For three weeks, Deep Ellum played host to three deadly shootings, most recently in the overnight hours after the Fourth of July.
That morning, a 22-year-old was killed. Another man was hospitalized.
“Deep Ellum became a war zone,” said Allen Falkner.
Falkner owns the Nines.
“It came to a head. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” he said.
Falkner said concern for business owners heightened when landlords proposed a state of emergency that would shut Deep Ellum down.
While that plan is now off the table, it’s left businesses like his scrambling to find another way to reset.
“If we lose Deep Ellum, there’s no entertainment district here in the city of Dallas. So this is it, this is kind of last stand. We have got to make this work. We have got to figure this out,” said Falkner.
Monday afternoon, dozens of bar and restaurant owners met with Dallas Councilman Jesse Moreno.
Those in attendance proposed a long list of potential solutions, including increased enforcement of special use permits and dance hall and liquor licenses.
Some asked to see more enforcement from an already increased Dallas police presence and a way to relocate young people who gather despite not being old enough for the district’s bars.
“We need to enforce, use the existing tools we have now. Because the problem is, a lot of times, rather than using the tools that exist, they want to create new tools. I don’t think that’s the solution,” said Falkner.
While Moreno didn’t respond to NBC 5’s request for comment following the meeting, Falkner said he promised feedback from the city within 30 days.
The Deep Ellum Foundation is also circulating a survey for the Deep Ellum Community Safety Plan 2.0.
Foundation leadership stated that the first iteration reduced violent crime by 20% in 2022.
It’s a drop that continued until now.
Falkner says it’s just the latest in a boom-bust cycle that has plagued the entertainment district, which he hopes city leadership, landlords, businesses and residents can finally end.
“About one year from now, we’ve got FIFA coming, and we’re going to have 100,000 visitors a day come in to Deep Ellum is what we’re estimating. We want Deep Ellum to be a safe place. We want it to be a fun place. We want it to be a profitable place and to make that happen, we’ve got to have real solutions,” he said.
