10 April 18 - 24, 2024 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents Dallas younger than 17 can’t be out between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on weekdays when they likely should be in school. Sunday through Thursday, juveniles can’t be out from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. The curfew hours are extended on the weekends to midnight to 6 a.m. There are some exceptions to the curfew, like if a minor is out with their legal guardian or if they’re running an errand for their guardian. First-time violators get a warning. From there, the curfew is enforced through cita- tions, penalties and services assigned through community courts. As Mendelsohn noted in her statement, the city’s ability to address this issue has been “preempted” by the state. The Dallas Police Department referred our questions about the enforceability of the curfew to the city attor- ney’s office. A city spokesperson told us that because of the change in state law, the city is not currently enforcing the curfew. The city last renewed its curfew in 2022, a move the Dallas Police Department sup- ported. “I want to emphasize that this is a tool we’ve had in our toolbox for many years, and we want to maintain that tool … to do a better job at fighting crime,” DPD As- sistant Chief Jesse Reyes told the council’s Public Safety Committee in 2021. The cur- few must be renewed every three years. Dallas started enforcing a curfew for mi- nors in 1994. Two years later, the Department of Justice under President Bill Clinton re- leased a report recommending curfews as a way to combat the “rising juvenile delin- quency and victimization” that was suppos- edly taking place at the time. According to the online publication The Marshall Project, about 84% of cities with 180,000 residents or more had juvenile curfews by the late 2000s. Dallas’ curfew has changed over the years. In 2009, the city implemented a day- time curfew for minors. Ten years later, the city decriminalized curfew violations. Be- fore then, Dallas was handing out hundreds of curfew citations to minors. In 2018, the city dished out 286 citations for curfew vio- lations. The following year the numbers dropped to 64 citations and 27 warnings. Be- tween 2019 and 2021, though, juvenile vic- timization also decreased, according to DPD. But, in the year and a half leading up to 2019, 90% of the curfew violations involved Black or Latino youths, according to The Dallas Morning News. “Over time, it’s been shown that these curfew ordinances really don’t have an ef- fect on juvenile crime, and they end up do- ing more harm than good,” Brett Merfish, director of youth justice at the Austin non- profit Texas Appleseed, told KERA last year. In 2016, the nonprofit Campbell Collabo- ration published a review of 7,000 studies of juvenile curfews. The report, which in- cluded Dallas, said “evidence suggests that juvenile curfews are ineffective at reducing crime and victimization.” The city of Austin ended its juvenile cur- few a year after the report came out. A year later, the city saw a 21% decrease in juvenile victimization. Since HB 1819 passed, several other Texas cities have repealed their cur- fews or allowed them to expire, including Frisco, Plano, Richardson and Fort Worth. Now, Dallas may do the same. ▼ ECLIPSE ECLIPSED EXPECTATIONS TOURISTS TAKE IN A VIEW OF THE SOLAR ECLIPSE IN DALLAS. BY KELLY DEARMORE AND CARLY MAY GRAVLEY A fter a long tease from Mother Na- ture during the morning, Dallas got the show it was hoping for as the clouds broke long enough for an uninter- rupted view of the April 8 total solar eclipse. As roughly four minutes of darkness fell, street lights popped on and crowds lining Main Street broke out in awed grins. It might’ve have been much worse for the thousands who flocked to Dallas for the rare celestial event. Dallas isn’t due for another period in the path of totality until 2317. At 7:30 a.m. in Dallas on that Monday, things were looking up for those hoping to get a better view of the total solar eclipse than what had been regularly forecast by meteorologists for the past week. Heading south on Interstate Highway 35 past the medical district toward downtown, the sun, blocked only by a few hazy strips of gauze- like clouds, blazed with the type of might that seemed as though it would fight off the dreariness heading this way. But by 9 a.m., the sun’s golden blaze had been overwhelmed by those pesky high clouds we had been warned about. Under gray skies, however, you had to look hard to find any dimmed excitement for the solar showcase. And to a decent extent, that optimism paid off. Downtown, over Main Street Garden Park, the sun was more than a little visible at 12:23 p.m. as the partial eclipse began. Even hours before Dallas would see the eclipse go full, people in lawn chairs with telescopes and camera equipment were set up in the grassy areas of Dealey Plaza. Nearby, on the sidewalk in front of the Sixth Floor Museum, a vendor sat behind a table piled with eclipse-themed T-shirts. Near Turtle Creek and Cedar Springs a bit later, a vendor selling eclipse glasses strolled along the sidewalk, and a healthy smattering of spectators had gathered on a hill at Griggs Park. The recently spruced-up Main Street Garden park also played host to many eclipse chasers, including a good number of out-of-towners. Reports said that city officials expected as many as 400,000 visitors to arrive in Dal- las for the big event. Some road closures for downtown were announced, which brought about warnings to allow for extra time on the roads. At noon, the area roads were rela- tively clear, with only the typical traffic hotspots around downtown showing any signs of congestion. Travelers began reading that they should expect travel delays at airports and rental car counters that were all booked up. At Love Field around 9:30 a.m., just three hours be- fore the partial eclipse hit the Dallas sky, it didn’t seem that much busier than a normal day. But that perception shifted slightly when you noticed that many groups of travelers ar- riving had on some sort of eclipse themed t- shirts and that the Avis and Budget rental car counters had a line of about 50 people. One couple in line for a rental car on Monday morning, William and Shari Row- ley, arrived from Orlando, Florida. Although they were excited for the eclipse – each wore an eclipse-themed shirt – things were looking a bit shaky for the couple. Not only had they seen the clouds over the airport when they landed, but they had been told their tickets to the Dallas Arboretum’s eclipse event were no longer valid after the arboretum had apparently sold too many tickets. The Rowley’s were also without a rental car reservation. But this wasn’t the couple’s first eclipse chase, and neither seemed to be concerned that the day wasn’t off to the start they had hoped for. “We’ll see how it goes today,” Shari said with a smile. “Besides, this is better than sit- ting at home doing nothing.” Suzanne Bertram and Maggie Scott were just in front of the Rowleys in the Avis line. They, too, were here for the eclipse, but had arrived to a much different scenario. The duo from Colorado had gotten advice back in January that Texas would be the place to catch this eclipse. After researching other Texas sites, they chose Dallas so they could also take in some museums and experience a new city afterward. But unlike the Rowleys, their tickets to the arboretum’s event were valid, and they had a car waiting for them. At 11:30 a.m. and again around 11:50 a.m. the crowd in Main Street Garden Park cheered when the sun peeked through the clouds for a welcome appearance. “I see things as signs from God,” said Tina, who traveled from Houston for a view of the eclipse in path of totality. “I like to believe that it’s a good omen. The last eclipse, we had Hurricane Katrina. I was a little worried about that. But this is full circle… My father sent me to send some prayers for the family.” Also in Main Street Garden were twins Alex and Ariel from Los Angeles. Dressed in sun- and moon-inspired outfits, they ex- plained why this event was significant enough to travel all this way. “It’s a chaotic time in the universe, right? It’s nice for everybody to come together for something beautiful,” Alex said. His sister Ariel added: “It’s just science and nature and you can’t deny that. Like, everyone can agree that it’s the sun and it’s amazing.” Just past 1 p.m. a clear view of the partial eclipse could be seen from the downtown park, a few minutes before clouds got in the way again. And at 1:41 p..m, the sky went dramatically dark for around 4 minutes while the moon finally blocked the sun from our view here on Earth. Grace, a high school senior from Colo- rado, is here with friends for a sort of senior road trip. Perhaps better than anyone else, she summed up the appeal of the total solar eclipse in Dallas on a day that ended up be- ing just suny and clear enough for everyone to see what they came for. “I’m a giant Astro-nerd,” she said, “and I really wanted a chance to see it.” ▼ HOMELESSNESS ‘ALREADY DECIDED’ RESIDENTS PUSH BACK AGAINST PROPOSED HOMELESS FACILITY. BY JACOB VAUGHN D allas is still trying to figure out what to do with an old hospital building the city purchased years ago to pro- vide housing for the homeless. The property may end up not housing any homeless peo- ple after all, as the project has gotten a lot of pushback from leadership and residents in the area. The city bought the 2929 S. Hampton Road site in 2022 for $6.5 million in bond money with the aim of offering permanent supportive housing and wrap-around ser- vices for the formerly homeless. According to The Dallas Morning News, since voters approved the bond money for homeless- ness-related facilities, it can be used only for that purpose. It’s a 12-acre property with 100 units on floors 2 through 4, with ICUs and a commercial kitchen on the first floor. A community work group was formed in May 2022 to help see the project through. City Council members from districts 1, 3, and 4, all of which would be affected in some way by the project, appointed 10 residents to serve on the work group, holding meetings led by the Office of Homeless Solutions between June 2022 and October 2022. The work group was put on pause in October 2022 so city staff could review community input about the project. There was no community input before Christopher Durbin Totality was visible in all its glory in Dallas. Unfair Park from p8 >> p12