I have to say I call this. The Mayor can not do a damn thing about this. Live music in Deep Ellum is dead.

Today, Beck Ventures just bought 10 acres of property in Deep Ellum. Which means Deep Ellum is going to be like Beck's Trophy Club!

This is really hard to put into words, but I will try.

The Deep Ellum live music scene was something that built itself. It was not a master-planned music community. It was a "TRUE" scene. Not many cities have that. Now it has become a screwed up mess of political quagmire. It is not worth the effort to even think about trying to fight to win Deep Ellum back. Trust me I tried.

Now, another venue is gone. RIP "Red Blood" you were the TRUE PUNK venue. Now what are the Punk fans supposed to do?

I wish things were different. If they were, we would move down to the old Deep Ellum in a heartbeat.

Also it seems no one cares about this anymore. Why am I the first to comment?

Below is what I mean by "the scene built itself."

Jazz and blues

Starting in 1920 and crescendoing into the 1930s, Deep Ellum became distinguished as a prime jazz and blues hotspot in the South.

Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, and Bessie Smith played in Deep Ellum clubs like The Harlem and The Palace.

In 1937, a columnist described Deep Ellum as:

“...[the] one spot in the city that needs no daylight saving time because there is no bedtime...[It is] the only place recorded on earth where business, religion, hoodooism, gambling and stealing goes on at the same time without friction...Last Saturday a prophet held the best audience in this 'Madison Square Garden' in announcing that Jesus Christ would come to Dallas in person in 1939. At the same time a pickpocket was lifting a week's wages from another guy's pocket, who stood with open mouth to hear the prophecy.

GOODBYE DEEP ELLUM! GOODBYE HISTORY! HELLO, TROPHY CLUB!

OOOPS Typo! I meant to say: I have to say I called this.

Are you fucking kidding me?

You mean Heinbaugh or one of the Mayor's toadies didn't clue him in on the Beck Ventures deal?

Two possibilities here: either he is obliviously ignorant, or he was willingly deceptive.

If he did know about it, and didn't use this opportunity to talk about it, this should be a lesson to anyone who looks to our city government for real leadership or basic common sense.

Unbelievable.

Sam, your assessment were pretty much correct, but we delivered on what we promised and it was more significant than it might appear on the surface. Regarding specific property announcements, it's not like any of the developers down here have a history of being very forthcoming in the past. Did you have a real expectation that companies like Beck Ventures or Westdale would be tipping their hands about anything at this meeting?

What we did accomplish was to round up all the organizations down here to get a consensus on a few important subjects. And, as you may recall, there has been a bit of turmoil in the past between the Foundation and Association. So maybe there weren't any dramatic announcements, but getting everyone pointing in the same general direction, isn't very glamorous, but it was a crucial step. Remember we are still down here slugging away, when a lot of people have bailed out. This is the grind it out part of the process so it's not going to be very flashy, but when things start looking up, the first Jäger bomb is on me.

Bye Kenny!

Why do we only hear from you during the bitch and whine portion of the party? I haven't seen you at a D.E.E.P. meeting or at any of the Deep Ellum Association Mixers. You just stay at a distance waiting to hurl rocks at anybody who tries to accomplish anything.

And to tell you the truth, when I heard you were going to try and open Trees as all-ages I was pissed. I like liquor with my punk rawk and I wear a rubber 24/7 because I don't like children -- even my own.

Mark,

I have been to several of the meetings. I just sit back and listen. I do not have a word at the meetings because I am not a local business owner.

Where were you Mark, when we spent the money on the Trees building and had volunteers help us clean the whole building.

Mark, I did not plan on having a teen club. It was going to be all ages.

Mark, I think you are VERY STRANGE to wear a rubber 24/7.

I am positively flabbergasted that I just attended a two-hour long meeting about the future of Deep Ellum and nobody even brought up this Beck Ventures deal.

If Mayor Leppart already knew about the deal, he should have set aside all of the political posturing and said this: "OK, folks... I know we came together here today to discuss the rehabilitation of Deep Ellum, but I think you all should know something: a private real estate company has purchased a large portion of the neighborhood, and by rights, it is their choice to do what they see fit with the property that they have purchased."

Instead, we got a phony pep rally based on an ambiguous batch of lies.

If the City was ever going to take a proactive measure to protect the creative legacy and heritage of the neighborhood, they should have designated it a historical district a long time ago. They could have given the property owners tax incentives to rehabilitate their properties and started an outreach cooperative with the Arts Magnet High School.

Instead, the Mayor used this face time with the media to promote AT&T, the Victory real estate development, and the Dallas Police Department.

Why wasn't a representative from Beck Ventures on hand? Why didn't somebody from one of the Deep Ellum neighborhood associations say something about it?

And what, exactly, was Barry Annino's specific role in all of this?

Jane Jacob's in "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" makes a very strong point illustrating the following:
New business ventures require old buildings to gestate.

The specifics of what she meant are long and detailed and I would recommend reading the above mentioned book for a better understanding, but in Dallas terms let's look at few representative areas. Victory Park, Deep Ellum & Expo Avenue.

Victory Park is brand new construction in which most of the tenants are "new" businesses.
(By "new" I mean local start-ups that have a lot of charm and potential that have so far come nowhere near the level of a Gap, or Virgin Records, or Chipotle in terms of brand identity and cash reserves.)
Most of those businesses are currently struggling and likely to fail not only halting their Victory operations, but taking down everything else associated with them due to high rent and low patronage.

Expo Avenue on the other hand has survived the interest of speculators, DART, and the city boosters that wanted to convert it into the city's concept of "Olympic Park" back when the city was angling for one of the Summer Games. DART has been largely ineffective in it's push to have all of the bars closed that "dirty-up" it's new train stop, while speculators are routinely scared away by the odd and misanthropic businesses and individuals that reside down there.
The oddity and misanthropy is the aspect of this neighborhood that makes it attractive to certain experimental businesses and helps prove Jane Jacob's rule mentioned above. (My own business is located there.) By resisting developer investment and evading establishment attention this neighborhood has remained one of the most vibrant, closely knit, and effective at fostering the incubation new businesses. Ranging from dominatrices, to art galleries, to excellent bars, photographers, fashion designers and design firms (just to name a small selection) this is truly a neighborhood befitting a "Great American City."

Deep Ellum USED to be Expo Avenue x10 in terms of incubating new ideas and has to a large degree been a victim of it's own success. Whereas Expo is well balanced between a variety of uses Deep Ellum became dependent upon the draw of it's nightlife offerings. When the common visitor to Deep Ellum became afraid of crime back in 2001-2002 (which was compounded by reducing police coverage and increasing media attention) and therefore stopped visiting the nightlife establishments, the whole area crashed. The effect of which we're still seeing.
With the introduction of the new rail line and it's to-be-anticipated redevelopment there is upcoming hope for the survival of the area, but it will no longer be an incubator of new uses and will have to rely on established uses (in the same manner that Victory Park should be pursuing) to survive.

The point? Deep Ellum can preserve some aspect of it's former character while accommodating new development. Diversifying uses and building ages (and therefore rents) will allow a mix of old and new to co-exist. Unfortunately, with this being Dallas, the most likely outcome will be that all of Deep Ellum as it exists today will be in the landfill in ten years time, and the New Deep Ellum (tm) will consist solely of Chipotles, Gaps & Virgin Records.

Kenny, with all respect. Live music in deep ellum is not DEAD. It may not be what it was, but for the musicians performing there it is very much alive. Come down to Allgood tomorrow night and watch Doug Burr play to a full house. Watch the musicians and writers sit there as he plays a set of Psalms set to music.

You have a right to your opinion, of course, but I'm personally tired of reading this sort of thing.

I talked to someone tonight who said Dove Hunter played to a packed house a Doublewide a couple of weeks ago.

Good music many nights.

Rest assured, neither I nor anyone else (to my knowledge) with the Deep Ellum Association had heard anything about the Beck Ventures deal at the time of the Townhall. If I had, I certainly would have mentioned it during the presentation. If that deal had gone down even one day before, we sure would have offered Beck Ventures the pulpit to tell us what they have in mind, or asked the Mayor if he could discuss what he knew of the deal. But we don't know any more than anyone else, right now.

Liles is right about some of the realities here. There is a long history of attempts in Deep Ellum to obtain historic designation. That has worked on a couple of buildings, but attempts to do that for the entire neighborhood have gotten nowhere.

No one who loves Deep Ellum wants to walk down the street and see the new "Villas of Deep Ellum, Celebrating Tuscan Living in an Urban Setting." But the hard cold truth is that a private landowner generally can do what they wish with their property, hell or high water. This is Dallas, after all.

So what can we do?

A developer who wants to raze the neighborhood and drop some stinkbomb development into Deep Ellum wants nothing more than to be greeted by silence. In a vacuum, they can do anything they want. If "Deep Ellum is Dead", then what the hell, just start anew. No one cares. But if Deep Ellum can speak loudly and clearly that it ain't dead, that it wants new development consistent with its identity and culture, then those "bad" developers are going to have a much harder time of things.

At the same time, those developers who come in try to do Deep Ellum right will need to be applauded and supported just as loudly. Development is coming and if done right, Deep Ellum will be a better place.

So our goal is to do everything we can to unify the various groups and people in Deep Ellum, make sure that every city official and developer know what this neighborhood wants, and do everything we can to help keep everything great about Deep Ellum alive and thriving.

That is why we are trying to set up a series of small meetings where we can get commonly situated people in Deep Ellum together with representatives from the City, the DEA, DEF, DEEP, etc. to work out issues and find ways to help. The meetings we have in mind are:

Live Music Venues/Musicians
Restaurants
Retail/Industrial
Artists/Art Galleries
Business Development
Urban/Green Planning

We hope to have a comprehensive plan to the city by October 1.

So, for those who care about Deep Ellum, we encourage you to participate in this process and make sure your voice is heard. The louder and more united that voice, the better.

Sean Fitzgerald

I doubt the Mayor knew anything about Beck Ventures. Real estate deals go down here all of the time, and I doubt any developer would be telling anyone about their plans (especially about a deal that doesn't appear to be closed).

Michael, with all due respect, if the Dallas Morning News had it on their website yesterday morning, and the Dallas Observer had it on this blog well before the meeting even started, then surely someone from the Mayor's public relations staff should have told him about the impending deal.

(Or is our Mayor really that far out of the loop? Sheesh. That would rank right up there with George W. Bush saying last month that he was "unaware" that gasoline was headed to four bucks a gallon.)

Again, the right way to approach this would have been to announce that a deal was on the table, and that in all likelihood, we were all going to have to prepare ourselves for a major overhaul of the neighborhood.

And to Sean: I'm not sure I get your strategy for dealing with the new developers. These people are investing millions of dollars to eventually turn maximum profit, not to preserve the continuity of the neighborhood. It's their money, and we're not in a position to tell them how to spend it. If they knew that there were "conditions" on what they can or can't do with their property, do you really think they would have even bothered doing it? You don't buy that much property unless you have really big plans.

But I fully expect the folks from Beck Ventures to say all the right things in the meantime. Whatever it takes to keep the pesky artists and bohemians at arm's length. And let's be real - they aren't in the business of opening art galleries or live music venues. They're gonna tear shit down, and rebuild high-density, maximum profit spaces for condos and chain-store retail outlets. That means lots of construction, more noise, diminished foot traffic during the process, higher property taxes to pay for new infrastructure, and ultimately, higher lease costs for everybody.

It's a win-win for everybody but us.

kenny, i've had enough of your death of deep ellum pronouncements.

as someone who has seen somewhere near a hundred shows in deep ellum over the last year i can tell you there is still good music in the scene. yes, sometimes is a crap shoot. you go to a club, the opening act sucks but if you have patience and keep checking things out you'll see there is still a viable and great scene with much to offer.

or you could continue to belly ache like a child about how the city screwed you. which they did and i hate that for you, but that is over and done with now. deal with it, move on and stop ragging on a scene you don't know damned thing about.

The Observer also had the Conv Ctr Hotel going to Woodbine.

Michael, this isn't about the Dallas Observer or Woodbine. It was the DMN online blog, and not the DO, which broke the Beck Ventures story yesterday - four hours prior to the Town Hall meeting.

The real issue is whether or not the Mayor knew about the Beck Ventures deal before he stepped in front of that microphone yesterday.

If you honestly think that he didn't know, then you ought to be questioning whether or not he's doing his job. If he did know, which is clearly the case, he owed it to everybody in the room to address the new dynamic.

Clearly, still basking in the warm afterglow of the AT&T news, he wasn't about to say anything that might buzzkill the proceedings.

Just watch - in about a week he will undoubtedly spin this Beck Ventures deal into some kind of "pro-growth" initiative that happened BECAUSE of the Town Hall meeting... even though the deal stands in direct contradiction to the primary objectives of those who gathered for yesterday's group hug.

Liles - You are 100% on target with all of your comments. To believe Leppert did not know this prior to the meeting is...well...unbelievable. I too don't understand how anyone down here thinks that we can control what Beck wants to do with their property. They certainly aren't going to keep any of those buildings - that wouldn't make any sense. I'm guessing that most of Main & Elm will look pretty much like the block that used to house The Door - completely flattened.

As a property owner - one building/owner occupied - this is all happening about 10 years before I wanted it to - but I knew it was coming. How do you think eminent domain will play into this?

Is it about what they Mayor said/didn't say, or is it about how everyone is going to effect the future of Deep Ellum. Would you be more upset if he didn't come at all? Would it change anything? Does everything have to be a "Mayor is bad" speech or is it about the issue at hand?

I appreciate the frustration but you have to get your chips up to determine your own destiny. I learned that being by on the wrong end of notice that my lovely apartment building was being torn down for condos...it happened more than once. Renting and hoping for the outcome that you want is a risky proposition.

All developers aren't bad. As mentioned on this board, there are several in Expo Park area that are building and rehabbing quality projects. I checked out one in particular this past week.

You all need a DEEP or DEA real estate wing (and maybe you have one already). Remember last year when you joined together to get your SUP applications into the city on time? Apply the same know-how...Study how other similar areas around the country redeveloped and preserved what made them great. Don't let frustration let you miss the message..what the Mayor DID say is that they are cracking down on downtown's slumlord-type building owners to make them fix the buildings up or sell it. Think about it..maybe you all could lobby for the same rules apply to Deep Ellum and a lot of you could go in on a piece of property. Maybe someone will let a building or a piece of property go for below market to look like a hero to Deep Ellum..just a thought.

I think some D.E. groups are 501c3's, maybe there's some state or federal money out there for stuff like this.

Doesn't Preservation Dallas have a revolving fund to buy old buildings and preserve them? Well Katherine was there yesterday, did anyone ask her?

That's a couple of ways Deep Ellum can flourish, although I am sure others in your groups have ideas as well. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, just giving a different perspective as someone who fought and put his own rep on the line at City Hall to save some of the clubs in Deep Ellum.

I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that there was some subterfuge at play in the meeting. Why, after a display of such flagrant guile, would you assume that these people are going to work with anyone to preserve any of the current culture in the area?

Deep Ellum has been considered a hub of subcultural and counter-cultural activity since its beginnings. While we all love the rich artistic energy of the neighborhood, the men in suits see it as a dump. These people see dollar signs, not historic value. That's the bad thing about belonging to a sub-culture; you're in the minority and you're usually broke.

I also feel the need to point out that were the general public supporting this neighborhood with their business and their patronage (essentially telling the city that they want Deep Ellum to exist), no one would be in this situation.

Why does everyone think the DART Train is going to bail Deep Ellum out? Just ask the good folks that owned some of those beautiful new places in Downtown Houston what happened when they got light rail. Look at the demographics of people who use light rail and tell me those consumers are the ones who will bring in enough rain to create a revenue generating entertainment scene.
Won't happen. Project Victory is drawing those affluent people, when they decide to come out. It's over. This Mayor and the city council could care less. You can thank our ex soccer mom, no dancing, live rock music hating Laura Miller as well. I miss the Green Room but thise days are not coming back. The best you can hope for is some great residential with a few cool restaurants and funky shops. Good Luck.

The Beck deal was not announced until the same time as the Mayor. There were rumors but it was under lock and key and it's a fluke that it happened at the same time. It had nothing to do with DEA, Preservation Dallas, Green Planning or DEEP for sure. It's unfortunate to wrap it up as a negative against those who had searched for but were not in control of the information.

And I saw the meeting totally differently.
The positive of it being hosted at 1911 built Sons of Hermann and all the great publicity they received and appreciated, of the brilliant speech by Katherine Seale Preservation Dallas. They have been a great supporter of Deep Ellum and many in the neighborhood helped to nominate it again as one of the areas most endangered historic.
Those people were in the crowd and Katherine's speech was not lost on us but I'm sorry it was not brought up here. That's truly unfortunate.

There's the fact that Dart and the city and DEF and DEA and DEEP and DPD and Green Planning and the ever supportive Reel FX and Fine Line Live and more were all in the room shaking hands and working to get along and find solutions to things. Dart put 1.5 million into an art project for Deep Ellum.
They were there to talk to us and support. They admitted to the loss of the tunnel and are working to making it up by hiring Reel FX to place the Deep Ellum Gateway up. Reel FX was in the crowd and talking to so many people in every direction they could. They have brilliant ideas and they are going to be making great waves in the future. The fact that all those groups were in one room allowed for immense networking and communication that does not often happen. Some of us were able to connect live music venues needing SUP help with the very folks who can volunteer, provide information and resources to them.

And that around the room...those needing SUP help, historic support, for those wanting green support to work together, for those wanting to support live music and charity events and eclectic events to come together and create plans - that should have been reported also by all of the naysayers.

Please have some respect for those who work with Preservation Dallas and Historic Sons of Hermann Hall, built in 1911, and those who volunteered to get Deep Ellum nominated again as one of the most endangered historic neighborhoods in Dallas, and to protect the Freedman's history, who speak to our love of the area and it's roots in jazz and blues and the connection to the Freedman's town settled by emancipated slaves, and those who love the the first black owned built and financed architecture, and volunteered to help get it away from demo by neglect, and all those who volunteer endless hours to put on benefits in deep ellum for cystic fibrosis, and arts, and refugees, and the homeless, and all the thriving live music that some how fought through the SUP mess and survived - Sons of Hermann Hall, the Door, Club Dada, Adair's, The Bone, The Prophet Bar, Sankofa, AllGood, Amsterdam, Fallout, etc. Awesome bands play all the time, often packed out, often sold out often for charities. And cooler still of late in galleries.

Dada has hosted incredible benefits like the CF benefit raising great funds for a great cause. Space Studio has hosted great benefits for the homelessness international and national. Kettle Art, Pawn, Space and Public Trust have had brilliant eclectic events, be they music or media or experimental performance all hosted in an art gallery setting.

You guys please respect who puts extraordinary time and energy into loving and caring for and protecting the hood and trying to keep beautiful things going.

Beautiful things are going on. And will continue too. Tons of the area is under historic landmark protection - Continental Gin, many of the lofts, 2200 Canton, Adam Hats, Mitchell, Dallas Tent, Boyd, Sons of Hermann Hall, the La France Building.....

It is a crying, crying shame that a conservation district has never been voted on and approved but many more want to go historic and that will prevent the entire area from going.

We could help people who are fighting with COs and SUPs. It's gotten better for some, not all, and we can help. And we know tips for some who have navigated the scary waters
of parking and worked around it.

But we can't if people don't come to our meetings and identify themselves and ask for help.

We are not the first to blog because we are out volunteering for events, benefits, historics, mixers, meetings, speakers, etc.

That's absurd. We don't care because we are out working for the area rather than blogging negatively......seriously.....

We want the history of Leadbelly and Blind Lemon and the blues and jazz greats carried over and respected with an ongoing musical future.

We want the respect for the nearby Freedman's town settled by emancipated slaves history respected.

But we do that by calling the city historics and preservation dallas and the designation committee and offering volunteer time and work to help more go historic. We don't all do it by blogging negative about an area we love.

Amazing things happened at that meeting. Amazing connections were made. Amazing follow up is already in the works.

It's a crying shame that was not observed.

It was not perfect and there were a lot of different perspectives on how it should go, a lot of things out of people's control and only so much endless volunteer work can produce, but overlooking the positives is unfortunate.

Please don't WANT the area to fail because it makes for good drama. The area is too sacred for that.

People say they love the area, the history and the art and then they kick it's present and future in the face every chance they get. It's so hard to watch. It's not respecting the history.

We are not all billionaire developers and we can't control them to a point. But we can be positive and try to retain what we can.

And we can keep working with the historics to retain and help those who want to go or stay historic.

And there are other neighborhoods where developers have respected history and altered their development due to public outcry.

It's happened in Lakewood. And Bishop Arts had developers who respected the history and worked with it.

Beck Ventures runs Cornerband.com - that's music. We don't know yet they'll go Trophy Club. It's too soon to call.

And Beck Group (not the Beck who bought the area but another Beck) renovated House of Blues out of a 100 year old building. It's not everyone's cup of tea but it's an historic place.

We don't know yet what's going to happen, but in the meantime, it's not helping everyone to insult the hard work of volunteers.

I am proud of Deep Ellum, so proud of it right now. I'm proud of Space and their benefits and Kettle and Sons of Hermann Hall and their lovely volunteers and how much they love that their building is looking to turn 100 in the neighborhood and that when the folks who cooked daily and had Erykah Badu playing in their venue moved - they moved to our neighborhood. I'm proud of Vern's soul food playing Jazz into the streets on Sat. night.

I'm proud of the benefits for beautiful causes. And that we have some of the most extraordinary artists in Deep Ellum that you can find. We've got brilliant photographers and musicians art galleries like Road Agent and Barry Whistler all the way over to Adair's and Twisted Root for food and music. And Reel FX and Ad-Libs and the Mavericks.
There's a lot going on.

This neighborhood is amazing. Amazing. We have major challenges, but a lot of us are not going to stop fighting. More than anything there's an incredible audience and community there that supports each others work, art, music and events like nothing I've seen anywhere else in Dallas. It's extraordinary.

And if anyone cares about the history - please go volunteer for the historic groups rather than slamming he area.

And if you need help with SUPs you can't hide. Groups can help but you have to identify yourself to get it.

The City attempted a historic district for Deep Ellum but the property owners at the time wouldn't do it. So.....

I think folks should focus on the building.

I liked Deep Ellum too when it was livelier, looser and grittier (although I haven't been around as long as some).

But its hard to legislate culture. You can't very well require residents/customers to have a minimum requisite number of piercings. Neighbourhoods grow, they go up and down, scenes enter and leave. Types of residents turn over. things go upscale and downscale.

What CANNOT be replaced after it is lost is the built environment. If 11 acres are razed, Deep Ellum is pretty much history.

I don't wanna see chains take the place over either, but these changes are transient.

Anyone who has been to SOHO in the past 15 years knows its full of gap and pottery barn and starbucks. BUT they didn't tear the place down. It still looks like SOHO, even if it doesn't really feel like it.

I'm all for the arts and music stuff seeking support and appealing to the community for patronage; I hope we do support what's left of what's good;

But the situation is too critical to obsess about sentimental nostalgia; the city is about to loose one of its few assets of lasting value. Focus on the tangible, on what CAN be saved.

We don't need a homogeneous single-developer pseudo-mall like Addison Circle, Firewheel, etc. going up stuck on the side of Downtown. It will be a civic embarrassment for generations to come. That it replaced one of the true authentic gems of an urban neighbourhood left in this part of the country will be insult to injury.

Yes Deep Ellum is dead, has been for awhile. It was a music haven at one time, full of action of every walk of life. Wonderfully alive. It's not coming back anytime soon and can't be built by the city. Sadly the music scene is all but different now too. Too much ease in downloading something then taking the time to see it in the flesh locally. Sad.