![\"Commerce](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/deep_ellum_constuction_zone_credit_mike_brooks-7.webp.jpeg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tConstruction on Commerce Street is a nightmare for local businesses.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tConstruction on Commerce Street is a nightmare for local businesses.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Mike Brooks<\/p>\n
The city of Dallas is officially one year into its 950-day construction project<\/a>, and to no one\u2019s shock, businesses are struggling more than ever as the city pushes dirt around Commerce Street in Deep Ellum.<\/p>\n The 250-year-old entertainment district is getting kicked while it\u2019s down. It started with Good Latimer getting a facelift to the likes of Kris Jenner<\/a>: nightclubs like Bottled Blonde (now Palomino Ranch<\/a>), Citizen, Green Light Social and others all popped up within a span of a few years and reign supreme with some the city\u2019s highest liquor sales now.\u00a0 <\/p>\n In the midst of all that, a surge in late-night violence led a flood of social media posts from people from Frisco saying they don\u2019t go to Deep Ellum, implying they value their lives. Others call it Gotham with no Batman.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s another conversation as to why dialogues like these are so damaging to Deep Ellum; many avoid the neighborhood entirely. And as if all that wasn\u2019t bad enough, city leaders decided to undertake a 2.5-year construction project, creating one massive hellscape of orange cones and one-way streets. Parking, though? That\u2019s actually manageable.<\/a><\/p>\n Unnecessary Challenges<\/p>\n John Jay Myers is a longtime Deep Ellum restaurateur who plays a significant role in the local music scene. He owns The Free Man Cajun Cafe & Lounge on Commerce Street, a restaurant and venue that hosts jazz bands and live music nightly. He\u2019s weathered the neighborhood\u2019s ups and downs for almost 15 years at this spot. Myers took to Facebook this week<\/a> to address the city\u2019s bureaucratic incompetence in supporting Deep Ellum\u2019s struggling businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to be transparent about the massive, unnecessary challenges hitting us from all sides right now,\u201d Myers starts in the post. \u201cWe are fighting every single day to keep the soul of this place \u2014 and Deep Ellum\u2019s historic commitment to live music \u2014 alive.\u201d<\/p>\n The receipts detail how city decisions have affected the neighborhood, starting with its failure to protect.<\/p>\n \u201cOur decline started before the construction, when crime prevention was abandoned on our streets,\u201d Myers writes. \u201cThe City of Dallas effectively sent a message that criminal behavior would go unchecked. This has driven away the good element and empowered the bad, creating an environment that is devastating for all legitimate businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n Myers calls the second culprit the \u201cgreat construction boondoggle,\u201d and it\u2019s much more than an inconvenience. For over a year, construction has consumed Commerce Street, and many restaurants are now barely hanging on due to the poor handling of project management.<\/p>\n \u2018The Absurdity of \u201cHelp\u201d\u2018<\/p>\n The little financial assistance offered to businesses has been inadequate.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went to our landlords looking for temporary relief,\u201d Myers continues. \u201cTheir one condition? We must close at Midnight. This wasn\u2019t help; it was an ultimatum designed to neuter the entire reason Deep Ellum exists. Entertainment districts in real cities don\u2019t shut down at 12 AM. Taking that \u201chelp\u201d would cost us an extra $20,000 per month and turn us into something we are not. We refused. How much money do you want to put into trying to save something when you believe if your lease ends it will not be renewed?\u201d<\/p>\n Myers said he\u2019s cut over $20,000 monthly just to keep his lounge alive. He has also cut service hours, which has cut employees\u2019 hours and jobs. He has also started hiring fewer bands and reduced the number of bands from four on two stages to just three.<\/p>\n No Covers and Mandated Chaos<\/p>\n What Myers calls the \u201cfatal blow\u201d was when the city told them they\u2019re not allowed to charge a cover or door fee. Covers are governed by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission; only bars can charge covers. The Free Man is technically a restaurant. <\/p>\n Myers\u2019 team at The Free Man met with Dallas code compliance to attempt to resolve this. He explained on Facebook that he could restructure his business as a venue, which would allow him to charge a cover, but the tax implications would hurt his business even more.<\/p>\n For The Free Man, the $10 cover fee paid for the bands allows Myers to focus the restaurant\u2019s income on staff and overhead, and served as a small, but effective, barrier for problematic people who he says plague other parts of the district.<\/p>\n \u201cThe result of this new mandate is chaos. Our bands are now struggling, our margins are collapsing, and the pressure to pay musicians what they deserve \u2014 without that dedicated income stream \u2014 is becoming too much to bear,\u201d Myers writes.<\/p>\n Myers closes the post asking for those who believe in Deep Ellum, live music and local businesses, to come out any day or night, hang out for happy hour or buy a little extra food.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not asking for charity, we are asking for your support to fight back and keep this unique venue alive. [\u2026] We are still here. We are still fighting. But we need our community to stand with us now more than ever,\u201d Myers writes. <\/p>\n The construction in Deep Ellum is scheduled to be complete in 2026, allegedly. There\u2019s a trove of local businesses in the neighborhood that need our help to get by. Cane Rosso serves a mean breakfast sandwich<\/a>; Revolver Taco Lounge has fresh tortillas made by abuelas; get out there and support the restaurants that make Deep Ellum great<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cGood people lost their jobs, the early jazz acts lost a venue, and I worry about what else will need to happen to survive til the construction is over,\u201d Myers shared with the Observer. \u201cDoes Dallas still need a place playing live music seven nights a week on two stages from 7 pm to 2 am? I know that\u2019s ambitious, but we have done that for over 14 years. We just want to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Construction on Commerce Street is a nightmare for local businesses. Mike Brooks The city of Dallas is officially…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":292293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,24726,79,12079,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-292292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-deep-ellum","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-nightlife","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115350649565549736","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}