Keeping Dallas Pretentious

Dallas skyline -- Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

by blogSpotter
In this week's TIME magazine, staff writer John Cloud gives a good update on the political climate of Dallas. The article, "Lavender Heart of Texas" points out that the Dallas metro area has become increasingly Democratic and yes, increasingly gay. Dallas now has Democrats occupying the mayor's office, most city council seats and 57 of 84 offices in Dallas County. Openly gay Ed Oakley is in the runoff for mayor; the Dallas sheriff, county judge, and district clerk are also gay Democrats. The basic information is well-presented; I'm a liberal who has lived in Dallas for 24 years so I applaud most of these changes. It's great that our fair city has made national news with its demographic advances.

Now this is where I have some problems with Mr. Cloud's verbiage and his conclusions (and in part, his obvious "Dallitude"). He attributes the liberalization of Dallas to the mid-terms where even the GOP chairman thinks 40,000 GOP voters stayed home, out of disgust with how immigration and the Iraq war are being handled. That may be true, but Dallas proper is increasingly black, Hispanic and older white people. This is due to "White Flight" primarily. Younger Anglo families seek school districts with low crime as well as inexpensive suburban housing. The population shift is mainly what's brought about the change in the city of Dallas' voting patterns. You can bet that Frisco and Allen have kept their GOP pedigrees. Farmer’s Branch on the North edge of Dallas just voted to boot illegal immigrants back to Mexico. Is that liberal or informed? Cloud also says that Dallas has the "ninth largest concentration of same sex couples". That would be impressive if not for the fact that Dallas is also the 9th largest city overall. If we had, say the 5th largest concentration that would be noteworthy.

Cloud’s 3rd observation that raised my ire was a dig at Austin, Texas. While I’m a long-time Dallasite, I did much of my growing up in Austin and it will always be my first city love. Cloud uses the unforgivable adjective “dowdy” to describe Austin as compared to Dallas. He describes Dallas as a city of “yearning and ostentation” as if that were a good thing. Note to Mr. Cloud: Crass materialism is never a good thing.

Where do I begin? Austin has hosted the Sundance film festival and is the “Live Music Capitol of the world”. It is the home of celebrities like Sandra Bullock and Mathew McConaughey. Austin is nestled near beautiful hills and lakes, and Austin reveres its historic past by restoring its older buildings and monuments. Austin is diverse, liberal and in a good way subversive. Dallas on the other hand has no entertainment venue of note. Talented artists usually get the hell out of Dallas as soon as they hit it big. Dallas has no celebrities who aren’t being paid nightly for their stint at Nokia Center. Dallas is on flat, grassy plains with no geographic beauty of note. Dallas tears down all its historic buildings to replace them with prefab concrete, fake stucco, and otherwise unremarkable, bland, me-too buildings. The overall mentality of Dallas, even among many gay Democrats is one of button-down conformity and stultifying dullness. How dare John Cloud call Austin dowdy? Mr. Cloud, I think your “yearning for ostentation” has clouded your judgment. You need to live in Austin for a spell – some silicone valley transplants have even brought much of the ostentation you desire to places like Austin’s posh new Domain mixed-use complex. Austin has everything Dallas offers, but Dallas has not nearly everything Austin offers.

If it were a food comparison, I’d say Dallas is a stale chicken salad sandwich and Austin is a sizzling plate of fajitas. I know which one sounds better to me. Enough said? Enough said.

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