how do you feel about dallas?

[Dalya]

i need some help. im working on my nyu essay and i feel like the part about why i dont like dallas sounds mean and bitter.

why do/dont you guys like living in dallas (or texas)?

[Irock]

I read in Tx Monthly that Dallas is the most dangerous city in Tx. Does that help?

I like that Texas has this (deserved) reputation for Religious Right loving, gay-and-wetback hatin, "shoot 'em up" politics, and yet Dallas is much more gay-friendly than the average city, and Austin is - well, what it is (Whole Foods home base, for one). I love the fact that in the middle of the state that sued Oprah for saying she wouldn't eat cow, I know like 10 wack-job liberan vegetarians -and we all know and love our fair share of redneck Jesus-loving gun-totin Texans. So - diversity?

i "you could just ask TBAG" rock

[Dalya]

this is the final paragraph of my un-edited essay:

I see little merit in writing yet another story/poem/novel bemoaning the “concrete jungle” and the curse of suburban soccer moms and their SUVs. I don’t want to be that writer. I need a school and a city that will challenge me academically and personally. I need professors to tell me when my writing is bad. I need peers to tell me when I’m being ignorant. I need life experience.
I’m twenty-one years old. I know nothing.

Please educate me.

another highlight of my essay is: "I’ve lived in Dallas my whole life. It is the most comfortable and convenient city in America. The average temperature is 65 degrees, all races are nicely segregated into their own socioeconomic communities, restaurant entrees come in convenient 2,000 calorie portions, and everyone over the age of 16 has a car. Which means that there is a drive-thru for almost every type of cuisine, including donuts. All of these conditions make for quite a comfortable lifestyle, which may be ideal for raising children.
It’s not very conducive to writing."

do i sound like a bitter old hag? or just a future new yorker?

[Dalya]

p.s. the most dangerous thing does help because dallas is actually more dangerous than new york now, which negates all of my moms dumb arguments about why she doesnt want me to go there and then she has to admit the truth, which is simply that shell miss me.

[aquaphase]

You could write about how Dallas is a city, but it's citizens are more encapsulated than a city like NYC. Everyone runs in their little niche and there just isn't much intermingling. Nobody walks anywhere, and we are all in the midst of some serious urban sprawl. NYC seemed to have a richer culture at the base urban level (like London or Boston) that Dallas is just lacking. I believe this is mostly the fault of the infrastructure, but that's just the way it is.

(on a side note, this is probably a reason squeezle loves dallas... don't have to deal with any fucking people)

[Irock]

p.s. the most dangerous thing does help because dallas is actually more dangerous than new york now, which negates all of my moms dumb arguments about why she doesnt want me to go there and then she has to admit the truth, which is simply that shell miss me.

Not moredangerous than NY - just the most dangerous in TX. You can tell her it's more dangerous than Houston, though - which really surprized me...

[sam]

Dallas Pros: You can own a home in a safe area with public schools your kids can attend and work a job that doesn't require that you fuck people over to get ahead (that's optional, as it should be). You can't do any of those things in New York City (or so I hear).

Dallas Cons: I think that's been covered. Honestly, though, this is only a rough draft of a city. Maybe it'll work, maybe not.

[mere1975]

(on a side note, this is probably a reason squeezle loves dallas... don't have to deal with any fucking people)

She prefers to be encapsulated.

- Mere "like that cupcake holder thingie" 1975


P.S.
Dalya, the only thing I'd change is "doughnut" instead of "donut" and "drive-through window" instead of "drive-thru." Unless that is part of the point you are trying to make.

P.P.S.
Kwik Kar

[Dalya]

p.p.p.s. krispy kremes are from new york, i think.

im just gonna post the whole essay in a minute so you guys can judge me.

(justin, i was trying to get that whole paragraph into "all races are niceley segregated into their own socieoeconomic communities". i guess i could make that less about race and more about socieconomic class.

[aquaphase]

p.p.p.s. krispy kremes are from new york, i think. .

The food of the K's is from Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

[Sybil]

When I was growing up, Dallas was a charming small Southern town masquerading as a big city. Then the Yankee migration started, the city grew by leaps and bounds, sprawling all over the prairie, and it all went to hell. I blame air-conditioning.

Sybil

p.s. but it's still Home...and that's a powerful thing.

[Irock]

When I was growing up, Dallas was a charming small Southern town masquerading as a big city. Then the Yankee migration started, the city grew by leaps and bounds, sprawling all over the prairie, and it all went to hell. I blame air-conditioning.

Sybil

p.s. but it's still Home...and that's a powerful thing.

Hey!
You leave air conditioning out of this. AC has never been anything but good to me.

[sam]

Decade - NYC - Dallas
1790 - 49,487
1800 - 79,792
1810 - 120,023
1820 - 152,028
1830 - 242,206
1840 - 390,288
1850 - 696,490
1860 - 1,175,283 - 678
1870 - 1,477,242 - 3,000
1880 - 1,953,785 - 10,358
1890 - 2,581,541 - 38,067
1900 - 3,437,202 - 42,638
1910 - 4,766,883 - 92,104
1920 - 5,620,048 - 158,976
1930 - 6,930,446 - 260,475
1940 - 7,454,995 - 294,734
1950 - 7,891,957 - 434,462
1960 - 7,781,984 - 679,684
1970 - 7,894,862 - 844,401
1980 - 7,071,639 - 904,078
1990 - 7,322,564 - 1,006,877
2000 - 8,008,278 - 1,188,580


You could say that NYC is a city of the past. It took it's final physical form more or less in the 1940s. Since then, the skyline has changed to add office space and some density. At the street level the only change is gentrification. The experience of New York-ness is now a commodity that they have to protect to keep tourists coming back, just like Europe. No one really knows where Dallas or other Western US cities are along that arc. It is almost certain that it will change a great deal within your lifetime. Maybe that's a plus, maybe a minus?

[James]

There's a travel show over here that comes on prime time, where various presenters go around the world showing people cool places to go. When they announced they were going to Dallas, I laughed because, what the hell is there to do as a tourist? So when the program came on, it showed the presenter at The Mansion, the Sixth Floor Museum, and then the rest of the time he was in Fort Worth...and most of that involved around shopping for western wear.

I lived in the area for 31 years, but honestly, I always sort of felt out of sorts being there. My parents always thought I'd outgrow it eventually and just be happy there, but it didn't happen. When I started getting out and about, and the more I saw of the world, the less living there appealed to me. Both of my trips back, apart from seeing freinds and family, were rather listless and left me pining for "home"...

Everyone has the place where there supposed to be. Some people are born there, some people never figure it out, and some people just go and find it...

[KathrynTheGreat]

Advantages:

You can make a right turn on a red light.

Disadvantages:

It's Dallas.