10/18/2021
A short walk’s distance from Bishop Arts District and Downtown Dallas lies one of Dallas’s most underrated streets: Jefferson Boulevard. The road boasts a rich heritage; Jefferson meets Adams, Polk, Tyler, Madison, and Van Buren in a testament to the area’s history. In the 1950’s, Downtown Dallas boomed, so the wealthy would cross the bridge into Oak Cliff and shop at Jefferson Boulevard. Over time, however, the allure of the street diminished, leaving many of the stores empty, so families, several of whom were Latino, bought the stores and started businesses. The area, revitalized by the Latino culture, started to boom.
Walking around the area today means entering a vibrant Latino neighborhood. At least a dozen Quinceañera dress stores line the street; the grocery stores boast rows of tortillas; and the majority of the signs use Spanish. To the unsuspecting eye, the street feels like a flourishing area whose progress slowed during the pandemic. In reality, however, the street has slowly started to degenerate for years. The City of Dallas remodeled a couple of streets south of Jefferson Boulevard, and small-family-owned businesses closed as a result. And, with the “successful” revitalization of the Bishop Arts District within half a mile of Jefferson Boulevard, it looks like city planners will try to gentrify Jefferson Boulevard next.
Landmarks like the Texas Theater and Top Ten Records will stay, but if small business owners cannot continue to pay for their shops, they will go out of business and be replaced by larger corporations. As more hispanic businesses leave, the "Eat-Shop-Explore" culture that Jefferson Boulevard's page boasts will convert into a transactional environment. Although the revitalization could mean the return of the 1950's purpose of Jefferson Boulevard, it would also require dozens of businesses to leave, drive up the prices in the neighborhood, and force countless families to find new homes, thus changing the culture of the neighborhood. Therefore, this - this photo essay, this year - is the last of Jefferson Boulevard as we know it.
