'Dallas' vs. Dallas: Where TV stops and reality begins (Miami: new home, buy)

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by skids929

Although I could do without terms like Y'all and fixin too etc..Just not quite sure I am in a position to take issue since I come from a place where wicked pissa is commonly used. No really it is!

Quickest way to make friends around here is to criticize our accent and our vernacular.

[skids929]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Quickest way to make friends around here is to criticize our accent and our vernacular.

Sarcasm? Why people do it to us ALLLLLLLLL the time! Boston area is the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to accents and varnacular! Can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at!

I most certainly wouldn't criticize someone I didn't have that rapport with, and wouldn't do it in any other way than jokingly.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by skids929

Why people do it to us ALLLLLLLLL the time! Boston area is the laughing stock of the nation when it comes to accents! Can't laugh at yourself who can you laugh at!

No, you guys aren't. Southerners are.

Personally I don't like northern accents, but my least favorite are ones from the Midwest. I also loathe how many west coasters turn every sentence into a question.

But I wouldn't move there and dump on them for the way they talk, either.

Just a nickel's worth of free advice...if you don't like the way we talk...please keep it to yourself if/when you move here.

[skids929]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

But I wouldn't move there and dump on them for the way they talk, either.

Just a nickel's worth of free advice...if you don't like the way we talk...please keep it to yourself if/when you move here.

Good advice...Not something I make a habit of personally. When in Rome I try to do as they do in recognition there are slight cultural differences...Thats my motto for the most part.

[Twincam666]

I think the population of Dallas is more like 55% or more Hispanic..............But either way, it doesn't feel the way Texas and Dallas used to when I would visit back in the 70's or 80's....

Too much trash, homeless, crime and the usual urban crap.........

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Twincam666

I think the population of Dallas is more like 55% or more Hispanic..............But either way, it doesn't feel the way Texas and Dallas used to when I would visit back in the 70's or 80's....

Too much trash, homeless, crime and the usual urban crap.........

Actually I think we had more of that in the 80s than we do now!

[hamiltonpl]

Originally Posted by skids929

Not sure, good point though..I don't know the city's history the way you do..I can just say as an outsider I am guilty of thinking about the area in certain stereo-typical ways. Quite honestly, I had NO idea Ft. Worth was so close to Dallas before I needed to get familiar with the area.

Metaphysically speaking, it's a unique thing, because your own perception of yourself (as a Dallisite) is always different than the way you're perceived outside of that. The perception you know is the reality to you..But personally think as an outsider some of the stereo types are endearing, some are downright stupid and some are hideously ugly. Overall for me, someone with a fresh, fairly ignorant perspective on Texas, the good easily outweighs the bad even at first blush, and in general it seems like a great place to exist. I think your motto Don't mess with Texas can be a little intimidating to market, but if perception is the problem like the article said you gotta find something to market and there is a ton of good stuff to work with.

Much of the historical Dallas neighborhoods seem to be bulldozed away, except for Deep Ellum and the West End. Deep Ellum, right outside of downtown, was one of the capitals of Blues and Jazz -- nearly 100 years ago. It had the first convenience store -- a 7-11 in fact. It had the first African American owned bank in Texas -- Union Bankers. The West End has many of its old warehouses that have been converted into office and retail space. But it still doesn't get much activity.

Apart from a few older buildings in scattered around downtown, those are really the only places that have the same buildings as they did 100+ years ago. So I think our tourism needs to follow that path that was forged many years ago.

As far as our history is concerned, Dallas has been the town where the cattle barons, cotton plantations, oil men and tech companies got their financing. It's never really been a stereotypical Texas city full of oil, cotton and cattle. That was found in much more abundance in other cities. It was founded in the middle of a prairie on a "river" that has never been more than a creek. You could find the same bland terrain in a million places on earth. Dallas only exists only by sheer tenacity and a uniquely open entrepreneurial spirit.

You got a crazy idea? Well, somebody in Dallas will finance it. After all, it's the city just crazy enough to inspire, finance and create the microchip (Texas Instruments), broadcasting video over the internet (Mark Cuban's Broadcast.com), and the decadent department store of Nieman Marcus. We're a city that encourages business ideas -- any kind of business. We're a city of dreamers. But not like you'd find in other cities. Our dreamers are business trendsetters, not just people who debate in coffee shops. And that may explain why this is a better place to live than it is to visit. We're too busy working on the future to manufacture something for tourists.

[barrett21]

What the hell is wrong with people anyway? Do I think that I will go California and everyone surfs? To Miami and everyoneis either retired or a drug lord? To New York and everyone is Jewish and speaks like Fran Drescher? Of course not. it's ridiculous. I don't get it.

[Newbe10]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

I also loathe how many west coasters turn every sentence into a question.

I only saw this with most young white females in Southern California (and not all of them I might add) when I lived on the west coast. However, I also don't like it as it is very annoying. I think that it is a smyptom of the "Valley Girl speak." Everyone north of LA either speaks with a Northwestern accent or in the case of Nor Cal and San Franciso, no accent at all.

[catman]

I think "Valley Girl speak" is hilarious, but I'm not around it all the time.

Shows like Dallas perpetuate stereotypes. That doesn't make me hate it, but I don't really care for soaps anyway. I got hooked on General Hospital while I was in the hospital and couldn't do anything besides watch TV all day, and it took me almost a year to break the addiction!