Resident launches new e-mail discussion list for Deep Ellum

It’s no secret that Deep Ellum is in the ICU. Businesses are closing left and right. Crime is high. Politicians and various community leaders are taking steps they think will revitalize the community. New policies are in place to keep un-neighborly clubs from moving in. Those same policies are keeping neighborly clubs from opening back up. The Deep Ellum Association and the Deep Ellum Foundation have different ideas for what needs to be done. Over half the roads in and out of the neighborhood are being ripped up by DART who’s putting two light rail stations next to Deep Ellum. My car has been broken into 7 times in 10 years I think. I may have forgotten a few.

Face it, there’s a lot to talk about and I’ve created an email list just for Deep Ellum.

Here’s the deal. It’s for anybody who lives, works, or plays in Deep Ellum. Heck, it’s for anybody who cares about Deep Ellum and wants to talk about it.

I’m the listmom for now. The rules are pretty lax. You don’t have to keep the discussion to Deep Ellum related topics. You can talk about anything you want but I’m hoping it will get the community to better communicate and to tap into the creative talents available in Deep Ellum that might not necessarily be the sort of people who attend meetings by Associations and Foundations.

I want all the facts out there. I want to talk about the future of Deep Ellum and talk about questions like “When did we decide it was OK to let national chain stores in?” and “Did you know there’s a Starbucks in the Deep Ellum Station DART plans?”

There are lots of normal people living down here who have no idea about all the turmoil happening around them and I want to bring that uncensored information directly to their email, straight from the mouth of the community. It won’t be packaged into biased articles or press releases. It won’t be limited to discussions only during scheduled meetings.

This is also where people can announce who’s playing where this week. (With all the closings, I think you could track what’s left of the music scene on a Post-it at this point.)

It’s where people can announce restaurant specials. Think it’s going to be a slow night? Send an email to the group saying that list members get a 2 for 1 entrees with today’s secret word. The bulk of the audience is right down the street. Nothing like a hoard of locals to make your nightly quota.

I also want to track crime on this list. Every car break-in or any other violence should be mentioned to the list. Maybe we can come up with a solution to the problems that the police haven’t though of.

Deep Ellum is filled with creativity. That’s a part of its allure, but I don’t think that creative energy is being properly tapped. Outsiders are coming in and telling us what Deep Ellum needs. Actually, they’re not telling us so much as they’re just doing things they think will solve “the problem” while the real artists who make this place what it is are waking up one day and saying “Woah… Why is there a 7-11 on that corner? And a Subway? Why is all that dirt in the tunnel?”

I think it’s important to note that this list is independent of any of the existing groups and organizations that are trying to run the neighborhood. None of them have any control over what gets said on this list, so feel free to say whatever you like. Just realize that (hopefully) the people you’re talking about will be on there too, so keep it civil.

It’s a Google Lists mailing list for now. I’d rather have it on a local server, but I don’t have anything set up for the job and frankly I didn’t want to just talk about getting something done some day. I wanted to start talking about it now, so I pulled the trigger myself. We can discuss moving it to a different server later if it will help.

The list is located here: http://groups.google.com/group/deep-ellum

Sam Crutsinger

Deep Ellum LISTMOM

Deep Ellum resident since 1997