Dear Dallas

[Plutonic Panda]

This is also an interesting article I read in Dallas Morning News

Can Medellín teach Dallas a lesson about the Trinity toll road?

As Dallas debates the merits of building a toll road along the Trinity River, it may find some lessons from an unlikely city in South America: Medellín.
Colombia’s second-biggest city also has a large river running through its center. While Dallas plans to build a road along the Trinity, Medellín has been devising a way to hide the highway along the Aburrá. The city recently approved a bold project to bury several miles of roadway under an urban park so that its 2.4 million residents can reclaim one of their most valuable natural assets.

Read more here: Can Medellín teach Dallas a lesson about the Trinity toll road? | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

[Just the facts]

Nothing connects people more with their river than putting a freeway that divides the two.

[kevinpate]

Nothing connects people more with their river than putting a freeway that divides the two.

but but but ... the view is so pretty through the tinted windows. And with the music a playin' and the a/c afrostin' it's darn near heaven on earth.

[Plutonic Panda]

Nothing connects people more with their river than putting a freeway that divides the two.

I actually agree with you on this one for sure. Dallas is also going to build a, I believe, around 8,000 acre park along the river. I think they're justifying building the highway because they're building a massive park right next to it and saying it will allow better access to the highway. I think they don't really need another highway here, this would be an excellent opportunity for them to build a nice boulevard here.

[ljbab728]

Yes, that would be very nice, also if they would landscape our highways similar to the George Bush turnpike. . . Dallas really knows how to make their highways nice.

Plupan, that doesn't look terrible, but it's hardly a model for how to landscape a freeway. It actually looks somewhat bare.

[Plutonic Panda]

yeah, I was kind of hesitating to use that picture, but I couldn't find anything else, although I didn't look for that long. It would be nicer if they planted some trees or something in the bare spots.

[progressiveboy]

Wow! Dallas is landing another major relocation! Big D is a huge city of commerce and an incredible city to do business and relocate a business! I hate that traffic is going to get worse with more new inhabitants! It truly dominates in that arena.



Kohl?s planning major office operation in Far North Dallas | Biz Beat Blog

[G.Walker]

Explosive growth continues in Dallas-Fort Worth | Census | News from Fort Worth, Dallas,...

[G.Walker]

Moreover, even though Dallas was built around the automobile and is sprawled, their light rail system (DART) is ranked #6 in US for ridership, out of 33, thats pretty good.

[G.Walker]

Just researched they are only behind Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, San Diego, and Philadelphia in light rail ridership. Dallas boasts 1,364 daily boardings per mile, nice.

[Plutonic Panda]

Yes, that is very nice. Now, lets get OKC on that list, somewhere lol

[progressiveboy]

Another corporate HQ move to Dallas Fort Worth area. It seems Big D is living up to it's reputation as a major city to do business and commerce. Only problem is more sprawl and horrendous traffic.




Accudyne Industries to move headquarters to Dallas - Dallas Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/ne...nia-hq-to.html

[progressiveboy]

Yet another big announcement for the DFW area. Why can't OKC attract major relocations?




Trader Joe?s selects Irving for its Texas distribution center | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

[Bellaboo]

Another corporate HQ move to Dallas Fort Worth area. It seems Big D is living up to it's reputation as a major city to do business and commerce. Only problem is more sprawl and horrendous traffic.




Accudyne Industries to move headquarters to Dallas - Dallas Business Journal

Raytheon moving California HQ to McKinney - Dallas Business Journal

15,000 sq feet lease..........not much to talk about here - Accudine ???


The Raytheon division HQ is a bigger deal.

[ljbab728]

Yet another big announcement for the DFW area. Why can't OKC attract major relocations?




Trader Joe?s selects Irving for its Texas distribution center | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

Um, could it have anything to do with 7 million vs 1.3 million? And it does seem to make a little more sense to open up a distribution center in a state where they actually have stores.

[Bunty]

Yet another big announcement for the DFW area. Why can't OKC attract major relocations?




Trader Joe?s selects Irving for its Texas distribution center | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

Because Dallas-Ft. Worth airport has many more non stop international destinations. That's very important, especially to companies doing business globally.

[bchris02]

DFW is a much more attractive market in just about every way in my opinion. I don't think the size of OKC prevents it from attracting major relocations as much as the lack of a major airport as well as its more blue-collar nature. Charlotte, where I moved from, gets relocations frequently and its metro population is only 1.8 million. Charlotte's airport is a major hub and it also has a white collar, highly educated workforce.

It's starting to change though as made evident with the GE relocation.

[Bellaboo]

Yet another big announcement for the DFW area. Why can't OKC attract major relocations?




Trader Joe?s selects Irving for its Texas distribution center | Dallasnews.com - News for Dallas, Texas - The Dallas Morning News

The recently announced GE Research Center for Oil & Gas came down to two metro areas.......OKC and Austin, Tx.
GE chose OKC, and this is a very big deal, much more so than a distribution center. Of the 6 or 7 GE Research Centers worldwide, the smallest is 800 highly paid white collar employees (scientist types). The Oklahoma center will be just as large if not larger when all said and done.....

So we do compete and occasionally score, and this time, at the expense of Texas.

[progressiveboy]

The recently announced GE Research Center for Oil & Gas came down to two metro areas.......OKC and Austin, Tx.
GE chose OKC, and this is a very big deal, much more so than a distribution center. Of the 6 or 7 GE Research Centers worldwide, the smallest is 800 highly paid white collar employees (scientist types). The Oklahoma center will be just as large if not larger when all said and done.....

So we do compete and occasionally score, and this time, at the expense of Texas.

Yes it does, however, Oklahoma will never have the business acumen and talent that Texas has. Oh by the way, looks like the wonderful city of Plano, my current place I live, just landed another major corporate relocation. See below... Texas seems to attract the "top" business talent.







NTT Data Inc. to move its North American HQ to Plano - Dallas Business Journal

[Celebrator]

"Oklahoma will never have the business acumen and talent that Texas has."




What makes you so sure of that? I mean, never is pretty definite. You know something we don't? And explain what you mean by "business acumen"? The people of Oklahoma won't ever have the business acumen of the state of Texas? The state government of Oklahoma won't have the business acumen that Texas has? I just don't quite understand your comments and would like clarification.

[soonerguru]

Yes it does, however, Oklahoma will never have the business acumen and talent that Texas has. Oh by the way, looks like the wonderful city of Plano, my current place I live, just landed another major corporate relocation. See below... Texas seems to attract the "top" business talent.






NTT Data Inc. to move its North American HQ to Plano - Dallas Business Journal

Texas is a really, really big state. Per capita, it doesn't have more "talent" than Oklahoma. This is just an asinine statement.

Also, Texas has more dumb douches like Rick Perry and other racist blathering morons than just about anywhere else on the planet. It's not the land of milk and honey.

Without the money, Dallas would be a cultural wasteland. It is not even in the conversation of the great world cities. It's a place where transient mercenaries go to work.

[Plutonic Panda]

Texas is a really, really big state. Per capita, it doesn't have more "talent" than Oklahoma. This is just an asinine statement.

Also, Texas has more dumb douches like Rick Perry and other racist blathering morons than just about anywhere else on the planet. It's not the land of milk and honey.

Without the money, Dallas would be a cultural wasteland. It is not even in the conversation of the great world cities. It's a place where transient mercenaries go to work.

You couldn't be more wrong. I've talked to people in South America (my stepmother is from there, Brazil to be exact), I have friends in London, and most of my family is middle eastern (my grandfather was born in Iran). I'm Caucasian, as I was adopted hours before birth, and I've talked to people from all over the world, and they all speak highly of Dallas, VERY highly. I've had friends from London tell me they thought Dallas was bigger than London. They love the highway system and what the city has to offer.

It seems reality is lost on this board quite often, most of the time I bite my lip and don't say anything. Dallas in a nice city. It does have more pretentious people their, but it's a nice city. OKC is my city and I'll always love it, mainly because it's my hometown, and in the end, this is where I'll end up and I'll defend it to the death, but Dallas is not just endless suburbia and transient mercenaries or a potential cultural wasteland.

Also, I do agree that Perry is not the brightest apple in the bunch, but as far as the number of racist there, I don't agree with that.

Oh, and I do agree heavily with your first statement!

[soonerguru]

You couldn't be more wrong. I've talked to people in South America (my stepmother is from there, Brazil to be exact), I have friends in London, and most of my family is middle eastern (my grandfather was born in Iran). I'm Caucasian, as I was adopted hours before birth, and I've talked to people from all over the world, and they all speak highly of Dallas, VERY highly. I've had friends from London tell me they thought Dallas was bigger than London. They love the highway system and what the city has to offer.

It seems reality is lost on this board quite often, most of the time I bite my lip and don't say anything. Dallas in a nice city. It does have more pretentious people their, but it's a nice city. OKC is my city and I'll always love it, mainly because it's my hometown, and in the end, this is where I'll end up and I'll defend it to the death, but Dallas is not just endless suburbia and transient mercenaries or a potential cultural wasteland.

Also, I do agree that Perry is not the brightest apple in the bunch, but as far as the number of racist there, I don't agree with that.

Oh, and I do agree heavily with your first statement!

Fair enough, but it's not the utopian world city progressiveboy makes it out to be. I actually kind of like Dallas. It's a sugary confection. But it is not a national -- let alone -- international cultural treasure.

progressiveboy seems to lack perspective of the fact that Texas is just a lot bigger and that's why there's more "there" there.

[Plutonic Panda]

Fair enough, but it's not the utopian world city progressiveboy makes it out to be. I actually kind of like Dallas. It's a sugary confection. But it is not a national -- let alone -- international cultural treasure.

progressiveboy seems to lack perspective of the fact that Texas is just a lot bigger and that's why there's more "there" there.

I agree with you, for the most part. I understand mostly what you were saying and defending Oklahoma. Sorry if I sounded argumentative, I wasn't trying to be, just wanted to get my thoughts out there.

(I also lost a few games on GTA4, so I wasn't in the best mood when I wrote that I just got back from a midnight walk ;P)

[adaniel]

Yes it does, however, Oklahoma will never have the business acumen and talent that Texas has. Oh by the way, looks like the wonderful city of Plano, my current place I live, just landed another major corporate relocation. See below... Texas seems to attract the "top" business talent.

NTT Data Inc. to move its North American HQ to Plano - Dallas Business Journal

You couldn't be more wrong. I've talked to people in South America (my stepmother is from there, Brazil to be exact), I have friends in London, and most of my family is middle eastern (my grandfather was born in Iran). I'm Caucasian, as I was adopted hours before birth, and I've talked to people from all over the world, and they all speak highly of Dallas, VERY highly. I've had friends from London tell me they thought Dallas was bigger than London. They love the highway system and what the city has to offer.

It seems reality is lost on this board quite often, most of the time I bite my lip and don't say anything. Dallas in a nice city. It does have more pretentious people their, but it's a nice city. OKC is my city and I'll always love it, mainly because it's my hometown, and in the end, this is where I'll end up and I'll defend it to the death, but Dallas is not just endless suburbia and transient mercenaries or a potential cultural wasteland.

I think both of you need to understand that this is an OKC board. Yeah its nice to keep tabs on what's going on there, but 99% of people come on here to find out what's going on in their community.

I will say this, as a Plano native myself, that DFW will always have a special place in my heart. But I am quite happy here and am frankly, too wrapped up in all that is going on in OKC to pay much attention to whats happening in Dallas. I have noticed a lot of Texans here in the past few years, including a few from my high school. It makes sense given that OK now has experienced net inmigration from TX for the past few years. Yet sometimes we can get into the "snotty transplant mode" of, well where I'm from we do it like this blah blah blah. I'm guilty of it myself sometimes.

And given the whole "Texas Pride" thing, we can do it a little worse than most. There's no malevolent intentions. But I don't think most Texas transplants realize how it comes across. One of my friends in Denver who I went to HS with in Plano says the same thing about TX transplants up there.

Now I am not saying that we cannot look down there to see what is done and maybe improve on some things. But we should look at ALL cities for inspiration. And what to not do as well. I like and miss TX but they are doing some things down there that are deeply flawed IMO. I mean, progressiveboy is quick to point out when a new company relocates to TX but does he ever link a story when TX gets blasted for its atrocious rankings in health and education?