| To return to the Kemper Faculty Home Page, click here | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| To return to the EDU 6315 Home Page, click here | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EDU 6315Urban Environments and Multicultural Education |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Dallas – Fort Worth Robert V. Kemper Southern Methodist University [published in the Encyclopedia of Urban Cultures, 2002. All rights reserved.]
Table of Contents
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Names of the Cities The Dallas – Fort Worth Consolidated Metropolitan Area, as defined by the U. S. Census Bureau, consists of twelve counties (Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Ellis, Johnson, Kaufman, Hood, Hunt, Henderson, Rockwall, and Parker) covering 94,686 miles2 in north central Texas. The City of Dallas serves as county seat of Dallas County and the City of Fort Worth is the county seat of Tarrant County. In 1846, Dallas County was named by the Texas Legislature in honor of then Vice President George Mifflin Dallas, but it is unclear whether John Neely Bryan, founder of the town of Dallas, had the Vice President in mind when he named the town in honor of “my friend Dallas.” By contrast, the origin of the name Fort Worth is clear. In June 1849, Company F, 2nd Dragoons established a frontier outpost on the bluffs overlooking the Trinity River to protect the settlements to the east from potentially hostile Indians. The outpost was named for Major General William Jenkins Worth, a hero in the Mexican War. Location The Dallas – Fort Worth metropolitan area, known as the “Metroplex” (a term coined in 1971), is focused on the two cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, located about 30 miles to the west, and their respective counties, whose county lines bisect the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Therefore, the location of the Metroplex may be marked by the geographic center of the D/FW Airport: 32º 54’ north latitude and 97º 1’ 47” west longitude. The CMSA ranges in altitude from a low of 256 feet (Henderson County in the southeast) and a high of 1,275 feet (Parker County to the west). The undulating terrain has provided an excellent place for large-scale farming for more than a century, although many former farms have been converted into housing and commercial developments. Located in the Central Time Zone, Dallas –Forth Worth takes advantage of its central place as a service center for the greater American southwest. It is the largest urban center in the middle of North America, being about midway between the western and eastern coasts of the United States and about equidistant between Chicago/Toronto, and Mexico City. Population Ranked ninth nationally, according to the U. S. Census Bureau’s Census 2000, the population of the twelve-county Dallas – Fort Worth Consolidated Metropolitan Area had reached 5,221,801 persons on April 1, 2000. Dallas County led all other counties with 2,218,899, followed by Tarrant County with 1,446,219. At 1,188,580 residents, Dallas was the largest city in the region, with Fort Worth in second place with 534,694 residents. Other cities with populations over 100,000 included: Arlington (Tarrant County), with 332,969; Plano (Collin County), with 222,030; Garland (Dallas County), with 215,768; Irving (Dallas County), with 191,615; Grand Prairie (Dallas County), with 127,427; Mesquite (Dallas County), with 124,523;and Carrollton (Denton County), with 109,576. Distinctive and Unique Features Like several other paired cities in the United States (e.g., San Francisco and Oakland, CA; Minneapolis and Saint Paul, MN; Seattle and Tacoma, WA;Tampa and Saint Petersburg, FL), Dallas and Fort Worth have been rivals for decades. The Trinity River basin provides a common environmental setting for both cities and their hinterlands. Flying over the area arriving or departing from the vast D/FW Airport (said to be larger than the island of Manhattan), one can see how flat is the terrain, but one also is surprised at the change in landscape from east to west – as the east Texas pine forest gives way to the central Texas prairie. An aerial view also reveals dozens of man-made lakes and reserviors, many built by the Corps of Engineers after the drought of the early 1950s. The climate in the Dallas – Fort Worth area is always a topic of conversation among natives and visitors alike. Although the average daily temperature is mild (66º F.), the precipation moderate (around 36 inches per year), and the growing season (230+ days/year) adequate for good agricultural production, the annual extreme temperatures often surpass 100º F during the summer and go below 32º F during the winter. Flooding along the banks of the Trinity River is not unknown, while hard winter freezes and summer droughts occasionally destroy valuable field and fruit crops. Sunshine-filled days number around 137 each year, but the increase of hydrocarbons and other air pollulants (especially due to increased vehicular traffic and very low use of public transportation systems) has resulted in numerous smoggy days and continues to bring sanctions from the federal Environmental Protection Agency. Attractions of the Cities The Dallas – Fort Worth area has many attractions, although more are man-made than natural. With the largest wholesale merchandise mart in the world, Dallas is the #2 convention destination in the nation (behind Chicago) and is the top visitor destination in Texas for business and leisure travel. There are more shopping centers and restaurants per capita than in any other metropolitan area in the country. Built in 1931, Highland Park Village was the nation’s first dedicated shopping center and has been renovated as an upscale shopping experience for its affluent neighbors and visitors (Galloway and Matthews1988). NorthPark, opened in 1965 as an enclosed air-conditioned mall, is reputed to have the highest sales per square foot of any mall in the country. Fort Worth is noted for its Cultural/Museum District on the west side of town, the nearby Fort Worth Zoo, Log Cabin Village, Botanic Gardens, and parks, the Old West flavor of the Stockyards National Historic District north of downtown (Pate 1988; Selcer 1991), and the redeveloped Sundance Square Entertainment District in downtown (Lale 1990; Roark 1995). Yet, of all the attractions in the region, the most visited are the sites – the grassy knoll, the Texas School Book Depository, and the Kennedy Memorial – forever linked to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963 (Leslie 1964). Relationships between City and the Outside For many persons, the relationship between Dallas – Fort Worth and the nation and the world will always be defined by the Kennedy assassination. Branded as right-wing extremists because of that single event, the people of the Dallas – Fort Worth area have spent the past four decades laboring to overcome that image (Payne 1994). To make matters worse, the world-wide popularity of the television program “Dallas” – especially the top-rated episode “Who Shot J. R.?” – and the recent success of “Walker, Texas Ranger” have continued to portray the violent side of the region’s culture. Civic leaders try to promote a different image for Dallas – Fort Worth. An image of a dynamic “can do” attitude has been exemplified by individuals like: J. Erik Jonsson, co-founder of Texas Instruments who, as Mayor of Dallas from 1964-1971, worked to rebuild the city’s reputation during the post-assassination period and then spearheaded the development of D/FW Airport; Stanley Marcus, former head of Nieman-Marcus department stores, remains the quintessential symbol of good taste, civility, and social justice; Raymond Nasher, a commercial real estate entrepreneur (NorthPark Center) has donated his family’s internationally acclaimed collection for a Sculpture Garden in the Dallas Arts District; Ross Perot, founder of the Electronic DataSystems corporation, major funder of the Dallas symphony hall, and presidential candidate of the Reform Party; the Bass family, developers and entrepreneurs whose generosity to cultural life in Fort Worth is reflected in the naming of the new Bass Performance Hall in their honor; Sid W. Richardson, who made his fortune in oil, cattle, and land, then left a legacy of a large charitable foundation and a Collection of Western Art for all to enjoy in downtown Fort Worth; the Tandy family, retail entrepreneurs in leather and consumer electronics those Tandy /Radio Shack operations have spread across the nation, and whose Tandy Center is an architectural landmark in Fort Worth. Business magazines consistently give the area excellent rankings, particularly because of the importance of the D/FW Airport (opened in 1974) as a global connection for the numerous Fortune 500 firms headquartered or operating in the region. Just as the establishment of a Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas in 1914 established the area’s importance in banking, the creation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has enhanced the region’s importance in trade with Mexico and Canada. Facilitated by Foreign Trade Zones at the D/FW and Alliance Airports, trade between North Texas and Asian nations also is on the rise, especially in high technology sectors. At the local level, cities in the Dallas – Fort Worth region compete fiercely to attract major corporations and governmental agencies that might relocate to the region from other cities around the country. For instance, J.C. Penney relocated from the east coast to suburban Plano, was joined by E.D.S. (which moved north from Dallas), and other major firms to form the Legacy complex. Similarly, Fort Worth landed a Federal government Treasury plant near the Alliance Airport complex (opened in 1989). This thrust toward the north has been a dominant feature of metropolitan growth in recent decades. The current disparity in economic status and opportunity between northern and southern areas of the Metroplex is of great concern to the region’s leaders. Major Languages Although English is the dominant language in the Dallas – Fort Worth region, Spanish is becoming increasingly important. For instance, In Dallas County, the year 2000 census shows that only 44.3% of the population self identifed as White, 20.1% as Black, 3.9% as Asian, and 1.8% as other – while 29.9% self-identified as Hispanic. In other area counties, the share of Hispanic population ranges from a low of 6.9% to a high of 19.7%. As a result of the influx of tens of thousands of Spanish-speaking immigrants, one can go from morning to night with Spanish as the language of choice in many places in the Metroplex (Achor1978). Other new immigrants and refugees from around the globe also have brought their languages and cultures to the area. The “Dallas International” association lists more than 80 different immigrant/international groups as links on their Internet site (www.dallasinternational.com). Responding to the needs of so many new arrivals, school districts offer a wide array of bilingual and English-as-a-Second Language programs, but a severe shortage of bilingual and ESL teachers persists. The Dallas – Fort Worth region contains dozens of suburban communities, many of which might have become the dominant settlements in north Texas instead of the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth. But, in the ebb and flow of a century and a half, these two communities have prospered because they had successful business leaders who sought to build cities where cities had no business being successful. Dallas and Fort Worth are the center of the largest metropolitan area in the country without direct access to the ocean or a navigable river. Yet, when they were established in the 1840s, their founders had dreams of turning the Trinity River into a river of commerce and transport that could bring the world to north Texas. This dreams turned into nightmares for numerous entrepreneurs and planners as many a fortune was exhausted in efforts to channelize the Trinity during the last 150 years. Even now, as we enter the twenty-first century, urban planners in Dallas still are developing schemes to control the floods of the Trinity while building toll roads along its levees. Their project is opposed by environmental groups and others concerned that efforts to “control” the river will eventually cause more harm than good. The Origins of Dallas and Fort Worth Before European explorers passed through the region in the sixteenth century, the region of Dallas and Fort Worth was occupied by various indigenous groups, possibly including the Tonkawas, Hasinai Caddos, and Anadrako Caddos, who settled along the Trinity River and used the areas numerous springs. When White settlers moved into the area in the early 1840s, conflicts with the resident Indian groups was inevitable (and continued until a treaty was signed in 1843 that kept the Indians west of modern Fort Worth). One of these early settlers – John Neely Bryan – arrived in November 1841 with his dog and a Cherokee friend, Ned. In that same year, the fledging Republic of Texas had authorized the establishment of the Peters colony in an 1,300 square-mile area of north Texas along the Trinity River. By August 1842, Bryan had established the new town of Dallas within the bounds of the Peters colony, but it had to compete with other nearby settlements to attract new residents. In 1846, Texas was annexed to the United States and Dallas County was formed, with Dallas as the choice for its court house. The town continued to prosper through the 1850s by farming corn, wheat, and cotton, as well by raising hogs, cattle, and sheep. Dallas seceeded in 1861 and sent troops to fight for the Confederacy. After the war, Dallas continued to prosper, as new migrants (not only Whites but also former black slaves) moved into the area. Until the 1920s, Dallas County was primarily agricultural, although some manufacturing and small-scale commerce came to the City of Dallas, and the proportion of blacks stablilized at around 15 per cent of the local population. The lack of riverine commerce was a great deficit finally overcome when the railroads arrived at Dallas in 1872 (the Houston and Texas Central Railroad) and 1873 (the Texas and Pacific Railroad), followed by three more in the next 12 years. By the turn of the century, the Dallas area had good transport by rail in all directions. Beginning in 1902, electric interurban railways provided daily commuter service to nearby towns, including Fort Worth to the west and Sherman to the north. On a broader scale, Love Field provided access to air transport and cargo service to the new airline industry. The Great Depression of the 1930s saw Dallas County becoming more urban and less farm-dominated (Hill 1996; Holmes and Saxon 1992). World War II brought new manufacturing plants to the area. Communities like Grand Prairie developed near plants dedicated to war production. In the post-War period, Dallas enjoyed considerable growth in jobs, especially in manufacturing, retail trade, and wholesale trade (Hazel 1995). From 1950 to 2000, Dallas County’s population more than tripled from 614,799 to 2,218,899, and it became heavily urbanized, although its density is less than many other urban areas in the U.S. Fort Worth and Tarrant County have developed in a manner similar to that of Dallas (Schmidt 1984). During the 1840s, White settlers moved into the area and had mixed success in dealing with the Indians already enjoying the riverine ecology. After some battles were fought, and army troops brought in to a military outpost, a treaty was signed that kept the Indians to the west of the Trinity river basin. By 1849, another military post was established at the confluence of the Clear Fork and West Fork of the Trinity River and was named Fort Worth. Although the post was abandoned in 1853, the settlers remained and a town developed on the site. In 1860, Fort Worth won a hard-fought election to become the county seat of Tarrant County. Unlike Dallas, Fort Worth was closely divided on seceding from the Union. The decision to secede brought economic decline in the 1860s and in the Reconstruction period following the defeat of the Confederacy. In the 1870s cattle and railroads provided new economic opportunities to Fort Worth’s citizens. With its new railroads, Fort Worth served as a terminus for cattle drives from central and west Texas. The stockyards built in those days have provided a permanent label for the city, still known as “Cowtown” by natives and visitors alike (Brown 1977; Knight 1990). During World War I, Tarrant County served as an important troop training area. After the war, the Army Air Corps also established airfields in the county. In 1927, Meacham Field began operation, although it never competed on an even footing with Love Field in Dallas. Like Dallas, Fort Worth suffered through the Depression of the 1930s only recovering with the economic boom created by the Second World War. The growth of the aviation industry was especially important. Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation (later General Dynamics Corporation) came to fort Worth and was employing 35,000 workers by the end of the war. In the 1950s, Bell Helicopter also moved to Tarrant County. The decades of the 1950s and 1960s saw rapid population growth in and around Fort Worth. In 1950, the county population was 361,253; this almost doubled to 716,317 by 1970. The Dallas – Fort Worth Turnpike was opened in 1957, and eventually became part of Interstate 30. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Tarranty County continued to prosper as manufacturing of aerospace products, mobile homes, foodstuffs, plastics, and other consumer-oriented goods competed with the strong agricultural base. Migration: Past and Present Migration has always been more important than natural population increase in the growth of Dallas and Fort Worth. At the same time, local antipathy toward outsiders, especially “Yankees,” is deeply rooted in the experiences of the Reconstruction period after the Civil War. This tension between insiders and outsiders plays itself out in many ways. Sales of “Native Dallasite” or “I Was Born in Fort Worth” bumper sticks are always good. At a more significant level, new arrivals discover that entering the local elite is not an automatic process, but depends on a commitment to volunteer activities for local causes. In the early years, most immigrants came from rural backgrounds, whereas in recent decades more and more arrive from other towns and cities. In addition, the 1990s saw a sharp increase in the numbers of international immigrants (both legal and illegal) who came to live, work, and study in the Dallas – Fort Worth Metroplex. For instance, concentrations of Koreans can be found in northwest Dallas. A small “China Town” has developed near the old downtown area of Richardson. The “Little Mexico” section of near northwest Dallas has given way to even larger concentrations of Hispanics in Oak Cliff (on the southern side of the Trinity River), in the Bachman – Walnut Hill neighborhoods in northwest Dallas, and in East Dallas. The “Freedmans Town” in North Dallas once was a thriving (though poor) community of freed slaves and their descendants, but it was bought up and leveled in the speculative real estate bubble of the 1970s (Prince 1993). Black residents were forced out of the area and the land remained vacant until the housing and apartment markets began to recover in the late 1990s. Now this “Uptown Dallas” area is being gentrified by relatively young and affluent Whites. Other significant Black enclaves include Hamilton Park in north Dallas near the junction of I-635 and North Central Expressway (Wilson 1998), the South Dallas area around Martin Luther King Blvd south of Fair Park, and the South Oak Cliff sector of the city. Despite occasional successes at reviving central city districts (like Dallas’s West End Warehouse District and Deep Ellum on its east side), the long-term pattern of moving away from the urban core continues in the twenty-first century (Governor and Brakefield 1998). The downtown areas of Dallas and Fort Worth have deteriorated significantly since the 1950s, when they were the centers for consumer shopping and entertainment. Today, climate-controlled shopping malls and movie complexes (with up to 30 screens and stadium seating) are the major nodes for shopping and entertainment for locals and visitors alike. Both Dallas and Fort Worth have White majorities, with substantial Black and Hispanic populations, but Dallas seems to have the more visible Jewish population, which has always played a significant role in retail and wholesale trade. In the 1870s, after the railroads came to Dallas, so did a number of Jewish merchants. The Sanger Brothers, Titches (later Titche-Goettinger), Niemans (later Nieman-Marcus) department stores all became fixtures in the Dallas scene. First settled in South Dallas, the Jewish immigrants later moved to “Little Jerusalem” just north of downtown Dallas, and then moved farther north as new neighborhoods (and Synagogues) were built after the 1950s (Cristol 1998). Public Buildings, Public Works, and Residences Every county and city in the Dallas – Fort Worth metropolitan area has important public buildings (McDonald 1978; Schmidt 1984). The County Courthouses are often spectacular examples of public architecture, especially “Old Red” in downtown Dallas and the elegant turn-of-the-century structure in Waxahachie, the county seat of Ellis county. Cities have erected magnificent public buildings through a combination of bond issues and private financial campaigns. For instance, in Dallas, the City Hall, the Erik. J. Jonsson Central Library, and the Myerson Symphony Center (Shulman 2000) were designed by internationally known architects like I. M. Pei and Phillip Johnson. Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington (among others) also have invested in substantial convention and tourist facilities, which bring in a steady flow of visitors who, in turn, sustain a vast array of hotels, restaurants, and ancillary services. Redevelopment projects in downtown Fort Worth (especially, Sundance Square and the Bass Performance Hall) and in Dallas (especially, the West End, Deep Ellum, and the new American Airlines Center for basketball, hockey, and concerts), as well as the development of the Texas Rangers’ “Ballpark at Arlington” show how important entertainment is to the region’s urban economy. Residential architecture in the urban area is eclectic, blending the work of trendy designers with older prairie traditions (McDonald 1978; Schmidt 1984). Few homes have survived from the nineteenth century and, because of their rarity, the surviving buildings have been placed into Historic Districts and tend to be tourist attractions. For example, the annual “Gingerbread Tour” of old homes in Waxahachie attracts thousands of tourists. The towns of Highland Park and University Park, the Preston Hollow area of north Dallas, the mid-cities community of Colleyville, and the new northern suburbs in Plano, Allen, and Frisco contain thousands of exclusive homes, many of which are built in gated communities with private security systems. Unfortunately, the regional housing stock also includes thousands of sub-standard dwellings, especially in older neighborhoods populated by ethnic minorites or new immigrants. Hundreds of so-called “shotgun houses” still exist in the southern and western sectors of Dallas and in the southern and eastern areas of Fort Worth, despite efforts by city housing inspectors to have them condemned and demolished (Achor 1978). This contrast in the quality of housing is the most obvious evidence of the sharp economic and ethnic segregation that persists in the Dallas – Fort Worth area. Politics and City Services Operating within the federal and state constitutional framework, the Dallas – Fort Worth region is organized governmentally into counties, cities, and neighborhoods. Typically, counties are run by a set of elected commissioners with a staff of employees. Cities follow the city manager form of government, with a mayor and city council serving as elected representatives of the citizens. In the larger communities, neighborhood associations are powerful voices for local interests, especially in their desire to apply protective zoning regulations to prevent unwanted growth and to deal with crime, street repairs, and building code violations. For decades, public service has been important to the political cultures in Dallas and Fort Worth (Cheney 1991). Until the 1970s, powerful White business groups (like the Citizens Council in Dallas) dictated who won the privilege of serving for nominal compensation in local political offices. Since the court-mandated introduction (in 1990) of single-member district systems in the city councils of Dallas and Fort Worth, the old way of doing local politics has been transformed. Entering the twenty-first century, ethnic representation in local politics has become significant, at least in the major cities. For instance, in Dallas, the Mayor is an African-American male and the City Manager is a Hispanic male, while the City Council consists of two Hispanic males, six White females and one White male, and three African-American females and three African-American males. The City of Fort Worth has a White male as Mayor and an African American male as City Manager, with a City Council composed of four White males and two White females, and two African-American males. Cities and counties in the Dallas – Fort Worth region provide a full range of public services, including police and fire departments, public library systems, parks and recreation facilities, transportation and road services, airports for commercial and civil aviation, animal control, disaster assistance, social services agencies, and criminal justice courts and jails. Given the absence of a state personal income tax, these diverse urban services are paid for primarily through taxes on commercial and residential properties. Educational System When people move into the Dallas – Fort Worth area, they are especially concerned about the quality of education in their neighborhoods. Thus, real estate market values are closely related to the perceived availability of quality schooling. Education is provided through publicly-funded “independent school districts” as well as by the private sector, especially religious organizations. When Brown vs. Board of Education became law in 1954, the fear of integration among Whites resulted in the creation of numerous Protestant and Jewish church-based schools to complement the system of Roman Catholic parochial schools. When several court cases brought Dallas and Fort Worth schools under federal supervision, desegregation and busing became serious issues (Linden 1995). The result of a half-century of educational transformation is a two-tiered educational system in which affluent families tend to send their children to private schools while middle and working class families must work with overcrowded and understaffed public school systems. An earlier wave of “White flight” from the urban core to the suburbs has been followed by a similar “Black flight” of middle-class Blacks from their southern Dallas neighborhoods into the southern suburbs of Cedar Hall, DeSoto, Lancaster, and Duncanville. As a result, the Dallas ISD now has a Hispanic student majority for the first time in its history. Other area school districts also are experiencing substantial growth in Hispanic children, as well in other international immigrant populations. For instance, the suburban Richardson ISD has more than 80 different cultural and linguistic groups among its student population. The region’s higher education needs are served by community college districts in Dallas, Tarrant, and Collin counties and by numerous private vocational and technical schools. Colleges and universities include several church-affiliated institutions, such as Dallas Baptist University, Southern Methodist University, Texas Christian University, Texas Weslyan University, University of Dallas, and four state universities (University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas, and Texas Women’s University). In addition, in the southern sector of Dallas, Paul Quinn College operates as the region’s only traditionally Black institution of higher education. Law degrees may be pursued at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and at Texas Weslyan University in Fort Worth. Specialized medical training is available at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, at the Baylor University Medical Center, at the Parker College of Chiropractic (all in Dallas), and at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (in Fort Worth). Callings to ministry requiring advanced theological education may be fulfilled at Dallas Theological Seminary and Perkins School of Theology at SMU (both in Dallas), and at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and Brite Divinity School of Theology at TCU (both in Fort Worth). Transportation System Transportation systems define the map of the Dallas – Fort Worth region . Interstate 35W goes through Fort Worth and Interstate 35E crosses through the heart of Dallas. These routes are intersected by Interstates 20 and 30, whose urban loops (820 in Fort Worth and 635 in Dallas) mark the boundaries of their respective urban cores. Funded through a combination of federal and state highway funds, and a smaller amount of local bond funding and annual operating budgets, the regional transportation system is the lifeblood of uban and suburban development. Private cars still are the most significant mode of transportation, but modest efforts at expanding public transportation persist. In the Dallas area, DART (Dallas Area Rapid Transit) is building light rail lines from the southern and northern suburbs into downtown, as well as converting older railways to develop a route between Dallas and Fort Worth. In Fort Worth, the “T” is the name for a public transportation system that offers both bus and rail services. On a broader basis, airports are the most visible components of the regional transportation system. The Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (home of American Airlines) is among the busiest in the nation (along with Atlanta and Chicago). With more than 52 million passenger arrivals/departures each year, the D/FW Airport contributes more than $11 billion to the regional economy (Payne and Fitzpatrick 1999). Dallas’s Love Field (home of Southwest Airlines) and the cargo-only Alliance Airport in north Fort Worth also serve important regional, national, and international markets. Distinctive Features of the City’s Cultures An old joke still makes the rounds in the Dallas – Fort Worth area. Question: “Why are there two horses on the rotating sign on the Magnolia Oil Building?” Answer: “So that people in Fort Worth will know that Dallas is not a one horse town!” In 1934, in preparation for a gathering of the National Petroleum Institute, the “Flying Red Horse” was erected atop the Magnolia Oil Building, then one of the most prominent buildings in downtown Dallas. This two-sided, rotating neon and iron sculpture soon became a symbol of Dallas. Visible from about 30 miles distance, the Flying Red Horse was renovated and reinstalled for the millennium celebration on January 1, 2000. Now overshadowed by newer and taller office towers and by the computerized electric light show on the top of Reunion Tower, the Flying Red Horse is still a compelling symbol for Dallas among old timers and young folk alike. It provides a symbolic link to the east Texas oil boom of the 1930s – even though oil has never been struck in Dallas County! Thirty miles to the west, Fort Worth is still known as the place “Where the West Begins,” as the phrase on the masthead of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram proclaimed back in the 1920s.With its stockyards and its historical connection to west Texas cattle drives along the Chisholm Trail, Forth Worth still sustains the spirit of the Old West. In the mid-cities, Arlington has “Six Flags Over Texas” and the “Ball Park in Arlington.” Irving has Texas Stadium, famous for the vast hole in its roof – designed, it is said, so that God might watch his favor team on Sunday afternoons. In all of these cultural symbols, the message is clear. Dallas and Fort Worth are all about being BIG. Indeed, Dallas is often referred to by Texans as “Big D.” It is a place where great fortunes have been made (e.g., H. L. Hunt, whose wealth stemmed from east Texas oil in the 1930s) and lost (e.g., when the brothers Hunt tried to corner the world silver market in the early 1980s). Dallas is notorious for fabulous displays of wealth. For example, Mary Kay Ash, the creator of Mary Kay cosmetics, awards pink Cadillacs to top-producing associates at the company’s annual convention. In many affluent neighborhoods, December provides an opportunity for residents to provide incredible displays of Christmas lights, with trees and houses wrapped in white bulbs. At the same time, so much wealth is provided for philanthropic causes in the local community that Robert Miller’s weekly column in the “Business” section of the Dallas Morning News is devoted completely to charitable activities of local corporations, foundations, and individuals. For example, local philanthropic support (led by the Dallas Foundation and the Meadows Foundation) has combined with public funds to help establish and sustain The Museum of African-American Life and The Women’s Museum (both in Fair Park) as well as a Latino Cultural Center/Centro Cultural (to be dedicated in 2002) just east of downtown Dallas Cuisine Eating out is almost as important to locals and visitors as shopping the malls. It is said that one can go out for dinner every night in Dallas and never repeat a restaurant – because local restaurants come into existence and go out of business at such a rapid rate. The Dallas – Fort Worth area offers literally thousands of eating establishments, ranging from traditional mom-and-pop hamburger stands (e.g., The Prince of Hamburgers, in the same location for more than 50 years) to exclusive five-star restaurants (e.g., The Mansion on Turtle Creek). Tex-Mex restaurants (e.g., Joe T. Garcia’s, El Fenix, Tejano) and Barbecue places (e.g., Peggy Sue BBQ, Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse, Dickey’s Barbecue) are omnipresent – and their relative merits vociferously debated by their fans. The area has given birth to several national restaurant chains (e.g., Chili’s, Steak and Ale, T.G.I.Friday’s), although some specialized foods (such as the Fletcher’s corny dogs sold at the State Fair of Texas) have endured for decades as niche products. The Southland Corporation (parent of 7-Eleven stores) began by selling ice and foods in the Oak Cliff section of Dallas in 1927 (Minutaglio and Williams 1990). Now a worldwide company with more than 18,000 convenience stores, its headquarters are in the City Place tower just north of downtown Dallas. Ethnic, Gender, and Religious Diversity The Dallas – Fort Worth metropolitan area is highly segregated along ethnic and class lines. Very few neighborhoods, communities, school districts, or churches are ethnically and socio-economically diverse. This is even more so for suburban “bedroom” communities. The estimated year 2000 population by ethnicity for the Dallas – Fort Worth Consolidated Metropolitan Area (Table 1) shows that the White population still dominates in all twelve counties but the Hispanic population is growing rapidly and has now surpassed the Black population in nine of the twelve counties in the region. Also noteworthy is the difference in White population in Dallas and Tarrant counties – which together contain more than 70% of the CMSA’s population – and the outlying counties. ================================================================= Table 1. Population by Race/Ethnicity for Dallas – Fort Worth CMSA, 2000
Source: U. S. Census Bureau, Census 2000
A substantial and influential gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, and transgendered (GLBT) community makes its presence felt in the Metropolex. The Oak Lawn area (just north of downtown Dallas) is well-known as the heart of the region’s gay and lesbian community, and north Oak Cliff (just south of downtown Dallas across the Trinity River) is another neighborhood accepting of alternative lifestyles. The Turtle Creek Chorale is a predominantly gay male organization which offers distinctive musical programs in Dallas and, through its tours and compact discs, across the nation and abroad. The Cathedral of Hope (affiliated with the Metropolitan Community Church) in Dallas is the largest gay church in the nation. Sometimes called the “Buckle of the Bible Belt,” the Dallas – Fort Worth area is more religiously active than any metropolitan area in the nation save Atlanta. In the heart of downtwon Dallas, the striking spiral architecture of the chapel in Thanksgiving Sqare provides a refuge for spiritual reflection and ecumenism. At one time or another, the largest Episcopal, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, and Southern Baptist congregations in the country have been located in Dallas. More than 200 different denominations and sects are listed in the local telephone directories. Dallas has nearly 2,000 churches, Fort Worth has nearly 1,000, and the rest of the Metroplex contains at least 1,000 more. In response to the high level of religiosity in the urban area, the Dallas Morning News publishes a prize-winning “Religion” section every Saturday. The Roman Catholic Church, the largest denomination in the region, has seen its Dallas diocese grow from about 230,000 members to more than 600,000 members between 1992 and 2000. Almost all of this growth is due to the influx of Hispanic Catholics from Mexico and other Latin American nations. Predominantly White and Black congregations are also growing. For example, in 1999, Prestonwood Baptist Church inaugurated its new 140-acre campus (with a sanctuary seating 7,000 and a separate sports and recreation complex) in Plano, after relocating from north Dallas where it had been since its establishment in 1977. According to Senior Pastor Jack Graham, Prestonwood moved north in order to meet the needs of a growing urban population in the twenty-first century. In October 2000, Bishop T. D. Jakes opened in southwest Dallas a new campus of his non-denominational Potter’s House. A multi-ethnic congregation with a plurality of Black members, the Potter’s House has a techologically advanced sanctuary with seating for 8,000 persons and a chapel for 400, as well as plans to develop a church school, day-care center, low-income housing, and job training programs. Churches and faith-based organizations not only provide places of worship and spirituality, they also play an important role in the social life of the Dallas – Fort Worth region. For example, Central Dallas Ministries won a “Best Practices Award” for its Church Health Ministries Program for the year 2000 from the federal Housing and Urban Development Department. Because the State of Texas provides less support for families and individuals than do most other states, the religious community has had to take up the slack in dealing with the homeless population, persons with HIV/AIDS, women and children suffering abuse, undocumented workers and refugees, etc. Family and Other Social Support Systems Many of Dallas – Fort Worth’s current residents are recently arrived from other areas of Texas, from other states, and even from other countries. This flow of immigrants affects communities old and new, within the central cities as well as on the ever expanding urban periphery. Many neighborhoods are undergoing the process of ethnic and class succession, with the result that older White and Black residents now have younger Hispanic families as neighbors. The social homogeneity associated with traditional (i.e., segregated) housing is giving way to heterogeneity from below (with new immigrants from other nations seeking to buy their first homes) and from above (as affluent young professionals attempt to gentify affordable neighborhoods). Especially for the tens of thousands of Hispanic individuals still linked to Mexico, staying connected is essential to their sense of economic, social, and cultural well-being. Because their nuclear families are often separated, their social needs must be met through extended families and fictive kinship (compadre) relationships. In the period from 1950 to 2000, the traditional family of “husband, wife, and 2.3 children” has given way to smaller households in which single parents, divorced parents, remarried parents, and other varieties of domestic partnerships are more common than traditional nuclear families. For persons and families in distress, many support agencies are available. Food banks supply needed nutrition throughout the area, temporary shelters endeavor to feed, clothe, and shelter those who otherwise would be on the steets, and transitional housing programs are aimed at those trying to return to the mainstream of work, school, and family life. Several volunteer centers offer opportunties for those with time and resources to be involved with those in need of assistance or mentoring. Despite good intentions, the circumstances of some inner-city neighborhoods have declined beyond the point of salvation through conventional governmental assistance programs. In his profoundly disturbing analysis of the Rosedale community in Fort Worth, Scott Cummings concluded:
Work, Commerce, and Housing The Dallas – Fort Worth community is deeply committed to entrepreneurship and the work ethic. Local Chambers of Commerce serve important roles in every community to promote business and bring jobs to the area. The unemployment rate in the region is consistently below state and national averages, and the demand for talented workers in technological fields attracts immigrants from around the world. The average weekly wage reported in the twelve-county CMS goes from a high of $732 in Dallas (followed by $702 in Collin County and $608 in Tarrant County) to a low of $404 in Hood County. Long before major national corporations relocated to Dallas, a number of family firms prospered in the Dallas – Fort Worth area (Lange and Lazarus-Black 1982). The long-term success of these family enterprises demonstrates the importance of entrepreuneurial spirit in the development of the region (Rumbley 1991). In addition to ventures in restaurants (the Martinez family’s El Fenix chain) and small-scale retail (McShan Florist), others have made their way in real estate (Henry S. Miller, Ebby Halliday), in direct sales (Mary Kay Cosmetics), in building trades (Levy & Son plumbing), and in auto sales (Huffines, Sewell). The total value of retail sales in the twelve-county CMSA is $64 billion per year, with Dallas County accounting for 60% of the total and Tarrant County another 26%. The Central Business Districts of Dallas and Forth Worth are still the major markets for employment, but other markets also are important. The so-called “Telecom Corridor” along Highway 75 from Richardson to Plano may be the largest in the world, with more than 600 firms employing more than 100,000 persons, while the Las Colinas area in Irving, the Legacy area in Plano, the “Great Southwest” corridor south of D/FW airport along Highway 360, the North Central (Highway 75) Corridor in north Dallas each offer more than 50,000 jobs. Although the Dallas – Fort Worth area led the nation by creating 102,700 jobs in the year 2000, little economic growth has taken place in the southern areas of the metropolitan region. Many had high hopes for the federal- and state-funded SuperCollider Project in Ellis County, but it was cancelled in the mid-1990s. The speculative land values in nearby communities like Waxahachie, Duncanville, Cedar Hill, DeSoto, and Lancaster plummeted to their earlier levels. In general, housing is very affordable, especially when compared with other metropolitan areas. A 1998 survey showed that residents in the Dallas – Fort Worth area were spending an average of 20% of their income on housing costs. This tied the Metroplex with Houston for the best ranking among major metropolitan areas, while residents in San Francisco and New York City (tied for last place on the list) were spending an average of 44% of their income on housing costs. The total value of residential, commercial, and industrial property in the twelve-county CMSA surpasses $235 billion, with Dallas County responsible for 44% of the total and Tarrant County an additional 26%. Arts and Recreation Every fall, Dallas hosts the State Fair of Texas – the largest in the country – where visitors can listen to the voice of Big Tex, ride the Texas Star (the tallest ferris wheel in America), or attend Texas-OU Weekend, when the football teams of the University of Texas and the University of Oklahoma clash at the Cotton Bowl. The annual Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show and Rodeo, held in Fort Worth, is the nation’s oldest. Many of the visitors to the stockyards spend time dancing and drinking at Billy Bob’s, known as the world’s largest honky-tonk., or admiring the excellent collections and traveling exhibits at Fort Worth’s Kimbell Art Museum and Amon Carter Museum. In Dallas, the Meyerson Symphony Center and the Dallas Museum of Art anchor one of the largest arts districts in the nation. Dallas – Fort Worth has seventeen local television stations, including two public broadcasting stations (KERA in Dallas and KDTN in Denton) and two with Spanish language programming, as well as 30 FM radio stations and 19 AM radio stations. The region benefits from the oldest city-owned FM station in the nation: WRR-FM features classical music and carries the Dallas City Council meetings every Wednesday. Professional teams compete in major sports, including baseball (Texas Rangers), basketball (Dallas Mavericks), football (Dallas Cowboys, often promoted as “America’s team”), hockey (Dallas Stars), and soccer (the Dallas Burn outdoors and the Dallas Sidekicks indoors). In addition, the area hosts major events in professional auto racing (Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth), golf (the Byron Nelson in Dallas and the Colonial Invitational in Fort Worth), horse racing (at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie), and rodeo (in Mesquite). Collegiate-level events are offered in numerous sports by several universities, including Southern Methodist University (Dallas), Texas Christian University (Fort Worth), University of North Texas (Denton), and University of Texas at Arlington. Venues for amateur sports – especially golf, soccer, basketball, softball, running, biking, and swimming – are provided by cities as well as by private membership organizations located throughout the region. Leaders and citizens of the Dallas – Fort Worth metropolitan area are very concerned about quality of life issues. They struggle with air pollution and clogged highways, they worry about the quality of schooling available for their children, they fail to balance aggressive economic development with preservation of historical structures, and they finally go to court to protect environmental sensitive areas. Efforts to balance and control regional growth are guided by the North Central Texas Council of Governments, based in Arlington, which must approve all federal and state grants and contracts for projects in the region. The area’s cities are rightfully proud when their accomplishments are recognized by national awards and use these honors to promote their communities. For example, the City of Plano proclaims itself to be one of the best places in the country for employers to do business and for families to live and work. Incorporated in 1873 and chartered as a home rule city in 1961, Plano is located 20 miles north of downtown Dallas and is the largest city in Collin County. Plano was named a 1994 “All-America City” by the National Civic League and Allstate Foundation. In late 1996, Plano was named the "Best City in the U.S. for Home-based Businesses" by the publication Home Office Computing thanks to a strong telecommunications infrastructure and a dedication to small business development. Then, in 1997, Plano was named the fourth most "Kid-Friendly City" in the United States based on the findings of the Children's Environmental Index. The Plano Parks and Recreation Department is a three-time winner of the National Gold Medal Award for Excellence in Parks and Recreation Management. Plano also has been named the eighth Safest City in the United States based on the most recent Federal Bureau of Investigation crime statistics. Other area cities offer similar claims about their quality of life. Attracting the thousands of individuals and families who relocate to new jobs in the Metroplex is a continuing challenge and opportunity. Quality of life issues play a significant role in decisions of where to life and where to work. Urban planning has been a preoccupation of political leaders in Dallas and Fort Worth for decades (Fairbanks 1998; Pratt 1992; Seib 1986; Texas Urban Development Commission 1971; Thomas 1982). For example, Fort Worth has a rich history of planning. Since its inception, the City has taken hold of its future, from the commissioning of the outpost and the original town plan, to the creation of some of the first city plans in the country. The Kessler Plan of 1909 laid out some of the first city parks, lakes, and boulevards. In 1923, the first City Plan Board was created, and two years later the City Plan Commission was established by ordinance. Among the Commission’s first tasks was retaining Harland Bartholomew and Associates of St. Louis to create the 1927 Major Thoroughfare Plan, beginning with a boulevard and parkway system. In 1956, Victor Gruen and Associates produced a world-renowned plan for a walkable downtown. For the first time, a comprehensive plan was produced by City staff in 1965. This planning effort incorporated substantial citizen participation over a seven-year period and resulted in specific area plans for sectors and districts. These sector and district plans were updated in the early 1980s, again with significant input from the citizens of Fort Worth. A Comprehensive Plan was approved in 2000 and then updated in 2001. The City of Dallas is currently working with a private, non-profit organization called The Dallas Plan to shape the direction of urban growth for the twenty-first century. Initiated in 1992, The Dallas Plan (www.thedallasplan.com) operates in a paternership with the City of Dallas, local organizations, and individuals to build a road map for Dallas’s future. The City Council adopted The Dallas Plan in 1994 as the City’s official long-range planning policy. An Action Agenda, based on community input and approved by the City Council, details specific steps that must be taken each year to accomplish the six Strategic Initiatives of this ambitious 30-year plan. The Strategic Initiatives are: Core Assets. Preserve and build on the City’s unique assets, like Fair Park, The Dallas Zoo, and the Arts District, that make Dallas desirable place to live and work; Neighborhoods. Preserve, strengthen, and revitalize the foundation of community; Economic Development. Leverage resources to attract new businesses and support expnsion of existing businesses; The Center City. Transform the Center City into a dynamic urban area, with a variety of business, cultural, entertainment, and living choices; The Southern Sector. Strengthen Southern Dallas as an economically competitive and desirable place to live and work; The Trinity River Corridor. Protect and develop the Trinity River Corridor to become Dallas’s new front yard – a nature park and a recreational and economic asset. In a similar manner, the current Mission Statement of the City of Fort Worth’s Comprehensive Plan 2000 proclaims that “Fort Worth, Texas is a city focusing on its future. Together we are building strong neighborhoods, developing a sound economy, and providing a safe community” Toward this end, the city has been divided into sixteen sectors so that public input can be built into the planning process. By whatever name, urban planning is a major activity in the Dallas – Fort Worth metropolitan area. The challenges of poverty, crime, and homelessness – combined with inadequate social support services, environmental mismanagement, and administrative incompetence in local school districts – are readily apparent to many local observers (including the columnists and social critics of the weekly Dallas Observer). Most critics see the basic issue as the inequitable distribution of resources and power among citizens, neighborhoods, and cities. The Metroplex is not alone among American metropolitan areas in suffering from this long-term malady, but the “can do” spirit of Dallas and Fort Worth seems insufficient to remedy their historical and structural urban problems. Even the shifting of millions of dollars from the richest to the poorest through philanthropy does not transform the urban system nor challenge the majority’s belief that “all is getting better and better” in the Metroplex. On the surface, the future of the Dallas – Fort Worth urban region does appear bright. The urban infrastructure is relatively new as American cities go. The region is well-equipped to develop as a post-industrial urban space precisely because it will not be forced to overcome an industrial past (as have so many northeastern cities). Folks in Dallas and Fort Worth became successful through their entrepreneurial acumen, innovations, and strategic acquisitions in banking and financial services, subsoil energy and surface commercial/residential land investments, retail/wholesale enterprises, and scientific and technological developments. Now, Dallas and Fort Worth must move from twentieth-century successes to twenty-first century challenges and opportunities. A possible future is, perhaps, revealed by the Metroplex’s commitment to bid for the 2012 Olympic Games. This is precisely the sort of challenge and opportunity that stirs the hearts of local entrepreneurs and sports fanatics. As their official Internet site used to declare:
The leaders of Dallas – Fort Worth desperately want to live in a “world-class” metropolitan area. Pursuing the 2012 Olympic Games is a means to this end. The challenge in this opportunity is to include all of the region’s citizens in the BIG dream, not just the residents of the affluent White neighborhoods and suburban communities. By 2012, The Dallas Plan will have been in effect for twenty years. Will it have resulted in the kinds of transformations in the urban structure that extremes of poverty and wealth can meet on the same Olympic playing field? Will Dallas – Fort Worth finally manage to become urban spaces of equal opportunity? Will the spirit of the people be lifted up in pursuing the Holy Grail of the Olympic Games? In his Choruses from ‘The Rock’, T. S. Eliot offered timeless questions fitting for the urban future in Dallas – Fort Worth:
Achor, Shirley (1978) Mexican Americans in a Dallas Barrio. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Brown, Earl (1977) Cowtown 1977: A Social Analysis of Fort Worth.Fort Worth: Texas Weslyan College. Cheney, Allison A. (1991) Dallas Spirit: A Political History of the City of Dallas. Dallas: McNullan Publishing Co. Cristol, Gerry (1998) A Light in the Prairie: Temple Emanu-El of Dallas 1872-1997. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. Cummings, Scott (1998) Left Behind in Rosedale: Race Relations and the Collapse of Community Institutions. Boulder, CO: Westview Press. Fairbanks, Robert B. (1998) For the City as a Whole: Planning, Politics and the Public Interest in Dallas, Texas, 1900-1965. Columbus: Ohio State University Press. Galloway, Diane and Kathy Matthews (1988) The Park Cities: A Walker’s Guide and Brief History. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press. Governor, Alan B. and Jay F. Brakefield (1998) Deep Ellum and Central Track: Where the Black and White Worlds of Dallas Converged. Denton: University of North Texas Press. Hazel, Michael V., editor (1995) Dallas Reconsidered: Essays in Local History. Dallas: Three Forks Press. Hill, Patricia Evridge (1996) Dallas: The Making of a Modern City. Austin: University of Texas Press. Holmes, Maxine and Gerald Saxton, editors (1992) The WPA Dallas Guide and History. Denton: Dallas Public Library and University of North Texas Press. Knight, Oliver (1953) Fort Worth: Outpost on the Trinity. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. Lale, Cissy Stewardt (1990) “Corporations and Culture,” pp. 225-260,” in Oliver Knight, Fort Worth: Outpost on the Trinity. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. [orig. 1953] Lange, Pam and Mindie Lazarus-Black (1982) Family Business in Dallas: A Matter of Values. Dallas: Dallas Public Library. Leslie, Warren (1964) Dallas Public and Private. New York: Grossman Publishers. Linden, Glenn M. (1995) Desegregating Dallas Schools: Four Decades in the Federal Courts. Dallas: Three Forks Press. McDonald, William L. (1978) Dallas Rediscovered: A Photographic Chronicle of Urban Expansion 1870-1925. Dallas: Dallas Historical Society. Minutaglio, Bill and Holly Williams (1990) The Hidden City: Oak Cliff, Texas. Dallas: Elmwood Press and the Oak Cliff Conservation League. Pate, J’Nell L. (1988) Livestock Legacy: The Fort Worth Stockyards, 1887-1987. College Station: Texas A & M University Press. Payne, Darwin (1994) Big D: Triumphs and Troubles of an American Supercity in the 20th Century. Dallas: Three Forks Press. Payne, Darwin and Kathy Fitzpatrick (1999) From Prairie to Planes: How Dallas and Fort Worth Overcame Politics and Personalities to Build One of the World’s Biggest and Busiest Airports. Dallas: Three Forks Press. Pratt, James (1992) Dallas Visions for Community: Toward 21st Century Urban Design. Dallas: The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. Prince, Robert (1993) A History of Dallas: From a Different Perspective. Dallas: Nortex Press. Roark, Carol (1995) Fort Worth’s Legendary Landmarks. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. Rumbley, Rose-Mary (1991) The Unauthorized History of Dallas Texas: The Scenic Route through 150 Years in “Big D.” Austin: Eakin Press. Schmidt, Ruby (1984) Fort Worth and Tarrant County: A Historical Guide. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. Schulman, Laurie (2000) The Meyerson Symphony Center: Building a Dream. Denton: University of North Texas Press. Seib, Philip (1986) Dallas: Chasing the Urban Dream. Dallas: PressWorks. Selcer, Richard F. (1991) Hell’s Half Acre: The Life and Legend of a Red-Light District. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press. Texas Urban Development Commission (1971) Urban Texas: Policies for the Future. Arlington: University of Texas at Arlington. Thomas, Gail, editor (1982) Imagining Dallas. Dallas: Institute of Humanities and Culture. Wilson, William H. (1998) Hamilton Park: A Planned Black Community in Dallas. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. |