Is all this growth really a good thing? (Houston, Dallas: hotels, job outlook)

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by orlando-calrissian

Dallas is not more appealing for murderers than LA and Chicago. LA and Chicago have had high levels of gang activity for years and are actively working to reduce that effect on the city.

Actually South Central L.A. is not L.A. at all. Compton (and surrounding areas) are in that area (but there is a trivial strip of land that connects the harbor area with the rest of the city) and are separate municipalities from Los Angeles.

At least the gang violence has been confined to the South Side of Chicago.

This is a huge dogwhistle.

Yes it is. Yet no one talks about the American transplants that commit heinous crimes. There is no xenophobia for Americans in Texas.

[RJ312]

Originally Posted by jd433

Dallas is being flooded by apartment complexes, Walmarts, McDonalds, Sam Clubs, Smoke Shops, Cash Advance Stores, Convenience Stores, Massage Parlors, Nail Salons, Distribution Centers and worst of all extended stay hotels. Its like they just pop up everywhere and no one says anything about this. the City is filling up with garbage. this crap is going to look great in 20 more years. The developers are not paying their share of impact fees especially the apartment complexes.
Have any of you guys been to South Dallas, Pleasant Grove, Fair Park, Cedar Crest, Lancaster, Wolf Creek? I bet half the people on this board have never been south of the 30 and East of the Central Expressway. Well? More than half of Dallas is in that area.

You cite a number of types of development, and not all of those types of development are bad.

Apartment complexes are not bad. There's a need for apartments. As more and more Americans are single, apartments are going to be in demand. There's really not a tremendous need to live in a single-family detached home for a single and unattached person or a single person with marginally attached/transient type romantic relationships.

Why are extended stay hotels so bad? I have stayed in extended stay hotels while vacationing. Since I prefer not to eat processed food, if I stay in an extended stay, I have a kitchen and the opportunity to cook foods with bad ingredients like soy, high fructose corn syrup, and other processed ingredients.

Smoke shops, cash advance stores, and convenience stores are often indicative of lower socioeconomic areas. I wouldn't be complaining about the development of these because that's addressing a symptom rather than a root cause. The root cause of this are larger macroeconomic trends, some of which have been going on for decades. The massive reduction in factory jobs over the last 5 decades has caused this. Prior to the 1970s, if you had just a high school education, you could support yourself well if you got some sort of factory job. Now with a high school education, economic options are more limited. You're more likely to be working at some low level, service sector job. Besides just structural changes in the economy, the education system is to blame. K-12 public education is a joke in a lot of school district, and doesn't do much to prepare someone for the working world. If you want to do something meaningful in the working world, you either have to go to trade school (an underappreciated and underutilized path that should be more encourage), college/university for a BA/BS degree, or college/university for a BA/BS degree plus some Master's level or higher degree.

I do not like Walmart or McDonald's either. As someone who avoids processed foods, it is difficult but not impossible to make good grocery choices at Walmart. However, the United States economy is somewhat free market, and Walmart is doing well in large part due to market forces relative to the structure of the U.S. consumer based upon some root causes briefly discussed above. McDonald's is a purveyor of processed foods than I tend to avoid as much as possible. If you are complaining about Walmart's/McDonald's and wish to stop development on those, you are trying to address a symptom rather than a root cause.

Distribution centers are an important part of the consumer economy. It is debatable whether the type of employment from distribution centers is better than a McJob. I think it is, but it's not great.

Neighborhoods like South Dallas, Fair Park, and Pleasant Grove exist because of structural changes in the economy, and also the election of inept governmental representatives who put policy initiatives into place that enable the development of a lower class. Business types that attract the lower class only exist because conditions exist for their to be a lower class.

[RJ312]

Originally Posted by jd433

Dallas has just passed the 200 murder mark in one of the most violent years ever for the city. It is rapidly working it's way up the list of the most violent cities in america.

This is a function of a poorly run police department. When there's a poorly run police department, a large part of the blame rests with the chief of police.

The district attorney in Dallas County is not doing well in addressing crime, both violent and non-violent.

[Acntx]

Moderator note: We don't need two active threads on the same topic, so the recently created "stop new development" thread has been merged into this one.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by jd433

That suits me just fine. I pump my own gas and mow my own lawn. Runaway development is for the birds. We dont need a McDonalds, Sams Club, Taco Bell and Walmart on every corner. These folks are ruining the schools. We should strive for quality development and not just quantity.
I know there is an argument about affordability but that is a lesser concern for now. Dallas is still relatively affordable.

It will stop being affordable if you don't build. This is how you screw locals over....California transplants would still think DFW is cheap if housing went up 100k.

NIMBYism is the primary reason SF has gone from an expensive city to an insanely expensive city. It has hurt smaller cities all over the country as well as locals think that if they stop development less people will move there. They won't, they will just outbid you for your house.

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by RJ312

Why are extended stay hotels so bad? I have stayed in extended stay hotels while vacationing. Since I prefer not to eat processed food, if I stay in an extended stay, I have a kitchen and the opportunity to cook foods with bad ingredients like soy, high fructose corn syrup, and other processed ingredients.

Exactly. Actually, banning residential hotels though zoning is one of the causes of homelessness which has been on a steady rise.

https://medium.com/panoramic-interes...t-19929eda3808

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by RJ312

Smoke shops, cash advance stores, and convenience stores are often indicative of lower socioeconomic areas. I wouldn't be complaining about the development of these because that's addressing a symptom rather than a root cause.

Yeah, but people don't want to see the social ills of our society, they want to zone them out of any place they might live and pretend they don't exist.

People do this with all sorts of things. I remember reading about a neighborhood where the residents were fighting the approval of a Walmart near by. They didn't want "Poor Quality Development" One of the protesters said that if it was a Whole Foods it would be different.

There isn't a real difference between one big box store and another as "Quality" development. Both suck, will have a sea of parking and are a one use short life time building. The main difference is how the people "Feel" about it. They "Feel" like they are a Whole Foods community when really, the market says Walmart.

[DPatel304]

Originally Posted by Treasurevalley92

People do this with all sorts of things. I remember reading about a neighborhood where the residents were fighting the approval of a Walmart near by. They didn't want "Poor Quality Development" One of the protesters said that if it was a Whole Foods it would be different.

There isn't a real difference between one big box store and another as "Quality" development. Both suck, will have a sea of parking and are a one use short life time building. The main difference is how the people "Feel" about it. They "Feel" like they are a Whole Foods community when really, the market says Walmart.

I agree that they are essentially the same, but I think it's more than how the 'feel' about it. Whole Foods coming into your community can definitely impact the demographics of nearby residents and businesses in the long term.

Regardless of the impact or how they feel though, like you said, the market determined a Wal-mart makes sense, so that's really all there is to it.

[Acntx]

Originally Posted by jd433

Dallas is being flooded by apartment complexes, Walmarts, McDonalds, Sam Clubs, Smoke Shops, Cash Advance Stores, Convenience Stores, Massage Parlors, Nail Salons, Distribution Centers and worst of all extended stay hotels. Its like they just pop up everywhere and no one says anything about this. the City is filling up with garbage. this crap is going to look great in 20 more years. The developers are not paying their share of impact fees especially the apartment complexes.
Have any of you guys been to South Dallas, Pleasant Grove, Fair Park, Cedar Crest, Lancaster, Wolf Creek? I bet half the people on this board have never been south of the 30 and East of the Central Expressway. Well? More than half of Dallas is in that area.

FYI: The only 'Lancaster' in Dallas is Lancaster Road.

Lancaster is not a neighborhood in the city of Dallas, it is a separate suburb. I'm not sure why it was even mentioned with the other inner-city neighborhoods. Southern Dallas proper and the southern suburbs of Dallas aren't one in the same. Just wanted to make note of that.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by RJ312

This is a function of a poorly run police department. When there's a poorly run police department, a large part of the blame rests with the chief of police.

The district attorney in Dallas County is not doing well in addressing crime, both violent and non-violent.

Dallasites are straight up weird. The judge in the Botham case gave her office copy of the Bible to the convicted police officer. Isn't that a First Amendment (religious neutrality by public officials) violation? That definitely does not happen in Houston!