*Dallas - Fort Worth: The New Mecca of the South! (Houston: university, living)

[Dallaz]

^^^^ Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[stan4]

Don't enough ignorant people from OUTSIDE of Texas hate on us without us having to squabble amongst ourselves?

Of course I prefer Dallas over Houston, but I know plenty of people who really like living in Houston. And I know people who like living in Baltimore (??!!!! wtf?)...different strokes for different folks.

[codytravers]

Mister Nifty is the smartest poster on this board. Seriously.

[Callo]

Originally Posted by codytravers

Mister Nifty is the smartest poster on this board. Seriously.

I have to agree. And that's sad.

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by stan4

Don't enough ignorant people from OUTSIDE of Texas hate on us without us having to squabble amongst ourselves?

Of course I prefer Dallas over Houston, but I know plenty of people who really like living in Houston. And I know people who like living in Baltimore (??!!!! wtf?)...different strokes for different folks.

Amen! It's so tiresome.

[ClarenceBodiker]

Originally Posted by Mister Nifty

Indeed, the city of Dallas is becoming the major city in Texas.

Cheerleading for Dallas to catch and overtake Houston in size and importance is like Fort Worth people who think they are going to catch up with and overtake Dallas. It's a waste of time and it ain't going to happen in any of our lifetimes. Why can't you just enjoy where you live for what it is? I can think of plenty of reasons why I like living here over living in Houston, but it doesn't include dragging Houston unnecessarily to the curb to accomplish that. On the contrary, I agree with Metro Matt. And what you are doing is not classified as "comparing and contrasting." You are just attacking Houston for the sake of it. Dallas and Houston have more in common with each other than any other two cities in Texas.

[stoneclaw]

mr nifty, you make me laugh!

[codytravers]

you guys are being tiresome by ragging on nifty's thoughts and anecdotes. if you don't agree with what he has to say, click back instead of wasting interweb space.

[First24]

Originally Posted by Mister Nifty

If not really careful in considering where is the best place to live in Texas, then one could find themselves making the wrong decision and being stuck in Houston. Houston lacks a lot of the advantages of the Dallas - Fort Worth area because it has always prided itself on being the largest major city in North America without zoning. Therefore, the city has never felt it needed a plan. "Bohemian" is a word often used about Houston when describing its neighborhoods. While street-lined bayous in Houston are pretty, they hide an ominous fact. In Houston, when the city floods during hurricanes and tropical storms, its business districts become swamps, the freeways become reservoirs trapping thousands of vehicles under water, and half a million dollar homes float away, as was the case when the San Jacinto River went out of its banks not too long ago.
A fact which is becoming more apparent with each passing day, the Dallas - Fort Worth area is beginning to pull away and seperate itself from the Houston area. The larger city to the south, nearly twice the size of Dallas, has been making the wrong decisions for such a long time now that it is having to resort to clinging to the past, to the old things that were once viewed as its advantages.
Indeed, large, tall buildings are still erected in Houston. Why? Well, first off, the Houston area is still heavily dependent on energy. Indeed, when its energy business is good, the area is brimming in money; however, when it is bad, the area goes into a depression (to the extent that it loses population).
When comparing the TOD development potential between the two major areas, Houston isn't just backwards in comparison to Dallas but fifteen years behind. As the Las Colinas business district in Irving stands ready to explode with transit oriented developments upon the arrival of its new DART light rail stations and nearby DFW Airport is about to be connected to downtown Dallas just a year after that, just how many years is it going to take Houston to connect to IAH?
Once again, as Houston has the larger population, in comparison, the city of Dallas is the true major city of the two.
While Houston tries standing firm believing that it is proud about the refurbishment of its downtown area, Dallas took a more difficult but smarter path in performing that task. A visitor might be surprised when visiting the two urban areas. As downtown Houston does have a lot of development inside its surrounding freeway loop system, it is almost totally cut off by elevated freeways from the eight square miles that surround it. This is not true in Dallas, however, as it has tended to concentrate more on developing the eight square miles surrounding its downtown.
As a result, downtown Dallas has poured out of its surrounding freeway loop in every direction, spilling out into Uptown and Victory Park, and then further north into the Turtle Creek area and to the northwest into the Design District and Dallas Market Districts, and then even further to the northeast into the Southwestern Medical Center. To the northeast and east, downtown Dallas pours into the CityPlace and West Village area and then into the Baylor Medical Center, the Deep Ellum, and the Dallas Fair Park areas respectively. As one could go on and on about the advantages that Dallas has over Houston, the better thing to do is to just let things play out. Let's wait until after the present expansion of the DART light rail lines are completed. Let's wait until after the deck park is built over Woodall Rogers Freeway between the Dallas Arts District and Uptown Dallas. Let's wait until after the completion of the new suspension bridge connecting downtown Dallas to one of the city's poorest neighborhoods. And let's wait until after the planned trolly to the pretty neighborhood of Oak Cliff becomes a reality.
Think about it. When the city of Dallas succeeds in refurbishing the surrounding eight square miles surrounding downtown Dallas, what will become of its inner downtown core? As developers know, this creates a paradise or a vacuum for real estate development.
Another advantage that the city of Dallas has which is sneaking up on Houston right now is the close proximity of Love Field to the greater downtown Dallas area. While the better located airports in DFW will tend to keep its buildings lower in height, they have brought shopping closer to the downtown Dallas area, in the case of Lemmon Ave. as well as creat new business districts about the area, in the case of DFW and Las Colinas.
When comparing Dallas and Houston, the true major city is the smaller one of the two.
(Please, when reading this, understand that my intended audience aren't those who already living in the Dallas - Fort Worth and Houston areas. In actuality, my intended audience are potential as in new future Texans as well as tourists coming to our great state.)

You've made some good points and I agree with many of them, especially TOD development.

I think corprate leaders are starting to recognize the strides Dallas-Fort Worth are making as a 'Mecca' also, as there were at least five corprate HQ relocations to the DFW area announced during 2010.

[skids929]

Me personally..I love Mister Nift's posts..Take it at face value, it's really pure comedic genius at times.