Is Dallas green with trees? Are people friendly? (Plano, Center: weddings, agriculture)

[Sunbather]

Growing up on the east coast (born in NY, lived mostly in NC/SC/GA after that) I definitely do not find Dallas to be green in comparison to the east coast, but it's not a desert either. The older neighborhoods do in fact have more trees, which is one reason I enjoy living in the M Streets.

That being said, I've been here 2.5 years and I really love it. I enjoy the weather and the culture and have found a lot more interesting and open-minded people than where I was previously (SC).

[PriscillaVanilla]

Originally Posted by Nn2036

Old DFW neighborhoods have a lot of beautiful mature trees. Unfortunately, people here dont like tree for fear of foundation problem as well as falling tree during storm. Most of new neighborhoods are devoid of tree and people dont plant them like they used to.

In parts of Allen you'll find entire neighborhoods without a single tree. typically the neighborhoods with McMansions don't have trees or even shrubs.

[Dallaz]

Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla

In parts of Allen you'll find entire neighborhoods without a single tree. typically the neighborhoods with McMansions don't have trees or even shrubs.

That’s one of many reason, that I would NEVER want to live in Collin County.

[madrone2k]

I'm late to this discussion, so I've missed many of the posts, but I agree with one of the first by bluescreen73. I would not expect Dallas to have as much extensive forest and other greenery as Atlanta, although some of the more established neighborhoods can have a nice tree canopy. As a Houstonian, I would say that my home town does have some areas with natural forest similar to Atlanta, at least where it hasn't been removed by humans (which it mostly has been). However, like Dallas and Austin and other cities, there are more established neighborhoods that have nice (human-cultivated) tree canopies. Denver has neighborhoods like that, as well, but I agree that Dallas will be a lot greener than Denver, overall. Actually ... Denver has always reminded me of a more arid mini-version of Dallas. Yeah, in Denver, you can see the mountains off to the west, but in the city, one has to settle for enjoying man-made things, just like most Texas cities. Dallas has a lot more in-town things to do than Denver, so that's a big plus. The major positive difference in Denver is low humidity. :-)

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Dallaz

https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=LLT...&v=yaIghN4xyco

Great video but let's keep that to ourselves. And for another area several miles west of the location you posted an acquaintance was laid to rest at Dallas National Cemetery a few weeks ago. Anyone who thinks Dallas is flat needs to visit that place an walk around a bit.

[hbdwihdh378y9]

Originally Posted by Dallaz

That’s one of many reason, that I would NEVER want to live in Collin County.

It's funny, I was going to say I'm a 214 guy all the way and then I saw your "reppin' the 214" thing.

I dated a girl from Lake Highlands who, one Halloween in the late '90s, went out dressed as 972. I was amused.

[edwinpa7]

If you want trees galore, come down to Houston for a visit. It's super green.

[stephwin]

Originally Posted by PriscillaVanilla

In parts of Allen you'll find entire neighborhoods without a single tree. typically the neighborhoods with McMansions don't have trees or even shrubs.

While I don't know the specifics for Allen, most cities in the burbs (and even the HOAs themselves) have very strict guidelines as far as the minimum number of trees, including type and size, and the type of landscaping required.

I live in a neighborhood that is full of McMansions and the two Oak trees in my front yard are both over 20 feet tall (my house is only 13 years old, so not that old). I also have 2 Magnolias that are about the same height in the front too. All of the trees have actually grown so tall that my entire front yard is too shaded to grow Bermuda grass. I have shrubs and flowers that extend across the entire front of my house as well. When we were house hunting we scoured most of NW Frisco and there is not a single neighborhood that will let you get away with no trees or shrubs.

[turf3]

Well, the Dallas area is similar to the eastern edge of the Great Plains all up and down from just west of Houston to the Canadian border. Originally, most of the land was grassland, but with a lot of trees and brush along rivers, creeks, and draws.

Just before the massive expansion of Dallas away from the near surroundings of the Trinity River, most of the areas north of downtown were devoted to pasturage or row crop agriculture. I remember how there used to be remnants of this all through North Dallas in my childhood in the 60s and early 70s. Of course, trees also commonly grow up in fence lines, and usually they're just left alone. Also, farm houses typically aren't located down in draws, and so they usually have planted trees around the house.

Typically, when developers bought pasture and farmland for subdivisions, they would plant trees on the lots where there were no trees. In the older days, they would leave existing trees (as noted, along creeks and draws, and along fence lines, and where farm houses used to stand) and those lots were more expensive. Later on, the trend developed of just bulldozing everything including large mature trees, and planting a little stick tree in each front yard.

So, if you drive through places like Lakewood, Highland Park, and Preston Hollow, the majority of the trees you see were planted at the time of the subdivisions being developed; exceptions being on lots that are next to existing draws and creeks.

Of course there are areas like the Trinity Forest that have always been in the river bottom, thus heavily treed; a combination of cost to raise the land, constant flooding, and no one wanting to build in that area anyway (can you say "dumping the bodies in the river"?) has kept that area from being stripped and developed.

[TheOverdog]

Regardless of what DFW looked like the 1960s, it was still manicured farmland then. Farmers cut down the trees, so it's not representative of anything other than what it happened to look like at that time.

Trinity River south 1920s - trees as far as the eye can see.
https://flashbackdallas.files.wordpr...smu_foscue.jpg
Building the WhiteRock Lake dam - 1911. trees all around.
https://thedallaswhisperer.files.wor...istory_dam.jpg
North Texas Masonic Historical Museum - Plano Magazine - trees all around downtown Plano
https://flashbackdallas.com/2016/05/...d-east-dallas/ - you can see the spindly trees the Lakewood developers planted in front of houses in 1938, same as it ever was. And the treecover across WhiteRock lake.
http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cd...tion/wrl/id/11
This is an aerial of WhiteRock from the 1920s that makes it really obvious that trees were cut to form pasture lines and roads.

Also as easy as hackberrys and oaks grow in Dallas, there is no reason to believe that DFW was some treeless plain before people came along and planted trees. The trees were here; the people came, they cut them down, then they replanted. Maybe if we had photos of the 1600s-1800s of Dallas we could decide if it was treeless. But not before then.

While I don't know the specifics for Allen, most cities in the burbs (and even the HOAs themselves) have very strict guidelines as far as the minimum number of trees, including type and size, and the type of landscaping required.

That's a really nice way of saying that there is no neighborhood in Allen that doesn't have trees or any landscaping.