Is it safe to say that Fort Worth/Tarrant County is Dallas' version of Los Angeles' Anaheim/Orange County??" (Houston: school, gated)

[brajohns81]

Just wondering if that is a fair comparison?? I think so.

[Campeador]

Originally Posted by brajohns81

Just wondering if that is a fair comparison?? I think so.

No.

OC is a series of suburban areas without an urban core. Dallas has its burbs, but Fort Worth is not one of them.

If you want to think in terms of SoCal, I'd say Fort Worth is similar to Long Beach, which is actually a city that is similarly experiencing something of an urban renewal/Renaissance.

[txtoal]

No.

[brajohns81]

Originally Posted by txtoal

No.

Why not?? It seems right to me. I mean with Fort Worth being in the same area as Dallas and being smaller, it technically is a suburb in many ways, just the largest one, like Long Beach and Anaheim.

[Mckellyb]

Being a native Dallasite, and now living in Fort Worth, I can say, without reservation, each city is very independent of the other.

While the Mid-Cities sprawl has seemingly connected the two, physically, they're very different places, and until relatively recently, 30 years ago, were, while close, not lumped together.

There isn't much which can compete with So Cal for sprawl, thankfully.

[txtoal]

Originally Posted by brajohns81

Why not?? It seems right to me. I mean with Fort Worth being in the same area as Dallas and being smaller, it technically is a suburb in many ways, just the largest one, like Long Beach and Anaheim.

Simple. Fort Worth is not a suburb of Dallas. Fort Worth is its own city.

Originally Posted by Mckellyb

Being a native Dallasite, and now living in Fort Worth, I can say, without reservation, each city is very independent of the other.

While the Mid-Cities sprawl has seemingly connected the two, physically, they're very different places, and until relatively recently, 30 years ago, were, while close, not lumped together.

There isn't much which can compete with So Cal for sprawl, thankfully.

I agree. I have lived in the DFW area my entire life, both in FW and Dallas and they are very different from each other. Both cities can sustain on their own and they don't (or at least don't need to) depend on each other. I prefer it that way.

[doctorjef]

Fort Worth IS NOT a suburb of Dallas!!! There is a historic rivalry between the two cities, now perhaps somewhat mitigated. Back in the day, Fort Worth millionaire Amon Carter would take his own lunch to Dallas when he had to do business there so that he wouldn't be obliged to spend money in Dallas (I'm not sure if that qualifies as a bit hypocritical - doing big business in a rival city but declining to pay for lunch there). The burbs are effectively other incorporated cities such as Arlington (Tarrant County and thus in the Fort Worth orbit), Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Richland & North Richland Hills (likewise all Tarrant County), and the Dallas County incorporated cities that are the Dallas burbs such as Grand Prairie, Irving,Lewisville, Mesquite (on the opposite side of Dallas), etc. Culturally and historically Dallas and Fort Worth have little in common, apart from the co-incidence that they are both in Texas. The old saying that "Dallas is where the East finally peters out; Fort Worth is where the West begins" also captures something of the difference, even if the Cowtown identity of Fort Worth has waned over the past 50 or 60 years. I went to grad school in Fort Worth and lived there again later on for a couple of years, so I speak from experience.

[Mckellyb]

Next thing you know, someone is going to claim Houston and Dallas are clones of each other....

[brajohns81]

Originally Posted by txtoal

Simple. Fort Worth is not a suburb of Dallas. Fort Worth is its own city.



I agree. I have lived in the DFW area my entire life, both in FW and Dallas and they are very different from each other. Both cities can sustain on their own and they don't (or at least don't need to) depend on each other. I prefer it that way.

If Fort Worth is not a suburb, then why are they so damned obsessed with becoming larger than Dallas by trying to annex outlying land??

[brajohns81]

Originally Posted by doctorjef

Fort Worth IS NOT a suburb of Dallas!!! There is a historic rivalry between the two cities, now perhaps somewhat mitigated. Back in the day, Fort Worth millionaire Amon Carter would take his own lunch to Dallas when he had to do business there so that he wouldn't be obliged to spend money in Dallas (I'm not sure if that qualifies as a bit hypocritical - doing big business in a rival city but declining to pay for lunch there). The burbs are effectively other incorporated cities such as Arlington (Tarrant County and thus in the Fort Worth orbit), Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Richland & North Richland Hills (likewise all Tarrant County), and the Dallas County incorporated cities that are the Dallas burbs such as Grand Prairie, Irving,Lewisville, Mesquite (on the opposite side of Dallas), etc. Culturally and historically Dallas and Fort Worth have little in common, apart from the co-incidence that they are both in Texas. The old saying that "Dallas is where the East finally peters out; Fort Worth is where the West begins" also captures something of the difference, even if the Cowtown identity of Fort Worth has waned over the past 50 or 60 years. I went to grad school in Fort Worth and lived there again later on for a couple of years, so I speak from experience.

Arlington is pretty much a suburb of both cities, but Dallas also has more name recognition, cosmopolitan flair and business than Fort Worth. How many people in France would know where Fort Worth is if you tell a citizen there that you are from there and on vacation?? Probably very few. Dallas on the other hand many will have heard of and will know it is a major city in Texas. Fort Worth really doesn't have anything. Dallas and the suburbs are where it is at.