Many City Council members said they can’t ignore the prospect of Dallas getting up to an estimated $3 million a year for 150 of the electronic advertising stands despite strong opposition.
Dallas will move forward with plans to consider adding digital kiosks on sidewalks around the city, which could include paying nearly $1 million to get rid of existing nonelectronic stands before their 2028 contract end date.
Interim City Manager Kimberly Bizor Tolbert said Wednesday that officials plan to flesh out possible timelines on soliciting new vendors for the devices and when the topic could come back to the City Council for a final decision. The go-ahead came after 10 Dallas council members during a city meeting supported continuing to explore installing the electronic advertising stands, with many citing the potential for up to $3 million in new Dallas annual revenue as a strong enough incentive.
“There are places in Dallas that they could fit and they could work while generating revenue,” said council member Gay Donnell Willis. “I think we can’t walk away from that.”
Council members Wills, Carolyn King Arnold, Adam Bazaldua, Paula Blackmon, Zarin Gracey, Jesse Moreno, Omar Narvaez, Kathy Stewart, Jaynie Schultz and Chad West all said they were open to moving forward. But several of them wanted more details on how the city’s oversight of the program would work and how installation sites would be selected. They noted other possible benefits such as the digital devices providing free Wi-Fi, public alerts and information about city attractions and events, that they are thinner than static kiosks and that they could be a revenue source for sidewalk improvements.
But the program, which has been in discussion for at least a year, has been met with strong opposition from Downtown and Uptown area advocacy groups, developers and commercial property owners where many of the city’s 137 static kiosks are based. They’ve raised concerns of increased sidewalk obstruction, whether there will be proper city oversight and adequate public notification of the digital kiosks’ installations, cameras on the devices infringing on privacy rights, and they question whether there is significant community support for the electronic kiosks.
More than a dozen heads of area interest groups such as the Dallas Arts District, The Real Estate Council, Klyde Warren Park, Downtown Dallas Parks Conservancy, Downtown Dallas Inc., Uptown Dallas Inc., Better Block, Charter Holdings and Hamilton Properties Corporation penned a joint letter to the mayor and the City Council on Wednesday, urging them to wait until the static kiosks’ contract ends in 2028 to have robust discussions on “the appropriate place for advertising in our public spaces.”
“We firmly believe adding large digital advertising boards on public sidewalks throughout our urban core would contradict our collective goals as a city and provide minimal benefit to the public,” the letter said.
Council member Paul Ridley, whose district includes Uptown and parts of Downtown, was the loudest voice in opposition to the digital kiosks on Wednesday and echoed similar concerns. He suggested that, if city-owned digital kiosks are approved, there should be a system to allow areas to opt out.
“We shouldn’t be cramming down their throats more street furniture that they don’t want,” he said.
Digital kiosks are already on Dallas sidewalks, though not owned by the city. There are 18 in Victory Park, including several around the American Airlines Center. Robin Bentley, an interim assistant city manager, told council members on Wednesday that those electronic devices are privately owned and the city gets no money from them.
Dallas Area Rapid Transit has 300 digital stands at 68 stations around North Texas, Jeamy Molina, a DART spokeswoman, told The Dallas Morning News. She said at least half of them are in Dallas. For example, one sits on a Downtown sidewalk at a light rail line near The National building.
The digital kiosks aren’t universally panned by city stakeholders. The Dallas Regional Chamber, Fair Park First, the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce and VisitDallas are among groups that have sent letters to city officials this year expressing support for the program. Howard Perez, a general manager at Angry Dog in Deep Ellum, said in a July letter that the devices could lead to more exposure for local businesses like his, fostering more economic growth and community engagement.
“The interactive kiosks will serve as a tool for both residents and tourists, facilitating easier navigation of our unique neighborhood and promoting the diverse offerings that make Deep Ellum such a special place,” he said.
‘I don’t want to stay antiquated in this city’
Whether Dallas will get rid of its 137 static kiosks early is still up in the air. The City Council in 2005 approved the current contract, and city officials estimate receiving $21 million in revenue since the deal was approved. The city received around $637,500 from the nondigital kiosks last year, Bentley said.
The city’s existing contract for those stands ends June 30, 2028, but Bentley said the city could choose to pay a termination fee to end the deal early. As of December, the city would have to pay $875,000 to get out of the agreement.
The static kiosks are mostly in the northern half of the city above Interstate 30, with many concentrated in the Downtown, Uptown, Deep Ellum and Lower Greenville areas of the city. The stands extend into Far North Dallas and as far south as Oak Cliff and the Redbird area near the city’s border with Duncanville.
Bentley said city staff members have found some of the kiosks appear to violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, such as one near Greenville Avenue and Martel Avenue near Lower Greenville, which has a large circular kiosk in the middle of a sidewalk. She said other checks are being done to ensure all of them meet height, width and ADA requirements.
The latest draft framework for a Dallas digital kiosk program estimates the city could get up to $3 million a year for 150 of the electronic devices. If the city reaches out to companies to install the stands, it would be at least the second time.
The city solicited proposals from vendors in 2023 for at least 75 digital kiosks to be installed across the city in public rights of way and business districts with high pedestrian traffic. The devices were supposed to provide advertising, public alerts, free Wi-Fi, information about city attractions and events and other amenities. That proposed program had no cap on how many of the devices could be installed with a minimum five-year agreement.
The city had two vendors vying for the contract, including one from Ohio-based IKE Smart City, which has digital kiosks in at least 15 cities, including Houston, San Antonio, Atlanta, Baltimore, Cleveland, Denver, Detroit, San Diego and St. Louis. The Dallas City Council in February rejected both proposals after pushback from several Downtown and Uptown advocacy groups who expressed concern that the process lacked public input.
The council’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in September recommended city officials continue pursuing a digital kiosk program with several tweaks, including setting a limit of no more than 150 of the devices being installed and a minimum 10-year agreement. Other new suggestions were for the vendor to give at least 30 days notice to area residents and other affected groups that devices were being installed; minimum distance requirements from curbs, street intersections and property lines; that the kiosks be cleaned a minimum of six days a week; and that the kiosks’ lighting dims between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m.
“We need the dollars and these things are way better than those static kiosks,” said Narvaez, who chairs the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “And I don’t want to stay antiquated in this city. We’ve got to move this city forward, and we’ve got to think of how the future looks and not be thinking about today.”
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Everton Bailey Jr.
Quelle/Source: The Dallas Morning News, 05.12.2024
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