Which big Texas city has the best downtown? (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Ft. Worth) (River Oaks: restaurants, department store)

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by OmShahi

Haha you got that right!!

That McD in DT Dallas looks like a stripped-down version of the Rock-n-Roll McDonalds on Ontario Street.

[royal744]

Originally Posted by dallasboi

If its not better than dt Austin(which is highly overrated imo) Than its not better than DTD...Ft.Worth,Austin and San antonio are all nice cities in their own right...But they are all overrated...its all hype....I cant think of anything SPECTACULAR about 6th street Austin or the riverwalk or Sundance square.....But I guess since there's hardly anything else going on in those cities all of the locals and tourist seem to overrate wat little thats there...Houston and Dallas have the REAL Downtowns with the REAL potential.......of course all of the smaller cities will run away with the claim of having a better ANYTHING over the big boys so maybe thats the other reason for all of the myths and overrating that been going on......Get Real people......Dallas and Houston shouldn't even be compared to the other three...Just MY OPINION

Good comment but in the main, downtown Houston and Dallas are places where you can fire a cannon in any direction after 6pm and never hit a person. In my opinion, this is the true test of whatever it is that makes a downtown vibrant and neither of those two places is "it".

[royal744]

Originally Posted by Quattro72

That’s because downtown is all San Antonio has. LOL. The riverwalk is nice and not to mention the Alamo, something you want to visit once a decade. It all depends what you are looking for.

What does this statement mean? Does it mean that other cities that don't have downtowns are in any way better? That's rich. Consider this: San Antonio just recently added 1.3 MILES of additional River Walk to the north of downtown - that's right miles. It is complete. AND, it is adding - get this - another 13 MILES to the South, connecting all of the 18th Century Spanish Colonial Missions, which, by the way, is the ONLY place in the country which has so many restored missions. Gee, I guess we have "more" than just a downtown.

[dallasboi]

Originally Posted by royal744

Good comment but in the main, downtown Houston and Dallas are places where you can fire a cannon in any direction after 6pm and never hit a person. In my opinion, this is the true test of whatever it is that makes a downtown vibrant and neither of those two places is "it".

This could have been true 10 or even 5 years ago...but its hardly the case now....you need to visit again to update your misleading claims.

[royal744]

Originally Posted by slo1318

Whats wrong with "whitebreads" you've used that term twice now? Sure FW is lucky to have the Bass family and others, but every city has their elite. Im not from FW or Texas for that matter, but for the size of city FW is, it has a very good arts scene, excellent museums, and a good culture. The downtown in my opinion is appropriately sized and is pretty vibrant. DT Dallas & Houston to me are the the same, all glitz and no substance. Does that mean they are going to stay that way? I dont think so, I think they'll both get better, but right now.....no.

It is true, in my opinion, that Fort Worth has the finest collection of museums in the state. Other cities in Texas do well in this niche market as well, but somehow Ft. Worth through vision and foresight has put them together in an urban ensemble that is just excellent. Before anyone goes out and accuses Ft Worth as a haven for bumpkins, first consider the fact that their museums are among the best, most sophisticated ones around.

[slo1318]

^^Thats right, although FW is not that big, it has what is developing into a great, fairly dense uptown area. It stretches from downtown up 7th toward University, takes in the museum or cultural district, then down University to TCU, also taking in the Botanical Gardens, Will Rogers complex, city parks and the Zoo.

[homeinatx]

FW indeed has the best museums in TX, followed by the museums in the museum district in Houston, but to say that the museums in FW are in downtown is a bit of a stretch. No-one walks from Sundance Square to the Kimball!! It would be a very unpedestrian friendly hike, not to mention unpleasant especially in the Summer and public transport in FW sucks BIG TIME! The Museum district in Houston is even further from downtown Houston! The Arts District in Dallas is actually downtown but no-one lives there and to walk from Uptown where people actually live would involve crossing a freeway, which while possible does not really happen. The good museums in San Antonio (and I do not count the pathetically small but iconically significant Alamo a good museum) are even further from downtown. Austin has no good museums off the UT campus and they are not technically downtown either though it is no more than a five minute walk from the Capitol to the Blanton. That said, if you want an urban neighborhood in TX, downtown San Antonio and downtown Austin offer ample living, retail and recreational opportunities, followed by downtown Fort Worth which is charming but lacks essential daily amenities like a decent grocery store within walking distance, then the close- in urban/suburban neighborhoods of Houston and Dallas - Montrose, Midtown, Rice Village, the Heights in Houston and Uptown, Deep Ellum, Oaklawn, North Oak Cliff in Dallas. While all these neighborhoods are pretty urban for Texas they are tragic in relation to the truly urban neighborhoods in other U.S. Cities - most of Manhattan, parts of Queens and Brooklyn, the near north side of Chicago, Lakeview and the South Loop, all of the eastern part of SF, along with a sizeable chunk of Oakland and pockets of Berkeley. Boston, Philly, Seattle, even smaller cities like St. Louis, Portland and Pittsburgh have bigger and more vibrant urban neighborhoods than any city in TX. We do suburban living pretty well, urban living with the exception of the areas just mentioned, NOT SO MUCH! And at night, 90% of the downtowns of our two biggest cities make Dubuque, IA look happening!

[royal744]

Originally Posted by dallasboi

This could have been true 10 or even 5 years ago...but its hardly the case now....you need to visit again to update your misleading claims.

Been there many times. Dallas has some truly great "things" - museums, theatres, parks, a terrific light rail system neighborhoods near to it - but the downtown, while shiny, seems a bit lifeless and sterile in my opinion. I'm sure opinion is different. Vive la difference.

[royal744]

Originally Posted by OmShahi

With a population like that it would jump over San Antonio, Philadelphia, and Phoenix's population and become the 5th largest city. Right behind Houston.

I don't believe it. It seems like a misreporting error. Like no way a city can jump that much in like a year after estimates...

guys, Guys, GUYS! Wake up! The higher population is the SMSA - Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area population and is probably correct. The lower figure for "Dallas", which is lower than San Antonio's, is the population within the Dallas city limits, a real figure, but uninformative when considering metro areas. On the other hand, if you include FW in the metroplex, you're probably over 3 million, sort of like Houston.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by homeinatx

The Museum district in Houston is even further from downtown Houston!

But all the museums in Houston are close together either near University of St. Thomas North of 59 or South of 59 in the main Museum District (with the lone exception of Bayou Bend in River Oaks). The light rail connects 3 of the most important museums in the city to downtown and the rapidly-sprawling Medical Center; Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Natural Science, and the Contemporary Arts Museum. Add in the residential aspect of Midtown and it's one long stretch of scenic urban paradise along two major streets and a train line.