Fort Worth / Arlington (Tarrant County)

[formerly405Tulsan]

A 4-star hotel and a Shake Shack are coming to the Stockyards. And that’s not all.

BP

I was just here this past weekend with my wife and all I can say is WOW. One of the coolest places I've stayed at. The entire $175mil development is nice and transformed the area completely from just traditional old school stuff to very glitzy and classy. The clientele walking around here also wasn't cow-townish at all. Lots of people with lots of money (probably from Dallas) looking to play cowboy.

I've always thought okc should invest more in their stockyards area and this trip has confirmed that for me. If OKC had half of what Fort Worth's district does it would be a massive success. Not trying critical because OKC has come so far, but just offer up some different ideas!

[formerly405Tulsan]

https://www.insidehook.com/article/t...fort-worth/amp

The first two paragraph's in this article do a great job encapsulating how I feel. Certain developments are never going to be unique to a city like OKC. They are a dime a dozen and can be found in any city with a million folks across the country. But something like what Fort Worth has and what OKC could have can't be built by other places.

Drop into the middle of Downtown Austin or your average Dallas nightlife strip, and you feel like you could be anywhere. The cities both cater to international business and tourism, and half the residents you meet are California expats.
Show up to the Stockyards neighborhood in Fort Worth, though, and there’s no question you’re in Texas. The Stockyards are what most people from outside Texas imagine when they think of the Lone Star state: western shops and steakhouses, cowboy hats and boots in the wild, and a literal rodeo just down the street.

[Pete]

^

It's why the First Americans Museum and the surrounding development are so important to OKC. The Native American culture is the one thing that makes Oklahoma and OKC unique.

I've traveled to pretty much every medium and large city in the U.S., and they have become very homogeneous. If you want outsiders to actually seek out your town, you need to offer them something they can't see almost everywhere else.

[formerly405Tulsan]

^

It's why the First Americans Museum and the surrounding development are so important to OKC. The Native American culture is the one thing that makes Oklahoma and OKC unique.

I've traveled to pretty much every medium and large city in the U.S., and they have become very homogeneous. If you want outsiders to actually seek out your town, you need to offer them something they can't see almost everywhere else.

That's a great point. I love seeing OKC
really lean into that in a way I wish Tulsa had.

[Urbanized]

…I've traveled to pretty much every medium and large city in the U.S., and they have become very homogeneous. If you want outsiders to actually seek out your town, you need to offer them something they can't see almost everywhere else.

James Howard Kunstler wrote one of the first great social commentaries on this topic back in the early nineties. It’s called “The Geography of Nowhere.”

[Zuplar]

^

It's why the First Americans Museum and the surrounding development are so important to OKC. The Native American culture is the one thing that makes Oklahoma and OKC unique.

I've traveled to pretty much every medium and large city in the U.S., and they have become very homogeneous. If you want outsiders to actually seek out your town, you need to offer them something they can't see almost everywhere else.

This video is in reference to your second point. I saw this the other day and it does a good job of explaining why all the cities kind of look alike.

Why Everywhere in the US is Starting to Look the Same
https://youtu.be/UX4KklvCDmg


I personally don't have much interest in the Native culture, (growing up here I got enough for a lifetime), but many visitors I've ran into or hosted usually point that out as a noticeable differentiator.

[Pete]

^

Thanks for that video -- interesting yet depressing.


Homogeneity applies to international cities as well (as that video demonstrates). I first went to Europe in 1980 as a college student and my buddies and I completely stood out. Everywhere we went, people instantly recognized we were Americans or at the very least, foreigners.

By the time I went back in the mid-90s, fashion and haircuts were very similar no matter where you went. You could stand on a train platform and would never be able to tell where you were just by looking at the people. That was due to two things: 1) MTV and more generally cable TV; and 2) and the dawn of the internet. The EU was a heavy contributor as well.

The center of cities usually have their own personality at least in older cities, but that can't be said for OKC, Tulsa, Dallas or Houston. The only thing that differs is scale.

[Anonymous.]

Great video. Thank you for sharing. And it is right, being on a roadtrip and seeing fastfood chain signs at exits is so convenient. You can basically take a single exit and feed 3-5 people easily with no extensive thought put into it. In fact, I experienced the opposite last year when I was on a roadtrip with a group and someone in the group was vegan. We had to drive further into "town" to find something they wanted. It was wildly inconvenient and added extra time. It is fascinating to see how automatic we treat these "convenience exits".

[Plutonic Panda]

Fat Burger is opening a Fort Worth location. I really like Fat Burger. They have a unique taste. I wouldn’t mind having one or two in OKC. I hope they don’t become a national chain though.

https://www.audacy.com/krld/news/nat...-to-fort-worth

[Triggerman]

DECO969 Tower (969 Commerce St, Fort Worth)

Residential tower going up in DT Fort Worth: 27 stories, 300+ units, ground level retail, @ 5 levels now- 22 more to go

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[Plutonic Panda]

Downtown Fort Worth is getting a billion + dollar research campus from Texas A&M:

https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/lo...0-0a5f936c2cd3

[Bowser214]

Bold move to the home of TCU lol

[Triggerman]

This:

Texas A&M University aims to expand its footprint in Fort Worth in a major way. The plan is to build a new downtown research campus to spur innovation and business development in the area — and a new law school building. This is a massive project, expected to cost between $250 and $300 million according to projections.

“Welcome to Aggieland North,” Texas A&M chancellor John Sharp says.

https://www.papercitymag.com/culture...-north/#369101

TAMU-The-vision-of-the-new-campus-located-with-easy-access-to-rail-and-highway-system-2048x1034.jpg

TAMU-campus-near-the-Water-Gardens-and-the-Convention-Center-1024x536.jpg

[Geographer]

Lincoln Square, a large shopping center near stadiums in Arlington, will undergo a complete change with help from the City of Arlington....it is anticipated to include a mixture of residential, office, and retail.

https://www.keranews.org/business-ec...hopping-center

"Trademark Property Company CEO Terry Montesi says his company would like to turn the brown-brick shopping center into a better offering of retail, office space and mid-rise apartments. Lincoln Square's location along Interstate 30 would make the shopping center a powerful regional gateway, he says."

[Triggerman]

Omni Fort Worth Plans $217M Expansion With Second Hotel Tower, Garage and Restaurant

"When the work is complete, including a refresh of the existing hotel, the Omni Fort Worth will have 1,008 rooms over two blocks across from the Fort Worth Convention Center along Houston Street. The existing Omni tower is 33 stories and was built in 2009. It is unclear how many stories the new tower will have, but renderings show it would be similar in height to other Lancaster corridor buildings (20+ stories)."

Omni Hotel Fort Worth Adobe Stock.jpeg

omni-hotel-expansion1.jpg

https://www.star-telegram.com/news/b...264571581.html

[Bowser214]

Wow that'll be a nice addition to Ft. Worth's skyline!