So when TravelMag named Deep Ellum one of the country’s 16 best up-and-coming neighborhoods last week, we bit our sardonic tongues and let it slide. (After all, it doesn’t hurt for our beloved stomping grounds to get some attention from international readers.) We can’t say the same for some of our city’s fellow papers, however.
We won’t mention its name, but a bigger-staffed, longer-standing Dallas publication reported, without any irony, “Travel Mag: Deep Ellum is one of America’s 16 up-and-coming neighborhoods.”
We’re gonna pull a Kanye here and immediately mention the name we said we wouldn’t mention: It was The Dallas Morning News.
“The magazine credited Deep Ellum’s prominence in Dallas to its live music venues, restaurants and bars,” The DMN wrote, before detailing some of the historic district’s biographical details: “Deep Ellum, a national historic site, grew from the vestiges of the Civil War after the formerly enslaved settled on the site. Soon, blues, jazz and railroads arrived. The neighborhood flourished into a commercial center and was one of the only areas where Black and Jewish residents could do business. On its 150th anniversary last year, 213 buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places, a federal program that opens doors to expertise, grants and incentives for preservation and rehabilitation.”
Maybe the writer meant for readers to find the irony on their own. A neighborhood that recently celebrated a 150-year birthday as a hotbed of cultural wealth would hardly qualify as up-and-coming to some of us. The area has had its scolding-hot-and-arctic-cold seasons, but has maintained a steady influx of business growth, popularity and relevance for the last decade.
As an area that built hip-hop and rock stars, and solidified blues — which bled into rock ‘n’ roll and its many offshoots — the label “up-and-coming” seems right up there with calling Mark Cuban a “budding entrepreneur” or Neiman Marcus a “buzzy new retailer.” Unless it was written in the 1910s.
On July 23, TravelMag wrote: “Becoming a National Historic District in 2023 might have pushed this Dallas neighborhood into the spotlight, but Deep Ellum has a storied past tied to blues and jazz and two Texas railroads that arrived in the late 1800s. Nowadays, this lively cultural district just east of downtown promises plenty of shopping, art galleries and theaters, 25 live music venues, and over 100 restaurants and bars.”
“Deep Ellum has always been the music and culture of Dallas that goes back to 1872,” musician Dezi 5 tells the Observer. “To say ‘up-and-coming’ is an understatement of this amazing mecca of Dallas music.”
Visual artist Frank Campagna, who owns Kettle Art Gallery in Deep Ellum and has long been dubbed the "Godfather of Deep Ellum," says, “Of course it's upcoming. With the amount of money that has been poured into the area, it's just a matter of time. Like watching a slot machine not pay off until just before it hits the jackpot.”
But it was when Dallas, Texas TV — the Instagram account dedicated to bonkers Dallas news — posted this bit of news a few days ago that people really started having fun with this announcement. Most of the comments relate to the neighborhood’s instances of violence (though the Dallas Police Department says crime in Deep Ellum is down 10% this year), such as: “A gun wrote this article.”
Another person wrote, “This was made by someone that has never been to deep Ellum when the sun goes down.”
And another non-fan: “Come for the food and live music. Stay because you got murdered.”
One more: “We call it death row but go off.”
Mike Ziemer, a longtime concert promoter who owns the music label Third String Records and recently opened a record store in Deep Ellum, replied to the haters on the thread: “Proud to own multiple business [sic] in Deep Ellum. Been coming to this neighborhood since 2002 and I’ve seen multiple cycles of the neighborhood. We are in such a positive upswing of growth. There’s always gonna be issues in busy areas and the people making all the negative comments never knew the OLD neighborhood and haven’t been around lately so that’s fine. You’re missing out.”
Other memorable responses to Dallas, Texas TV’s post include “According to TravelMeth,” and, “Nice try, feds.”
North Texas-based band Vandoliers commented, “The article was written in 1992.”
Veronica Young, marketing manager for the Deep Ellum Foundation says, “I don't have their definition of ‘up-and-coming’ neighborhood, but what I do know is over the last decade I have personally seen the growth and evolution of Deep Ellum. Not many people understand that Deep Ellum is more than a robust nightlife scene; there are makers and artists and small business owners that make up the very fabric of this district.”
Young works to promote Deep Ellum, but she’s also a neighbor.
“I am proud to not only work in this community; my husband and I chose to purchase our first home here," Young said. "Planting roots in something so alive with such historical integrity is something to brag about, not the latter. The community that runs the day in and day out is comprised of passionate people who welcome the next wave of tourists, visitors, and young ones who will one day grow up and give back hopefully in the same way. It is not a cookie-cutter place you move to, it's an experience.”
Deep Ellum holds different memories for everyone, whether an early Toadies concert or getting yelled at by the Will Rap 4 Weed Lady, or being a proud Deep Ellum tourist vapin' it up at Bottled Blonde. There's a spot in Deep Ellum for everyone — except for parking spots.
"I encourage people to look to their own experiences of the neighborhood before making blanket assumptions based on what they might have heard somewhere, from someone else," Young says. " When was the last time you came to Deep Ellum? What was your experience in the neighborhood? I want that story."
