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Old 03-26-2014, 04:15 PM
 
Location: Southlake. Don't judge me.
2,885 posts, read 4,629,401 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Considering Coming Back View Post
One thing that's always bugged me about our identity is how people associate the sprawl around Dallas as being in Dallas. I've been in many conversations where Dallas is thought of as highways, fields, and fast food joints and it turns out those people went to DFW and then a conference in Grapevine.
And this is different from every other metro area...how?

For example, when you think of Boston, what do you think of. Colleges, maybe? But Harvard isn't in "Boston", it's in Cambridge. BOSTON COLLEGE isn't even in "Boston", it's in Newton. (Boston University is in Boston proper, however).

All those John Hughes movies like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" that were filmed in "Chicago" were filmed both in Chicago and in a number of its suburbs, but the entire movie reflects the area, and everyone who lives in Chicagoland thinks of it as a "Chicago" area movie, not "part Chicago, and part Winnetka because everyone in the country knows what 'Winnetka' is". Same with The Blues Brothers.

When you imagine Los Angeles in your mind, you're not just thinking of the city itself but of all the other "suburbs" around it. OK, maybe there's a handful of you who lived out there and ONLY think of "Los Angeles" and dismiss every other community surrounding it. Or San Francisco - we generally think of "The Bay Area", and outside of maybe Oakland we have an image of "San Francisco" that includes Berkeley and Marin and Silicon Valley and the rest.

So yes, "Dallas" is not JUST the city proper but also includes Plano and Addison and Richardson and Frisco and Coppell and everything else. It's the entire metro area. And if you want to just imagine "Dallas" the city in its own right and ignore the burbs and Fort Worth and Arlington, then you've got an unspectacular downtown (compare the Dallas skyline to Chicago's and tell me how great it is. Go ahead, take your time, I'll be here waiting) and not a whole lot of business overall (because places like, say, Container Store, HQ'd in Coppell, are "not in Dallas").

But hey, if you want to argue that the only genuine part of "Dallas" is a limited few square miles (oh, by the way, that wouldn't include Park Cities, so all that affluence there? "Not Dallas"), go right ahead. You're only fooling yourselves.
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Old 03-26-2014, 04:28 PM
 
Location: Colleyville
1,206 posts, read 1,524,000 times
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^^ Interesting thoughts there- my initial knee jerk was more in line w/ ConsideringComingBack but I get what Synchronicity is saying too, which means it's a good conversation! I think I am drawing on a lifetime of hearing completely biased anti- Dallas sentiments from so many people who have never spent time there or lived there. I actually defend Dallas quite a bit, especially to all the people who are so tickled to have all these "new" restaurants in the So7 area of Ft Worth like Fireside Pies, Tillman's, etc.
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Old 03-26-2014, 04:33 PM
 
Location: Dallas
2,414 posts, read 3,468,557 times
Reputation: 4133
Quote:
Originally Posted by synchronicity View Post
And this is different from every other metro area...how?

For example, when you think of Boston, what do you think of. Colleges, maybe? But Harvard isn't in "Boston", it's in Cambridge. BOSTON COLLEGE isn't even in "Boston", it's in Newton. (Boston University is in Boston proper, however).

All those John Hughes movies like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" that were filmed in "Chicago" were filmed both in Chicago and in a number of its suburbs, but the entire movie reflects the area, and everyone who lives in Chicagoland thinks of it as a "Chicago" area movie, not "part Chicago, and part Winnetka because everyone in the country knows what 'Winnetka' is". Same with The Blues Brothers.

When you imagine Los Angeles in your mind, you're not just thinking of the city itself but of all the other "suburbs" around it. OK, maybe there's a handful of you who lived out there and ONLY think of "Los Angeles" and dismiss every other community surrounding it. Or San Francisco - we generally think of "The Bay Area", and outside of maybe Oakland we have an image of "San Francisco" that includes Berkeley and Marin and Silicon Valley and the rest.

So yes, "Dallas" is not JUST the city proper but also includes Plano and Addison and Richardson and Frisco and Coppell and everything else. It's the entire metro area. And if you want to just imagine "Dallas" the city in its own right and ignore the burbs and Fort Worth and Arlington, then you've got an unspectacular downtown (compare the Dallas skyline to Chicago's and tell me how great it is. Go ahead, take your time, I'll be here waiting) and not a whole lot of business overall (because places like, say, Container Store, HQ'd in Coppell, are "not in Dallas").

But hey, if you want to argue that the only genuine part of "Dallas" is a limited few square miles (oh, by the way, that wouldn't include Park Cities, so all that affluence there? "Not Dallas"), go right ahead. You're only fooling yourselves.
Lol you're comparing Frisco and Plano to Cambridge

When I think of San Francisco I do think of the city, period.

The Park Cities (HP/UP) can use Dallas interchangeably as their mailing address.
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Last edited by RonnieinDallas; 03-26-2014 at 04:49 PM..
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Old 03-26-2014, 04:50 PM
 
Location: Southlake. Don't judge me.
2,885 posts, read 4,629,401 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RonnieinDallas View Post
Lol your comparing Frisco and Plano to Cambridge .
Frisco and Plano are as much a part of "Dallas" as Cambridge and Newton are part of "Boston". The fact that they conjure up much different images is THE ENTIRE POINT! You mentally roll places like Harvard into "Boston", even though it's not technically in "Boston" the city alone.

I get that there are part of Dallas proper that are much different than Frisco, Lord knows we've had the city vs. suburb battles on this forum countless times. But again, they have similar discussions in pretty much every other metro area there is.
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Old 03-26-2014, 05:08 PM
 
Location: Dallas
2,414 posts, read 3,468,557 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by synchronicity View Post
Frisco and Plano are as much a part of "Dallas" as Cambridge and Newton are part of "Boston". The fact that they conjure up much different images is THE ENTIRE POINT! You mentally roll places like Harvard into "Boston", even though it's not technically in "Boston" the city alone.

I get that there are part of Dallas proper that are much different than Frisco, Lord knows we've had the city vs. suburb battles on this forum countless times. But again, they have similar discussions in pretty much every other metro area there is.
Cambridge is literally right across the river from downtown Boston. If Plano and Frisco were across the Trinity River in West Dallas you would have a point. Dallas does not equal Collin County.
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Old 03-26-2014, 05:57 PM
 
1,783 posts, read 2,559,868 times
Reputation: 1741
Quote:
Originally Posted by synchronicity View Post
Frisco and Plano are as much a part of "Dallas" as Cambridge and Newton are part of "Boston". The fact that they conjure up much different images is THE ENTIRE POINT! You mentally roll places like Harvard into "Boston", even though it's not technically in "Boston" the city alone.

I get that there are part of Dallas proper that are much different than Frisco, Lord knows we've had the city vs. suburb battles on this forum countless times. But again, they have similar discussions in pretty much every other metro area there is.
I agree with you on this one. "Dallas" includes the burb areas to most people.
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Old 03-26-2014, 07:37 PM
 
Location: Charleston, South Carolina
12,778 posts, read 18,595,669 times
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Since I started this thread, I'll say that when I think of Dallas I think of the Dallas skyline, South Fork, Fort Worth, J.R., Sue Ellen, cowboy hats, cowboy boots, cows, cement, plazas, retail here and there downtown, flat land, sprawl, and trees that were planted by the city where there once were none. I have never been there.
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Old 03-26-2014, 07:50 PM
 
Location: Upper East Side of Texas
12,498 posts, read 26,890,626 times
Reputation: 4890
Quote:
Originally Posted by wallawallahoohoo View Post
This bugs me - people in Dallas try to have it both ways. They associate the breadth and size of DFW in terms of population metrics, but then when you lump together all of the outer suburbs and cities as part of the Dallas identity, Dallas has an outrage.

Dallas does not have an identity without its neighboring cities, much like Dallas cannot (and does not) attribute its size and economy without accounting for the entire metropolitan populace. Within city limits alone, Dallas' population is 9th in the US (1.1 million people). Accounting for the entire DFW metroplex, it jumps to 4th, picking up a whopping 5.5 million folks in that statistical measure. That's a 6x multiple on the incorporated city alone. That's an huge spread if you ask me.

Unless people are Dallas natives, far more people will associate Dallas with DFW. I suppose that makes it more "boring" but that's the way it is.
Well said.

Dallas is only Dallas when it wants to promote itself as an urban destination..."Big D". Dallas is D/FW when US Census is right around the corner or when its 9th place in population is brought up. Take away Fort Worth & Dallas' suburbs you're left with nothing because 90% of the culture & population base is located there.

That said, I hope one day Dallas can eventually develop its own identity & I feel that day may come sooner than we all think.

Last edited by Metro Matt; 03-26-2014 at 08:06 PM..
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Old 03-26-2014, 07:59 PM
 
Location: Upper East Side of Texas
12,498 posts, read 26,890,626 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Considering Coming Back View Post
You realize every metro region is this way, right? Bay Area has 8M, SF only 800k. DC 6M, DC only 600k. Miami has what 300k for 5M? Even NY tri state has only 1 in 3 residents in the city.
Bay Area has 4.4M not 8M.
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Old 03-26-2014, 08:03 PM
 
Location: Willowbend/Houston
13,384 posts, read 25,632,677 times
Reputation: 10591
Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro Matt View Post
Well said.

Dallas is only Dallas when it wants to promote itself as an urban destination..."Big D". Dallas is D/FW when Census is right around the corner or when its 9th place in population is brought up.
Thats no different than many metro areas like the Bay Area, Boston, South Florida, and DC. We can't all have 610 square miles of land.

Like at San Francisco specifically. The majority of the metro areas economic output is outside the city, yet people know it as "San Francisco". There isn't anything to really argue about. It is what it is and nobody can change it.
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