Willy1 Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Hey everyone... I'm new to the forum. And, yes I live in that dreaded and loathesome area to the North... but I'm not a hostile visitor so please put down those torches and pitch forks. I have to say that I'm a bit surprised by what all I've found here on the Houston site. I grew up in Fort Worth, which is often compared to Houston because of the cities great love of the arts and anything cultural. FW really goes out of her way to embrace her Texas heritage and to preserve the "old west" roots that gave birth to the city that FW is today... a city that has been ranked as the fastest growing city with a pop. over 500,000 for the past few years (of course, that's something I'm sure will be debated on this forum). The experts are now predicting that Fort Worth will surpass Dallas in the next 15 years or so in population. Fort Worth is also set to surpass Dallas in land area within the year (by the end of 2005) Anyway, I travel all over the DFW area on a daily basis and I'm very familiar with most of the metroplex. But, I'm also somewhat familiar with Houston... To me all the "competition" between Dallas and Houston is odd. I mean, the cities are nothing alike at all. So, it's really hard to even compare the two in my mind. Houston - like Fort Worth - has developed through aggressive annexation. The city limits of Houston refect that... Houston and Dallas differ here. Dallas has not be aggressive in annexing, and thus, has become landlocked by suburbs. As a result, the density in Dallas is growing and the city has no choice but to grow skyward. Hense all the highrise urban living developments going up all over North Dallas/Uptown. Houston has a thriving downtown area that is unlike Dallas... DT Dallas is 25% vacant. However, they're starting to turn it around by taking a hint from Houston and FW... Dallas is now in the midst of a strong surge of turning old vacant office towers into residential living. But, it is Fort Worth that is catching everyone's attention these days. Fort Worth has approved and is starting its Trinity River Project that will dwarf the one in Dallas. The FW TRP (Trinity River Project) is going to create San Antonio-like river walks, and it's going to double the footprint of downtown Fort Worth by creating a town lake north of the Tarrant County Courthouse that will be complete with canals with high rise living and office towers. It's being modeled after Vancouver BC. It is going to change the face of Fort Worth forever and thrust Fort Worth into being a top tier city... On the south end of Downtown, the lancaster corridor is undergoing redevelopment and many of the cities older office towers are converting to living. Plus a new convention center hotel is approved and on the way... Downtown FW, unlike Dallas, is at 99.8% capacity and because of that, new skyscrapers on in the works... basically, FW is busting at the seams in just about everyway imaginable. Look for 2005 to bring big big news out of FW... There is a rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth that dates back to the early days of each city. That rivalry started when the mayor of Dallas made a snide comment about how Fort Worth was so dead that a panther was once seen strolling the streets of Downtown before plopping down to take a nap; apparently even the panther was bored. But, instead of firing back... Fort Worth embraced the comment and now FW is referred to as "panther city" by a lot of locals. There are even pathers incorporated into much of the public art around town as a reference to those comments from the East. However, it's only the "old school" Fort Worthians who object to being part of "DFW". Ever since the creation of DFW Airport, the two cities have been working more cooperatively than in the past. Of course, there is the battle over the Wright Admendment... but that's more about economic protection for FW's half of DFW, not any sort of sibling rivalry between Dallas and Fort Worth. What I don't understand is where the Dallas/Houston Rivalry started... Was it really because of the TV show? Does it have something to do with the old Cowboys vs Oilers thing? I have never heard of any real root cause to the Dallas/Houston thing... but I do agree with some other people on this thread... It seems to be coming from Houston because you never hear anti-Houston talk in Dallas.... So, what is Houston's growth predicted to be like in coming years? I seriously don't know... I know they're predicting DFW to double in size in the next 30-40 years. And, I've heard that the 9.1 million predictions are under-estimated due to the growth in the FW side of DFW... Anyway, from one person in DFW --- I like Houston a lot. I think it's cool that Texas can have so many big cities that all feel so completely different from each other. Houston, San Antonio, Austin, DFW.... they're all very different flavors. I wish that we had the skyscrapers in Dallas-FW that y'all have in Houston. I think Houston's skyline rivals LA and Chicago... I would definitely list it as one of the nation's most impressive skylines. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowbrow Posted March 8, 2005 Share Posted March 8, 2005 Hi Willy. Nice to meet you. I like hearing all this about Fort Worth. I've always loved visiting your fine city. If Houston was in need of following an established city plan, I think FW would be a great choice.Oh yeah personally I think Houston has a better skyline than LA. Chicago is another story. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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