Dallas Skyline(WOW)Yes another Dallas to Houston comparison thread! (Irving: centers, clubs)

[R1070]

I think the positive of smaller city limits is to keep city services and tax dollars from being stretched too thin. I work with quite a bit of people who moved here from Houston and they all say the city services of Dallas are much higher quality than what is provided in Houston.

Yes Houston has it's rich neighborhoods in it's city limits unlike Highland Park or Beverly Hills, CA, but Highland Park is not Dallas' only wealthy area. Preston Hollow is home to Texas' wealthiest residents and contains some of the most expensive homes in the state and it's within the city limits of Dallas. Kessler Park & Munger Place/Swiss Ave in the city of Dallas are very old money as well. Swiss Avenue was filmed for the show GCB when they filmed the pilot in Dallas.

[savanite]

Originally Posted by Trae713

Yeah, Dallas' case isn't a good example. Inner Loop Houston would be nothing like Beverly Hills or Park Cities if it were its own city. Those are just high class residential areas with some high end retail. Houston's Park Cities/Beverly Hills is in its city limits and the Inner Loop already has West U., Bellaire, etc. as their own cities within the loop. And not all of the independent inner ring suburbs of Dallas are deteriorating. Richardson is holding steady and holds a big businesses on its north side. Irving has Las Colinas, Plano is pretty much an Inner Ring suburb now and has large corporate centers. I don't think those suburbs are going down. The Richardson/Irving/Plano of Houston is Westchase and the Energy Corridor. And like you said, Dallas has plenty of low income areas inside its city limits, most of which are in South Dallas.

I'm not seeing an advantage at all from contracting the city limits to just the 610 loop. I do see advantage in continuing to release the ETJ to let some of these suburbs form their own cities (if residents in those places want it). Property values are already increasing in and around the inner loop even though the COH limits are large and there is already a fight to get into there (with the huge amount of apartments going up in the inner loop). Even past Uptown a little bit.

If Houston within the loop were similar to West LA, would that be a good reason to call it its own city?

[AdamTx]

Dallas, even with all its growth, still lacks the cosmopolitan feel of Houston. Perhaps that cosmopolitan feel is more an illusion than reality but nevertheless it is there. It partly has to do with the fact that Houston is greener and lusher also. Much more lusher than Dallas. Dallas has this raw, barren feel to it. After all it is a city made out of nothing. It is a pretentious, pretend city with no real geographical reason to exist. Oh and touching on a post by someone else earlier on Fort Worth; it is so true. Fort Worth has managed to create an enjoyable, vibrant downtown and even the Trinity River there has been tamed to allow for various water activities and walkways whereas Dallas has only been arguing about doing just that and hasn't really moved forward.

[dallasboi]

Originally Posted by AdamTx

Dallas, even with all its growth, still lacks the cosmopolitan feel of Houston. Perhaps that cosmopolitan feel is more an illusion than reality but nevertheless it is there. It partly has to do with the fact that Houston is greener and lusher also. Much more lusher than Dallas. Dallas has this raw, barren feel to it. After all it is a city made out of nothing. It is a pretentious, pretend city with no real geographical reason to exist. Oh and touching on a post by someone else earlier on Fort Worth; it is so true. Fort Worth has managed to create an enjoyable, vibrant downtown and even the Trinity River there has been tamed to allow for various water activities and walkways whereas Dallas has only been arguing about doing just that and hasn't really moved forward.

Its moving along...probably not as fast as most would like but its moving.

[savanite]

Originally Posted by AdamTx

Perhaps that cosmopolitan feel is more an illusion than reality but nevertheless it is there.

How can an illusion be really there?

I thought illusions were in the eye of the beholder...

I guess you have a dislike for Dallas.

Me, personally, I've got nothing against the place.

[stoneclaw]

I've probably said this at least a dozen times between this and the other countless DFW vs Houston threads, but to me Dallas feels more like a suburb compared to Houston. Although anybody from the northeast will probably lump Houston with having that suburb feel to it as well. Houston is just more unified which seems like it packs a harder punch in terms of "feel". Dallas packs a harder punch in terms of "looks".

Dallas has the infrastructure in place of being a real city: lightrail, transit oriented developments, urban developments. But it still is void of any real character that make it an interesting place. The pretty lightshow and buildings Downtown Dallas has does not give it character. It just gives visitors passing through the false sense that it does. Driving through Dallas at night, you'd swear you were in Las Vegas or something, but let's face it, the height of Dallas's activity and things to do involves shopping.

I think Dallas is moving in the right direction, but it still has a ways to go as far as developing any real character. Although Houston may have more character than Dallas with the influence of nearby Louisianna, it still has a ways to go too. Both of the Texas cities need to dig deep in their roots and capatilize on what made them great. Dallas does a better job with this than Houston, but its still guilty of trying too hard to abandon its roots. This isn't really what made Houston great, but Houston definitely missed the boat on the Space City idea and it seems that even NASA has forgotten that it was Houston that blasted the first man to the moon.

If Houston had done a better job with in marketing the Space theme in Houston, it probably would have received much more recognition than its gotten. Location also had to do with this. There's no NASA related promotion going on in more central parts of town, only in the Nassau Bay area. It's too bad for Houston because other cities are getting new launch pads and space shuttles, not Houston.

stoneclaw/C2H (ComingtoHouston)

[dallasboi]

Originally Posted by stoneclaw

I've probably said this at least a dozen times between this and the other countless DFW vs Houston threads, but to me Dallas feels more like a suburb compared to Houston. Although anybody from the northeast will probably lump Houston with having that suburb feel to it as well. Houston is just more unified which seems like it packs a harder punch in terms of "feel". Dallas packs a harder punch in terms of "looks".

Dallas has the infrastructure in place of being a real city: lightrail, transit oriented developments, urban developments. But it still is void of any real character that make it an interesting place. The pretty lightshow and buildings Downtown Dallas has does not give it character. It just gives visitors passing through the false sense that it does. Driving through Dallas at night, you'd swear you were in Las Vegas or something, but let's face it, the height of Dallas's activity and things to do involves shopping.

I think Dallas is moving in the right direction, but it still has a ways to go as far as developing any real character. Although Houston may have more character than Dallas with the influence of nearby Louisianna, it still has a ways to go too. Both of the Texas cities need to dig deep in their roots and capatilize on what made them great. Dallas does a better job with this than Houston, but its still guilty of trying too hard to abandon its roots. This isn't really what made Houston great, but Houston definitely missed the boat on the Space City idea and it seems that even NASA has forgotten that it was Houston that blasted the first man to the moon.

If Houston had done a better job with in marketing the Space theme in Houston, it probably would have received much more recognition than its gotten. Location also had to do with this. There's no NASA related promotion going on in more central parts of town, only in the Nassau Bay area. It's too bad for Houston because other cities are getting new launch pads and space shuttles, not Houston.

stoneclaw/C2H (ComingtoHouston)

This

[BigT3x]

To me, Houston "feels" like a squalid hellhole.

Turns out, my feelings are worthless. So are yours!

Great.

[jbarn]

Originally Posted by stoneclaw

I've probably said this at least a dozen times between this and the other countless DFW vs Houston threads, but to me Dallas feels more like a suburb compared to Houston. Although anybody from the northeast will probably lump Houston with having that suburb feel to it as well. Houston is just more unified which seems like it packs a harder punch in terms of "feel". Dallas packs a harder punch in terms of "looks".

Dallas has the infrastructure in place of being a real city: lightrail, transit oriented developments, urban developments. But it still is void of any real character that make it an interesting place. The pretty lightshow and buildings Downtown Dallas has does not give it character. It just gives visitors passing through the false sense that it does. Driving through Dallas at night, you'd swear you were in Las Vegas or something, but let's face it, the height of Dallas's activity and things to do involves shopping.

I think Dallas is moving in the right direction, but it still has a ways to go as far as developing any real character. Although Houston may have more character than Dallas with the influence of nearby Louisianna, it still has a ways to go too. Both of the Texas cities need to dig deep in their roots and capatilize on what made them great. Dallas does a better job with this than Houston, but its still guilty of trying too hard to abandon its roots. This isn't really what made Houston great, but Houston definitely missed the boat on the Space City idea and it seems that even NASA has forgotten that it was Houston that blasted the first man to the moon.

If Houston had done a better job with in marketing the Space theme in Houston, it probably would have received much more recognition than its gotten. Location also had to do with this. There's no NASA related promotion going on in more central parts of town, only in the Nassau Bay area. It's too bad for Houston because other cities are getting new launch pads and space shuttles, not Houston.

stoneclaw/C2H (ComingtoHouston)

I am not quite sure when you say that Houston is more unified. To me, Houston is much, much more spread out than Dallas and none of its walkable areas are even remotely close to each other. Therefore, you have a huge area, with some semi-walkable areas mixed into a huge suburban-type environment. One of the benefits of being smaller I guess is that the walkable areas we have in Dallas are in somewhat close proximity to each other, and some are even contiguous. And with all the infrastructure in place and being put in place, this city is going to be something else in the next few years. Houston is moving in that direction also, but has alot further to go due to its bigness and sprawl. Your walkable areas will never be connected. I am also confused when you say Dallas is devoid of character. I think both cities are quite devoid of character, except for some of the older neighborhoods. What character would you be referring to that Houston has more of?

[dallasboi]

Originally Posted by jayshoota

Where? (And don't say Uptown and Oak Lawn, I've lived in both and know better.)

West Village,St.Thomas,Uptown/Downtown,Deep Ellum,Farmers Market,The cedarsThe Design District and Yes..Oaklawn...these are all within one mile of each other with some overlapping each other.I agreed with stoneclaw because that was HIS opinion and to try and dispute HIS Opinion would be me not practicing what I preach. Of course I disagree with some things he said but overall it was a well rounded fairly unbiased post.