West Plano: Where exactly is it? What makes it so great? (Garland: place to live, restaurants)

[Lakewooder]

Baseless? You cannot deny that the growth of the northern suburbs is not based on white flight. It may no longer be the basis for the growth in certain areas, but that is how it started.

I lived through all this as a student in Dallas schools in the 1960s and 70s, as someone who majored in Real Estate at SMU and through buying, selling and managing Real Estate for 25 years. I have been a licensed RE Broker for even more years.

Calling others 'ignorant', 'resentful' and 'pathological' fits right in with the West Plano stereotype, btw.

[tycobb2522]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Baseless? You cannot deny that the growth of the northern suburbs is not based on white flight. It may no longer be the basis for the growth in certain areas, but that is how it started.

I lived through all this as a student in Dallas schools in the 1960s and 70s, as someone who majored in Real Estate at SMU and through buying, selling and managing Real Estate for 25 years. I have been a licensed RE Broker for even more years.

Calling others 'ignorant', 'resentful' and 'pathological' fits right in with the West Plano stereotype, btw.

Oh so being a real estate agent makes you an expert in urban sociology? Give me a break! Being a real estate agent MIGHT make you an expert in real estate....

Expansion of the suburbs was a result of the proliferation of employment centers to the north, increasing population in the area in general, and land prices. As a real estate agent, even YOU should know that.

And creating racial strawmen every time you find yourself in a corner fits right in with the sterotype of one who can't put together a legitimate argument. It also fits right in with the sterotype of a hypocrite. You never did answer my question regarding the percent of minorities that attended SMU, the university you chose to attend. I know you said that you hung out with your buddies from Lakewood, and that made you diverse, but that's not really an answer, is it?

As I said before, your petulant little jabs at everything not Lakewood are wearing very thin. Your constant selfish battle for attention (read 5900 posts in a little over a year, and many of them sniveling swipes at Plano) is not becoming of you. Even the people who are usually somewhat reserved are calling you out on your transparent little insults. Be advised that your juvenile behavior will result in only more humiliation for you if it continues.

[Big G]

Uh, seeing as how probably half or more of Plano's population are transplants from other cities, and the city is over 25% non-white, I'm not sure how "white flight" fits in here. Besides, I thought white flight took place in the 60s and 70s, and Plano wasn't even heating up until the 1990s.

[Grainraiser]

There is no queston that Plano's growth is due to white flight. He is correct on this one. The excellent school system they have now is one of the results.

[Big G]

Yeah, I was down at SMU a couple of weeks back, and the whole Aryan-ness was quite unnerving. I was in a sandwich shop, and the only black guy in sight was working the back of the house. The Highland Park baseball team had a poster in the store's window - not a single black face to be seen. They also had a poster for the lily-white cheerleaders for HP. Then again, I think there are fewer than 10 black kids in the whole school, and you can assume they all live in UP, not HP.

The school itself has a reasonable number of blacks and Hispanics, but that neighborhood is downright scary.

[Grainraiser]

"I think there are fewer than 10 black kids in the whole school, and you can assume they all live in UP, not HP."

I think you may be off by 9.5 students.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Grainraiser

"I think there are fewer than 10 black kids in the whole school, and you can assume they all live in UP, not HP."

I think you may be off by 9.5 students.

Yep, cause blacks in HP/UP only count for 1/2 a person.

[unexpected]

Is Plano the city it is today from the 50,000 people that moved there during the 1970's, or from the 150,000 people that have moved there since 1990?

Most of the population growth has occurred post-1990. Additionally, West Plano was still mainly grass in 1992 - 1993. The West Plano you love to hate wasn't even around during your "white flight" argument.

The "white flight" argument that you're talking about are the first-ring suburbs. Population data backs this out. You are the one putting down Plano because it's "new rich". The "new rich" argument doesn't support your white flight argument. Wouldn't the "wealthy white flighters" who moved to Plano be part of the old rich?

You can argue that some form of white flight is still happening today. Let's see- Plano's population has stayed relatively constant. Our lack of available land, coupled with our budget deficit problems that you were fond of mentioning a few weeks ago, the stable population growth, and our 25% minority rate are indicative of a mature, maybe even slightly declining economic base.

[Grainraiser]

While the first-ring surburbs were the first to experience white flight more and more minorities moved to them in the late 80's and early 90's which caused the movement to spread further. I remember when all the first-ring surburbs were mostly white. The whites in Oak Cliff began to move to Duncanville, Cedar Hill and Desoto during the early to mid-80's. Minorities began to move with them and they left those areas to Red Oak, Ovilla etc. Oak Cliff was mostly black for years. Now whites are moving to North Oak Cliff and Hispanics are moving further South in Oak Cliff. Plano started to grow in the mid-80's and the average home price is what keep alot of minorities from moving to the area. I am not saying this was intentional and I am sure it was driven by supply and demand. Just because Plano/Frisco/McKinney/Allen is more affluent then most of the large burbs in DFW doe not make the area racist. I just simply means that if the average price of a home is higher the number of minorities will be lower.

[Lakewooder]

I went to SMU because my friends were going there and it was 5-10 minutes from my house. Yes, I was pretty shocked at how lily-white it was. I was getting all these comments about 'busing' when people would see my class photo on the wall - actually we didn't have busing, we were naturally integrated. Yes, I hung out with my Woodrow friends and I met most of the minority kids at SMU so I got their perspective. I have to admit it was pretty entertaining making fun of some the "Aryans from Darien".

While at SMU, the corporate Real Estate VP for EDS visited one of my classes. He sneak-previewed the grand plans for the new EDS campus which was fleeing Dallas for Plano. He then proceeded to belittle Dallas schools and said that was the reason they were moving. What he didn't know was that probably 1/3 to 1/2 of the class was comprised of DISD graduates. But we soon clued him in..if you weren't around they you might not know that bad schools was code for integrated schools.

Many people would say that West Plano didn't take off until EDS moved there and starting developing and selling the adjacent acreage...so call me 'ignorant' if you wish but I think there just might be a connection!