# What's so bad about Dallas? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 10, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685 "2005-04-10T18:48:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/21 "2005-04-11T14:25:00Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > Edie Brickell is the hippest thing to come out of Dallas. Not a fan of Pantera or Bowling for Soup? ---
**Author:** ![Metacom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecae2f/32.png) [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/22 "2005-04-11T14:29:47Z")
> [@DeadlyAccurate](#): > > Pray tell, outside of a couple of festivals, where are all these cowboys? “Country western” bars. Either there, or driving between said bars and their home in the suburbs, where all the cows tend to be sandwiched between a piece of foam and some plastic wrap in the refrigerator. Same as pretty much any other big city. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/23 "2005-04-11T14:56:10Z")
Regarding the OP, It’s the pretense man, Dallas is an “oil and cattle town” that “puts on airs” about being sophisticated. And that aggravates people. And the city was laid out by a drunk Buffalo, there is no room to expand the roads so traffic is a nightmare. To get anywhere in “Big D” you drive around town on the loop so that driving in Dallas is limted as much as possible. And there’s parts of the south side of town where even the cops are scared to go. Give me Houston any day! Unclviny ---
**Author:** ![wonderwench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/35a633/32.png) [@wonderwench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderwench)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/24 "2005-04-11T14:57:28Z")
The weather is hideous and the McMansions are cloying. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/25 "2005-04-11T15:06:36Z")
> [@JasonG](#): > > There is an active gay community in Turtle Creek. Every major sports league has a team there. An unknown side effect of steroids? ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/26 "2005-04-11T15:07:57Z")
> [@DeadlyAccurate](#): > > You would? I guess I must miss all those cowboys among all the men and women dressed in their business clothes. Pray tell, outside of a couple of festivals, where are all these cowboys? Get out a map of the metroplex. Put your thumb over Dallas and the mid-cities on the Dallas side of the Tarrant County line. As for what’s left: voila! There be cowboys! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/27 "2005-04-11T15:54:23Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Not a fan of Pantera or Bowling for Soup? Not really, and they don’t count. Neither do Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughan, the Butthole Surfers or anybody else. Edie Brickell is the one that counts. 😛 (Ehh, maybe I should leave the funny stuff to someone who is actually funny.) ---
**Author:** ![My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/My_Darn_Snake_Legs)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/28 "2005-04-11T16:29:07Z")
I lived in TX until I moved out here to the midwest, and I can’t wait to get back. I like everything about Texas better. I grew up outside of Houston and I spent the last 6 years in Dallas. Dallas is better. Is there crime? Sure. Heat? Yep. On the other hand, there are all of the good things that other people have mentioned. No pollution, great food, museums, music, sports, sceanery. The only thing I regret about Dallas is leaving. ---
**Author:** ![liirogue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dbc845/32.png) [@liirogue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/liirogue)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/29 "2005-04-11T20:03:33Z")
Texans, but especially Dallasites, tend to be rude, aggressive drivers. I agree with the sentiment that Dallas was laid out by a drunken buffalo. It gets very hot in the summer, and it can be pretty humid. They have killer ants, seriously. The red fire ants are vicious. When I was little, the brother of one of my friends accidentally sat down on a fire ant mound. He was hospitalized. They do have a lot to do down there. For instance, their art museum downtown is amazing. Right now, it has a Chinese art exhibit going on. This exhibit is not going anywhere else, and most of the pieces have _never_ been on display, not even in China. Unlike **TitoBenito** , I didn’t think there were that many bums, but it may be that OKC just has more and I’m accustomed to that. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/30 "2005-04-11T20:33:23Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > Not really, and they don’t count. Neither do Jimmy and Stevie Ray Vaughan You best not dis SRV too loudly. Thems fightin’ words to many, many people. The thing that I hated the most about Dallas was its lack of geographical features. I grew up in Calgary, about 45 minutes from being in the Rockies. I could go hiking and skiing without too much pre-planning. Dallas is flat and in the middle of nowhere. Most people from Dallas will tell you that is why they have DFW, so it is easy to travel to places where you can ski and hike or whatever- but it isn’t the same. As far as restaurants are considered, I read that the top cities for dining out per capita were 1. New York, 2. Houston, and 3. Dallas. Many good restaurants there. However, it is also the center of the casual dining universe. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/31 "2005-04-11T20:35:54Z")
I just came from a weding in Austin and while the city is very nice, one thing I noticed is that Texans do not understand New York sarcasm. They do gush on so about their little city and New York seems to scare the bejeezes out of them. I have to go to Dallas next week on business. I plan to buy myself a cowboy hat, some boots and an orange Fuck Y’All I’m from Texas shirt so I fit in. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/32 "2005-04-11T20:37:17Z")
> [@My Darn Snake Legs](#): > > On the other hand, there are all of the good things that other people have mentioned. No pollution, Are you serious? Then [explain this scorecard](http://www.scorecard.org/env-releases/cap/ranking.tcl?fips_county_code=48113) or [this cite](http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution/cep/cdal.asp) or [this report](http://www.distributiondrive.com/Article5.html) and tell that to everyone downstream on the Trinity. [url=“[http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/c\_t/Rivers/TRINITY%20RIVER.cfm](http://www.rra.dst.tx.us/c_t/Rivers/TRINITY%20RIVER.cfm)”]river cite > [@](#): > > Over the past century the waters of the Trinity have become increasingly polluted. Runoff containing pesticides and herbicides and dumping of industrial and human waste-particularly in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex-have combined to cause serious deterioration of water quality. The most severely affected area is the 250-mile-long stretch that extends from Dallas-Fort Worth to the headwaters of Lake Livingston. By the early 1960s the river below Dallas for 100 miles was so polluted that the United States Public Health Service described it as “septic.” Since that time efforts have been made to clean up the river. A water quality management plan was adopted in the 1970s, but in the early 1990s pollution problems continued. > " ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/33 "2005-04-11T21:41:46Z")
The drivers are a bit aggressive, but noting like the Northeast. Apparently some Dopers have never driven in Boston? I have noticed they don’t use their turn signals, and if you use yours they don’t trust you. I have yet to hear one of those 1000 DB car stereos, and that’s a good thing. The road system isn’t all that bad, you do tend to have to drive a bit further than the crow flies to get to where you are going, but at least you don’t have to drive on 16 lane parking lots. I have found the people here to be very, VERY nice. I think it’s kind of, they are locked and loaded if you want to play, but they will be just dandy if you act like a civil human being. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2005, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/34 "2005-04-11T21:49:57Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > I have yet to hear one of those 1000 DB car stereos, and that’s a good thing. You’ve never driven down Harry Hines after dark then. Or down in Pleasant Grove, eh? ---
**Author:** ![TitoBenito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2acd7d/32.png) [@TitoBenito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TitoBenito)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/35 "2005-04-12T01:40:08Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > I’m sure that some Dallasites had some reason to dislike Houston, but those reasons were all unfounded. Houston could have the greatest people in the world and it would still suck. I had a 18 year sinus infection until I moved out of the city to go to college. The place is like my kryptonite. The moment I’m within 60 miles of that polluted swamp my whole body weakens. Maybe its the pollution, maybe its the pine, maybe its the mildew, or maybe its just the opressive humitity, but I lose all will to do anything whenever I’m there. It also makes my hair look terrible. Wow, thats a very Dallas thing to say. ---
**Author:** ![don\_Jaime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b4bc9f/32.png) [@don\_Jaime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_Jaime)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/36 "2005-04-12T04:26:43Z")
There are two main things wrong with Dallas. 1. Dallasites drive like maniacs. Eighty in the slow lane, ninety in the middle two, keep your ass out of the left if your car lacks a drag chute. Except, of course, if you’re within a mile of downtown, or five miles of the airport or the junction of LBJ and Central Expwy. Then cram on the brake and gawp at the concrete walls for a bit. The street plan is no help. Dallas has highways stacked four deep in places, in a pancake-flat river bottom! Road construction is interminable. And there’s the four-lane roads to nowhere out in the burbs. 1. Dallas is the queen city for the disposable society syndrome. Dallasites can trash out a community in no time flat. I lived there in 1990, and Plano was a tony community and there were glitzy malls everywhere. My last visit Plano was a slum and the malls are in the process of being destroyed by inches as box stores take over. There are no old cars, old buildings, old anything. Everything is junked and replaced, or abandoned. Minor complaints: The Dallas Morning News sucks. For all the high prices, Neiman-Marcus ware doesn’t hold up for dup. No Trader Joe’s or L&L Drive-Ins yet. Texas politics in general - hey, the Big D can’t carry all the blame. The good: Half-Price Books, better shopping in general than OKC (especially groceries, I’d love to have Tom Thumb, Whole Foods, or Fiesta), lower taxes, indecent nightclubs, and the people really are quite nice. Houston, in contrast, has some of the meanest, nastiest people I have ever seen. I stayed there six months and saw people deliberately ram other cars TWICE. ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/37 "2005-04-12T06:39:11Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > I have visited Dallas for a few weeks and I was pleasantly surprised, no cowboy hats, no horses tied up outside. I didn’t see the whole Dallas-Fort Worth area, but what I did see seemed quite livable to me. > > So why all the negativity about Dallas? What bad things did I miss? I used to live in Irving - a Dallas suburb - and I had to drive 14 miles to buy beer. The closest fishing hole was about 10 miles away, and it was just that: a hole. Someone had dug a large hole in the ground, filled it with water, dumped in some fish, and called it a fishing hole. It was the saddest thing I ever saw. Tornadoes. Hail as big as tennis balls. Heat. And I saw **plenty** of cowboy hats. [sub]But rent was WAY cheap.[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/38 "2005-04-12T07:39:01Z")
> [@don Jaime](#): > > The street plan is no help. Dallas has highways stacked four deep in places, in a pancake-flat river bottom! Road construction is interminable. And there’s the four-lane roads to nowhere out in the burbs. Compared to Little Rock the Dallas roadways are a marvel of engineering. I moved to Plano in 1987 and did observe all sorts of releatively large roads that seemed to go out to the middle nowhere. Little did I know that they were planning ahead and most of those roads now lead to places. > [@](#): > > My last visit Plano was a slum and the malls are in the process of being destroyed by inches as box stores take over. There are no old cars, old buildings, old anything. Everything is junked and replaced, or abandoned. If you think Plano is a slum then you’re just plain nuts. I will vouch for the junk mentality. Some friends of mine were having a hard time selling their McMansion in Plano last year. (Over by P.E.S.H) Among the most common complaints about the house was that it was to old. It was built in the mid 90’s. Marc ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/39 "2005-04-12T07:38:27Z")
> [@don Jaime](#): > > The street plan is no help. Dallas has highways stacked four deep in places, in a pancake-flat river bottom! Road construction is interminable. And there’s the four-lane roads to nowhere out in the burbs. Compared to Little Rock the Dallas roadways are a marvel of engineering. I moved to Plano in 1987 and did observe all sorts of releatively large roads that seemed to go out to the middle nowhere. Little did I know that they were planning ahead and most of those roads now lead to places. > [@](#): > > My last visit Plano was a slum and the malls are in the process of being destroyed by inches as box stores take over. There are no old cars, old buildings, old anything. Everything is junked and replaced, or abandoned. If you think Plano is a slum then you’re just plain nuts. I will vouch for the junk mentality. Some friends of mine were having a hard time selling their McMansion in Plano last year. (Over by P.E.S.H) Among the most common complaints about the house was that it was to old. It was built in the mid 90’s. Marc ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2005, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685/40 "2005-04-12T08:00:27Z")
> [@TitoBenito](#): > > Houston could have the greatest people in the world and it would still suck. I had a 18 year sinus infection until I moved out of the city to go to college. The place is like my kryptonite. The moment I’m within 60 miles of that polluted swamp my whole body weakens. Maybe its the pollution, maybe its the pine, maybe its the mildew, or maybe its just the opressive humitity, but I lose all will to do anything whenever I’m there. It also makes my hair look terrible. Wow, thats a very Dallas thing to say. I agree. Houston has the pollution of Los Angeles (it may be worse) and the climate of Calcutta. One swims through the air when outside. Also, I’ll second **don Jaime**. On the whole, Dallasites are some of the most genuinely friendly people around. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-so-bad-about-dallas/298685.md?page=3)