Postby Dmkflyer » 19 Jan 2017 12:32
I think it is easy enough to get a feel for what a city's PID is considering downtown if you've been there and relatively easy if you know something about the metros.
Dallas is considering what is within the loop as downtown and I think it is healthy and growing. Considering that there are so many people immediately surrounding downtown is even better and that is growing nicely, too. Once the area sprawled far enough, it was only natural that some of the suburbs would have employment centers sprout up, as well. Those centers are now also becoming centers with higher densities. DFW has massive suburbs, so it is to be expected. DFW went the way of LA in many aspects when it comes to sprawl.
Bringing it back home and talking about the differences between Dallas and Fort Worth. Fort Worth's downtown went through hell and then investments were made by one family, in particular, to clean it up and make it feel safe for people to visit. They did a great job of achieving that and their downtown is geared toward visitors from the burbs and from out of state and beyond. The West 7th area of Ft. Worth has become what Dallas' Uptown is to cater more to people who live there and want more of an Urban feel. That said, Fort Worth seems to take the more quaint, hold on to our heritage approach where Dallas takes a very cosmopolitan, fast paced, build approach. I think they've both served well in their own right. Dallas has a hub of business and commerce that is internationally recognized, but when people come here to visit, I still recommend Fort Worth to give them that quaint Texas feel that gets lost in Dallas. It also helps them to show that they probably assumed Texas would be Fort Worth and were surprised with the cosmopolitan flair and business of Dallas.
Back to downtown populations and such...
One thing that I have often noticed that is different about Dallas when comparing to Fort Worth is that we have a lot of nodes of older retail that are pocketed throughout the city that have kept up as centers for shops and restaurants (like Bishop Arts, Lakewood Town Center, Lover's Lane, Preston Center, etc.) and I don't really see nearly as much of that in Fort Worth. Some of those are places I would take out of towners to in heartbeat, so there are a lot of choices. Fort Worth doesn't have many like that to offer, so people take guests downtown, stockyards and maybe West 7th. It made things easier to focus on in redeveloping things. Until recently, Dallas needed more people near and some projects to take off to lure people downtown and eventually attract people to live there.
Lastly, I notice that Fort Worth still seems to be stuck in a very sprawled mentality with tens of thousands of single family homes going up north west and south. They also keep annexing away. At what point do they realize or do they at all, that it isn't just about total population and start really aiming to attract more business to downtown and not just Alliance? How is it that the second major city of the metroplex seems like they are behind Plano, Richardson, Irving, and Frisco for attracting business? At some point it seems that some level of development needs to happen downtown instead of this endless near resistance kind of vibe that I pick up on in Fort Worth. I get that they don't want to be anything like Dallas and I think that is great, but there doesn't seem to be a real plan on truly moving forward and growing in their own unique way that still ensures that they are at least the 2nd hub in this metro. It may be me, but it just seems like they are only interested in keeping a cowboy heritage and growing their population like it's the 80s until their overall population is bigger than Dallas' so they can say they are bigger. I love Fort Worth, but I think we all get it... now its time to get on the saddle.