dallas Stadium on June 11.

Each night, he’d search for a place to pitch his tent by posting in a social media group. Friendly strangers offered him a place every time.

Check out his Facebook page to see all his stops along the way, and the salt-of-the-earth people who helped him. 

Would you bike 1,200 for anyone or anything? That’d be a ‘no’ for me, 😅 but I love hearing how much an event like the World Cup can motivate people and give them something to be genuinely happy about. 

Niehaus has illustrated some of Dallas’ most historic buildings, including the 146-year-old Arts District Mansion and Dallas City Hall. (Photos courtesy of Alena Niehaus)

I first met Alena Niehaus on her search for free food. 

The 26-year-old artist caught my attention through a video where she asked Dallas businesses if they’d exchange their fare for a drawing of their building. Some places said no, but some said yes, and the adage “Closed mouths don’t get fed” proved true again. 

Being an artist in Dallas—shoot, anywhere—takes hustle and a little bravery. Niehaus walked away from her $60,000 a year salary as a fifth grade science and social studies teacher to pursue a career as an artist, a label she only recently claimed for herself. 

In an unstable economy and a time where Gen Z is weighing passion careers over practical ones, Niehaus is putting all her energy into her passion. Let’s see how she’s doing it.

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Halperin Park opened Mother’s Day Weekend. (Joi Louviere/ Courier DFW)

Sixty-some odd years ago, Interstate 35 was built through Dallas, chopping the neighborhood of Oak Cliff right in half. The result was catastrophic and long-lasting for a community of mostly Black and Latino residents, already marginalized in a redlined city, where little opportunity came south.

In 2017, a foundation was formed to repair the damage. By 2020, a park suspended over the highway was proposed, and in May, phase one of the project opened to the public—2.8 acres of green space and playgrounds, fountains, an amphitheater, and an observation deck. After a $23 million donation to the project from Heritage Auctions co-founder Jim Halperin and his wife Gayle, Halperin Park was live.

Days at Halperin are filled with the sounds of children splashing and playing, friends chatting on sprawled blankets, and one of the regular food truck vendors calling out to a neighbor to say their iced coffee or cheeseburger is ready. Weekdays host salsa lessons and yoga classes, while weekends anchor festivals and regular movie nights. Right now, during the World Cup, you can go there to watch all the matches played on their big screen.

Check out Halperin Park’s Instagram page to see upcoming events and enjoy a new view of Dallas.

Don’t Sleep On is a weekly series where I shout out DFW events and businesses I think you should try. Have a suggestion? Reply to this email.

Thanks for reading. This newsletter was written by Joi Louviere. It was edited by Paula Solis.

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