How did the first weekend of allowing cars on 6th Street go?

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Over the weekend, the City tested out opening Sixth Street back up to cars. This is in place of closing the road down to vehicular traffic from Brazos to Red River Streets.

The goal of this program is the break up stagnant, late-night crowds that often become unruly - and sometimes violent - Police Chief Lisa Davis said.

"When we're locking down these streets like this and inviting more chaos into this place, it is not tenable, it has to change," Davis said as the City announced the move last week. In December, this pilot started opening Sixth Street up to cars on Thursday and Sunday nights. After that went on for a few weeks "without incident," Davis said, city staff took the next step, testing out opening the street on Fridays and Saturdays.

Neches, Trinity and San Jacinto will remain closed between Fifth and Seventh Streets as part of this initiative.

Below are some images of what Sixth Street looked like Friday with cars driving through.

Sources: Sixth Street briefly closed back down to car traffic overnight on Saturday

According to police sources as well as downtown employees familiar with the operations, APD closed Sixth Street down to car traffic around midnight Saturday into Sunday. Various sources told KXAN this was due to safety reasons.

The street-opening plan allowed for the opportunity to make this decision if need be. As of Monday evening, we are not aware of the specific reasons APD believed the closure was necessary, but KXAN expects to hear more details later this week, as the department's public information office staff had the MLK holiday off.

Two different downtown employees told KXAN people were pushing the new fences down. The fences serve to add a layer of protection between cars and pedestrians and extend the sidewalk.

Police are investigating a homicide that occurred around 3 a.m. Saturday, about 45 minutes after KXAN crews left Sixth Street. Investigators made an arrest Saturday, APD said. Further details about the circumstances were not available as of Monday evening.

'I'll be out here,' APD chief monitoring the street-opening for herself

Chief Davis said she plans to personally see how this initiative plays out.

"I'm going to be here until this becomes somewhat normal," she told KXAN just before midnight Friday. "I think it's important to see with my own eyes where the gaps are, where we're missing something," Davis said.

One of her initial takeaways was noticing the largest crowds continuing to gather near the corner of Sixth and Trinity.

"You can see people gathering the trees and around certain locations, and they're the ones that are usually coming down here for the party atmosphere, they're not going into the bars, so that's an interesting element, to see how they're behaving," she said.

Davis, as well as Mayor Kirk Watson, said this new decision is something they will both monitor very closely, and they'll adapt and reassess based on what happens.

Davis hopes the more limited walking space will allow officers to keep people moving along versus hanging out in one spot.

"We want to facilitate getting you to the bar you want to go to, but you have to keep moving," she said.

How people on the street feel about this move

The late-night Sixth Street crowd consists of a wide variety of folks, from people who work there or frequent the strip and see the ebb and flow of crowds every weekend, to tourists who flock to the iconic street because it's widely known as the place to be during a visit.

"People come from all around the world to come and drink here," said Austin resident Ankit Patel. "It's kind of unusual seeing cars pass by at this hour," Patel said.

He's curious to see how this goes over time.

"It's an iffy situation," he said. "But there's only one way to test it out".

Jesus Bencomo works the Tacowey truck on Sixth Street, serving hundreds-to-thousands of late-night snackers on any given weekend.

"I've been working here for about a year, it's such a party here all the time. It's fantastic, I really love it," Bencomo said.

Bencomo said it took a little longer than usual to get the stand's usual wrap-around-the-corner line Friday, which he believes is because they had to move the stand to a new spot to accommodate the car traffic.

"For us it's been kind of slow I'm not going to lie, people are used to having us in our spot," he said. "Hopefully the people get used to it, you know?"

Gabriel Letcher, a Photographer said what he misses most, is seeing strangers get the chance to interact with each other when the street is closed.

"Now there's like no space for person-to-person interaction," he said. Letcher said he likes capturing those interactions on his camera. "I think it's a disservice to the city and the amazing culture that was made here," he said.

Following the Sixth Street mass shooting in June 2021, which resulted in the death of a 25-year-old innocent bystander and injuries to about a dozen others, the city made some initial safety changes to Sixth Street, including adding more lighting and surveillance cameras.