Metroplex? DFW? North Texas? (for Tarrant County) (Dallas, Fort Worth: quality of life, airport)

[JJG]

These are two forums for the two sides of the Metroplex. Not just a question of what we should call ourselves, but really a "State of the Area" and opinion thread for both sides. I'm not just talking about what the name of the area should be.... that would be pointless.

As you know, the Dallas-Ft. Worth-Arlington Metropolitan Area has more than one name.

It's been know as the "Metroplex" for years.
It's been called "DFW", mainly because of the airport.
Since we have a Super Bowl comming to the area in a few years, it seems that there is alot more emphasis on saying ,"North Texas Region".
And alot of people brand this area "the Dallas Area" (*ugh*). Mainly used by people from outside the area, and sadly, some people in the are.


Questions for the whole area:

Should we just brand the area as one of these names?
Is there a dominant city or are all the towns in the area equally important?
Which suburb will be the next Arlington?
Do you see a difference betweens cities and counties in the area?
Is it possible for the whole area to become one big city one day?

Questions for Fort Worth only:

What is the one main pro and one main con of Fort Worth?
Do you think Fort Worth will pass up Dallas in population?
What does Fort Worth need most? And what does the city need to get rid of?

Questions for Arlington only:

Do you see Arlington as a major city or major suburb?
Do you believe Arlington is apart of Dallas, Fort Worth, or is it on it's own?
What is Arlington's biggest issue?

[blueskies49]

Why not continue calling it the Metroplex? It's a name that local businessmen and public relations people came up with in the 70's to make the area distinctive to out-of-state businesses and companies. They even patented the name. I say we stick with The Metroplex.

The dominant city is of course Dallas, then Fort Worth, then Arlington.

I don't think the whole area will become one big city. Take, for example, the Los Angeles area. You hardly know when you're going from one town to the next but they are still separate.

Arlington is a major city on its own because of Six Flags, Hurricane Harbor, the Ballpark and now the new Cowboys stadium, to name a few.

[JJG]

I usually say DFW more than Metroplex...
Mainly because Metroplex sounds more big business oriented, which only brings Dallas and the mid-cities to mind. But Metroplex is a good and original nickname.
Anyway, I don't know if Arlington should be called a suburb or major city on it's own. On the Dallas County version of this thread, a poster put it best, stating that Arlington has both suburban an major city qualities.

[blueskies49]

No, the name "The Metroplex" was patented to include the entire Fort Worth/Dallas area including suburbs and the mid-cities. I have a link somewhere on this. I'll have to find it then I'll post it.

[blueskies49]

Here it is:

http://www.ntc-dfw.org/news/newsarchives/metroplex.html (broken link)

Well, darn it, I just posted and checked to make sure it works and it doesn't. I wonder if the mods will let me copy the article here?

[CENTER][CENTER][SIZE=2]"Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex" brand serves region well [/SIZE][/CENTER][/CENTER]

1.1.02

[SIZE=2]The "Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex" was born 30 years ago. No, the region did not spring up like a mushroom overnight in 1972. Obviously, the cities of Dallas, Irving, Arlington and Fort Worth - and everything in between - already existed, but there was no sense of "region," and therefore, no word or concept that defined the then, 8-county area. This fact was part of the impetus for the creation of the North Texas Commission, a regional non-profit consortium of businesses, cities, chambers, economic development entities and higher educational institutions.

After the North Texas Commission was created in 1971, one of it first challenges, in addition to marketing the proposed new "big" airport out in the middle of the North Texas prairie, was to "brand" the region that took definite shape when the DFW Airport became its central lynch pin. Suspecting an identity problem, NTC hired researchers to conduct a survey of 94 leading corporate executives outside the state who were asked to identify the "North Texas region." Surprisingly, only 38 percent correctly identified the term as the region including Dallas/Fort Worth. Another 28 percent thought the term referred to the Panhandle or other Texas cities, and 34 percent said they didn't know what it meant.

NTC's original advertising committee hired a local ad agency to create a new name or brand for the region. They combined the words "metropolitan" and "complex" and came up with the term "Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex." NTC copyrighted the term in 1972, and the rest, as they say, is history. Thirty years later the term is in wide use by virtually every media source in the region and much of the rest of the world, is incorporated into the names of a myriad local businesses and is literally a household word. Today the term defines the now 12-county Consolidated Metropolitan Statistical Area. The brand equity of "Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex" is a real and continuing asset to the region.

The mission of the North Texas Commission is to enhance and promote the economic vitality and quality of life of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex by providing leadership and acting as the catalyst for regional cooperation. [/SIZE]

[Arcane]

Fort Worth and Arlington barely have any real continuity between the two. Most of the border is separated by a lake or under developed land, with the exception of the NW Green Oaks/East Chase area. Unlike North Dallas and it's suburbs that pretty much mesh into each other. Although all cities ultimately complement each other, Arlington does stand on it's own for the most part, so I've never really considered it a suburb of Fort Worth. White Settlement, Benbrook are suburbs.