Differences between Dallas-Ft Worth (Austin, Fort Worth: home, neighborhoods, live)

[lukeache]

Can anybody point out the main differences between Dallas and Ft Worth for those who have not been to Dallas yet? I keep trying to convince my fiance, a native Minnesotan to move to Texas, I keep telling her that Dallas and Ft Worth are just like Minneapolis-St Paul LOL..They are "Twin Cities"..,maybe not the case? Anyways, it seems like so many people in Ft Worth have thick Southern accents..where as in Dallas, maybe not so many? Is Ft Worth more "country, Texas and laid back " whereas Dallas is more "cosmopolitan and diverse"? I can tell you Minneapolis and St Paul are only 10 miles apart, but they are twins with very different personalities

[socketz]

I think the same holds true here. I personally like the feeling of downtown Fort Worth and am still searching for a similar feeling in downtown dallas.

The Bass brothers have really infused alot of influence/money into Fort Worth and the area just has a certain cultural charm that's hard to describe.

[Guingirl]

There is an axiom that says that Dallas is the end of the East and Fort Worth is the start of the West.

With that, I know people that live over towards Fort Worth but commute into Dallas. The best thing is that it doesn't have to be one side or the other, you get the best of both worlds if you really want it.

[kt2le]

While the Dallas city council argues and infights and thinks of nobody but themselves, Fort Worth quietly goes about its business building a clean city with world-class museums and a vibrant downtown. FW has had the advantage of learning from Dallas' mistakes. Plus the super-rich Bass family and other old-line families support just about everything and give much back to the community. A Dallas native, I was raised with the attitude that Fort Worth was some unsophisticated hick, country backwater (a typical attitude) full of cowboys and cattle. Many in FW realize the attitude of some Dallasites and just let them make fools of themselves. They just "roll their eyes" and ignore them, for they (FW residents) know better. As an adult, I lived there for a few years and instantly loved it. Very livable, very pretty and the people are nice with little to no pretense.

[Willys]

Guingirl has it pretty close. Being 30 miles apart downtown to downtown, historically Dallas and Fort Worth have tended to have little to do with one another, in a competitive sense. Going from one to the other could have been an event. Until DFW came along and now the 'burbs have filled in.

Fort Worth, is affectionately referred to as Cow Town. Near downtown you'll find the stockades, now an entertainment district. Yes, this is where the cattle trail met the railroad and off to Kansas City.

Dallas, called Big D, is where Texas gets big. Big money, big oil, big times, big hair, big and bigger and the biggest buckle in the bible belt. It's where Texas meets the east.

You can't compare the two. They're two different part of the country, bound by DFW.

[socketz]

Personally, I think Fort Worth feels alot like Austin.

The look of the city itself reminds me alot of downtown San Diego.

Definitely not hick..

[txman]

I moved to Fort Worth from Boston before moving to Dallas. I personally see very little of what anyone would find great about Fort Worth. The good things is it is quiet and the people are friendly ( for the most part). Downtown is nice and quaint...but not a big city downtown, more like a clean, sterile toruist attraction, with lots of chain restaurants, and a very small town like nightlife. Also, there are some good neighborhoods but it seems more of the city is rundown than cleaned up. Sorry, but the city is just downright unattractive, including that horrible skyline. And everything to the north is mostly sprawling cheap subdivison housing and strip malls. Also the city doesn't seem very diverse as far as mixing of races. There's a real redneck feel to the place. I'm white with many minority friends and I defintely felt a racist undertone to the town. Shopping is very pedestrian as the city lacks cool shops and jobs are not as plentiful and pay much less than they do in Dallas. Plus the whole cowboy thing gets very old, very quickly. Just be prepared for everything to move very slowly in FW. I felt like time was standing still there.

Dallas has its problems, but it is just more of a big city and seems to be striving to become more of an urban, cosmopolitan, location. FW is striving to become a tourist attraction, IMO.

[Spade]

Ft. Worth- laid back slower pace, western themed, downtown just a bit more active because of Sundance Square. Little pockets of urbanity but suburban devlopment is fare outpacing it because they have so much open space. The city where the west begins.

Dallas- fast paced, ritzy, glitzy, more diverse, more cosmopolitan, the big city of the metroplex and North Texas, becoming more urban and transit oriented (long way to go though). The city where the east ends.

[KantLockeMeIn]

Vibrant downtown? Maybe I missed it, but I went on a Saturday and it was a ghost town. We looked for some nice botique shops and found nothing.
As a whole everything looked tired and worn. When we moved here we joked that there must be a secret police force that ships off old people here in Dallas, because we rarely see old people. Then we went to Fort Worth and realized that it's where they get shipped to.

The museums are nice, and the zoo is amazing, but you only visit those maybe once a year and it's not too far of a drive.

[socketz]

I've only been there at night on weekends and both times it seemed pretty happening. Maybe during the week it's more slow pace because there doesn't seem to be much large commercial industry in downtown Fort Worth. Dallas of course is home to alot of large companies, so there is that element of Dallas that I don't think Fort Worth can match.