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Is Dallas - struggling with maintaining it still tied to Oil or at least its wealthy image? No, but maybe among our younger two generations perhaps. Still plenty of debate if Dallas still is key to a Texas identity to the world.....
Ehh I’d say it still is. It seems to me that people group Dallas as the most “Texas” big city in Texas. Not that Houston and Austin arent “Texan” because they 100% are. But the stereotypes to old school Texas seem most tied to Dallas. Maybe it’s because the Cowboys play there. Maybe it’s Big Tex. Maybe it’s because Houston has the Hip Hop culture and Austin has the white liberal culture attatchmenrs. But whatever it is, I often hear people falsely think Dallas is “old school Texan” while it clearly is something else. Even Fort Worth which actually gets some of those Texas vibes isnt that either. Considering Dallas ran away with it in the “most associated with Texas” poll here and won (by not a huge margin) but still won on Reddit, I’d say people still see it that way. Frankly, this is why I put Dallas as my #9 on my list tied with San Jose. Dallas certainly has more urban identity than San Jose, but San Jose evens this out with its tech image.
Ehh I’d say it still is. It seems to me that people group Dallas as the most “Texas” big city in Texas. Not that Houston and Austin arent “Texan” because they 100% are. But the stereotypes to old school Texas seem most tied to Dallas. Maybe it’s because the Cowboys play there. Maybe it’s Big Tex. Maybe it’s because Houston has the Hip Hop culture and Austin has the white liberal culture attatchmenrs. But whatever it is, I often hear people falsely think Dallas is “old school Texan” while it clearly is something else. Even Fort Worth which actually gets some of those Texas vibes isnt that either. Considering Dallas ran away with it in the “most associated with Texas” poll here and won (by not a huge margin) but still won on Reddit, I’d say people still see it that way...
The TV show, JFK, the State Fair and Neiman Marcus also have a lot to do with it too. And of the *MAJOR* cities in Texas, I also think Dallas' more central location and Dallas's more well-rounded economy/corporate base are factors.
I will say though, Houston is definitely the big Texas city people think of first in the black community or if they work in oil/gas, while San Antonio is the city people think of first if they're the Military or a tourist, and Austin is the city people think of first if they're in Tech.
Now, if there's any one city in Texas that is struggling with its identity (it technically missed this list because it's just shy of 1 million), it's Fort Worth. From a national perspective, it's almost never mentioned without Dallas in the same breath. Also, there have been discussions about how it seems to mostly function as a bedroom community to Dallas and the suburbs in Dallas/Collin County.
^^access to ski country
that's about it--but a bit IT.
What's that saying: Q: when's A-Basin closing for the season? A: it's not.
San Jose getting a bad rap.
Quote:
Originally Posted by odurandina
i say Portland, OR
What an effing nightmare.
San Jose is just fine. They know who they are, and don't care much about
towers, and iconic street walls. They wear tee shirts to work.
They're happy to invent ultra high end techy stuff, and sell it to you,
and rake in a fortune with their stock options,
They run the crypto market while sipping latte.
They retire in Park City, UT, and Jackson, WY.
They done just bought up 3/4 of Montana, Wyoming, North Arizona and Utah.
i could say more but..........
Interesting. I guess having grown up right next to San Jose, I understand it as sort of the heart of Silicon Valley and the city with pretty much every element of the South Bay in some measure. A lot of your most diverse dining scene, if it wasn’t in SF, was in SJ.
In other words, I guess I wouldn’t have considered SJ to be struggling with identity, but that’s just because of my time out there.
Phoenix is sort of known as the suburbs’ suburb?
Philly has history and cheese steaks. But I don’t know anything substantial that’s going on there right now which is noteworthy.
San Antonio is problematic to me as well. I really like San Antonio, but while it’s the old Spanish and Mexican capital of Texas, that Latin influence isn’t that great, and SAT always seems indecisive as to whether it’s Texan or Southwestern or Southern or what.
While we're talking about cities that aren't on the poll, Boston might be a good choice in that it's been losing (or has lost) the tough-guy, Irish mobster identity it had for at least half a century in the mid/late 1900s.
Not really sure what's next for the city, but it will definitely be different.
Boston is well past that stereotype. The future of Boston, and Philly, and possibly San Fran and even NYC (although these last two cities are more diversified) is in biotech. Cambridge/Boston and Philadelphia are leaders in healthcare research and gene therapy. There is a good chance several chronic diseases and viruses that have plagued humanity for centuries will be eradicated for good by research being conducted in labs in these cities...
Agree, not many lumberjacks or bearded men in Seattle.
It's mostly full of Emo 20 year olds, aging grunge Gen Xers, and Bill Gates clones (not talking wealth).
That could be lots of places though.
I think that the issue that makes identity hard to define is that cities don't have identities as much as they have perceptions and those perceptions are usually defined by people that don't live there. They concentrate on what makes a city unique, even if that's not an accurate depiction of the city overall. Cities are always going to be more complex than generalities and the people that live there are going to see the city as more normal than those that don't because they don't focus on the unusual aspects.
The TV show, JFK, the State Fair and Neiman Marcus also have a lot to do with it too. And of the *MAJOR* cities in Texas, I also think Dallas' more central location and Dallas's more well-rounded economy/corporate base are factors.
The TV show? Maybe, but almost anyone who knows anything about that show is an aging population.
JFK? No. That one is specific to Dallas.
State Fair? Sure. The slightly more popular Houston Rodeo is also extremely old school Texan, but I'd say the State Fair "out-Texas" the Houston Rodeo, because the Rodeo also implements local culture. Heck "Houston Rodeo" vs "Texas State Fair" the name shows this. And Austin's SXSW obviously is far less Texan than both.
Neiman Marcus? How is this Texan at all?
Central location? Sure, I'd say this gives it some pointers over why its Texan over Houston. But then again, Austin is seen as even less "Texan" than both Houston and Dallas, yet it's right in the center of the state.
Well rounded economy? No. Texas stereotypes are O&G and cattle.
Houston and Austin have individualized themselves from the state more than Dallas whether on purpose or naturally. Dallas is beginning to individualize itself more, but of these three, if one thinks old school Texan, Dallas comes to mind more than the other two. The things that hold weight in Dallas are just generally more Texan.
For Houston, it's done this for decades with NASA, Texas Medical Center, prominent Hip-hop culture, it's ties to the south, etc.
For Austin, it was quiet and now that it's loud, it's your white liberal capital.
Meanwhile what holds most weight in Dallas pop culture wise with the Cowboys and outsiders often literally think it's cowboyish there and I just laugh at them.
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