
{| align=right | |- | |} Dallas is one of the ten largest cities in the United States and the heart of the largest metropolitan area in Texas. It is the county seat of Dallas County, Texas and small portions of the city also extend into the neighboring counties of Collin County, Texas, Denton County, Texas, Rockwall County, Texas, and Kaufman County, Texas.
Dallas is the largest city of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, a large metropolitan area in North Texas. As of the U.S. Census 2000, Dallas had a total population of 1,188,580 and the Metroplex had a population of 5,161,544 making it the fifth largest United States metropolitan area and one of the 50 largest List of metropolitan areas by population. A more recent U.S. Census estimate puts the Metroplex population at 5,589,670 for 2003.
== History == {| align=center | |} The city of Dallas was founded by John Neely Bryan in 1841 after first surveying the area in 1839. Dallas County was established five years later in 1846 and was named after George M. Dallas, who was the eleventh United States Vice President of the United States at the time. However, the origin of the city's name is debatable. Dallas was so called by its residents at least as early as 1843 and there are four theories as to the origin of the city's name: * Named after George M. Dallas; * Named after George Dallas' father Alexander J. Dallas, a commodore who was stationed in the Gulf of Mexico and was the United States Secretary of the Treasury around the end of the War of 1812; * Named in a town-naming contest in 1842; * Named after the friend of founder John Neely Bryan's son, who later stated that his father had said he had named the town "after my friend Dallas" (a person whose identity is not certain). Dallas was formally incorporated as a town in 1856, and in 1871 became a city. In 1855, a group of European artists and musicians set up a utopian community west of Dallas called La Reunion. When that venture collapsed in 1857, many of the artists moved to Dallas where they established the base of the artist culture that exists today in the Deep Ellum neighborhood near downtown. In the 1970s, Reunion Arena and Reunion Tower (a trademark of the skyline) were named in honor of the La Reunion colony. Today, Dallas is home to a healthy theater community, with room for both traditional and experimentatal works. Dallas also boasts an active music scene, with numerous venues in the Deep Ellum and lower Greenville Avenue areas. In 1871, railroads were beginning to approach the area and Dallas city leaders did not intend to be left out. They paid the Houston and Central Texas Railroad $5,000 to shift its route 20 miles (32 km) to the west and build its north-south tracks through Dallas, rather than through Corsicana, Texas as planned. A year later, Dallas leaders could not pay off the Texas and Pacific Railroad and so tricked it into running its east-west line though Dallas by having a rider attached to a state law which required the railroad to build its tracks through Browder Springs—which turned out to be just south of Main Street. The major north-south and east-west Texas railroad routes intersected in Dallas in 1873, thus ensuring its future as a commercial center. Dallas quickly became the center of trade in cotton, grain, and even buffalo. As it entered the 20th century, Dallas transformed from an agricultural center to a center of banking, insurance, and other businesses. In 1930, oil was discovered 100 miles (160 km) east of Dallas and the city quickly became the financial center for the oil industry in Texas and Oklahoma. Then in 1958 the integrated circuit was invented in Dallas by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments. By the 1980s, when the oil industry mostly relocated to Houston, Dallas was beginning to benefit from a burgeoning technology boom (driven by the growing computer and telecom industries), while continuing to be a center of banking and business. In the 1990s, Dallas became known as Texas' Silicon Valley, or the "Silicon Prairie." ==Geology== North Texas sits near the edge of the North American craton. The greater Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex sits on gently tilted sediments. The region west of Weatherford, Texas consists of Pennsylvanian sediments that tilt a few degrees west. These sediments were deformed when Gondwana collided with Laurasia to form Pangea about 300 million years ago (Ma). A great mountain range formed, the Marathon- Ouachita Mountain-Appalachian Mountain-Variscan cordillera. This collapsed during the Triassic and Jurassic to form the Atlantic Ocean-Gulf of Mexico basin. Sea level rose as the supercontinent Pangea broke up. The Pennsylvanian mountains of DFW were eroded for about 190 million years until the mountains were wore down. The DFW metroplex sprawls across a 100km wide N-S trending belt of Cretaceous sediments. Fort Worth in the west is neatly built on Early Cretaceous (Comanche Series) and Dallas in the east is built on Late Cretaceous (Gulf Series) sediments. DFW lay on the beach about 110 Ma, during early Cretaceous time. The water kept rising for another 30-50 million years, so that by the time the coccolithophorid Austin chalk was deposited, the Octopus Garden DFW lay 100m or more below the sea surface. The inexorable rise in sealevel was only interupted by tectonic rumblings in southern Arkansas and Oklahoma, shedding copious amounts of Woodbine Sandstone to the south. These sandstones underlie the cities of Denton, Grapevine, and Arlington, Texas. The Cretaceous sediments dip a degree or so the the east, so the Cretaceous sediments get younger towards the east. Sediments deposited during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, when the dinosaurs were killed, lie near the town of Terrell, at the eastern edge of the DFW metroplex. People enjoy searching for fossils in the rocks around Dallas. Remnants of dinosaurs and Late Cretaceous marine reptiles such as Mosasaur are found. The Trinity River (Texas) has been important in shaping the DFW metroplex. Dallas was situated at the best ford, downstream from where the Elm Fork joins the main stream, where the river flows SE over the chalk. This provided a place where travellers need only cross the river once, at a place with relatively firm landings and bottoms. This was the best place to cross the Trinity from the earliest days, best for fordings, ferries, and bridges. During the days of the Republic of Texas, the DFW metroplex was mostly uninhabited by Europeans, but settlers began to find their way N in the 1840's. The route north naturally followed the low hills and gentle ridges of Austin chalk hills to the river ford that soon became Dallas. The future site of Dallas was selected by Bryan as the place for his trading post to overlook the ferry that he operated at the crossing. Dallas was also affected subtly by much younger geologic formations related to an older, more vigorous Trinity River. Changing Pleistocene-Holocene climate had two effects on the Trinity River: It caused downcutting (few people know that there is a 100m-deep buried canyon beneath the Trinity in Dallas) and a wetter climate caused much more water to flow in the river. The greater river flow generated great sedimentary terraces. From time to time these terrace deposits reveal bones of extinct giant mammals, such as Mastodons and Mammoths. The Pleistocene terraces affected the development of Dallas, providing a rich alluvial soil and a perched aquifer, very useful indeed during the early years. Downtown Dallas is built on a series of these terraces, rising subtly eastward from the Trinity river. The DFW meroplex had an additional, if subtle, geologic advantage. The Trinity is not good for shipment by boats but is great for drinking. Trinity River water is better than either of the larger rivers to the north and south, the Red River (Texas) and the Brazos River. The larger rivers are longer and flow over salt-bearing Permian deposits, well west of the Trinity headwaters. The Trinity is consequently sweeter water than either the Brazos or Red river waters. Life was better near sweet water, and this simple fact helped DFW prosper. Because the Trinity is not suitable for navigation, Dallas could not have grown to be a large city until the railroad was invented. Modern transportation systems made the Trinity disadvantage in river navigation insignificant, but the smaller river gave young Dallas a big advantage in the region because of its superior water quality. == Geography and Climate == According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 997.1 square kilometre (385.0 square mile). 887.2 km² (342.5 mi²) of it is land and 110.0 km² (42.5 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 11.03% water. These statistics are only for the city of Dallas proper. In fact, Dallas is a small part of the much larger urbanized area called the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. About one in every four Texans lives in the DFW metroplex. Dallas, and its surrounding area, is mostly flat and lies at an elevation ranging from 450 to 550 feet (140 to 170 m). An escarpment rises another 200 feet (60 m) in southern Dallas in the neighborhoods of Oak Cliff, Texas and Cockrell Hill and continues through the city of Cedar Hill, Texas. Fort_Worth,_Texas,_Texas,_taken_by_NASA's_Landsat_7_satellite._Dallas_makes_up_much_of_the_right_half_of_the_urbanized_area._Red_is_vegetated_area_surrounding_DFW.__Notice_also_the_many_reservoirs_in_the_area.">image:Large_Dallas_Landsat.jpg|thumb|300px|A simulated-color satellite image of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, Texas, taken by NASA's Landsat 7 satellite. Dallas makes up much of the right half of the urbanized area. Red is vegetated area surrounding DFW. Notice also the many reservoirs in the area. [[image:ISS007-E-16538.jpg|thumb|200px|The DFW metroplex at night, photographed from the International Space Station in early 2003. North is towards the bottom of the photo, so Dallas is on the left. Blurriness s caused by clouds. Courtesy NASA.]] The Trinity River (Texas) is a major Texas waterway that passes from the northwest right by the southern portion of downtown Dallas as it heads southeast to Houston. The river is flanked on both sides with a 50 foot (15 m) earthen levee to keep that part of the city from flooding. Several bridges traverse the river connecting southern Dallas to downtown Dallas. Businesses and businessmen, like Belo and Ross Perot, Jr., have pushed in recent years to build a multi-million-dollar, landmark bridge over the river and convert that section of the river into a park area with nearby commercial and retail services somewhat similar to the San Antonio Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas or Townlake in Austin, Texas. Some proponents claim this development would bring more life, commerce, revenue and lower crime to downtown Dallas and poorer, southern Dallas. Some critics charge the project is a facade to serve special, financial interests of businessmen. Residents barely approved a bond proposal in 1998 to fund the Trinity River Project and work has progressed slowly towards implementing it. Ron Kirk, Dallas' first African American mayor, championed the project during his term as mayor as he did the new American Airlines Center in downtown. His successor, mayor Laura Miller—sometimes referred to as Dallas' first reform mayor—won the vacancy left by Kirk when he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. Miller won in part based on her platform she would focus on the city's basic needs like roads and other infrastructure and city employees' pay; services some claimed were neglected at the cost of special projects like the American Airlines Center. White Rock Lake is Dallas's other significant water feature. The lake and surrounding park is a popular destination in the Lake Highlands/Casa Linda neighborhoods for boaters, joggers, bikers, skaters and for related activities. The lake also boasts the 66 acre (270,000 m²) Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden on its shore. Dallas lies near the bottom of a tornado region that runs through the prairie lands of the midwest. In the spring, cool fronts moving from Canada collide with warm, humid air streaming in from the Gulf Coast. When these fronts meet over Dallas, severe storms are generated with spectacular lightning shows, torrents of rain, large hail and, at times, tornadoes. Dallas gets about 30 inches (760 mm) of rain per year, much of which is delivered in the spring time. The climate of Dallas is classified a humid subtropical climate, yet this part of Texas also tends to get hot, dry winds from the north and west in the summer. In the winter, the winds are cool, which can cause the region to fall below freezing occasionally. A few inches of snow for a day or two falls about once each winter, and about every other winter the cool air from the north and the humid air from the south lead to freezing rain, which usually causes the city to come to a screeching halt for a day or two if the roads and highways become dangerously slick. Regardless, winters are relatively mild compared to the Texas Panhandle and other states to the north. Dallas winters are occasionally interspersed with Indian summers. Spring and fall and the pleasant, moderate temperatures accompanying those seasons are somewhat short-lived in Dallas. However short the season is, residents and visitors appreciate the beauty of the vibrant wildflowers (such as the bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush and other flora (plants)) which bloom in spring and are planted around the highways throughout Texas. In the spring the weather can also be quite volatile and change quickly in a matter of minutes. The cliche about volatile climates popular in various parts of the US—"if you don't like the weather, wait a little while and it'll change"—applies well to Dallas' spring weather. Many consider autumn, around late September and October, to be the best time to visit the Metroplex. Yet many events are also scheduled for the more volatile season of spring. Ongoing comparisons are made between Dallas' summer weather and Houston's. Texans generally agree Houston is significantly more humid and Dallas is slightly hotter, although given Houston's humidity it may have a higher heat index than Dallas.
== Demographics == {| align=right |Downtown,_Dallas,_Texas">image:02210506l.jpg|thumb|center|300px|Pedestrians in Downtown, Dallas, Texas |} As of the census of 2000, there are 1,188,580 people, 451,833 households, and 266,581 families residing in the city. The population density is 1,339.7/km² (3,469.9/mi²). There are 484,117 housing units at an average density of 545.7/km² (1,413.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 50.83% White (U.S. Census), 25.91% African American (U.S. Census) or Race (U.S. Census), 0.54% Native American (U.S. Census), 2.70% Asian (U.S. Census), 0.05% Pacific Islander (U.S. Census), 17.24% from Race (U.S. Census), and 2.72% from two or more races. 35.55% of the population are Hispanic American or Latino (U.S. Census) of any race. As Mexicans flood into southern Dallas along the I-35 corridor through Laredo, Texas and San Antonio, Hispanics outnumbered African-Americans for the first time in the 2000 census as the largest minority group in Dallas. There are 451,833 households out of which 30.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% are Marriage living together, 14.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 41.0% are non-families. 32.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 6.5% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.58 and the average family size is 3.37. In the city the population is spread out with 26.6% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 35.3% from 25 to 44, 17.7% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 30 years. For every 100 females there are 101.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 100.5 males. The median income for a household in the city is $37,628, and the median income for a family is $40,921. Males have a median income of $31,149 versus $28,235 for females. The per capita income for the city is $22,183. 17.8% of the population and 14.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 25.1% of those under the age of 18 and 13.1% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. The crime rate in Dallas has been ranked first in the country's largest cities from 1998 to 2003. While most areas are peaceful, certain neighborhoods are avoided after dusk; near large tourist attractions, as well as sections of south Oak Cliff, Texas near the Dallas Zoo, neighborhoods around Fair Park and south Dallas (mostly everything south of I-30), and areas around large concentrations of older apartments (>10 years old). For a list of surrounding cities and towns, see: * Collin County, Texas * Dallas County, Texas * Denton County, Texas * Ellis County, Texas * Johnson County, Texas * Kaufman County, Texas * Rockwall County, Texas * Tarrant County, Texas ==Economy== The Dallas/Fort Worth area is sometimes called "Texas' Silicon Valley". Also, there are more than 40,000 telecommunication employees in the "Telecom Corridor" housing such companies as Southwestern Bell, AT&T, Alcatel, Ericsson, Fujitsu, MCI, Nortel Networks, Rockwell, and Sprint Corporation. Central Dallas is supported by more than 100 miles (160 km) of fiber optic cable. According to the Dallas Women's Covenant, there are more than 81,000 women-owned firms in metropolitan Dallas. Although the Telecom industry was hit hard in the latest recession, most businesses in Dallas performed better on average than other regional economies. ===Major companies based in and around Dallas=== Companies based in the Dallas city limits: American Airlines), Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Radio Shack, and Pier 1 Imports are based in Fort Worth, Texas. id Software is based in Mesquite, Texas. ExxonMobil, Michael's Stores, and Zale Corporation are headquartered in Irving, Texas. Electronic Data Systems, Frito Lay, Dr Pepper and JCPenney are headquartered in Plano, Texas. FUNimation is headquartered in North Richland Hills, Texas. Educational Products, Inc. is headquartered in Carrollton, Texas. Sabre Holdings, the owner of the Sabre (computer system), is headquartered in Southlake, Texas. Halliburton Energy Services was once based in Dallas, but moved to Houston, Texas in 2003. ==Transportation== ===Airports=== Dallas is served by two commercial airports: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (known as DFW International) and Love Field. In addition, Dallas Executive Airport (formerly Redbird Airport), is a general aviation airport located within the city limits, and Addison Airport is another general aviation airport located just outside the city limits in the suburb of Addison, Texas. Two more general aviation airports are located in the outer suburb of McKinney, Texas, and on the west side of the Metroplex, two general aviation airports are located in Fort Worth. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located in the suburbs north of and equidistant to downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas. In terms of size, DFW is the largest airport in the state, the second largest in the United States, and third largest in the world. In terms of traffic, DFW is the busiest in the state, fourth busiest in the United States, and sixth busiest in the world. DFW is also home base to American Airlines, the world's largest airline. Love Field is located within the city limits of Dallas, 6 miles (10 km) northwest of downtown, and is headquarters to Southwest Airlines. Under the Federal "Wright Amendment" and "Shelby Amendment" laws, no large jet air service is allowed from Dallas Love Field to any point beyond Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. As such, Southwest and Continental Express are the only major airlines flying out of that airport. Ongoing efforts to relax or abandon these restrictions have not succeeded so far. (See Love Field for a history of the Wright Amendment.) ===Trains and Buses=== {| align=right | |- | |} Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is the Dallas area public transportation company, providing buses, rail, and HOV lanes. DART began operating the first light rail system in Texas (and the Southwest United States) in 1996 and continues to expand its coverage. Currently, two light rail lines are in service. The red line goes through Oak Cliff, Downtown, Uptown, North Dallas, Richardson, and Plano. The blue line goes through South Dallas, Downtown, Uptown, North Dallas, and Garland. The red and blue lines are conjoined in between 8th & Corinth Station (In Oak Cliff) and Mockingbird Station (in North Dallas.) The two lines service Cityplace Station, the only subway station in the Southwest United States. Two more lines will be in service by the end of the decade bringing the light rail transit mileage to at least 93, the orange and purple. This will connect southeast Dallas to far north Carrollton and LBJ Freeway to DFW Int'l Airport; both via Dallas Love Field. The Yellow line will meet Denton County's future commuter rail system. Further ambitions include expanding the commuter rail network in the region to over 250 miles; expanding the DART light rail network to over 150 miles with a downtown subway included; expanding the M-Line streetcar; starting a modern streetcar line in Fort Worth; utilizing the elevated Las Colinas Automated Personal Transit system with DART rail connections. The DART light rail system remained the only light rail system in Texas until Houston opened its starter light rail system (one line running less than 10 miles) in 2004. Fort Worth's smaller public transit system connects with Dallas' via a commuter rail line (The TRE) connecting downtown Dallas (Union Station) with downtown Fort Worth (Intermodal Transit Center) and several points in between. The system of light rail transit, especially through downtown, has skyrocketed land values and has sparked a residential living boom in Downtown. Although the system is increasingly popular, most people in the Metroplex still choose to drive their vehicles rather than take public transportation.
===Freeways and Tollways=== ''See List of Dallas freeways for detailed information on each freeway, such as official name, route, and termination points.''
==Neighborhoods of Dallas==
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Downtown, Dallas, Texas:
* Arts District, Dallas, Texas
* Farmers Market, Dallas, Texas
* Main Street, Dallas, Texas
* Reunion, Dallas, Texas
* West End, Dallas, Texas
East Dallas, Dallas, Texas:
* Lower Greenville, Dallas, Texas
* Deep Ellum
* Fair Park, Dallas, Texas
* Lakewood, Dallas, Texas
North Dallas, Dallas, Texas:
* Lake Highlands, Dallas, Texas
* Market Center, Dallas, Texas
* Park Cities, Dallas, Texas - Highland Park, Texas and University Park, Texas (governed independently of Dallas)
* Pleasant Grove, Dallas, Texas
* Preston Center, Dallas, Texas
* Preston Hollow, Dallas, Texas
* Stemmons, Dallas, Texas
* Telecom corridor, Dallas, Texas - (Richardson, Texas)
Oak Cliff, Texas:
* Bishop Arts District, Dallas, Texas
* Kessler, Dallas, Texas
* Kidd Springs, Dallas, Texas
* Lake Cliff, Dallas, Texas
South Dallas, Dallas, Texas:
* Cedars, Dallas, Texas
* Cockrell Hill, Texas - (governed independently of Dallas)
Uptown, Dallas, Texas:
* Cityplace, Dallas, Texas
* International Center, Dallas, Texas
* Knox, Dallas, Texas
* Lomac, Dallas, Texas
* Oak Lawn, Dallas, Texas
* State-Thomas, Dallas, Texas
* Turtle Creek, Dallas, Texas
* Victory, Dallas, Texas
==People of Dallas==
Dallasites are said to consider themselves more sophisticated than those in other parts of Texas, especially Fort Worth. Because of the economic prowess of the region, many who live there had come from other U.S. states or countries worldwide. Dallasites eat out about four times every week, which is the third highest rate in the country. Dallas has two times the number of restaurants per person than New York City. Dallasites are very fond of their local teams especially "America's Team," the Dallas Cowboys. The Cowboys are well loved by the locals, even after many lackluster or losing seasons, and even if another local team is a leader in its sport. Sports calendars and other memorabilia are very common, and on Sundays people tend to watch sports games on television.
One drawback is that the city of Dallas has the highest crime rate among cities of 1,000,000 people or more (as of 2005, only nine cities in the United States do. Detroit, Michigan has a higher crime rate, but it, after losing population, dropped out of the 1,000,000+ ranking and Dallas was pushed to the top.) Police Chief Terrell Bolton was fired by then—city manager Ted Benavides, and was replaced by David Kunkle, who was tasked with helping the city lose this designation.
Because Dallas and Houston are the two major economic centers of Texas, they enjoy a friendly rivalry. Selected characteristics of them are often compared. One major comparison is the populations of the two cities. Even though on a world-scale, they are about equal, Houston tends to boast because of a higher municipal population (the city encompasses most of its metropolitan area), and Dallas tends to boast because of a much higher metropolitan population (the city of Dallas is bounded by suburbs, so much of the new growth occurs outside of Dallas proper.) Even the adult industry is compared—Houston has the lead (that is, in adult entertainment), but both have a strong show of billboards and venues.
===Famous People from Dallas===
==Education==
The city of Dallas is also home to several institutions of higher learning, including:
*Art Institute of Dallas
*Dallas Baptist University
*Dallas Christian College
*Dallas Theological Seminary
*DeVry University, Dallas
*El Centro College
*Mountain View College
*Paul Quinn College
*Richland College
*Southern Methodist University
*University of Dallas
*University of Texas at Dallas
*University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas
Most of Dallas is a part of the Dallas Independent School Disrict. Other parts of Dallas extend into Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District, Duncanville Independent School District, Highland Park Independent School District, Mesquite Independent School District, Plano Independent School District, Richardson Independent School District, and Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District.
==Religion==
Dallas is located in the "Bible Belt", and there is a large Protestant influence on the community. Baptist churches dot the landscape, fish emblems are seen on car trunks, and many local Christianity radio stations and television stations are on the airwaves. As with large cities, the city has Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and other groups inside the city.
==Media and Journalism==
===List of Radio & Television Stations===
*See: List of television stations in Texas#Dallas/Fort Worth.
*See: List of radio stations in Texas.
===List of Newspapers===
*''Auto Revista''
*''Daily Commercial Record''
*''Dallas Business Journal''
*''Dallas Morning News, The''
**''Quick (newspaper)'' produced by ''The Dallas Morning News''
*''Dallas Observer''
*''Dallas Times''
*''Dallas Voice''
*''Dallas/Fort Worth Heritage Online''
*''Texas Catholic''
*''WeTellAll.com''
Also, the ''Fort Worth-Star Telegram'' is based in Fort Worth, Texas, and the ''Northside People'' and ''Park Cities People'' are based in other Dallas surburbs.
==Mayors==
See: List of Dallas Mayors
==Sports==
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Dallas is home to:
* Dallas Desperados, Arena Football League
* Dallas Mavericks, National Basketball Association
* Dallas Stars, National Hockey League
all three of which play at the American Airlines Center, and
* F.C. Dallas (formerly the Dallas Burn), Major League Soccer,
who play in the Cotton Bowl (stadium) but will be moving to Frisco, Texas in 2005.
* Dallas Sidekicks, Major Indoor Soccer League,
who play in Reunion Arena, and
* Nearby Irving, Texas has the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League.
* Nearby Arlington, Texas has the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball.
* Nearby Frisco, Texas has the Frisco RoughRiders of Minor League Baseball.
* The Dallas Diamonds, a Women's Professional Football League Women's American football team, plays in North Richland Hills, Texas.
* McKinney, Texas is home to the Dallas Revolution, an Independent Women's Football League Women's American football team.
* The Dallas Fury of the National Women's Basketball League play at Hebron High School in Carrollton, Texas.
''See also:'' U.S. cities with teams from four major sports.
==Historical Events==
The reason that one of the great cities of the world is situated in the middle of the prairie is not clear. Most great cities have obvious natural advantages - harbors, especially - and Dallas has no obvious advantages. However, it is on a natural N-S migratory route and the fact that the Dallas sits on the relatively fresh Trinity, flanked by the larger but undrinkably saline Red and Brazos rivers gave the Dallas-Fort Worth advantage over other natural sites of habitation in the region, and advantage that was readily magnified by shrewd city fathers.
*1841 - Dallas is founded.
*1873 - Two railroads intersect in Dallas, assuring its economic future.
*1903 - Dallas annexes town of Oak Cliff, Texas on the south side of the Trinity River, expanding its size by a third.
*October 19, 1917 - Love Field is created.
*1922 - The Magnolia Building opens. Its trademark neon Pegasus that would be erected in 1934 would come to be one of the city's most recognizable landmarks and representative of the city itself.
*1927 - Love Field is opened for civilian use.
*1927 - The world's first convenience store is opened in Dallas by the Southland Ice Company, which will eventually become 7-Eleven.
*1930 - C.M. Joiner strikes oil 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Dallas. Dallas became a center of commerce for the Texas oil trade.
*1930 - Bonnie and Clyde meet in the Oak Cliff neighborhood of Dallas and begin their crime spree across Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.
*1934 - The criminal duo Bonnie and Clyde are buried in Dallas after being killed by police in Louisiana.
*1958 - While working for Texas Instruments, Jack Kilby created the world's first integrated circuit at a Dallas laboratory in September, sparking an electronics revolution that changed the world and created a global market now worth more than $1 trillion a year.
*November 22, 1963 - President John F. Kennedy was John F. Kennedy assassination in a motorcade traveling west on Elm Street in Dealey Plaza. This event is memorialized by the nearby Kennedy Memorial and by the Sixth Floor Museum in the former school book depository at the corner of Elm and Houston.
*1974 - Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport opens.
*1976 - Thanks-Giving Square is completed in downtown Dallas.
*1978 - Dallas (TV series) the TV series debuts with a CBS mini-series filmed entirely in Dallas. The internationally popular show runs for 13 years.
*1979 - Congress of the United States passes the Wright Amendment, restricting passenger air service out of Love Field Airport.
*1981 - USS Dallas, a nuclear submarine named after the city, is commissioned.
*1984 - Dallas hosts the 1984 Republican National Convention
*1996 - Dallas Area Rapid Transit begins operating the first light rail system in Texas (and the Southwest).
*1997 - Congress passes the Shelby Amendment, which eases some of the Wright Amendment restrictions on Love Field Airport.
*2000 - Dallas Area Rapid Transit opens the first subway station in Texas (and the Southwest).
==Other Facts about Dallas==
*Dallas maintains and operates 41 community and neighborhood recreation centers, 232 playgrounds, 173 basketball courts, 112 volleyball courts, 126 play slabs, 258 neighborhood tennis courts, 258 picnic areas, 69 miles (110 km) of hiking and biking trails including Katy Trail of Dallas, six 18-hole golf courses, two driving ranges, a 100 acre (0.4 km²) zoo, 260 acres (1 km²) at Fair Park and 477 athletic fields.
* The Kalita Humphreys Theater, designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is the main home of Dallas Theater Center, the nation's oldest regional theater company.
*Dallas is home to two of the greatest men's choruses in the world: the Vocal Majority, an a cappella pops chorus and the Turtle Creek Chorale, the world's largest gay men's chorus
*Dallas holds the highest municipal bond rating among large cities in the United States.
*KERA Channel 13 is the most watched PBS station in the United States and was the first PBS station to air Monty Python and other British comedies.
*Fair Park is home to the largest collection of Art Deco architecture in the world and the tallest ferris wheel in North America.
*Fair Park also hosts the largest state fair in the country, the State Fair of Texas.
*Fair Park is also the site of the largest Cowhand in the World: Big Tex, a 52 foot (16 m) tall speaking cowboy statue.
*Dallas has the largest gay and lesbian population in the Southwest_United_States.
*Aside from a few exterior shots, the television program Dallas (TV series) (1970s - 1980s), was not filmed in Dallas. Nearly all filming and production took place in Southern California.
*Dallas has the highest number of shopping centers per capita in the United States and University Park Mall draws in more revenue per unit area than any other retail complex in the U.S.
*The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas--a medical school and research university for graduate level science adjacent to Parkland Hospital--is home to four Nobel Prize: three in Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and one in Nobel Prize in Chemistry
*Dallas has expanded its Convention Center facilities to over 2 million square feet (185,000 m²). The Center is now capable of accommodating up to 4 major conventions at one time and provides roof-top helicopter landing facilities.
*Dallas offers a wide variety of cultural activities with the world-famous Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, one of the nations top improvisational comedy troupes, Ad-Libs, the Dallas Museum of Art, several IMAX theaters, the African American Museum, the Latino Cultural Center and dozens of cultural activities practically every day.
*The arts in Dallas adds $500 million to the annual economy and the cultural budget per capita is $7.23.
*While many cities across the country are encountering water shortages, the long-term water supply plan developed by Dallas water utilities has ensured that the citizens will have sufficient water supply well through 2050.
*The MasterCard/VISA (credit card) idea originated in Dallas when three shopping centers, Preston Forest, Preston Royal, and Preston Center combined to issue PrestoCards to be used at all the shopping centers. Eventually, the concept was purchased and expanded.
*Dallas houses the largest Urban Arts District in the United States.
*Dallas has more shopping centers per capita and the Dallas-Fort Worth metro has more restaurants per capita than any United States city and metro.
*The Dallas Public Library includes the largest Children's library center in the United States.
*Dallas has the world's largest wholesale trade center: Dallas Market Center.
*The world's first convenience store opened in Dallas in 1927 when the Southland Ice Company began selling eggs and milk from their store at 12th and Edgewood in the Oak Cliff neighborhood. This company eventually became 7-Eleven which is still based in Dallas.
*Neiman Marcus started on the corner of Elm and Murphy in downtown Dallas.
*Art collections such as the $20 million Hamon Building collection; the $38 million Reves collection at the Dallas Museum of Art; 400 pieces of Egyptian and Nubian art at the DMA; the African-American Museum of Art; the Museum of Africa, Asia, and The Pacific with rare collections of Indonesian art and textiles; the Museum of Contemporary Art; the Museum of the Americas; the Museum of Europe; the Meadows Museum of Art featuring fifteenth- through twentieth-century Spanish art.
*Called "...the most beautiful building west of Venice", the Adolphus Hotel became the first hotel ever to be fully air-conditioned (in 1940).
*The $81.5 million Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center designed by the famous architect I. M. Pei houses the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the last hand-made Fisk organ actually to be worked on by Mr. Fisk before he died (Opus 100). The Dallas City Hall was also designed by I. M. Pei.
*Downtown Dallas has various neighborhoods: the West End Historic District, the Arts District, Deep Ellum, Farmer's Market, the Business district, Dallas Convention Center, Reunion Arena and American Airlines Center.
==Tallest buildings in Dallas==
(Source: [http://dallasmetropolis.com])
==Movies and TV filmed in Dallas==
B-movies" have been filmed in Dallas, as well as a few lesser known, short-lived TV series.
== External links ==
* [http://www.dallascityhall.com/ City of Dallas website]
* [http://www.dallascvb.com/visitors/ Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau]
*[http://dallashistory.org/ Dallas Historical Soeciety (including messge board)]
* [http://www.dallasnews.com/s/dws/spe/2004/dallas/ Dallas at the Tipping Point] A highly critical, independent analysis of Dallas, and a roadmap to working its way out of its problems.
* [http://dallasmetropolis.com/ Dallas Fort Worth Metropolis]
* [http://forum.dallasmetropolis.com/ Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum]
* [http://dallaslibrary.org/ Dallas Public Library website]
* [http://www.dart.org/ Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) website]
* [http://www.ntta.org/ North Texas Tollway Authority website]
* [http://www.dallaschildrens.org/ Dallas Children's Museum website]
* [http://www.meyersonsymphonycenter.com/ Meyerson Symphony Center website]
* [http://www.xvisionx.com/index.html?sub=dallas&ref=wiki Dallas Picture Gallery * (Rights Protected)]
* [http://www.dallaspolice.net/ Dallas Police]
* [http://www.dallasfarmersmarket.org/ Dallas Farmers Market]
* [http://www.dgs.org/Geology%20of%20Dallas%20County.html Geology of Dallas]
* [http://www.dallaspaleo.org/ Dallas Paleontological Society]
==Sources==
* http://flagspot.net, http://fotw.vexillum.com/flags/us-tx-da.html, Source of Dallas flag. Dallas Flag image was made by Blas Delgado
Cities in Texas
Dallas, Texas
Collin County, Texas
Dallas County, Texas
Denton County, Texas
Kaufman County, Texas
Rockwall County, Texas
Wondering how to edit this City Entry?
WikiProject U.S. States might help. ---- One point that this entry doesn't cover that might be worth adding - what's of interest to the visitor to Dallas? I've got a day to kill here on Saturday, and whilst it seems Dallas is renowned for its shopping malls they're not on my list of favourite tourist destinations. --User:Robert Merkel 20:50, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC) :Go check out the Sixth Floor Museum (the old School Book Depository building) in downtown Dallas for exhibts on the JKF assasination. If you are into art, The Dallas Museum of Art and the new Nasher Sculpture Garden nearby (also downtown) are interesting. There is some interesting nightlife fun with live music just north of downtown in the Deep Ellum district. Just north of Dallas in Addison, Texas is a cool air force museum with vintage combat aircraft. If you are a food connoisseur Dallas is known for its restaurants, both in terms of quantity, variety and fine dining. Six Flags is in nearby Arlington, Texas next to where the Texas Rangers play. Or watch the Mavericks or Stars play in there new arena downtown. Most of these are listed in the article... User:BoNoMoJo 22:32, Nov 6, 2003 (UTC) ---- Why was the first Dallas skyline picture replaced? The preceding picture was far better than the current one. User:BoNoMoJo 20:05, Feb 13, 2004 (UTC) :I agree, the new picture is worse. I tried reverting it and it didn't seem to work (plus, I only clicked REV once and the page makes it look like I clicked it 3 times). I guess I don't understand the image files. We need someone to revert it back. User:Jfitts 21:58, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC) :The problem with reverting the picture seems to have worked itself out. The original skyline photo is back in place. I re-uploaded the incorrect photo with a different name so the user who uploaded it can use it elsewhere. User:Jfitts 05:02, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC) ==Religious bias?== The section on religion in Dallas seems rather flip and perhaps biased -- almost the sort of put-down one would expect from a New Englander talking about anything Southern. I spent my entire adult & professional life in Dallas, and I was always much more aware of the large number of not only conservative ''Baptist'' churches, but ditto Methodist, Assembly of God, and many other fundamentalist types. This also ignores the influence of the Episcopal Church among the older semi-wealthy segment of the population (as shown by the reputation of St. Mark's), and also the fact that the Jewish community in Dallas, though small compared to someplace like New York or Chicago, has been influential for a very long time. (Look at the Neiman and Sanger families, among others.) Not to mention the significance of the Roman Catholic church among the constantly growing Hispanic population of Dallas. (I say all this, by the way, as a card-carrying secularist.)
::Sorry -- this was from me, but I neglected to sign it. --User:Mksmith 18:22, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::I agree that the religion section needs to be rewritten. I joined Wikipedia in late 2003 and as a resident of Dallas I have been tweaking this article ever since. There are several sections that still need to have the POV removed, the religion section being one of them. This has been on my to-do list for a while. Your note has encouraged me to work on it again... but I notice on your user page that you list this article as having a heavy rewrite in the works. Have you already started a rewrite of the religion section (or any other section)? --User:Jfitts 15:09, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::I echo the sentiment of the original post. I'm bothered not only by the article's chip-on-shoulder tone about Protestant morality in Dallas (contrasted with the high divorce rate and drinking establishments that apparently "line the avenues", whatever that means), but also by its sketchy grammar and dubious logic (e.g., Dallas isn't in the Bible belt ''because'' of the Protestant influence on the city, it's in the Bible belt because that's where it's located; it would be more accurate to say that the Bible belt extends into Texas because cities like Dallas have a large Protestant influence, etc.). I think it's clear that the author was trying (ineffectually) to prove a point with this paragraph, but it adds nothing to the article and seems remarkably out of place, especially since no other city I could find has a similar section. The only thing keeping me from deleting it outright is your promise to clean it up. Please, please do. -- Aubrey, 4 Nov 2004 I agree that the Religion section is lacking NPOV. I took a first stab at clean-up by removing the following text: Although the avenues are lined with drinking establishments.... Not only is it too subjective to belong in the article, but, for the reasons mentioned by Aubrey, it seems biased. - User:Walkiped 02:42, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC) ==I think a rewrite is in order== I think it's about time we start rewriting this article. There are three problems I'd really like to address: * This article has entirely too much trivia. The bottom half of the article is almost entirely lists of things. While none of it is incorrect or even needs to be removed, the information needs to be presented differently. Much of the information (history, ''especially'') needs to be incorporated into an honest-to-God, full-blown section. * The article ''partially'' addresses the city of Dallas, but quite a bit of it would be more appropriate in an Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex (it's just the nature of this town - things are scattered all over in multiple cities). The article repeatedly makes mention of companies headquartered in the suburbs, people from the area born in suburbs and sports teams that aren't actually in Dallas. Some of the information needs to stay, of course, but much of the article covers Dallas from a region-wide, suburban perspective. * Finally, the article is just really lacking in substance. Now, you could argue that it's just like the city of Dallas itself in that regard (and I can't completely disagree) ''but'' there is so much more that Dallas has to offer and I'd like to see the article reflect that. So. Who's with me? :) I'll start working out a general outline. Anybody who has comments or would like to contribute, please make a note of it below. Thanks! User:RadicalBenderUser talk:RadicalBender 21:00, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC) :Here's the start of an Talk:Dallas, Texas/Outline. User:RadicalBenderUser talk:RadicalBender 22:30, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC) == George M. Dallas == didn't become VP until March 1845... User:John Kenney User_talk:John Kenney 00:14, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Awfully white == For a city with such a dynamic Mexican-American community, which was part of the cotton belt, where Deep Ellum was once an important place on the map of the blues world, and where the caste system has only started to break down in the last half-century this article presents an awfully white Dallas. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 19:01, Jan 14, 2005 (UTC) == Edie Brickell == I notice the addition of Edie Brickell. The article on her doesn't say where she's from, but I thought she was from Austin. Was she perhaps a transplanted Dallasite who made her name in Austin? Or am I totally mistaken? -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 02:57, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC) :I know she graduated from DISD's Arts Magnet High School (now the "Booker T Washington School for the Performing and Visual Arts"), and used to go back there and perform when the New Bohemians were big. :Also, her [http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/brickell_edie/bio.jhtml VH1 biography] has her born in Oak Cliff. ::OK -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 19:10, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC) == Intro length == The article introduction is over-long; the style guide sets a strict limit of three paragraphs, this article has six -- and a bullet-point list to boot. The material on history, and speculation as to the origin of the name, could surely be moved into the body of the article. User:Alai 19:11, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC) ==Removed text== I removed the following, due to it being untrue and nonstandard: ---- All photos courtesy of the web site of John Roberts : http://www.miduppertexas.com/dallas/dallas.htm. Someone may want to go through the unverified photos and see if they're from that site. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 14:19, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC) :Images Dallas5.jpg and Dallas6.jpg clearly appear on the frontpage of that site, which also resolves to http://www.dallasarchitecture.info/dallas.htm. Both images are now marked as possible copyvios (one by me and one by a previous editor). The site also has archives of a number of other images. I didn't go digging to see if any of the other images in the article had been taken from there, but they could have been. User:Dragons flight 15:37, Mar 2, 2005 (UTC) == Population: citation? == Recently, anonymously added: "According to more recent projections/estimates (From 2005) the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex has reached a population of 6,000,000." Sounds about right, but does anyone have a citation on this? -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 15:23, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC) Just a minor spelling correction: The plural of "tornado" is "tornadoes" not "tornados". Daninbigd
Cities in Texas Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
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Dallas, Texas
{| align=right | |- | |} Dallas is one of the ten largest cities in the United States and the heart of the largest metropolitan area in Texas. It is the county seat of Dallas County, Texas and small portions of the city also extend into the neighboring counties of Collin County, Texas, Denton County, Texas, Rockwall County, Texas, and Kaufman County, Texas.
Dallas is the largest city of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, a large metropolitan area in North Texas. As of the U.S. Census 2000, Dallas had a total population of 1,188,580 and the Metroplex had a population of 5,161,544 making it the fifth largest United States metropolitan area and one of the 50 largest List of metropolitan areas by population. A more recent U.S. Census estimate puts the Metroplex population at 5,589,670 for 2003.
== History == {| align=center | |} The city of Dallas was founded by John Neely Bryan in 1841 after first surveying the area in 1839. Dallas County was established five years later in 1846 and was named after George M. Dallas, who was the eleventh United States Vice President of the United States at the time. However, the origin of the city's name is debatable. Dallas was so called by its residents at least as early as 1843 and there are four theories as to the origin of the city's name: * Named after George M. Dallas; * Named after George Dallas' father Alexander J. Dallas, a commodore who was stationed in the Gulf of Mexico and was the United States Secretary of the Treasury around the end of the War of 1812; * Named in a town-naming contest in 1842; * Named after the friend of founder John Neely Bryan's son, who later stated that his father had said he had named the town "after my friend Dallas" (a person whose identity is not certain). Dallas was formally incorporated as a town in 1856, and in 1871 became a city. In 1855, a group of European artists and musicians set up a utopian community west of Dallas called La Reunion. When that venture collapsed in 1857, many of the artists moved to Dallas where they established the base of the artist culture that exists today in the Deep Ellum neighborhood near downtown. In the 1970s, Reunion Arena and Reunion Tower (a trademark of the skyline) were named in honor of the La Reunion colony. Today, Dallas is home to a healthy theater community, with room for both traditional and experimentatal works. Dallas also boasts an active music scene, with numerous venues in the Deep Ellum and lower Greenville Avenue areas. In 1871, railroads were beginning to approach the area and Dallas city leaders did not intend to be left out. They paid the Houston and Central Texas Railroad $5,000 to shift its route 20 miles (32 km) to the west and build its north-south tracks through Dallas, rather than through Corsicana, Texas as planned. A year later, Dallas leaders could not pay off the Texas and Pacific Railroad and so tricked it into running its east-west line though Dallas by having a rider attached to a state law which required the railroad to build its tracks through Browder Springs—which turned out to be just south of Main Street. The major north-south and east-west Texas railroad routes intersected in Dallas in 1873, thus ensuring its future as a commercial center. Dallas quickly became the center of trade in cotton, grain, and even buffalo. As it entered the 20th century, Dallas transformed from an agricultural center to a center of banking, insurance, and other businesses. In 1930, oil was discovered 100 miles (160 km) east of Dallas and the city quickly became the financial center for the oil industry in Texas and Oklahoma. Then in 1958 the integrated circuit was invented in Dallas by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments. By the 1980s, when the oil industry mostly relocated to Houston, Dallas was beginning to benefit from a burgeoning technology boom (driven by the growing computer and telecom industries), while continuing to be a center of banking and business. In the 1990s, Dallas became known as Texas' Silicon Valley, or the "Silicon Prairie." ==Geology== North Texas sits near the edge of the North American craton. The greater Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex sits on gently tilted sediments. The region west of Weatherford, Texas consists of Pennsylvanian sediments that tilt a few degrees west. These sediments were deformed when Gondwana collided with Laurasia to form Pangea about 300 million years ago (Ma). A great mountain range formed, the Marathon- Ouachita Mountain-Appalachian Mountain-Variscan cordillera. This collapsed during the Triassic and Jurassic to form the Atlantic Ocean-Gulf of Mexico basin. Sea level rose as the supercontinent Pangea broke up. The Pennsylvanian mountains of DFW were eroded for about 190 million years until the mountains were wore down. The DFW metroplex sprawls across a 100km wide N-S trending belt of Cretaceous sediments. Fort Worth in the west is neatly built on Early Cretaceous (Comanche Series) and Dallas in the east is built on Late Cretaceous (Gulf Series) sediments. DFW lay on the beach about 110 Ma, during early Cretaceous time. The water kept rising for another 30-50 million years, so that by the time the coccolithophorid Austin chalk was deposited, the Octopus Garden DFW lay 100m or more below the sea surface. The inexorable rise in sealevel was only interupted by tectonic rumblings in southern Arkansas and Oklahoma, shedding copious amounts of Woodbine Sandstone to the south. These sandstones underlie the cities of Denton, Grapevine, and Arlington, Texas. The Cretaceous sediments dip a degree or so the the east, so the Cretaceous sediments get younger towards the east. Sediments deposited during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, when the dinosaurs were killed, lie near the town of Terrell, at the eastern edge of the DFW metroplex. People enjoy searching for fossils in the rocks around Dallas. Remnants of dinosaurs and Late Cretaceous marine reptiles such as Mosasaur are found. The Trinity River (Texas) has been important in shaping the DFW metroplex. Dallas was situated at the best ford, downstream from where the Elm Fork joins the main stream, where the river flows SE over the chalk. This provided a place where travellers need only cross the river once, at a place with relatively firm landings and bottoms. This was the best place to cross the Trinity from the earliest days, best for fordings, ferries, and bridges. During the days of the Republic of Texas, the DFW metroplex was mostly uninhabited by Europeans, but settlers began to find their way N in the 1840's. The route north naturally followed the low hills and gentle ridges of Austin chalk hills to the river ford that soon became Dallas. The future site of Dallas was selected by Bryan as the place for his trading post to overlook the ferry that he operated at the crossing. Dallas was also affected subtly by much younger geologic formations related to an older, more vigorous Trinity River. Changing Pleistocene-Holocene climate had two effects on the Trinity River: It caused downcutting (few people know that there is a 100m-deep buried canyon beneath the Trinity in Dallas) and a wetter climate caused much more water to flow in the river. The greater river flow generated great sedimentary terraces. From time to time these terrace deposits reveal bones of extinct giant mammals, such as Mastodons and Mammoths. The Pleistocene terraces affected the development of Dallas, providing a rich alluvial soil and a perched aquifer, very useful indeed during the early years. Downtown Dallas is built on a series of these terraces, rising subtly eastward from the Trinity river. The DFW meroplex had an additional, if subtle, geologic advantage. The Trinity is not good for shipment by boats but is great for drinking. Trinity River water is better than either of the larger rivers to the north and south, the Red River (Texas) and the Brazos River. The larger rivers are longer and flow over salt-bearing Permian deposits, well west of the Trinity headwaters. The Trinity is consequently sweeter water than either the Brazos or Red river waters. Life was better near sweet water, and this simple fact helped DFW prosper. Because the Trinity is not suitable for navigation, Dallas could not have grown to be a large city until the railroad was invented. Modern transportation systems made the Trinity disadvantage in river navigation insignificant, but the smaller river gave young Dallas a big advantage in the region because of its superior water quality. == Geography and Climate == According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 997.1 square kilometre (385.0 square mile). 887.2 km² (342.5 mi²) of it is land and 110.0 km² (42.5 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 11.03% water. These statistics are only for the city of Dallas proper. In fact, Dallas is a small part of the much larger urbanized area called the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. About one in every four Texans lives in the DFW metroplex. Dallas, and its surrounding area, is mostly flat and lies at an elevation ranging from 450 to 550 feet (140 to 170 m). An escarpment rises another 200 feet (60 m) in southern Dallas in the neighborhoods of Oak Cliff, Texas and Cockrell Hill and continues through the city of Cedar Hill, Texas. Fort_Worth,_Texas,_Texas,_taken_by_NASA's_Landsat_7_satellite._Dallas_makes_up_much_of_the_right_half_of_the_urbanized_area._Red_is_vegetated_area_surrounding_DFW.__Notice_also_the_many_reservoirs_in_the_area.">image:Large_Dallas_Landsat.jpg|thumb|300px|A simulated-color satellite image of Dallas and Fort Worth, Texas, Texas, taken by NASA's Landsat 7 satellite. Dallas makes up much of the right half of the urbanized area. Red is vegetated area surrounding DFW. Notice also the many reservoirs in the area. [[image:ISS007-E-16538.jpg|thumb|200px|The DFW metroplex at night, photographed from the International Space Station in early 2003. North is towards the bottom of the photo, so Dallas is on the left. Blurriness s caused by clouds. Courtesy NASA.]] The Trinity River (Texas) is a major Texas waterway that passes from the northwest right by the southern portion of downtown Dallas as it heads southeast to Houston. The river is flanked on both sides with a 50 foot (15 m) earthen levee to keep that part of the city from flooding. Several bridges traverse the river connecting southern Dallas to downtown Dallas. Businesses and businessmen, like Belo and Ross Perot, Jr., have pushed in recent years to build a multi-million-dollar, landmark bridge over the river and convert that section of the river into a park area with nearby commercial and retail services somewhat similar to the San Antonio Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas or Townlake in Austin, Texas. Some proponents claim this development would bring more life, commerce, revenue and lower crime to downtown Dallas and poorer, southern Dallas. Some critics charge the project is a facade to serve special, financial interests of businessmen. Residents barely approved a bond proposal in 1998 to fund the Trinity River Project and work has progressed slowly towards implementing it. Ron Kirk, Dallas' first African American mayor, championed the project during his term as mayor as he did the new American Airlines Center in downtown. His successor, mayor Laura Miller—sometimes referred to as Dallas' first reform mayor—won the vacancy left by Kirk when he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. Miller won in part based on her platform she would focus on the city's basic needs like roads and other infrastructure and city employees' pay; services some claimed were neglected at the cost of special projects like the American Airlines Center. White Rock Lake is Dallas's other significant water feature. The lake and surrounding park is a popular destination in the Lake Highlands/Casa Linda neighborhoods for boaters, joggers, bikers, skaters and for related activities. The lake also boasts the 66 acre (270,000 m²) Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden on its shore. Dallas lies near the bottom of a tornado region that runs through the prairie lands of the midwest. In the spring, cool fronts moving from Canada collide with warm, humid air streaming in from the Gulf Coast. When these fronts meet over Dallas, severe storms are generated with spectacular lightning shows, torrents of rain, large hail and, at times, tornadoes. Dallas gets about 30 inches (760 mm) of rain per year, much of which is delivered in the spring time. The climate of Dallas is classified a humid subtropical climate, yet this part of Texas also tends to get hot, dry winds from the north and west in the summer. In the winter, the winds are cool, which can cause the region to fall below freezing occasionally. A few inches of snow for a day or two falls about once each winter, and about every other winter the cool air from the north and the humid air from the south lead to freezing rain, which usually causes the city to come to a screeching halt for a day or two if the roads and highways become dangerously slick. Regardless, winters are relatively mild compared to the Texas Panhandle and other states to the north. Dallas winters are occasionally interspersed with Indian summers. Spring and fall and the pleasant, moderate temperatures accompanying those seasons are somewhat short-lived in Dallas. However short the season is, residents and visitors appreciate the beauty of the vibrant wildflowers (such as the bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush and other flora (plants)) which bloom in spring and are planted around the highways throughout Texas. In the spring the weather can also be quite volatile and change quickly in a matter of minutes. The cliche about volatile climates popular in various parts of the US—"if you don't like the weather, wait a little while and it'll change"—applies well to Dallas' spring weather. Many consider autumn, around late September and October, to be the best time to visit the Metroplex. Yet many events are also scheduled for the more volatile season of spring. Ongoing comparisons are made between Dallas' summer weather and Houston's. Texans generally agree Houston is significantly more humid and Dallas is slightly hotter, although given Houston's humidity it may have a higher heat index than Dallas.
== Demographics == {| align=right |Downtown,_Dallas,_Texas">image:02210506l.jpg|thumb|center|300px|Pedestrians in Downtown, Dallas, Texas |} As of the census of 2000, there are 1,188,580 people, 451,833 households, and 266,581 families residing in the city. The population density is 1,339.7/km² (3,469.9/mi²). There are 484,117 housing units at an average density of 545.7/km² (1,413.3/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 50.83% White (U.S. Census), 25.91% African American (U.S. Census) or Race (U.S. Census), 0.54% Native American (U.S. Census), 2.70% Asian (U.S. Census), 0.05% Pacific Islander (U.S. Census), 17.24% from Race (U.S. Census), and 2.72% from two or more races. 35.55% of the population are Hispanic American or Latino (U.S. Census) of any race. As Mexicans flood into southern Dallas along the I-35 corridor through Laredo, Texas and San Antonio, Hispanics outnumbered African-Americans for the first time in the 2000 census as the largest minority group in Dallas. There are 451,833 households out of which 30.3% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% are Marriage living together, 14.9% have a female householder with no husband present, and 41.0% are non-families. 32.9% of all households are made up of individuals and 6.5% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.58 and the average family size is 3.37. In the city the population is spread out with 26.6% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 35.3% from 25 to 44, 17.7% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 30 years. For every 100 females there are 101.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 100.5 males. The median income for a household in the city is $37,628, and the median income for a family is $40,921. Males have a median income of $31,149 versus $28,235 for females. The per capita income for the city is $22,183. 17.8% of the population and 14.9% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 25.1% of those under the age of 18 and 13.1% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line. The crime rate in Dallas has been ranked first in the country's largest cities from 1998 to 2003. While most areas are peaceful, certain neighborhoods are avoided after dusk; near large tourist attractions, as well as sections of south Oak Cliff, Texas near the Dallas Zoo, neighborhoods around Fair Park and south Dallas (mostly everything south of I-30), and areas around large concentrations of older apartments (>10 years old). For a list of surrounding cities and towns, see: * Collin County, Texas * Dallas County, Texas * Denton County, Texas * Ellis County, Texas * Johnson County, Texas * Kaufman County, Texas * Rockwall County, Texas * Tarrant County, Texas ==Economy== The Dallas/Fort Worth area is sometimes called "Texas' Silicon Valley". Also, there are more than 40,000 telecommunication employees in the "Telecom Corridor" housing such companies as Southwestern Bell, AT&T, Alcatel, Ericsson, Fujitsu, MCI, Nortel Networks, Rockwell, and Sprint Corporation. Central Dallas is supported by more than 100 miles (160 km) of fiber optic cable. According to the Dallas Women's Covenant, there are more than 81,000 women-owned firms in metropolitan Dallas. Although the Telecom industry was hit hard in the latest recession, most businesses in Dallas performed better on average than other regional economies. ===Major companies based in and around Dallas=== Companies based in the Dallas city limits: American Airlines), Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, Radio Shack, and Pier 1 Imports are based in Fort Worth, Texas. id Software is based in Mesquite, Texas. ExxonMobil, Michael's Stores, and Zale Corporation are headquartered in Irving, Texas. Electronic Data Systems, Frito Lay, Dr Pepper and JCPenney are headquartered in Plano, Texas. FUNimation is headquartered in North Richland Hills, Texas. Educational Products, Inc. is headquartered in Carrollton, Texas. Sabre Holdings, the owner of the Sabre (computer system), is headquartered in Southlake, Texas. Halliburton Energy Services was once based in Dallas, but moved to Houston, Texas in 2003. ==Transportation== ===Airports=== Dallas is served by two commercial airports: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (known as DFW International) and Love Field. In addition, Dallas Executive Airport (formerly Redbird Airport), is a general aviation airport located within the city limits, and Addison Airport is another general aviation airport located just outside the city limits in the suburb of Addison, Texas. Two more general aviation airports are located in the outer suburb of McKinney, Texas, and on the west side of the Metroplex, two general aviation airports are located in Fort Worth. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport is located in the suburbs north of and equidistant to downtown Fort Worth and downtown Dallas. In terms of size, DFW is the largest airport in the state, the second largest in the United States, and third largest in the world. In terms of traffic, DFW is the busiest in the state, fourth busiest in the United States, and sixth busiest in the world. DFW is also home base to American Airlines, the world's largest airline. Love Field is located within the city limits of Dallas, 6 miles (10 km) northwest of downtown, and is headquarters to Southwest Airlines. Under the Federal "Wright Amendment" and "Shelby Amendment" laws, no large jet air service is allowed from Dallas Love Field to any point beyond Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. As such, Southwest and Continental Express are the only major airlines flying out of that airport. Ongoing efforts to relax or abandon these restrictions have not succeeded so far. (See Love Field for a history of the Wright Amendment.) ===Trains and Buses=== {| align=right | |- | |} Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is the Dallas area public transportation company, providing buses, rail, and HOV lanes. DART began operating the first light rail system in Texas (and the Southwest United States) in 1996 and continues to expand its coverage. Currently, two light rail lines are in service. The red line goes through Oak Cliff, Downtown, Uptown, North Dallas, Richardson, and Plano. The blue line goes through South Dallas, Downtown, Uptown, North Dallas, and Garland. The red and blue lines are conjoined in between 8th & Corinth Station (In Oak Cliff) and Mockingbird Station (in North Dallas.) The two lines service Cityplace Station, the only subway station in the Southwest United States. Two more lines will be in service by the end of the decade bringing the light rail transit mileage to at least 93, the orange and purple. This will connect southeast Dallas to far north Carrollton and LBJ Freeway to DFW Int'l Airport; both via Dallas Love Field. The Yellow line will meet Denton County's future commuter rail system. Further ambitions include expanding the commuter rail network in the region to over 250 miles; expanding the DART light rail network to over 150 miles with a downtown subway included; expanding the M-Line streetcar; starting a modern streetcar line in Fort Worth; utilizing the elevated Las Colinas Automated Personal Transit system with DART rail connections. The DART light rail system remained the only light rail system in Texas until Houston opened its starter light rail system (one line running less than 10 miles) in 2004. Fort Worth's smaller public transit system connects with Dallas' via a commuter rail line (The TRE) connecting downtown Dallas (Union Station) with downtown Fort Worth (Intermodal Transit Center) and several points in between. The system of light rail transit, especially through downtown, has skyrocketed land values and has sparked a residential living boom in Downtown. Although the system is increasingly popular, most people in the Metroplex still choose to drive their vehicles rather than take public transportation.
===Freeways and Tollways=== ''See List of Dallas freeways for detailed information on each freeway, such as official name, route, and termination points.''
| *Interstate 20 *Interstate 30 *Interstate 35E *Interstate 45 *Interstate 345 (unsigned) *Interstate 635 *Interstate 820 *U.S. Highway 67 *U.S. Highway 75 *U.S. Highway 80 *U.S. Highway 175 *U.S. Highway 287 | *Texas 114 (state highways are known as SH 114, etc.) *Texas 121 *Texas 161 *Texas 183 *Texas 190 (the free frontage roads of the President George Bush Turnpike) *Texas 360 *Texas Loop 12 *Texas Spur 97 (toll) *Texas Spur 280 *Texas Spur 366 (Woodall Rodgers Freeway) *Texas Spur 408 *Texas Spur 482 *Dallas North Tollway (toll) *President George Bush Turnpike (toll) (its frontage roads are signed as Texas 190) |
| *Dimebag Darrell (Dimebag Darrell) *Meat Loaf (Meat Loaf) *Tex Avery *Erykah Badu *Ernie Banks *Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie & Clyde) (from Telico) *Edie Brickell *Tevin Campbell *Ramsey Clark *Tom C. Clark *Emily Erwin *Martie Erwin *Peri Gilpin *Morgan Fairchild *Melinda Gates *Angie Harmon *Michael Huffington *Norah Jones *Christian Kane | *George McFarland (Spanky) *Phil McGraw (Dr. Phil) *Julie Miller *Steve Miller *Tracy Needham *Michael Nesmith *Bonnie and Clyde (Bonnie & Clyde) *Ashlee Simpson *Jessica Simpson *Sly Stone *Aaron Spelling *Sharon Tate *Lee Treviño *Stevie Ray Vaughan *Luke Wilson *Owen Wilson *Robin Wright-Penn *Vanilla Ice (Vanilla Ice) *Lance Armstrong (from Plano, a suburb of Dallas) |
| By structural height *1. Bank of America Plaza (Dallas) 921 feet (281 m) *2. Renaissance Tower 886 feet (270 m) *3. Bank One Center 787 feet (240 m) *4. J.P. Morgan Chase Tower, Dallas 738 feet (225 m) *5. Fountain Place 720 feet (219 m) | By roof height *1. Bank of America Plaza (Dallas) 921 feet (281 m) *2. Bank One Center 787 feet (240 m) *3. J.P. Morgan Chase Tower, Dallas (738 feet) *4. Fountain Place 720 feet (219 m) *5. Renaissance Tower 710 feet (216 m) |
Dallas, Texas
Wondering how to edit this City Entry?
WikiProject U.S. States might help. ---- One point that this entry doesn't cover that might be worth adding - what's of interest to the visitor to Dallas? I've got a day to kill here on Saturday, and whilst it seems Dallas is renowned for its shopping malls they're not on my list of favourite tourist destinations. --User:Robert Merkel 20:50, 6 Nov 2003 (UTC) :Go check out the Sixth Floor Museum (the old School Book Depository building) in downtown Dallas for exhibts on the JKF assasination. If you are into art, The Dallas Museum of Art and the new Nasher Sculpture Garden nearby (also downtown) are interesting. There is some interesting nightlife fun with live music just north of downtown in the Deep Ellum district. Just north of Dallas in Addison, Texas is a cool air force museum with vintage combat aircraft. If you are a food connoisseur Dallas is known for its restaurants, both in terms of quantity, variety and fine dining. Six Flags is in nearby Arlington, Texas next to where the Texas Rangers play. Or watch the Mavericks or Stars play in there new arena downtown. Most of these are listed in the article... User:BoNoMoJo 22:32, Nov 6, 2003 (UTC) ---- Why was the first Dallas skyline picture replaced? The preceding picture was far better than the current one. User:BoNoMoJo 20:05, Feb 13, 2004 (UTC) :I agree, the new picture is worse. I tried reverting it and it didn't seem to work (plus, I only clicked REV once and the page makes it look like I clicked it 3 times). I guess I don't understand the image files. We need someone to revert it back. User:Jfitts 21:58, 13 Feb 2004 (UTC) :The problem with reverting the picture seems to have worked itself out. The original skyline photo is back in place. I re-uploaded the incorrect photo with a different name so the user who uploaded it can use it elsewhere. User:Jfitts 05:02, 15 Feb 2004 (UTC) ==Religious bias?== The section on religion in Dallas seems rather flip and perhaps biased -- almost the sort of put-down one would expect from a New Englander talking about anything Southern. I spent my entire adult & professional life in Dallas, and I was always much more aware of the large number of not only conservative ''Baptist'' churches, but ditto Methodist, Assembly of God, and many other fundamentalist types. This also ignores the influence of the Episcopal Church among the older semi-wealthy segment of the population (as shown by the reputation of St. Mark's), and also the fact that the Jewish community in Dallas, though small compared to someplace like New York or Chicago, has been influential for a very long time. (Look at the Neiman and Sanger families, among others.) Not to mention the significance of the Roman Catholic church among the constantly growing Hispanic population of Dallas. (I say all this, by the way, as a card-carrying secularist.)
::Sorry -- this was from me, but I neglected to sign it. --User:Mksmith 18:22, 18 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::I agree that the religion section needs to be rewritten. I joined Wikipedia in late 2003 and as a resident of Dallas I have been tweaking this article ever since. There are several sections that still need to have the POV removed, the religion section being one of them. This has been on my to-do list for a while. Your note has encouraged me to work on it again... but I notice on your user page that you list this article as having a heavy rewrite in the works. Have you already started a rewrite of the religion section (or any other section)? --User:Jfitts 15:09, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC) ::I echo the sentiment of the original post. I'm bothered not only by the article's chip-on-shoulder tone about Protestant morality in Dallas (contrasted with the high divorce rate and drinking establishments that apparently "line the avenues", whatever that means), but also by its sketchy grammar and dubious logic (e.g., Dallas isn't in the Bible belt ''because'' of the Protestant influence on the city, it's in the Bible belt because that's where it's located; it would be more accurate to say that the Bible belt extends into Texas because cities like Dallas have a large Protestant influence, etc.). I think it's clear that the author was trying (ineffectually) to prove a point with this paragraph, but it adds nothing to the article and seems remarkably out of place, especially since no other city I could find has a similar section. The only thing keeping me from deleting it outright is your promise to clean it up. Please, please do. -- Aubrey, 4 Nov 2004 I agree that the Religion section is lacking NPOV. I took a first stab at clean-up by removing the following text: Although the avenues are lined with drinking establishments.... Not only is it too subjective to belong in the article, but, for the reasons mentioned by Aubrey, it seems biased. - User:Walkiped 02:42, 5 Dec 2004 (UTC) ==I think a rewrite is in order== I think it's about time we start rewriting this article. There are three problems I'd really like to address: * This article has entirely too much trivia. The bottom half of the article is almost entirely lists of things. While none of it is incorrect or even needs to be removed, the information needs to be presented differently. Much of the information (history, ''especially'') needs to be incorporated into an honest-to-God, full-blown section. * The article ''partially'' addresses the city of Dallas, but quite a bit of it would be more appropriate in an Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex (it's just the nature of this town - things are scattered all over in multiple cities). The article repeatedly makes mention of companies headquartered in the suburbs, people from the area born in suburbs and sports teams that aren't actually in Dallas. Some of the information needs to stay, of course, but much of the article covers Dallas from a region-wide, suburban perspective. * Finally, the article is just really lacking in substance. Now, you could argue that it's just like the city of Dallas itself in that regard (and I can't completely disagree) ''but'' there is so much more that Dallas has to offer and I'd like to see the article reflect that. So. Who's with me? :) I'll start working out a general outline. Anybody who has comments or would like to contribute, please make a note of it below. Thanks! User:RadicalBenderUser talk:RadicalBender 21:00, 11 Nov 2004 (UTC) :Here's the start of an Talk:Dallas, Texas/Outline. User:RadicalBenderUser talk:RadicalBender 22:30, 12 Nov 2004 (UTC) == George M. Dallas == didn't become VP until March 1845... User:John Kenney User_talk:John Kenney 00:14, 1 Dec 2004 (UTC) == Awfully white == For a city with such a dynamic Mexican-American community, which was part of the cotton belt, where Deep Ellum was once an important place on the map of the blues world, and where the caste system has only started to break down in the last half-century this article presents an awfully white Dallas. -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 19:01, Jan 14, 2005 (UTC) == Edie Brickell == I notice the addition of Edie Brickell. The article on her doesn't say where she's from, but I thought she was from Austin. Was she perhaps a transplanted Dallasite who made her name in Austin? Or am I totally mistaken? -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 02:57, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC) :I know she graduated from DISD's Arts Magnet High School (now the "Booker T Washington School for the Performing and Visual Arts"), and used to go back there and perform when the New Bohemians were big. :Also, her [http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/brickell_edie/bio.jhtml VH1 biography] has her born in Oak Cliff. ::OK -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 19:10, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC) == Intro length == The article introduction is over-long; the style guide sets a strict limit of three paragraphs, this article has six -- and a bullet-point list to boot. The material on history, and speculation as to the origin of the name, could surely be moved into the body of the article. User:Alai 19:11, 26 Feb 2005 (UTC) ==Removed text== I removed the following, due to it being untrue and nonstandard: ---- All photos courtesy of the web site of John Roberts : http://www.miduppertexas.com/dallas/dallas.htm. Someone may want to go through the unverified photos and see if they're from that site. --User:SPUI (User talk:SPUI) 14:19, 2 Mar 2005 (UTC) :Images Dallas5.jpg and Dallas6.jpg clearly appear on the frontpage of that site, which also resolves to http://www.dallasarchitecture.info/dallas.htm. Both images are now marked as possible copyvios (one by me and one by a previous editor). The site also has archives of a number of other images. I didn't go digging to see if any of the other images in the article had been taken from there, but they could have been. User:Dragons flight 15:37, Mar 2, 2005 (UTC) == Population: citation? == Recently, anonymously added: "According to more recent projections/estimates (From 2005) the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex has reached a population of 6,000,000." Sounds about right, but does anyone have a citation on this? -- User:Jmabel | User talk:Jmabel 15:23, Apr 27, 2005 (UTC) Just a minor spelling correction: The plural of "tornado" is "tornadoes" not "tornados". Daninbigd
Dallas, Texas
Cities in Texas Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex
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