Where does it end/begin? Fort Worth and Dallas. (Arlington: home, to live in)

[TexasReb]

Just curious...as this question could be put on the Dallas thread as well..

But at what point (or, suburb) do Fort Worth and Dallasites consider the "influence" of each to begin/end?

Being a native of Wichita Falls, I am not unfamiliar with the metroplex...and in fact, I have immediate family who live in the DFW area.

Thing is, when I was growing up, there was Ft. Worth and Dallas. Between them, there was Arlington, Irving, and Grand Prarie. Nothing else really counted. But yet, this was in the 60's. And they were just considered small cities..

Oh man, did it "explode" after that. LOL Today, there are too many to count. Suburbs, that is.

So question is...where does the line between Fort Worth and Dallas influence (for lack of a better term) divide...?

[hypocore]

I don't think there really is an actual end any more, except for the invisible county lines. It all blends together now...from Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Parker, Ellis, Johnson just to name a few...all run into each other. Unless you are basically born and raised in one particular city, you don't always realize you've left one area and gone into the next.

Personally I see Fort Worth ending once I hit Irving or Grand Prairie (which is in 3 different counties haha)

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by hypocore

I don't think there really is an actual end any more, except for the invisible county lines. It all blends together now...from Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Parker, Ellis, Johnson just to name a few...all run into each other. Unless you are basically born and raised in one particular city, you don't always realize you've left one area and gone into the next.

Personally I see Fort Worth ending once I hit Irving or Grand Prairie (which is in 3 different counties haha)

LOL Almost sounds like the DFW Airport area is the transition zone..?

[Dangerfield]

I've always considered Highway 360 the dividing line between Dallas and Ft Worth. 360 runs north/south from DFW airport to I-20. The urban scenery changes significantly once you cross 360 heading east towards Dallas or west toward Ft Worth, IMO.

[loves2read]

the influence does not stop at city/county lines

Dallas has HUGH influence because it definitely gets more media attention and if something happens in the area and is taken to national news it ALWAYS (90+%) of the time gets labled DALLAS vs Fort Worth or the actual town that the event happened in--at least in the headline and opening lead...

just as we still have the DALLAS Cowboys who are housed in Arlington but practice in Irving...

I think that Dallas will always overshadow FTW and any local suburb/town because of its size and the fact that President Kennedy was shot here--frankly that put Dallas ON the mental map that most people have of Texas and asking them to revise it to include any other satellite areas is asking too much...
because we have lived here for so long, we know right away when we are driving the freeways when we leave Dallas for Irving or FTW for Hurst or Richland Hills...our familiarity is not 360 because we don't often go into Frisco/Plano/McKinney areas and I am sure that other people are more familiar with Dallas than FTW areas...
you are already IN Irving by the time you get to 360

[hypocore]

Originally Posted by loves2read

because we have lived here for so long, we know right away when we are driving the freeways when we leave Dallas for Irving or FTW for Hurst or Richland Hills...our familiarity is not 360 because we don't often go into Frisco/Plano/McKinney areas and I am sure that other people are more familiar with Dallas than FTW areas...
you are already IN Irving by the time you get to 360

Um, 360 ends in Grapevine, so I suspect you actually mean you don't often take 121 to get to Frisco/Plano/Mckinney?

This is how I interpret 'influence'.
Dallas, in general, is a fast paced, international city, with many specialized, high end choices to shop, eat or visit along with the mainstream choices on an adequate level.
Therefore.......New Yorkers from NYC feel at home in Dallas, but love to 'tour' Fort Worth.

Fort Worth, in general, is a slower paced, more suburban city with a vast selection of mainstream places to shop, eat or visit and a smaller selection of high end places. It's more family friendly and midwesterners often feel at home while they feel out of place in Dallas. They might go there for a night out, but return home to Fort Worth.

Frisco, McKinney and parts of Plano are most definitely under the influence of Dallas in that they've each become, in their own time, the up and coming place to be...the 'happening' place, without being at all in or fully in Dallas county.

Many of the outlying cities around Fort Worth feel the slower paced and suburban influence with a less international feel.

[texastim]

To me, there is no dividing line. Dallas and Fort Worth are a metroplex. I think all this talk of Dallas and Fort Worth of being two completely different personalities that are not really linked in any way except through suburbs is extremely provinical. There are only 25 or 30 miles that separate Dallas and Fort Worth. As such, all towns and cities are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, not the Dallas or Fort Worth area. Mesquite is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area as White Settlement is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Both Dallas and Fort Worth contribute equally to make the Metroplex what it is.

[edubya]

Going east on I-20 or I-30, I always felt I was leaving the Fort Worth area once I passed Arlington.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by texastim

To me, there is no dividing line. Dallas and Fort Worth are a metroplex. I think all this talk of Dallas and Fort Worth of being two completely different personalities that are not really linked in any way except through suburbs is extremely provinical. There are only 25 or 30 miles that separate Dallas and Fort Worth. As such, all towns and cities are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, not the Dallas or Fort Worth area. Mesquite is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area as White Settlement is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Both Dallas and Fort Worth contribute equally to make the Metroplex what it is.

But what is instrinsically wrong with being "provincial"?

There is nothing wrong with a "healthy rivalry" between cities. And far as that goes, the original question wasn't intended to start a fight, but just to get input from natives of the "metroplex" -- because it has grown up so much over the years -- as to where natives would consider the more "eastern cosmoplitan" Dallas and the more "cowtown western" Fort Worth" to begin/end.

Personally, although I wouldn't want to live in either -- simply because of the size, traffic, and sprawl -- I can appreciate the seperate identities of both. And certainly that both nuture their own, so to speak...

[JS1]

The fact that this web site has separate forums for Dallas and Ft Worth just goes to show you that the two cities will forever be at war with one another.