Question about Houston first impression vs. Dallas first impression (living, crime, people)

[texas7]

Okay - I have a question and it isn't to start some Houston vs. Dallas debate but a real question. I love Houston so I'm not knocking our city or putting the "D" above it.

What is it about Dallas that makes it look so much cleaner than Houston from the initial drive through on any of their freeways? If you are just on the major freeways - Dallas appears cleaner and less neglected (at least it did so to me). I had business there so didn't really drive into areas outside of where I needed to be so was mainly on freeways or a mile or two off of them. I am sure as any big city, it has its good areas and bad areas but I just really didn't see them. Even the areas that looked a bit bad from the freeway, didn't look as bad as what I see from Houston's freeways. Why is that? I asked a friend and he said it appeared the same to him as well.

Another co-worker said Dallas was too plain for him -- said that he really never saw any black or hispanic people there because Dallas really stays pretty segregated. I saw black, white and hispanic while there so I have no idea what he is talking about or where he was.

[EasilyAmused]

It's the location of their airport. Burbia blew up around it. Billboard restrictions, stucco strip malls, etc.So you get this "good impression" right off the bat. Houston's airport is in an area where no one wants to live. You drive to Kingwood, The Woodlands or into the city for the closest desirable areas.

Also, Houston has more areas of "lower income" single family Homes sprinkled through. Pockets of "nice" wedged in areas of not so nice. Dallas has the exclusive areas and tons of burbs. It's lower income/Lack of HOA areas seem to be strictly to the south of Dallas. Going along North on Central Express way is very similar to Going due west on I-10 from the loop to Katy. When they expanded the freeway, we lost most of the billboards,and there's not many junkie strip malls left along there. 45 and 59 are loaded with ugly.

I always termed Dallas "The Concrete City" when I lived there. Other than the areas of the Park Cities and White Rock, it was a treeless plain of concrete to me. I like Dallas, I'm just happy to be living in a forest.

[jimmyev]

Upon first sight, along the freeways out in suburbia, the two cities look pretty much the same. Mesquite, Garland, Irving, Arlington don't look much different than what you find along some sections of Houston freeways. Neither does Plano and Frisco look much different from the freeways than Katy, Sugar Land or the Woodlands. My parents, when visiting my aunt in Frisco or me in Clear Lake, think of Dallas and Houston as virtual, interchangeable replicas of one another. They call both 'concrete cities.'

[blkgiraffe]

Originally Posted by jimmyev

Upon first sight, along the freeways out in suburbia, the two cities look pretty much the same. Mesquite, Garland, Irving, Arlington don't look much different than what you find along some sections of Houston freeways. Neither does Plano and Frisco look much different from the freeways than Katy, Sugar Land or the Woodlands. My parents, when visiting my aunt in Frisco or me in Clear Lake, think of Dallas and Houston as virtual, interchangeable replicas of one another. They call both 'concrete cities.'

Frisco and Clear Lake???? No way.

[modster]

We would be a whole lot prettier if they had never built all the feeder roads on the freeways.

[hsw]

From a business traveler perspective, have always viewed Dallas and Houston as rather similar in basic looks/culture/ethos/economy....same efficient, decentralized suburban sprawl model of LA or SiliconValley or Chicago's NorthShore/DuPage suburban office corridors or NYC's NJ/CT suburban office corridors

HighlandPark is much like BevHills: big new houses on mockably puny lots and plenty of slums (and crime) bordering HP on nearly any side except North

PrestonHollow is more elegant appearing than RiverOaks, largely because more newer homes (esp ParkLane) are on wooded >2 acre lots...part of City of Dallas, though suburban-appearing....and people hire private security and send rugrats to private schools, much as in RiverOaks

Nearly all the key offices are in CrescentCourt/Irving/Plano, not really in downtown, sort of like Hou's Galleria/EC concentrations....and key offices are convenient to suburban areas where most execs live