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First time I was in Dallas was a little over 9 years ago. I had never been so disappointed in a city in my life.
I really didn't know anything about Dallas before I came except that I read online that it was the 7th largest city in the country (This is before I really "Got" how metro population worked) At this point I had been to a few "Big Cities" Before like Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Denver, Cincinnati, Indianapolis etc. I wasn't expecting Chicago, but it didn't even live up to Cincinnati in the 2000s.
This is the Dallas I walked into: A dead downtown.
Our host had to google places to eat, it lacked a lively street scene that I had just assumed any major downtown would have.
The building were tall and impressive, but the parking lots just made a super underwhelming experience. We got panhandled 6 or 7 times. For the most part there were no other people around. It was underwhelming.
Actually, the first part of this article where he recaps his 2007 visit sums up pretty nicely how my experience went down:
-The Orange Line was finished and actually goes to the airport
-The skyline has changed: A lot. Uptown came into it's own and is a real urban neighborhood now. I don't know what the exact numbers are, but I suspect that the vast majority of the people who live there are not Dallas locals, in my experience, the vast majority are transplants
-Deep Ellum has revived, but not just the bars and music venues, they are building more housing there so it can be more of a real neighborhood instead of mainly a nightlife spot with a few lofts.
-Bishop Arts: while more controversial, I think ultimately I think alot of good stuff has happened down there.
-Old East Dallas is much safer
-Walk-ability (in the areas where it is possible) has (but needs to continue) to improve.
-Most importantly Downtown Dallas has massively improved. It's still super sad for the principal city of the 4th largest metro in the country, but it is getting there.
Over the years I've watched things change and evolve. I've watched parking lots get replaced with new housing it's been great.
Not all of his ideas are great, but Patrick Kennedy has done more to push Dallas in the right direction on urban policy for a while, and he's guess what, a transplant.
Granted, like anything else some things you like close down and change for the worse. I'll give two examples:
Club Schmitz was my favorite bar in Dallas before it closed down, but you can't blame that on the transplants. The demographics had long ago changed around love field, the Dart line didn't being any new customers, and the gas station next door wanted an extra parking lot, so there it went. If anything the fall of the neighborhood bar was the fault of white flight...
Likewise, I loved the Loon (the real one, not this trash on McKinney Ave now) It had such an awesome vib to it and was where the Mavs Partied after winning the NBA Championship. I always loved sitting in "Dirk's spot" The saddest thing though was that they replaced the crappy strip mall with an even more poorly designed CVS. Classic Dallas.
Houston. I'm much less specific about Houston, except the feel of the city has vastly improved. All of the inner loop neighborhoods seem to be filling in better each time I'm there. Walk-ability has improved. It feels safer.
The first time I was in Houston though I was held up at gun point in a church bathroom, so it's kind of hard to not improved from that impression
I agree with all of this. I moved in around 2012 and Dallas was in the early stages of making the improvements we see today. It's quite remarkable, but without the growing pains that you see in ridiculously high growth areas like Frisco. Urban Dallas grew at the right pace without too much pain, IMO.
You can also add the Dallas Farmers Market, Trinity Groves/Ron Kirk Pedestrian Bridge, Oak Cliff Trolley, and the pedestrianization of Lowest Greenville. Regarding Downtown, the upcoming parks, AT&T Discovery District, and renovation of the newly named East Quarter (east of the Statler) should really enhance Downtown's vibrancy. Not to mention all of the apartment activity in and around Deep Ellum.
I'll ignore your other points, but what makes you think Dallas and Houston are a 100 times better than they were 10 years ago? That's subjective, and in my opinion not true at all. Y'all haven't actually made this state better. I don't hate on in migration, but don't act like we were bad until you got here.
If you're a suburb person that experiences everything through a car window, then I can see that. But if you enjoy lively urban streets, walkable amenities (parks, nightlife, cultural, etc), multi-nodal forms of getting around (e.g. on foot, bike, electric scooter, train, etc), then there's no way you can argue that the citiesof Dallas or Houston were better 10 years ago. The urbanization of Uptown Dallas has benefited the city of Dallas so profoundly that it generates 40% more revenue than any other city neighborhood. High density living has paid off for Dallas. It was the natives during the period of mass suburbanization (50s-90s) that FLED the city of Dallas and allowed it to decline. You can thank us transplants for breathing life into a city that prior generations threw away. Prior to the 70s/80s, Downtown Dallas & Houston were bustling with foot traffic and vibrancy. But if you're a suburb person that hates Downtowns or urban areas, then I can see why you wouldn't like it.
If you're a suburb person that experiences everything through a car window, then I can see that. But if you enjoy lively urban streets, walkable amenities (parks, nightlife, cultural, etc), multi-nodal forms of getting around (e.g. on foot, bike, electric scooter, train, etc), then there's no way you can argue that the citiesof Dallas or Houston were better 10 years ago. The urbanization of Uptown Dallas has benefited the city of Dallas so profoundly that it generates 40% more revenue than any other city neighborhood. High density living has paid off for Dallas. It was the natives during the period of mass suburbanization (50s-90s) that FLED the city of Dallas and allowed it to decline. You can thank us transplants for breathing life into a city that prior generations threw away. Prior to the 70s/80s, Downtown Dallas & Houston were bustling with foot traffic and vibrancy. But if you're a suburb person that hates Downtowns or urban areas, then I can see why you wouldn't like it.
I grew up right smack in the middle of Houston. The nightlife was just fine when I was still clubbing, and far less pretentious. I hear these days they pick and choose who gets into some clubs in Midtown, which seems snobby and potentially ripe for racism. All were welcome when I was younger.
I don’t live downtown, so could care less about foot traffic. If I were downtown I’d love it to be bustling like NYC, which it still is not but maybe some day. But anywhere else in the city I could care less about that. If I want to walk to somewhere or simply take a walk around my neighborhood I do. There doesn’t have to be a lot more people doing it too.
Lack of zoning means I can walk to a store no matter where I live in this town. It’s very convenient, and has been that way since I moved here when I was four (way back in 1972). I used to live in West University when I was a kid, and we’d ride our bikes to the Galleria, or walk or ride over to Rice Village. Or walk to the Bellaire Theatre, which was about four blocks from my house.
I have fond memories of Houston growing up, and when I see it today I think it’s just gotten way too pretentious and expensive. I liked our ungentrified neighborhoods. West University is like an entirely different neighborhood than when I lived there. It was full of small houses on one side and bigger houses east of the elementary school and closer to Buffalo Speedway. Then people started buying the small houses and tearing them down and building huge houses that fill up the whole lot so there’s only a few feet between them. The old neighborhood was far more interesting.
Last edited by katygirl68; 11-27-2018 at 10:45 PM..
I grew up right smack in the middle of Houston. The nightlife was just fine when I was still clubbing, and far less pretentious. I hear these days they pick and choose who gets into some clubs in Midtown, which seems snobby and potentially ripe for racism. All were welcome when I was younger.
I don’t live downtown, so could care less about foot traffic. If I were downtown I’d love it to be bustling like NYC, which it still is not but maybe some day. But anywhere else in the city I could care less about that. If I want to walk to somewhere or simply take a walk around my neighborhood I do. There doesn’t have to be a lot more people doing it too.
Lack of zoning means I can walk to a store no matter where I live in this town. It’s very convenient, and has been that way since I moved here when I was four (way back in 1972). I used to live in West University when I was a kid, and we’d ride our bikes to the Galleria, or walk or ride over to Rice Village. Or walk to the Bellaire Theatre, which was about four blocks from my house.
West University is pretty walk-able, glad you got to grow up there.
The lack of zoning only means that you will have stores to walk to provided the density demands it. Or you could live next door to a Walmart and technically walk there, but that isn't the same as having a walk-able neighborhood. If you are the only one walking in your neighborhood, it probably isn't very walk-able.
Being walk-able goes beyond technically being able to walk somewhere. is
I most certainly do care if my downtown is walkable and lively even if I don't live there, and I of course care if my own neighborhood is walkable.
Did I say that? No! But there was a particularly racist story in the news a couple of years ago about a Midtown club that was denying entry to black guys, so yeah. That wasn’t how it was when I was going out in the ‘80s and ‘90s at all.
Did I say that? No! But there was a particularly racist story in the news a couple of years ago about a Midtown club that was denying entry to black guys, so yeah. That wasn’t how it was when I was going out in the ‘80s and ‘90s at all.
Something similar in Dallas happened as well.
I simply don't believe stuff like that didn't happen in the 80s and 90s, you just must not have been aware of it.
Maybe, just maybe, we only hear reports about that now because folks feel empowered enough to go to the media or file a lawsuit.
West University is pretty walk-able, glad you got to grow up there.
The lack of zoning only means that you will have stores to walk to provided the density demands it. Or you could live next door to a Walmart and technically walk there, but that isn't the same as having a walk-able neighborhood. If you are the only one walking in your neighborhood, it probably isn't very walk-able.
Being walk-able goes beyond technically being able to walk somewhere. is
I most certainly do care if my downtown is walkable and lively even if I don't live there, and I of course care if my own neighborhood is walkable.
My neighborhood is walkable, and there are lots of people doing it every day. I do wish our downtown was more like NYC, but I couldn’t afford to live there anyway. I wish they’d have more businesses and nightlife there than they do now. I remember talk of making the bayou area downtown like a River Walk, with restaurants and bars and shops, but it never happened. I would love that.
But you guys weren’t here in the ‘80s and ‘90s, so you really don’t know what it used to be like in these cities. Both cities had a lot of nightlife, and were very cool. It’s fine now, but I don’t think it’s better than it was. Taste is subjective.
A lot of folks seem to consider suburbs unwalkable, which is ... a bit nuts. But as an Irving guy who is *not* a raving fan of City of Dallas (to put it mildly), I'm happy to give them their due -- they're sloowwwwwwwly turning the city in the right direction, rather than the perennial "pats self on back, drops massive cash on vanity projects, can't keep the streets driveable OR safe except in Rich People Zones" that it used to be. The disconnect versus "Dallas booster rhetoric" and "Dallas How It Actually Is" used to be absolutely jarring. It's a lot less so nowadays.
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