Dallas could open its sidewalks to public art under a proposed change to city code that supporters say would give neighborhoods another way to showcase their identities.<\/p>\n
The idea is already taking shape in Oak Lawn, home to the state\u2019s largest LGBTQ community, where new art projects include murals and newly painted library steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we can\u2019t do it in the roadway \u2013 where are some other areas that we can build more color, public art.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lee Daugherty, a board member for the Cedar Springs Merchants Association, is asking the Dallas City Council to consider updating city code to allow temporary or permanent artwork on sidewalks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat can artists do on our plazas to make this street \u2013 and Dallas \u2013 a little more beautiful,” Daugherty said.<\/p>\n
The city currently prohibits artwork on sidewalks. Under the proposed change, sidewalk art could be allowed with approval from the city\u2019s transportation director.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was such a simple fix,\u201d Daugherty said.<\/p>\n
But city officials said the process may not be so simple.<\/p>\n
Dallas Transportation Director Gus Khankarli said decisions about public artwork on city sidewalks would need to be governed by a City Council-approved policy rather than left to an individual administrator. That policy does not currently exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt cannot be a situation where the director is having to \u2013 or an administrative person \u2013 is having to make such a decision,\u201d Khankarli said.<\/p>\n
The proposal was discussed Monday by the city\u2019s transportation committee, six months after Gov. Greg Abbott required cities to remove markings from street crosswalks.<\/p>\n
One council member expressed support for continuing the discussion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do think it\u2019s something to keep pushing because I think more communities are going to want that,\u201d said District 9 City Councilmember Paula Blackmon.<\/p>\n
Council member Bill Roth, however, said he believes Dallas should avoid getting into the business of determining how sidewalk artwork would be approved.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long it’s going to be \u2013 who\u2019s going to make the decision \u2013 I think is totally absurd to me. It\u2019s something that\u2019s doomed to fail,\u201d Roth said.<\/p>\n
The committee has not made a formal recommendation for or against the proposal.<\/p>\n
Daugherty remains hopeful the idea will gain momentum, allowing neighborhoods across Dallas another avenue to express their unique identities through public art.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking for projects that are going to withstand the test of time \u2013 and be here decades and decades to come,\u201d Daugherty said.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC DFW. AI tools helped convert the story into a digital article, and an NBC DFW journalist edited it again before publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas could open its sidewalks to public art under a proposed change to city code that supporters say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":436048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103],"class_list":["post-436047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=436047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/436047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=436047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=436047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=436047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}