Big 6 TX Downtown versus thread! (Houston, Dallas: hotel, employment, neighborhoods)

[Redlionjr]

So I’m interested to see where the Texas cities downtowns rank amongst each other. And I’m specifically only referring to the big 6. What would be your number 1, which cities downtown would be at the bottom. Just curious.

Me personally when looking at Downtowns I look for a couple of qualities such as:
1.Nightlife
2.Population
3.Dining
4.Tourist attractions
5.Vibrancy
6.Skyline
7.Architecture

Based on these qualities where would you rank the big 6 downtowns.

Here’s the list btw(in no particular order)
1.El Paso
2.Fort Worth
3.Austin
4.San Antonio
5.Houston
6.Dallas

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Are we counting only official boundaries? Or do EaDo and Midtown count for Houston, and Victory Park for Dallas?

[Redlionjr]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Are we counting only official boundaries? Or do EaDo and Midtown count for Houston, and Victory Park for Dallas?

I’m only counting official boundaries.

[ParaguaneroSwag]

Originally Posted by Redlionjr

I’m only counting official boundaries.

Using official boundaries only...

Population - San Antonio.

Dining - Austin - Austin definitely wins here, they have a bigger variety. Sixth Street plus the food trucks and everything in between makes it the easy choice here. Downtown Houston does have a better selection of upscale dining though, which caters to business travelers. Houston’s downtown proper doesn’t have it made, however just across 59 into Midtown it’s a completely different story.

Tourist attractions - Austin or San Antonio tied. Take your pick. the River Walk or Sixth Street? The Alamo or the Texas Capitol Building?

Vibrancy - Well Austin has Sixth Street so I’d say they win. But Houston and Dallas will eventually both dethrone Austin here. The improvements of Main Street and Commerce St will only continue. Sixth Streer alone won’t offer the variety seen there.

Skyline - Definitely Houston and Dallas ahead of the other two. I prefer Houston’s since it’s taller and overall larger. Hines blessed Houston with its skyline. But Dallas is a close second with the extra points for the Omni Hotel.

Architecture - See skyline.

Overall winner I guess would have to be Austin. Austin has many of their attractions centralized as opposed to the others especially HOU and DFW.

[whereiend]

San Antonio wins tourism and Dallas wins architecture. Houston/Dallas are tied for skyline. Austin wins the other categories and is #1 overall.

[whereiend]

Originally Posted by ParaguaneroSwag

Vibrancy - Well Austin has Sixth Street so I’d say they win. But Houston and Dallas will eventually both dethrone Austin here. The improvements of Main Street and Commerce St will only continue. Sixth Streer alone won’t offer the variety seen there.

Austin has a lot more than 6th. Rainey St, 2nd St, Congress Ave, the music scene on Red River, etc. Austin crushes Houston and Dallas downtowns in vibrancy... If you counted uptown Dallas, Deep Ellum, Midtown Houston, etc, it's closer, but then I think Austin still wins with places like South Congress, South Lamar, West Campus, and East 6th St included.

[JJG]

Remember, people, there's a difference between "DOWNTOWN" and "SKYLINE" . . .

Just thought I'd throw that out.

[Treasurevalley92]

Fort Worth has the best downtown and Dallas has the worst. Same Metro.

Houston's has almost as bad a downtown as Dallas but Dallas has better over all urbanism. however, if you count the neighborhoods outside the highway collar Dallas has the best urbanism in Texas.

On a totally different note, but Dallas has the best Skyline in Texas and Houston has the 2nd Best. Fort Worth has the worst skyline of any city it's size in the whole US.

[LocalPlanner]

I went ahead and voted for Fort Worth, more as a legacy role maybe than how things are currently. Traditionally, it had the most enjoyable downtown if you were over age 25 (meaning better than Austin) and the most competitive for white-collar employment. However, Austin has improved and diversified its age appeal since then, and attracted more white-collar employment than it used to have, so it's definitely about even now.

Dallas and Houston until recently had equally dispiriting downtowns, but both have improved a lot - I'd give Houston a slight edge maybe but Dallas continues to gain. Parks have been a big part of their improvement, along with the addition of more restaurants and nightspots, especially catering to the over-25 crowd, pre-COVID at least. Houston's downtown remains more competitive for attracting white-collar employment, because it's more central to where educated employees live in the region, unlike Dallas whose downtown is truly peripheral, unfortunately.

San Antonio has always had the most charming downtown architecturally, by far (and it has never been close). It obviously wins in the tourism department, but its appeal to locals, entrepreneurs, and white-collar firms was lacking - those charming buildings were mostly dead except right on the Riverwalk. This is hopefully changing.

El Paso wins for utterly unique atmosphere as a border city, with its downtown right there near the bridge. I'm not as much familar with it, but from what I understand, it has momentum right now. It seems like it has a great opportunity.

[whereiend]

Originally Posted by LocalPlanner

I went ahead and voted for Fort Worth, more as a legacy role maybe than how things are currently. Traditionally, it had the most enjoyable downtown if you were over age 25 (meaning better than Austin) and the most competitive for white-collar employment. However, Austin has improved and diversified its age appeal since then, and attracted more white-collar employment than it used to have, so it's definitely about even now.

I don't see evidence that downtown Fort Worth is competitive with Austin in terms of employment, much less that it has more.

This tool has 51,614 employees in 76102 (Downtown Fort Worth) vs. 92,619 in 78701 (Downtown Austin)
https://onthemap.ces.census.gov/

Even if you throw in 76104 for Fort Worth (34,209 employees), 78701 still has more people. Austin also has another 49k in downtown-adjacent 78705 (UT area).