Four Days After Dallas County’s Shelter-In-Place Mandate Was Implemented, Our Once-Bustling Metropolis Now Looks Mostly Deserted.
Above slideshow photos by Marcus Gillespie. Below boarded-up business photos by Christina Jones.
It’s been five days. That’s it.
Just five days have passed since Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins issued a shelter-in-place mandate for Dallas County, essentially placing the City of Dallas on lockdown as a response to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus. More remarkably, we’re not even four full days into the order actually being implemented, having gone into effect at 11:59 p.m. on Monday night.
That just feels insane, right? We could’ve sworn it’d been a lifetime.
Sure looks as if it’s been that long, at least, when you scroll through the above and below photo sets, passed Central Track’s way by Dallas bike couriers Marcus Gillespie and Christina Jones, whose recent treks across the city have found our city’s most bustling areas suddenly deserted — even more so than they were this past weekend, back when the city’s bars were first coming to terms with being ordered shut.
All throughout the week, as these increased measures were settling in, the situation has become even more real, with business owners across the city taking the extra measure of boarding up their businesses in anticipation of long-term closes and in defense of possible looters. Even a number of the restaurants that are remaining open to offer pickup and delivery food service — still very much allowed by the law under current mandate (may we interest you in some burger, pizza or beer suggestions?) — have taken such steps, jut to be safe.
No matter how you look at it — be it from still images like the ones found at the top and bottom of this post, or in the below bird’s-eye-view drone footage take by The Well Creative (and featuring the soothing sounds of Bastards of Soul’s “Back To The City”) — it’s just a lot to take in.
We won’t blame you if consuming these visuals makes you a little emotional. Hell, we’re right there with you.
They’re startling to consume. Doing so is an at-once heartbreaking and reassuring experience — the former because of the pain we feel knowing the financial stresses these business owners are under as a result of the mandates, and the latter because (selfish assholes still crowding the Katy Trail and White Rock Lake notwithstanding) we know that this is the best option we have toward collectively getting past this and returning to a regular course of life.
We know it’ll take time to get there — but, damn, we just want our city back.
Here’s hoping, with all of our hearts, that it remains mostly intact once it does return.
Honestly, the simple idea of one day seeing visuals that show the streets safely bustling once more just made our hearts skip a bit. Yeah, we immensely look forward to once again seeing those.
In time, though.
In time.
