The area known as the Cedar Springs Wycliff Target Area Action Grid. (Dallas Police Department)

Despite one recent high-profile hate crime in Oak Lawn, the area surrounding the Cedar Springs strip has gotten safer in the last six months, according to the latest statistics from the Dallas Police Department.
In January, we reported that a roughly 1-square-mile area that includes the gay entertainment district had recorded the fourth-most violent offenses of any of the city’s worst crime hotspots in 2009.
But during the first six months of 2010, the area known as the Cedar Springs Wycliff Target Area Action Grid (TAAG) has seen an 11 percent drop in violent crime. The Cedar Springs Wycliff  TAAG now ranks No. 7 for violent offenses out of 27 TAAGs citywide.
The statistics show that the Cedar Springs Wycliff TAAG recorded 95 violent offenses from January through June of this year, down from 107 in the first six months of 2009.
The biggest reduction was in individual robberies, which went from 69 to 55 in the Cedar Springs Wycliff TAAG.
DPD says the statistics don’t mean the area is among the city’s most dangerous, because TAAG numbers aren’t compiled on per capita basis.
Meanwhile, Oak Lawn business owners and crime watch leaders have said they don’t believe the Cedar Springs Wycliff TAAG is an accurate representation of the “gayborhood.” As you can see above, while the TAAG includes the strip, it also extends all the way beyond Stemmons Freeway to the west.