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Dallas: - Highest growth rate in the nation (especially for 18 - 30 years old), after Houston, which is down now due to the oil industry, placing Dallas at #1

Dallas: - Highest growth rate in the nation (especially for 18 - 30 years old), after Houston, which is down now due to the oil industry, placing Dallas at #1 - Highest spending on food and alcohol at restaurants - http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2015/09/dallas-fort-worth-spends-more-on-eating-out-and-booze-than-anywhere-in-us.html/ http://bizbeatblog.dallasnews.com/2015/09/dallas-fort-worth-... - One of the most affordable places to live in the U.S. - Large number of top tier universities within 3 hours (Univ of Texas, Baylor, TCU, SMU, UNT, Texas A&M, UTD, UTA) - Massive amount of wealth/wealthy investors, who, are starting to put their wealth into more and more seed start-ups My point is, many cities all fit the same criteria as he listed. But until the people IN those communities move to make it happen, it won't. In the last 3 years, I've seen a magnitude increase in Start-up/entrepreneur activity happening in Dallas. And I believe much of the criteria PG said is right and a good part of the reason, but those things won't just "make" it happen.

joeblau 11y ago
Yeah, but are people in Dallas truly open minded? I've never lived in Texas but from my understanding, Austin is the only place in Texas which really fosters an truly open thought process. Without that, it doesn't matter how many of the other elements a city has.
- Cshelton 11y ago
  In the city, yes, absolutely. Now if you go out way into the suburbs and the country....well..they don't call it the bible belt for nothing... Note: I'm not knocking on Christians..I am one myself. Just saying a lot of the people out there are not as accepting. However I have found a larger percentage of "nicer" people here than in other places I've lived. "nicer" is hard to define in words though...so I'll leave it at that.
- throwaway3724 11y ago
  Well, you sure sound open minded. If by open minded we mean writing off 26 million people because they live in a geographical area that's different than yours (and perhaps hold religious views, "quelle horreur!"). But what you really mean by "open minded" is "votes for Democratic politicians". And lucky for you, Dallas (just like all of those other bastions of conservativism, San Antonio and Houston) has a mayor who is a member of the Democratic party! Funny, huh, stereotypes aren't always accurate.
  - kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
    The horror is when such people use their biased views to impose un-American legislation to strip rights and freedoms from other people because it satisfies their fear of anyone who thinks differently than themselves. Texas has an established track record in this domain.
    - throwaway3724 11y ago
      Remind me when the good people of Dallas stripped the rights and freedoms of any people, besides banning fracking in 2013? For god's sake, they passed a law prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity/sexual orientation in 2002. That's 10 years before Barack Obama realized that same-sex marriage was a fundamental American right.
      - deleted 11y ago
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      - imissmyjuno 11y ago
        I dunno man, I can't say any of this reads as encouraging: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Texas
        jdminhbg 11y ago
        Ctrl-F "dallas" on that article mostly leads to things like "LGBT Protections: Housing, public accommodations, city employment, private employment, city contractors"
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  - Cshelton 11y ago
    To be fair, he said he hasn't been to Texas, implying he is not familiar with it, and was only asking a question. He wasn't throwing out stereotypes as truth, just fro what he has heard. I mean..if you ask half the people in Europe they still think we ride horses everywhere... I've actually lived in Boulder, CO. and I think Austin is more "hippy" than Boulder...I know...crazy but that was my experience. I'd say Dallas is pretty well balanced as far as number of republicans/democrats.
- eropple 11y ago
  This is speculation, but like most parts of the U.S., I'd suggest that maybe it's more an urban/rural split than anything else. Texas has its pockets of reasonableness and progressivism (and outside of Austin, too--I quite like San Antonio, Dallas is fine, and while Houston is best described as a highway in a swamp a million lanes wide that you merge across to get anywhere, it's a very tolerant community with a gay woman as mayor from 2010 to 2016, when she was term-limited). When you get out of where the money and the people is, it may be different (never been), but the urban areas aren't much different from any other urban area in that regard.
  - throwaway3724 11y ago
    I've lived in small towns in Texas, and I've only found good natured people. Small town life is different. It's a little bit slower, I never had to deal with traffic, and I could drive anywhere in town in 5 minutes. But even my medium sized hometown (pop 60,000) stocked vegan cupcakes in the town bakery. Maybe it's not as progressive as Austin, but I don't appreciate how everybody else in the world writes it off as a joke. I'm sure the evil bigots living somewhere, but I don't know where.
    - hueving 11y ago
      Did you notice anyone openly gay or transgender there? One of the issues with small towns is that you end up thinking people aren't racists, bigots, whatever because there just aren't that many people there for them to discriminate against. I grew up in a small town and thought it was open minded and didn't realize how wrong that was until I was older when I would listen to political conversations in bars, restaurants, and coffee shops how much mindless hatred was hiding beneath the surface.
    - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
      If you can drive 5 minutes and still be in town, it's not "small".
abalashov 11y ago
Yes, but Dallas fails abysmally on the urban livability and density test. It's one giant exurb. Much of it should be reclassified as a rural area. (Speaking as an Atlantan -- we have the exact same problem.)
- Cshelton 11y ago
  Back in the 80's they pretty much highway-locked downtown (surrounded it with highways) and killed off a lot of the urban/livability. However much of that is changing/has changed. Downtown actually has people out at night. When you include Deep Ellum and Uptown (right next to downtown), though places are really active. I go out a lot at night...(too much) I'm not sure what your definition of "rural" is... but the suburbs of Dallas (Plano, Irving, Mckinney, Richardson) are most definitely not rural by any definition. Suburbs...yes...I'd even say dense suburbs at that.
- JamilD 11y ago
  I've only been to Dallas a couple times, but it seems like the soul of the city is in the suburbs. Downtown seems dreary and dismal; it has the potential to be exciting, it's quite a beautiful area — but so few people! Scattered coffee shops and restaurants, but I felt like I could've been literally anywhere else.
  - abalashov 11y ago
    I felt like I could've been literally anywhere else. Bingo! That applies to 90% of Atlanta, as well, despite some notable exceptions.
- Xcelerate 11y ago
  Atlanta — a massive metro region with the emptiest downtown area I've ever lived in. It's a bit of a paradox.
  - abalashov 11y ago
    Indeed! By global standards, it's completely preposterous. 5.5m people should be crammed into 1/10th of the surface area occupied by Metro Atlanta. At most. The downtown area is interesting, but has no imaginable relevance to the lives of 90% of Metro Atlanta residents.
paulsutter 11y ago
Dallas misses on a few of pg's key points: it's a sprawling driving city, lack of a top university, and a red state culture. > Pittsburgh is fortunate in being a pre-car city. It's not too spread out. Because those 25 to 29 year olds do not like driving. They prefer walking, or bicycling, or taking public transport... Cities where you can get around without driving are just better period. > Pittsburgh has something Portland lacks: a first-rate research university. CMU plus little cafes means you have more than hipsters drinking lattes. It means you have hipsters drinking lattes while talking about distributed systems. Now you're getting really close to San Francisco. > The culture of Pittsburgh is another of its strengths. It seems like a city has to be very socially liberal to be a startup hub, and it's pretty clear why. A city has to tolerate strangeness to be a home for startups, because startups are so strange. EDIT: map of red/blue counties in Texas: http://frontburner.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Texas-vote-drift-map.jpg http://frontburner.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/upload...
- Cshelton 11y ago
  I wouldn't associate "red state culture" and a particular city in that state together. Remember, Austin is a city in Texas.... The 4 major cities in Texas in fact are either well mixed or liberal (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio). I hardly move my car on the weekends, get around just fine. My current job I have to commute by car (actually I could ride the train technically...), but many people walk/use public transportation. There is even an entire underground tunnel network between most of the buildings downtown... Also, what is your definition of a "top university"? Ivy? Also fun fact...Dallas has the largest public transit system in the nation as far as length of track.
  - krschultz 11y ago
    That last fact is a negative. You maximize track miles by having sprawl connected with trains. That's not what you want. Number of riders per mile of track is a much better metric.
    - Cshelton 11y ago
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myblake 11y ago
> Large number of top tier universities within 3 hours I know in Texas driving 3 hours is a moderate commute, but UT is literally in another metro area. If you read the article, PG mentions Stanford and Berkeley not being downtown as a liability compared to CMU and they both have reasonable public transit options to downtown SF.

joeblau 11y ago

Yeah, but are people in Dallas truly open minded? I've never lived in Texas but from my understanding, Austin is the only place in Texas which really fosters an truly open thought process. Without that, it doesn't matter how many of the other elements a city has.

Cshelton 11y ago
In the city, yes, absolutely. Now if you go out way into the suburbs and the country....well..they don't call it the bible belt for nothing... Note: I'm not knocking on Christians..I am one myself. Just saying a lot of the people out there are not as accepting. However I have found a larger percentage of "nicer" people here than in other places I've lived. "nicer" is hard to define in words though...so I'll leave it at that.
throwaway3724 11y ago
Well, you sure sound open minded. If by open minded we mean writing off 26 million people because they live in a geographical area that's different than yours (and perhaps hold religious views, "quelle horreur!"). But what you really mean by "open minded" is "votes for Democratic politicians". And lucky for you, Dallas (just like all of those other bastions of conservativism, San Antonio and Houston) has a mayor who is a member of the Democratic party! Funny, huh, stereotypes aren't always accurate.
- kevin_thibedeau 11y ago
  The horror is when such people use their biased views to impose un-American legislation to strip rights and freedoms from other people because it satisfies their fear of anyone who thinks differently than themselves. Texas has an established track record in this domain.
  - throwaway3724 11y ago
    Remind me when the good people of Dallas stripped the rights and freedoms of any people, besides banning fracking in 2013? For god's sake, they passed a law prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity/sexual orientation in 2002. That's 10 years before Barack Obama realized that same-sex marriage was a fundamental American right.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
    - imissmyjuno 11y ago
      I dunno man, I can't say any of this reads as encouraging: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Texas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Texas
      - jdminhbg 11y ago
        Ctrl-F "dallas" on that article mostly leads to things like "LGBT Protections: Housing, public accommodations, city employment, private employment, city contractors"
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- Cshelton 11y ago
  To be fair, he said he hasn't been to Texas, implying he is not familiar with it, and was only asking a question. He wasn't throwing out stereotypes as truth, just fro what he has heard. I mean..if you ask half the people in Europe they still think we ride horses everywhere... I've actually lived in Boulder, CO. and I think Austin is more "hippy" than Boulder...I know...crazy but that was my experience. I'd say Dallas is pretty well balanced as far as number of republicans/democrats.
eropple 11y ago
This is speculation, but like most parts of the U.S., I'd suggest that maybe it's more an urban/rural split than anything else. Texas has its pockets of reasonableness and progressivism (and outside of Austin, too--I quite like San Antonio, Dallas is fine, and while Houston is best described as a highway in a swamp a million lanes wide that you merge across to get anywhere, it's a very tolerant community with a gay woman as mayor from 2010 to 2016, when she was term-limited). When you get out of where the money and the people is, it may be different (never been), but the urban areas aren't much different from any other urban area in that regard.
- throwaway3724 11y ago
  I've lived in small towns in Texas, and I've only found good natured people. Small town life is different. It's a little bit slower, I never had to deal with traffic, and I could drive anywhere in town in 5 minutes. But even my medium sized hometown (pop 60,000) stocked vegan cupcakes in the town bakery. Maybe it's not as progressive as Austin, but I don't appreciate how everybody else in the world writes it off as a joke. I'm sure the evil bigots living somewhere, but I don't know where.
  - hueving 11y ago
    Did you notice anyone openly gay or transgender there? One of the issues with small towns is that you end up thinking people aren't racists, bigots, whatever because there just aren't that many people there for them to discriminate against. I grew up in a small town and thought it was open minded and didn't realize how wrong that was until I was older when I would listen to political conversations in bars, restaurants, and coffee shops how much mindless hatred was hiding beneath the surface.
  - GFK_of_xmaspast 11y ago
    If you can drive 5 minutes and still be in town, it's not "small".

abalashov 11y ago

Yes, but Dallas fails abysmally on the urban livability and density test. It's one giant exurb. Much of it should be reclassified as a rural area. (Speaking as an Atlantan -- we have the exact same problem.)

Cshelton 11y ago
Back in the 80's they pretty much highway-locked downtown (surrounded it with highways) and killed off a lot of the urban/livability. However much of that is changing/has changed. Downtown actually has people out at night. When you include Deep Ellum and Uptown (right next to downtown), though places are really active. I go out a lot at night...(too much) I'm not sure what your definition of "rural" is... but the suburbs of Dallas (Plano, Irving, Mckinney, Richardson) are most definitely not rural by any definition. Suburbs...yes...I'd even say dense suburbs at that.
JamilD 11y ago
I've only been to Dallas a couple times, but it seems like the soul of the city is in the suburbs. Downtown seems dreary and dismal; it has the potential to be exciting, it's quite a beautiful area — but so few people! Scattered coffee shops and restaurants, but I felt like I could've been literally anywhere else.
- abalashov 11y ago
  I felt like I could've been literally anywhere else. Bingo! That applies to 90% of Atlanta, as well, despite some notable exceptions.
Xcelerate 11y ago
Atlanta — a massive metro region with the emptiest downtown area I've ever lived in. It's a bit of a paradox.
- abalashov 11y ago
  Indeed! By global standards, it's completely preposterous. 5.5m people should be crammed into 1/10th of the surface area occupied by Metro Atlanta. At most. The downtown area is interesting, but has no imaginable relevance to the lives of 90% of Metro Atlanta residents.

paulsutter 11y ago

Dallas misses on a few of pg's key points: it's a sprawling driving city, lack of a top university, and a red state culture. > Pittsburgh is fortunate in being a pre-car city. It's not too spread out. Because those 25 to 29 year olds do not like driving. They prefer walking, or bicycling, or taking public transport... Cities where you can get around without driving are just better period. > Pittsburgh has something Portland lacks: a first-rate research university. CMU plus little cafes means you have more than hipsters drinking lattes. It means you have hipsters drinking lattes while talking about distributed systems. Now you're getting really close to San Francisco. > The culture of Pittsburgh is another of its strengths. It seems like a city has to be very socially liberal to be a startup hub, and it's pretty clear why. A city has to tolerate strangeness to be a home for startups, because startups are so strange. EDIT: map of red/blue counties in Texas: http://frontburner.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Texas-vote-drift-map.jpg http://frontburner.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/upload...

Cshelton 11y ago
I wouldn't associate "red state culture" and a particular city in that state together. Remember, Austin is a city in Texas.... The 4 major cities in Texas in fact are either well mixed or liberal (Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio). I hardly move my car on the weekends, get around just fine. My current job I have to commute by car (actually I could ride the train technically...), but many people walk/use public transportation. There is even an entire underground tunnel network between most of the buildings downtown... Also, what is your definition of a "top university"? Ivy? Also fun fact...Dallas has the largest public transit system in the nation as far as length of track.
- krschultz 11y ago
  That last fact is a negative. You maximize track miles by having sprawl connected with trains. That's not what you want. Number of riders per mile of track is a much better metric.
  - Cshelton 11y ago

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myblake 11y ago

> Large number of top tier universities within 3 hours I know in Texas driving 3 hours is a moderate commute, but UT is literally in another metro area. If you read the article, PG mentions Stanford and Berkeley not being downtown as a liability compared to CMU and they both have reasonable public transit options to downtown SF.