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I lived in the DFW metro for almost 20 years. I never got why people called the place pretentious. I've seen more pretentiousness in Florida. Never got the laid back part either.
And it doesn't make a difference if it's open to all Americans or just Texans. There will be straight bullsh*t posted by page 3.
Yeah, I'm tired of seeing this type of Houston vs. Dallas pissing match thread again and again and again on C-D.
You don't see this broken record with, say, Greater L.A. vs. the Bay Area, and there are still quite a few comparative threads on them yet.
As for pretentiousness, as much as I do love California, we have MORE than our share of pretentious people here who do everything they can to avoid living in the real world. All one has to do is visit (no less live in), working from south to north, La Jolla, Del Mar, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Irvine, Santa Monica, Westwood in L.A., Beverly Hills, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo (even though it's an amazing small city), Palo Alto, Burlingame, San Francisco, or Mill Valley to see just what I mean. I just don't see Dallas being so pretentious (unless maybe it's north Dallas) because it is after all a Texan city with plenty of Southern overtones.
It's really the Dallas side of the Metroplex that gets the "pretentious" label.
Also... we have A MILLION Dallas vs. Houston threads in the Texas forums.
Dallas is more fashion forward than Houston. This is the main reason why folks see it as pretentious. Those folks are also right. Houston has its pretentiousness too but far less so than Dallas.
I wonder if this is because more "southern" folks flock to Houston and more "western" folks flock to Dallas?
Because I met more than a few folks from out West in Dallas and there were a lot of Louisianans, Alabamians, and Floridians in Houston.
That's whats weird about the US; all the areas with great weather encouraging for walkability much of the year design their infrastructure against such a concept.
Anyways, both Houston and Dallas are marking improvements to their urban infrastructure at the moment. Lets leave it at that.
That's whats weird about the US; all the areas with great weather encouraging for walkability much of the year design their infrastructure against such a concept.
Anyways, both Houston and Dallas are marking improvements to their urban infrastructure at the moment. Lets leave it at that.
You've obviously never been in Texas from May to October if you think there is great weather encouraging walk-ability. While the temps are nicer in winter, it rains about 1/3 of the days.
Now back to the thread:
Culture: Tie, both have decent museums, music venues, etc.
Geography: Slight advantage to Houston: Both are pretty flat. Both are sprawling metro areas. Houston gets the slight advantage for proximity to the Gulf of Mexico and the distance from Oklahoma.
Economy: Tie, Houston has a lot of engineers in the petrochemical and bio-medical fields, Dallas has more finance, insurance, and tech companies. Personally, I prefer Houston's blue collar focus, but I'm sure other people prefer banking.
People: Advantage Houston: Less $30,000 millionaires. More diverse/international.
Cuisine: Advantage Houston Better Cajun and Tex-Mex (though I would vote San Antonio the best city for Tex-Mex). BBQ is equal between the two, both trail Austin and the Hill Country for BBQ. Houston also has better Indian and Vietnamese, and probably better Southern food.
Better City to be a Tourist In: Advantage Dallas, but only because you can go to the stockyards in Ft. Worth. In reality, neither of these cities are ones that people bring the families to on summer vacations unless you happen to live somewhere within a reasonable drive, or if you are coming from Mexico/Central America to shop. There is just not as much to see and do as there is in most metro areas of this size.
All and all, I think the reason this keeps coming up in the forums is because these cities stack up fairly evenly against each other.
In case anyone was wondering or dared to notice, Dallas and Houston aren't the same cities they were in 1979. This includes everything from the economy & architecture on down to the demographics. The stereotypes have all but dissappeared to smaller little enclaves within the cities.
Both cities are booming fashion-forward and hospitable metropolises that deserved to be reasearched and experienced in detail. Be careful though as you may start to like them too much.
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