Dallas Gets Its Groove Back

THERE’S a sun-baked, low-rise neighborhood in Dallas where urban pioneers have staked out a bling-free zone, set against the glittering backdrop of downtown skyscrapers. Deep Ellum — that’s Texas-ese for “Deep Elm,” the neighborhood’s original name — has historically been a scruffy working-class area.

“In the ’20s and ’30s, day laborers would hop the Houston and Texas Central Railway here for the cotton fields of Plano,” explained Barry Annino, a local developer. “In the evening, the area became a jazz and blues hotbed.” But over the years the trains disappeared and the music scene got out of hand. By the late ’90s, national punk and hip-hop acts had turned Deep Ellum into rowdy club central — until new zoning laws shut things down.

Read More: New York Times