New lighting win for District 10

By Tristan Hallman

Mayor Eric Johnson’s crime reduction plans received another boost Wednesday with the City Council’s unanimous approval of a plan to allocate funds from a special district to improve lighting in a northeast Dallas corridor.

The Skillman Corridor Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District set aside $572,000 for the lights, which the City Council approved as part of its consent agenda. The city’s Transportation Department is expected to complete the lighting installations by December.

“I am thrilled that the Dallas City Council continues to invest in our ‘kitchen-sink approach’ to public safety — an approach that embraces both data-driven policing and community-based solutions such as this one,” Mayor Johnson said. “Everyone in Dallas deserves to live in a safe community. We must continue to develop strategies to improve infrastructure and neighborhood services in a manner that can also help us fight crime.”

The Mayor’s Task Force on Safe Communities recommended lighting improvements in high-violence areas as a way to reduce crime while also reducing burdens on law enforcement.

Mayor Johnson previously requested that the boards of TIF districts — which set aside a portion of the new property tax revenue generated in a designated area to be used on public improvements — use available funds to improve lighting and remediate blight, as the Task Force recommended. The strategy marked a departure from the traditional use of TIF funding in Dallas, which was primarily deployed to support developers pursuing economic development projects.

The plan for the Skillman Corridor received the support of the TIF District’s board, the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, and the area’s City Councilmember, Adam McGough, who also chairs the Public Safety Committee.

“I’m thankful for the mayor’s dedication to identifying and executing proven strategies to make our communities safer and for the collaborative efforts of city staff to execute this important project,” McGough said. “Increasing outdoor lighting across the Skillman Corridor is a win for District 10 residents and will contribute to our city’s goal of reducing violence in high-crime areas to become the safest city in America.”