Street entertainment needed in Downtown Dallas

by Michael Davis of Dallas Progress

This is picture is that of a friendly gent I met when I went back home.

Mom and I were in her office building when we heard oldies music coming from outside. I figured it was coming from the jean store next door, since a lot of clothing stores have music that bleeds onto the sidewalk areas to attract customers.

I was very surprised to see this fine gent in his motorized wheelchair singing at the top of this lungs. He has speakers mounted on the bottom, and he moves from block to block during the day belting out classics from Stevie Wonder, the Stylistics, and others. He's very good, and has no problem hitting you up for a donation (which I gladly paid $2). The police do not bother him, and he is a welcome sight on center city streets.

This got me thinking: Downtown Dallas is far too quiet during the day. While I'm sure commerce is being transacted, downtown areas are supposed to be full of audible activity. Maybe there are some in our tunnels (need confirmation), but Downtown Dallas would benefit from having some street musicians in addition to allowing people to perform at train stops as DART has done in the past. As mentioned above, many stores in other cities also play music directed toward street traffic.

Maybe it could be a requirement that only x number of musicians/singers/etc could be in one block. But it's something we need to encourage in our city. Have a guy doing magic tricks, some mimes, anything (except this sort of thing). The goal is to attract people to downtown, get people out of the buildings and onto the street during lunch hour, and to hang around after work. This could be just the thing.