Deep Ellum News
Dallas' Deep Ellum revives weekend street closures for summer season
Walkling Man sculpture near Deep Ellum
Dallas' major entertainment district is bringing back street closures in advance of the summer season: Beginning June 1, Deep Ellum will close its central core on Friday and Saturday, turning it into a pedestrian-only zone from 10 pm-2:30 am.
The street closures are designed to impose a "calming" effect during times when the area is at its most crowded: Friday and Saturday nights. The closure areas will span from Good Latimer Freeway to Malcolm X Boulevard, and Main Street to Elm Street.
The Dallas Police Department began enacting this annual summer closure in 2022, following a period during the pandemic when the streets were teeming with bored youths.
But street closures are nothing new to Deep Ellum, notes Stephanie Hudiburg, executive director of the Deep Ellum Foundation, the nonprofit that advances the neighborhood.
"We've always done closures, the only variable has been how and when," she says. "For the last two summers, it has been Friday and Saturday nights, at 10 pm. Peak traffic is at about midnight, so we begin at 10 pm before it reaches peak congestion."
The neighborhood also does street closures during big holidays like St. Patrick's Day and New Year's Eve. "It's determined in the field, depending on what's happening," Hudiburg says.
The closures have been effective in the area's program to maintain safety but are not without controversy.
"We know that for some business owners, their peak time for customers is midnight on a Saturday night, and understandably, they''re concerned about shutting the street down," she says. "The goal is to provide an environment that's inviting, and we've tried a lot of different strategies."
That includes a safety program with officers that are available 24-7, which Hudiburg says have resulted in double digit reductions in crime.
"There was a spike around the pandemic, it wasn't just in Deep Ellum, with things like street racing — people didn't have anything to do," she says. "But the Foundation partnered with businesses and the city of Dallas to address concerns people may have around safety due to large crowds. It's about finding a balance between crowds and stability, and we're not 100 percent of the way there — we're still figuring out the best-case scenario, where we don't have businesses that are negatively impacted while having a traffic control program that works."
With the closures, they'll maintain the four dropoff zones for shared ride services: at Good Latimer Expressway between Main and Commerce; Commerce eastbound between Crowdus and Malcolm X; Pryor Street southbound between Main and Commerce; and Malcolm X Boulevard northbound between Indiana and Julius. Deep Ellum was one of the first entertainment districts in the U.S. to create such dropoff zones, and Hudiburg says they've received inquiries from other cities initiating similar programs.
A new wrinkle for 2024 is the ongoing construction on Commerce Street for a street redesign that's predicted to last a couple of years, similar to one made to Elm Street last year. The stretch on Commerce between Exposition Boulevard and Good Latimer will get new lighting, wider sidewalks, and new walkways in areas that see a lot of foot traffic such as The Factory after a concert.
Construction is already underway on the far eastern edge of Commerce between Exposition and Walton, and is likely to complicate the situation as it moves west.
"Congestion is ultimately a good problem to have, and we're hoping to figure out how to do it best this summer — for the businesses, visitors, and residents," she says.
