Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
When I was in Arizona, I didn't like the Midwesterners either. I will say that I've liked my time in Dallas more than I liked my time in Phoenix. One of the biggest differences with Dallas and Phoenix is the corporate infrastructure. For a city of its size, Phoenix has very few Fortune 500 HQs and such a low quality of jobs. Because Phoenix was nothing before the proliferation of air conditioning in the late 1940s/early 1950s, legacy economy companies such as Procter & Gamble never headquartered there. Google and other tech companies never have had a presence in the region. The jobs quality issue was one of the main reasons I left Phoenix. Neither political party solved that in Arizona.
It came down to between Dallas and Houston for me when I was considering moving to Texas. Both had way more economic opportunities than I would have been afforded had I remained in Phoenix. Both had legacy HQs because they were more established before air conditioning than Phoenix. I chose Dallas over Houston because there was a more diversified economy than oil/gas/energy. There's a lot to really like about Houston.
I was glad when Amazon didn't put HQ2 in Dallas, a serious contender, or anywhere else in Texas. There have been massive corporate relocations, such as Toyota North America, to Texas. While there is an upside in having a strong diversified base of companies in a state, some of the changes have been downsides. Although, it can be argued that some of the political ideology changes would have occurred due to demographic factors and conservative ideologies not claiming a greater share of white people.
I would much rather live in Texas than in Arizona.
I can understand that. Phoenix holds no appeal to me at all but lots of people love it. Its also true that Dallas has a more diversified economy which help stabilize things if oil takes a dive.
When it comes to picking a city, I demand diversity, an international airport with flights all over the world for my work, low cost of living, warm weather for most of the year, and good ethnic food variety. Those arent most peoples priorities, but Texas is better than most for that.
Managing growth is always dangerous. What most people would call "Managing growth" in their neighborhood is really just NIMBYism. Wealthy neighborhoods force growth into lower income neighborhoods because they have the political power to stop growth in their neighborhood.
Rather than put a cap on how many people Frisco or Plano add, it would have been much wiser to not subsidize sprawl. Our entire system is set up to subsidize and encourage subdivisions of McMansions and our zoning codes mandate it.
I honestly doubt if on a local level you could even fix that, so many of the issues are national.
It would go along way if cities allowed more traditional "middle housing" to be built and didn't mandate shopping centers and subdivisions. Not asking for subsidies for silly "Urban Lifestyle" developments, just allowing things to develop naturally.
People would fight back though. Most people would find out that they can't afford a house as big as they have if they didn't get all the subsidies. They would rather ignore the infrastructure ponzi scheme of growth for infrastructure than admit that probably, their taxes don't actually cover the roads they drive on. Most people won't swallow the red pill and admit that you can't both want housing to be a great investment where the values go up and be affordable at the same time.
Anyway, I don't think the solution is to "Cap" Frisco or any of the other burbs. Luckly with all the Growth, the City of Dallas itself (and the inner ring suburbs of Richardson, Addison, Irving) have all benefited from the massive growth.
I actually agree with all of this. I don't mean to cap it, but rather revise the zoning laws to allow more mixed use and better connectivity.
I myself greatly admire Texas, but here are some reasons why many Californians don't.
1. "Texas is desert!" I can't tell you how many Californians think Houston is sand dunes and cacti. I keep having to explain it's just as green, rainy, hot, and humid as Florida, with bayous, 85 degree Gulf of Mexico waters, and longleaf pine forests in The Woodlands and Kingwood.
2. "Houston is pancake flat! I'd rather have dead, brown hills in California than lush green forests and bayous in Houston!" This really puzzles me; I never missed the hills when I went to the Gulf Coast. Who needs brown barren hills when you can have lush, Florida-like subtropical greenery?
If you miss the hills, you can always go to Austin.
3. "Texans are religious conservatives! Can't imagine living in ultra-conservative places like Dallas or Austin!" News flash: Many states are more Republican than Texas. Many states are more religious than Texas. Austin is more liberal than San Diego or Sacramento, and is solidly liberal even by national standards. Even Dallas is more liberal than San Diego. In fact, every major Texas metro is blue, maybe not as blue as Hollywood or Silicon Valley or San Fran, but still.
Once again, if you miss liberal high-tech Californicated hipster land, you can always go to Austin, as if Dallas or Houston were not Californicated enough. Surprise surprise, Whole Foods was founded in Austin, not in California.
4. "Texas is white man's land! No diversity!" Houston is often ranked as the nation's most diverse city. It's got large Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese populations. The Chinese supermarket 99 Ranch, and Chinese bakery 85 Degree C may have started their U.S. operations in California but they're also in Houston and Dallas.
5. "I couldn't move to somewhere without In-N-Out!" Ahem, Dallas, Waco, and Austin all have In-N-Out. They're opening in Houston, too.
Oh, and Texas has Waffle Houses...far better than Ihop, and there's no Waffle Houses in the entire state of California!
What other complaints do you notice that Californians have about Texas?
I grew up in Texas. Many peoples misconceptions are based in how Texas is portrayed on TV. I recall a few episodes on the X-Files that supposedly took place in Texas and they made it look flat barren and void.
Similar to NJ where I now live. Everyone thinks of NJ as a landscape of industrial and residential sprawl... In reality parts of NJ is fairly rural.
Funny you should say that. When we went to Pittsburgh with my husband's family years ago, the two Native Texans (my brother-in-law and me) thought Pittsburgh was going to be this urban landscape with brownstones and people playing basketball on every corner. I don't know why we thought that except maybe we thought it was like Philly, and the only images of Philly we had was from Rocky movies or Fresh Prince videos .
Of course Pittsburgh (and I'm sure Philly) look nothing like we thought it would. It was beautiful, with rolling hills and very scenic farmhouses dotting the landscape. And the actual city of Pittsburgh was hilly and green with a beautiful downtown and the lakes and bridges everywhere. I was very impressed. To me it was very small town-ish everywhere we went, but everyone kept asking me what I thought of the big city as if I was from a small town. I guess they had their own ideas of what Houston was like.
LOL
If that would seriously be someones legitimate concern I'd be worried for them.
On top of that In-N-Out ist vastly overrated and essentially just another another fast food chain and YES so is Whataburger. There is nothing special abouth either of these places, nothing at all. Just another Mc Donald's or Burger King in a different package...
I went to the new In-N-Out in New Braunfels after a long day tubing down the river, and my God it was SO GOOD! I was very impressed. Then I recently went to one in Austin and I couldn't even finish the burger. Now I'm wondering if the New Braunfels one was really that good, or if I was just so hungry from being on the river
I'm all for Californians moving to Texas, it helps Texas to eventually surpass California in population. As long as California's gangs don't come with the exodus to Texas, I'm fine with it. California can keep their Crips, Bloods, MS-13 and other LA-based gangs.
Now why on earth would you want our population to surpass that of California? I have no desire for that at all. We already have too many people and too little water in some places.
Yeah and Texans are in the process of ruining Colorado, right along side the Californians. When you have that many people in your state, you are going to make up a large percentage of in migration for any rapidly growing state.
You want to ***** about Californians ruining Texas? Fine, Texans are ruining Idaho. Look at the Wilks brothers. They bought a massive amount of land that is a buffer between public roads and the national forests in Idaho. For generations previous owners of the land have allowed sportsmen to cross their land to gain access to the public land. Not these clowns, they are fencing it all off and blocking the private roads. You would have to drive many hours to get around through other access points, and in some cases, there is no other way to get there.
No one disagrees that they have the technical right to do so, but it's incredibly "Un-Neighborly" even though they claim they respect local traditions, they do not. They just don't understand local culture, the idea that you can respect private property without being a **** about it. You can own land and be generous with your neighbors. You don't have to shoot someone if their foot touches your lawn just because it's within your legal rights.
Texans have a well deserved reputation as terrible house guests in other states. Native Coloradans dislike Texans even more than Californians and it isn't hard to see why.
Take a look at the small amount of public land we have here in Texas and you can see why, I've never seen so much litter and general disregard on public land in my life.
****ing on Californians is a bad idea if you are a Texan. Don't throw rocks if you live in a glass house.
Also, for the most part in migration has improved the state of Texas. Both Dallas and Houston are 100 times better than they were 10 years ago, largely thanks to migrants and immigrants.
Austin is the only one that you can really argue is "Worse" and thats only if you wanted it to stay a weird medium sized college town for hippies.
Transplants to Texas have poured billions of dollars into the Texas economy, we have gentrified neighborhoods that the locals are afraid of we've paid taxes that educate your kids and build your roads.
I really like Texas, It's a cool place with great opportunity and it's getting better, thanks in a large part to migrants and immigrants.
Outside of Austin changing, what specifically is being "Ruined" about Texas? We aren't moving to the dying small towns in rural counties, we have largely left those alone. Rural Texas still belongs to native Texans.
All migrants have done is make the big cities safer, more vibrant, more economically viable, and more important, both nationally and internationally. We've brought high paying jobs and increased property values to the locals.
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.
I just don't see it. Don't know about Cali but Texans are certainly more aggressive than people down here. Miami has a different brand of attitudes for sure but not necessarily worse. The politeness and southern hospitality of TX cease being pleasant once one discovers that it isn't usually genuine.
What do you mean, not genuine? If I ask how you're doing, I really want to know. If I strike up a conversation with a stranger, I'm just being friendly and have no ill will towards the person. Believe me, I'm not secretly thinking bad thoughts about you.
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.
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
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
