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Other than the ocean access, what does San Diego offer that Dallas does not have? I guess climate but after that I genuinely would draw a blank. I'd even be inclined to say when it comes to big city amenities Dallas trumps San Diego quite handily.
I've been everywhere and can honestly say that Dallas is the most boring large city of them all. It's so dull that I cut my visit short and went straight to Houston (A much better city).
Just a few reasons why I think SD is the better of the two:
Higher educational attainments
Lower poverty rate
Lower crime rate
Balboa Park>Klyde Warren Park
Coronado Bay Bridge>McDermott Bridge (A waste of money for an unspectacular location)
Better access to the outdoors
Less sprawly
Craft beer scene
Lower unemployment rate
Fitter populace
Way better setting, Dallas is ugly
More vibrant downtown. Victory Park is a ghost town.
In n Out>Whataburger
More places to hang out. No one is outside in Dallas.
SD is more expensive for a reason. Dallas isn't worth it.
Feel free to list your reasons why Dallas is the better city without mentioning the airport, skyline or sports teams. I didn't even need to mention the ocean or weather.
I've been everywhere and can honestly say that Dallas is the most boring large city of them all. It's so dull that I cut my visit short and went straight to Houston (A much better city).
It doesn't sound like you've explored much of Dallas, especially if you thought Houston was much better. I think Dallas & Houston are fairly equal cities, so I find that surprising. Did you visit Uptown, Bishop Arts, Deep Ellum, or Lower Greenville? Walk the Katy Trail? White Rock Lake? Those are great spots with people actually outside. Similar to Houston and LA, you have to know where to look. But I do find Dallas slightly more visitor and pedestrian friendly than Houston. Now to your other points that I find curious:
Balboa Park>Klyde Warren Park Kind of apples to oranges. There's a major size difference between the two and they're used for different functions. You would have to pull in the Dallas Arts District next door to it for a slightly fairer comparison. Even then, Fair Park, the Dallas Zoo, and Arboretum are in separate areas. However, I can see how Balboa is attractive for having a large concentration of amenities.
Craft beer scene Neither city is like Portland's, but Dallas's has improved over the past few years. San Diego may indeed have a better craft beer scene than Dallas, but I've never heard of it described as such. What places did you visit in Dallas?
More vibrant downtown. Victory Park is a ghost town. Victory Park is NOT Downtown. Apples to oranges comparison. Downtown Dallas itself is less vibrant than DT San Diego, but definitely more vibrant than Victory Park. It's also technically not the epicenter of everything in Dallas. Most of the better nightlife options are in nearby Deep Ellum and Uptown. Downtown Houston is very similar to Downtown Dallas, so again I find it surprising that you prefer it much more.
I'm not saying any of this makes Dallas better than San Diego, but it sounds like you drove over the McDermott Bridge, visited Victory Park for either a game or the Perot, and perhaps Klyde Warren and that was it? I could be wrong....
I've been everywhere and can honestly say that Dallas is the most boring large city of them all. It's so dull that I cut my visit short and went straight to Houston (A much better city).
Just a few reasons why I think SD is the better of the two:
Higher educational attainments
Lower poverty rate
Lower crime rate
Balboa Park>Klyde Warren Park
Coronado Bay Bridge>McDermott Bridge (A waste of money for an unspectacular location)
Better access to the outdoors
Less sprawly
Craft beer scene
Lower unemployment rate
Fitter populace
Way better setting, Dallas is ugly
More vibrant downtown. Victory Park is a ghost town.
In n Out>Whataburger
More places to hang out. No one is outside in Dallas.
SD is more expensive for a reason. Dallas isn't worth it.
Feel free to list your reasons why Dallas is the better city without mentioning the airport, skyline or sports teams. I didn't even need to mention the ocean or weather.
Dallas has In N Out. Dallas even has 99 Ranch and 85 degrees C bakery, the Chinese supermarket and bakery you find in San Diego.
Ever had Waffle House? Far better than IHOP.
As for sprawl, San Diego suburbs, esp Escondido and Poway, are just as sprawly as Plano or Frisco.
Dallas gets more of the four seasons, with snow every year. Also, much more rain and greenery in the summer than San Diego.
Feel free to list your reasons why Dallas is the better city without mentioning the airport, skyline or sports teams. I didn't even need to mention the ocean or weather.
Not that I voted for Dallas in this, but those are kind of big things to omit(and also three things SD would come up short with against nearly every other major city)-while the beaches are really in the domain of the state of California, not San Diego.
You probably only really visited the southern half of Dallas to say that the city is mostly ghetto. Oak Cliff is massive, probably more massive than you realize. It really depends on what part of Oak cliff you’re in. Some parts of Oak Cliff is extremely nice with multimillion dollar homes, other parts are very blited.
That’s the first time I’ve ever heard someone say that, again you’ve probably have not spent a lot of time all around the city.
The place where my friend lived in is not nice at all. A former friend of mine was robbed at gunpoint down there in early 2016. And where my partner used to live in Pleasant Grove in the 2000s, used to have frequent drive bys. Supposedly its a lot better now. I'm not saying all of the city is ghetto, but it has some pretty rough parts and the people I know who have lived IN Dallas are very familiar with that aspect of it.
In comparison, I grew up in Miami, but the areas I grew up in are generally safe. But I'm not gonna deny that many neighbourhoods are EXTREMELY dangerous and full of drugs, gangs and just overall violence. Thankfully I grew up away from those zones. Some of the people I know from Dallas, didn't.
As for sprawl, San Diego suburbs, esp Escondido and Poway, are just as sprawly as Plano or Frisco.
Dallas gets more of the four seasons, with snow every year. Also, much more rain and greenery in the summer than San Diego.
1. Waffle House is greasy and disgusting. You're really stretching if this is a reason to like Dallas over San Diego. Really just pathetic and sad...
2. San Diego is one of the most compact metros in the country. 95% of the population lives within an "urbanized area" as defined by the census. The size of San Diego's urbanized area is on par with San Francisco, Philly, NYC, LA as opposed to truly sprawling metros like Dallas. Basically, it's very compact because it's surrounded by barriers on all sides.
3. The 4 seasons of Dallas are unpleasant. It's a weak version of a real 4 seasons. Hard pass.
Nope. Sports Stadiums? Dallas has the mightily impressive Cowboys stadium next door in Arlington; San Diego does have Petco Park (nice, but nowhere as impressive as the Cowboys stadium) and the old, very unimpressive Qualcomm stadium (the football team left the stadium last year).
I guess size really is more important than quality/experience in Texas. I'd take an urban stadium in a vibrant neighborhood with public transit any day over a massive building surrounded by an even more massive parking lot. Actually, I'd rather go the beach for free than pay $100 to spend my day in a hot parking lot and uncomfortable stadium seat. But hey, at least San Diegans have choices.
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Culinary scene? Asian food? You'll be sorely disappointed to learn that Authentic Chinese and Vietnamese food in San Diego (not PF Changs) is few and far between outside a couple inner city neighborhoods.
Absolutely, unequivocally false. This literally shows you know nothing about San Diego and are desperately making things up. In addition to having internationally famous chains from Asia that Dallas can't even land (e.g. Din Tai Fung, Red Ribbon, Paris Bagguette, Jollibee, Chowking, Yoshinoya, Tea Station/Ten Ren, Meet Fresh, Happy Lemon, etc.) San Diego is a main touchdown points for authentic, smaller companies from Asia as well (e.g. Menya Ultra Ramen, Yokohama Yakitori Kubou). Historically, San Diego has also had a sizeable Asian population and our homegrown selection is better than most metros (although obviously no SF/LA/NYC). Not to mention the ingredients aren't even fresh in Dallas. A significant number of Asian cuisines use fresh fish. Sorry, you aren't getting that in Dallas.
Dallas doesn't even come close. Not to mention that Irvine is 1 hour away and LA is 2 hours away. There's just no comparison.
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And even when you get to those neighborhoods the Chinese food is very disappointing. If you want your waffle house or some top notch Texas BBQ, you won't find it in San Diego. Dallas actually has tons upon tons of Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese food, especially in Plano/Richardson.
Well San Diego actually has them in San Diego...where 16% of people are of Asian origin. They are spread out throughout San Diego (Mira Mesa, National City, Chula Vista, Rancho Bernardo, Convoy, etc.
Waffle house is a joke. San Diego has perfectly fine BBQ, which frankly is not something you eat that often.
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Don't get me wrong, San Diego does have a beautiful, world-class university (UCSD), but Dallas has SMU, with the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
SMU is no where near the same league as UCSD or SDSU. Not in reputation, innovation, or impact. Having a presidential library doesn't make up for SMU's shortcomings compared to SD universities.
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Who has better transit? Surprisingly, it's Dallas. Dallas has a direct light rail connection from Downtown to DFW Airport; San Diego's not building one anytime soon to their airport.
Hah, wrong once again. The San Diego trolley has more ridership than DART despite SD Metro having half as many people and DART having twice as many route miles. The San Diego Blue Line is the most successful light rail line in the entire country from a cost/subsidy perspective (it has the highest fare recovery ratio at 80%).
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Dallas light rail has lines to Plano, Carrollton, Richardson (basically Dallas' suburban Chinatown), Rowlett--all these suburbs, plus the Dallas zoo.
San Diego light rail goes to a whole different country. Not sure what your fixation with sterile, boring, suburban Plano is. That's definitely not a "destination" that anyone cares abut. Personally, I'm more exciting by the fact that I can travel to a foreign country on San Diego's light rail. There are plenty of bus options to San Diego's other attractions. Better yet, why not just bike or walk?
San Diego also has significantly better inter-city rail, being the terminus of the 2nd busiest Amtrak corridor in the US and the 10th busiest Amtrak station in the country.
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San Diego light rail serves a smaller portion of San Diego than Dallas light rail serves Dallas. San Diego light rail doesn't even go to Balboa Park. Look it up. Dallas' light rail is the longest light rail in the U.S. The flat terrain of Dallas means it's far easier to build a more extensive rail network. Ok, maybe Fort Worth has worse public transit than San Diego, but that's a different story.
DART's system is 93 miles long and San Diego's is 53 miles long. Dallas Metro has more than twice as many people and is way more sprawling than San Diego, so I highly doubt DART serves a higher portion of Dallas than the trolley does for San Diego. More importantly, the lower ridership suggests that DART does NOT serve a larger portion.
Dallas only has the longest light rail system because it severely lacks other rail. Houston and Dallas are the only metros in the top 10 that do not have Metrorail/subway. 93 miles of light rail is unimpressive considering the metro's size.
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Fine arts? San Diego is great, but Dallas-Fort Worth is no slouch either, with the world-class Van Cliburn piano competition held at TCU.
Piano competition is the best thing the 4th largest US Metro has to offer for fine arts? Yikes... really lacking in this category.
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Population density? Surprise surprise, San Diego has 4003/sq mile, and Dallas has 3600/sq mile. San Diego is really only marginally denser than Dallas.
Jurisdictional boundaries are arbitrary and do not speak to the actual density of neighborhoods. San Diego is ranked 10th in the nation in population-weighted density. Dallas is ranked 34. Not even a comparison. San Diego's downtown and urban neighborhoods are vibrant. Dallas doesn't compare.
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The main reason why San Diego might be better than Dallas in some people's minds is the weather. Never any snow or ice in San Diego. Also, downtown San Diego have far milder summers. BUT--and this is a big BUT--the rest of San Diego is hotter than downtown San Diego, and San Diego sees zero rain all summer, every summer, unlike Dallas, which remains relatively green throughout the summer from rain.
Beautiful scenery from the comforts of your air-conditioned car, office, or home. PASS.
There are very few metrics in which Dallas is better than San Diego; however, those few things are actually quite important: (1) job market and (2) COL.
Also forgot to mention that San Diego is far more innovative and safe than Dallas
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