Dallas

Dallas (pronounced [ˈdæl.əs] or [ˈdæl.ʊs]) is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest city in the United States. The city covers 385 square miles (997 km²) and is the county seat of Dallas County.^[4] As of 2005, U.S. Census estimates put Dallas at a population of 1.2 million. The city is the main cultural and economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area—at over 5.8 million people, it is the fifth-largest metropolitan area in the United States and the largest metropolitan area in the state of Texas. Dallas is listed as a gamma world city by the Loughborough University Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network.^[5]

City of Dallas
Flag Seal
Nickname:  Big 'D'
Location in the state of Texas
Country	United States
State	Texas
Counties	Dallas, Collin, Denton, Kaufman, and Rockwall
Incorporated	2 February 1856
Government
• Mayor	Laura Miller
Elevation	430 ft (130 m)
Population  (2005)[1][2][3]
• City	1,213,825
• Urban	4,638,000
• Metro	5,819,475
Time zone	UTC-6 (Central)
• Summer (DST)	UTC-5 (Central)
Website	http://www.dallascityhall.com

Dallas was founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city on 2 February 1856. The city is most well known for its role in the petroleum industry, telecommunications, computer technology, banking, and transportation. It is the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States and lacks any navigable link to the sea—Dallas's prominence despite this comes from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, its position along numerous railroad lines, and its powerful industrial and financial tycoons.^[6][7]

Before Texas was claimed in the 1500s as a part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain by the Spanish Empire, the Dallas area was inhabited by the Caddo Native Americans. Later, France also claimed the area, but in 1819 the Adams-Onís Treaty made the Red River the northern boundary of New Spain, officially placing Dallas well within Spanish territory.^[8] The area remained under Spanish rule until 1821, when Mexico declared independence from Spain and the area became part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1836, the Republic of Texas broke off from Mexico to become an independent nation.^[9] In 1839, four years into the Republic's existence, John Neely Bryan surveyed the area around present-day Dallas. In 1841, he returned and founded the city of Dallas on a site where several Caddoan trails in the region intersected at a rare natural ford on the Trinity River. In 1846 the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States and Dallas County was established.

According to the City of Dallas, the origin of the name "Dallas" is a mystery, despite claims to the contrary. Bryan stated only that it was named "after my friend Dallas." It has often been claimed that both the county and the city were named after George Mifflin Dallas, the eleventh Vice President of the United States. However, there is no evidence that Bryan ever met George Mifflin Dallas, and the area was called Dallas several years before the latter was elected.^[10]

Other leading candidates for Dallas's eponym are:

1. Commodore Alexander James Dallas, brother of George Mifflin Dallas, stationed in the Gulf of Mexico;

2. Walter R. Dallas, who fought at San Jacinto;

3. James L. Dallas, Walter's brother and a Texas Ranger;

4. Joseph Dallas of Arkansas, who lived in the Cedar Springs area in 1843, and moved from Washington County (near Bryan's land holdings in Crawford County) to the Dallas area a few years after Bryan's arrival.

Dallas was founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city on 2 February 1856^[7] The city had a few slaves, mostly brought by settlers from Alabama and Georgia. Dallas was just another small town dotting the Texas frontier until after the American Civil War in which it was part of the Confederate States of America, and only legally became a city in 1871. The city paid the Houston and Central Texas Railroad US$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 as planned.^{[verification needed]} A year later, Dallas leaders could not pay the Texas and Pacific Railroad to locate there, so they devised a way to trick the Railroad. Dallas had 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. ^{[verification needed]} In 1873, the major north-south and east-west Texas railroad routes intersected in Dallas, thus ensuring its future as a commercial center.^[10]

By the turn of the twentieth century Dallas was the leading drug, book, jewelry, and wholesale liquor market in the Southwestern United States. It also quickly became the center of trade in cotton, grain, and even buffalo. It was the world's leading inland cotton market, and continued to lead the world in manufacture of saddlery and cotton gin machinery.^[7] As it further 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.^[10] In 1958 the integrated circuit was invented in Dallas by Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments, which punctuated the Dallas area's development as a center for high-technology manufacturing. During the 1950s and 1960s, Dallas became the nation's third-largest technology center, with the growth of such companies as Ling-Tempco-Vought (LTV Corporation) and Texas Instruments. In 1957 two developers, Trammell Crow and John M. Stemmons, opened a Home Furnishings Mart that grew into the Dallas Market Center, the largest wholesale trade complex in the world.^[11] On 22 November 1963, President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on Elm Street while his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in downtown Dallas.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Dallas underwent a building boom that produced a distinctive contemporary profile and prominent skyline for downtown Dallas. Because of the immense worldwide success of the hit television series Dallas, the city became one of the most internationally recognizable U.S cities during the 1980s. The 1980s also saw many oil industry companies relocate to Houston in order to be closer to offshore operations and the Port of Houston. However, Dallas was beginning to benefit from a burgeoning technology boom at the same time, driven by the growing computer, microchip, and telecommunications industries. Dallas also remained a strong center of banking, insurance, and business. The mid-to-late 1980s were tumultuous for the city when many Dallas banks collapsed from the Savings and Loan crisis. The hit effectively threw the city's economy to its knees and plans for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of development were scrapped. The city remained in recession during the 1990s but the explosive growth of technology-based businesses kept the city's economy fairly stable—During the 1990s, Dallas became known as the Silicon Prairie, similar to California's Silicon Valley.^[12]

Recession continued to plague the city into the early 21st Century. From 1988 to 2005, not a single high-rise structure was built within the downtown freeway loop, and the city was running out of developable land in north Dallas and Lake Highlands. Totally closed-off on the north by suburbs, most new housing was being built in Carrollton, Coppell, Frisco, Plano and Richardson. By the mid-2000s, the dried up downtown market began to turn around with the construction of multiple art venues, office towers, residential towers, and residential conversions. Downtown housed little over 1,600 residents in 2000, and by the year 2010, the North Central Texas Council of Governments expects over 10,000 residents to be living in the neighborhood.^[13] Just north, Uptown is one of the hottest real estate markets in the country, and major advances are taking place in the underdeveloped south Dallas and Oak Cliff areas, including the construction of the University of North Texas at Dallas.

Dallas is the county seat of Dallas County. Portions of the city extend into neighboring Collin, Denton, Kaufman and Rockwall counties.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 385 square miles (997.1 km²)—342.5 square miles (887.1 km²) of it is land and 42.5 square miles (110.1 km²) of it (11.03%) is water. Note however that Dallas only makes up one-fifth of the much larger urbanized area known as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex—about a quarter of all Texans live in Dallas's metropolitan area.^[14]

Topography

Dallas, and its surrounding area, is mostly flat and lies at an elevation ranging from 450 feet (137 m) to 550 feet (168 m). The western edge of the Austin chalk formation, a limestone escarpment, rises 200 feet (61 m) and runs roughly north-south through Dallas County. The uplift is particularly noticeable in the neighborhood of Oak Cliff and the adjacent cities of Cockrell Hill, Cedar Hill, Grand Prairie, and Irving. Marked variations in terrain are also found in cities immediately to the west in Tarrant County surrounding Fort Worth.

The Trinity River is a major Texas waterway that passes from the city of Irving into west Dallas, where it is paralleled by Interstate 35E along the Stemmons Corridor, then flows alongside western downtown, and through and alongside south Dallas and Pleasant Grove, paralleled by Interstate 45, where it exits into unincorporated Dallas County and heads southeast to Houston. The river is flanked on both sides by 50 feet (15 m) tall earthen levees to protect the city from floods.^[15] The river has been treated much like a drainage ditch throughout Dallas's history, but as Dallas began shifting towards a postindustrial society, public outcry about a lack of aesthetic and recreational use for the river ultimately gave way to the Trinity River Project. The project, which began in the early 2000s and is scheduled to reach completion in the 2010s, will result in lakes, new park facilities and trails, and transportation improvements.^[16]

White Rock Lake is Dallas's other significant water feature. The lake and surrounding park is a popular destination among boaters, rowers, joggers, and bikers in the Lakewood/Casa Linda Estates neighborhoods of east Dallas. The lake also boasts the 66 acres (267,000 m²) Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden on its shore.^[17] Bachman Lake, just northwest of Love Field, is a smaller lake and park also used for recreation. Lake Ray Hubbard, a 22,745 acres (92 km²) lake, is a vast and popular recreational lake located in an extension of Dallas surrounded by Garland, Rowlett, Rockwall and Sunnyvale.^[18] Mountain Creek Lake is a small lake along Dallas's border with Grand Prairie and is home to the (defunct as of September 1998) Naval Air Station Dallas (Hensley Field).^[19] North Lake, a small lake in an extension of Dallas surrounded by Irving and Coppell, served primarily as a water source for a nearby power plant, but the surrounding area is now being targeted for redevelopment due to its proximity to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (a plan that the neighboring cities oppose).^[20]

Climate

Dallas receives approximately 37.1 inches (942.3 mm) of rain per year, much of which is delivered in the spring.

Dallas has a humid subtropical climate, yet this part of Texas also tends to receive warm, dry winds from the north and west in the summer. In the winter, strong cold fronts from the north pass through Dallas, occasionally plummeting nightly lows into the 30s. Snowfall is seen three days out of the year and snow accumulation seen two days out of the year.^[21] Occasionally, warm and humid air from the south overrides cold, dry air, leading to freezing rain, which usually causes major disruptions in the city for a day or two if the roads and highways become dangerously slick.

Spring and fall bring very pleasant weather to the area and are usually the best times to visit. In the spring months, residents and visitors appreciate the beauty of the vibrant wildflowers (such as the bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush and other flora) which bloom in spring and are planted around the highways throughout Texas.^[22] In the spring the weather can also be quite volatile and change quickly in a matter of minutes. The cliché 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's spring weather. The sporadic volatility of the spring season is coupled with a very pleasant "normality"—barring storms, Dallas in spring is very mild and enjoyable. Similarly, late September, October, and early November is very pleasant and is typically storm-free.

With a touch-down of a minuscule formation in 1984 near Lovers Lane and Greenville Avenue (which collapsed one side of an apartment building), and various ones around North Texas before and since, tornadoes are perhaps the biggest threat to the city of Dallas. In the spring, cool fronts moving from Canada collide with warm, humid air streaming in from the Gulf Coast. When these fronts meet over northern and central Texas, severe thunder storms are generated with spectacular lightning shows, occasional torrents of rain, hail, and at times, tornadoes. They are common to the north, in Oklahoma, in the spring and summer, but the city itself is prone to the storms as it lies at the southern end of Tornado Alley, which runs through the prairie lands of the Midwest. Dallas was last hit by a tornado on 2 April 1957 that likely would have registered as an F3, but it missed downtown.^[23] In May 2000, the "Fort Worth Tornado" hit neighboring Fort Worth's downtown, causing severe damage to many of the city's skyscrapers (and damage to one prominent 70s-era high-rise extensive enough to elicit rejected proposals for demolition) as well as destroying some smaller buildings on the periphery of its central business district.^[24]

The Metroplex experiences a particularly acute springtime "monsoon" week every year—around the middle of March—that rapidly feeds a unique region-wide runoff that swells Johnson Creek (in Arlington and Grand Prairie), as well as the West and Elm Forks of the Trinity River, onto several square miles of flood plain inside the metro area, much of it inhabited. At that time, many neighborhoods in these cities have 4 or more feet of water inside dwellings, and low-lying developed areas adjacent to the Stemmons Corridor and Oak Cliff in Dallas experience severe flooding.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture places the city of Dallas in Plant Hardiness Zone 8a.^[25] Dallas has the 12th worst ozone air pollution in the nation according to the American Lung Association, ranking it behind Los Angeles (ranked 1st) and Fresno, California (2nd), and Houston.^[26] Much of the air pollution in Dallas, and the DFW Metroplex in general, comes from a hazardous materials incineration plant in the southern-most suburb of Midlothian, as well as concrete installations in neighboring Ellis County.^[27]

The average daily low in Dallas is 57 °F (14 °C) and the average daily high in Dallas is 77 °F (25 °C).^[28]

Architecture

Most of the notable architecture in Dallas is modernist and postmodernist. Iconic examples of modernist architecture include I. M. Pei's Fountain Place, the Bank of America Plaza, Renaissance Tower, and Reunion Tower. Examples of postmodernist architecture include the JPMorgan Chase Tower and Chase Center. Several smaller structures are fashioned in the Gothic Revival (Kirby Building) and neoclassical (Davis and Wilson Buildings) styles. One architectural "hotbed" in the city is a stretch of homes along Swiss Avenue, which contains all shades and variants of architecture from Victorian to neoclassical.^[35]

Template:DallasBuildings

Neighborhoods

The City of Dallas has many vibrant communities and eclectic neighborhoods. Major areas in the city include:

Central Dallas is anchored by Downtown, the center of the city and the epicenter of urban revival, coupled with Oak Lawn and Uptown Dallas, the shiny new urban areas thriving with shops, restaurants, and nightlife. Downtown Dallas has a variety of neighborhoods, including the West End Historic District, the Arts District, the Main Street District, Farmers Market District, the City Center business district, the Convention Center District, the historic Vickery Place, the Reunion District and Victory Park. North of downtown is Oak Lawn, a densely-populated area that contains beautiful parks along Turtle Creek and the popular Uptown area with LoMac, Cityplace and the West Village.

The east side of Dallas contains the community of east Dallas, home to Deep Ellum, a trendy arts area close to downtown, homey Lakewood, Bryan Place, and historically and architecturally significant homes on Swiss Avenue. Above the Park Cities is north Dallas, home to mansions as palatial as Versailles in Preston Hollow, strong middle and upper-class communities north into Bent Tree and Far North Dallas, and high-powered shopping at Galleria Dallas, NorthPark Center, and Preston Center. East of north Dallas and north of east Dallas is Lake Highlands, one of the most unified middle-class areas in the city, with the strongest definition—it is in the northeastern part of the city above White Rock Lake and east Dallas.^[36]

The southern portion of Dallas is home to Oak Cliff, a hilly area in southwest Dallas that is predominantly Hispanic and includes entertainment districts such as the Bishop Arts District. South Oak Cliff became a predominantly African American district after the early 1970s and has struggled with high rates of poverty and crime.^[37] To the east, south Dallas lays claim to the Cedars, an eclectic artist hotbed south of downtown, Fair Park, and areas west of the Trinity River and east of Interstate 35E. The University of North Texas at Dallas, currently located south of Oak Cliff along Interstate 20,^[38] is being built in the area along Houston School Road.^[39] Further east, above (north and east of) the Trinity River, is Pleasant Grove—once an independent city, it is a predominantly black collection of neighborhoods stretching to Seagoville to the southeast.

The city is further surrounded by many suburbs and encloses the following enclaves: Cockrell Hill, Highland Park and University Park.

Politics

In a larger context, the Dallas-area is seen as right-wing politically, with a heavy cultural emphasis placed on Protestant Christianity and close historical and cultural ties to both the rugged American West and agricultural South. The popular television series Dallas bolstered this view epitomizing the city with wealthy oil barons, big hair, and cowboy hats. However, present-day Dallas as a singular entity can be seen as fairly liberal, even exceptionally so relative to its position in what is seen as an extremely conservative area—in the 2004 presidential election, 75.05% of Dallas voters voted for John Kerry, the Democratic Party candidate.^[40][41] In the 2006 elections for Dallas County judges, 41 out of 42 seats went to Democrats.

Cuisine

Dallas is renowned for barbeque, authentic Mexican and Tex-Mex cuisine. Famous products of the Dallas culinary scene include the frozen margarita and the restaurants La Calle Doce, Sonny Bryan's Smokehouse, El Fenix, Mi Cocina, Bone Daddy's Barbeque, and The Mansion on Turtle Creek.^[42] The French Room at the Hotel Adolphus in downtown Dallas was named the best hotel restaurant in the US by Zagat. On average, Dallasites eat out about four times every week, which is the third highest rate in the country, behind Houston and Austin, and Dallas has more restaurants per capita than New York City.^[43][44]

Arts

The Arts District in downtown is home to several arts venues, both existing and proposed. Notable venues in the district include the Dallas Museum of Art, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center, and nearby The Dallas Contemporary. Venues under construction or planned include the Winspear Opera House and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.^[45][46] The district is also home to DISD's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, which is currently being expanded.^[47]

Deep Ellum originally became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as the prime jazz and blues hotspot in the south.^[48] Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, and Bessie Smith played in original Deep Ellum clubs such as The Harlem and The Palace. Today, Deep Ellum is home to hundreds of artists who live in lofts and operate in studios throughout the district alongside bars, pubs, and concert venues.^[49] One major art infusion in the area is the city's lax stance on graffiti; consequently, several public ways including tunnels, sides of buildings, sidewalks, and streets are covered in murals. One major example, the Good-Latimer tunnel, was torn down in late 2006 to accommodate the construction of a light rail line through the site.^[50]

The Cedars has a growing population of studio artists and an expanding roster of entertainment venues. The area's art scene began to grow in the early 2000s with the opening of Southside on Lamar, a Sears warehouse converted into lofts, studios, and retail.^[51] Current attractions include Gilley's Dallas and Poor David's Pub.^[52][53] Entrepreneur Mark Cuban purchased land along Lamar Avenue near Cedars Station in September 2005 and locals speculate that he is planning an entertainment complex for the site.^[54]

The Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff is home to a number of studio artists living in converted warehouses. Walls of buildings along alleyways and streets are painted with murals and the surrounding streets contain many eclectic restaurants and shops.^[55]

Dallas has an Office of Cultural Affairs as a department of the city government. The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs is responsible for six cultural centers located throughout the city, funding for local artists and theatres, public art projects and running the city owned radio station WRR.^[56]

Sports

Dallas is home to the Dallas Desperados (Arena Football League), Dallas Mavericks (National Basketball Association), and Dallas Stars (National Hockey League). All three teams play at the American Airlines Center. The Major League Soccer team FC Dallas, formerly the Dallas Burn, used to play in the Cotton Bowl but moved to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco upon the stadium's opening in 2005.^[57] However, the college Cotton Bowl football game is still played at the stadium. The Dallas Sidekicks, a former team of the Major Indoor Soccer League, used to play in Reunion Arena.^[58] The Texas Tornado, three-time defending champions of the North American Hockey League, plays at the Deja Blue Arena in Frisco.^[59]

Nearby Irving is home to the 5-time Super Bowl Champion Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League while Arlington is home to the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball. By 2009, the Dallas Cowboys will also be located in Arlington at a new facility.^[60][61]

Other teams in the Dallas area include the Dallas Harlequins of the USA Rugby Super League, and the Frisco RoughRiders of Minor League Baseball in Frisco.^[62] The Dallas Diamonds, the two-time national champions of the Women's Professional Football League Women's American football team, plays in North Richland Hills.^[63][64] McKinney is home to the Dallas Revolution, an Independent Women's Football League Women's American football team.^[65]

Recreation

The City of Dallas maintains and operates 406 parks on 21,000 acres (8,500,000 m²) of parkland. Its flagship park is the 260 acre (1,000,000 m²) Fair Park which was originally developed to host the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936. The city is also home to Texas's first and largest zoo at 95 acres (405,000 m²) — the Dallas Zoo, which opened in 1888.^[66]

The city's parks contain 17 separate lakes, including White Rock and Bachman lakes, spanning a total of 4,400 acres (1,780,000 m²). The city is criss-crossed with 61.6 miles (99 km) of bike & jogging trails, including the Katy Trail, and is home to 47 community and neighborhood recreation centers, 276 sports fields, 60 swimming pools, 232 playgrounds, 173 basketball courts, 112 volleyball courts, 126 play slabs, 258 neighborhood tennis courts, 258 picnic areas, six 18-hole golf courses, two driving ranges, and 477 athletic fields.^[67]

To the west of Dallas in Arlington is Six Flags Over Texas, one of the biggest theme parks in the United States. Hurricane Harbor, a large water park, is also in Arlington.

Media

Dallas has numerous local newspapers, magazines, television stations and radio stations that serve the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex as a whole, which is the 5th-largest media market in the United States.^[68]

Newspapers
Dallas has one daily newspaper, The Dallas Morning News, which was founded in 1885 by A. H. Belo and is Belo Corp's flagship newspaper. The Dallas Times Herald, started in 1888, was the Morning News's major competitor until Belo purchased the paper on 8 December 1991 and closed the paper down the next day. Other daily papers are Al Día, a Spanish-language paper, and Quick, a free, summary-style version of The News, both published by Belo.

Other paper-publications include the Dallas Observer, an alternative weekly newspaper, and D Magazine, a monthly magazine about business, life, and entertainment in the Metroplex.

In terms of the larger metro area, the Fort Worth Star Telegram is another significant daily newspaper, covering Fort Worth/Tarrant County and other suburban areas to the west and northwest of Dallas.

Television and radio stations
The Dallas area television stations for the major broadcasting networks—KDFW 4 (FOX), KXAS 5 (NBC), WFAA 8 (ABC) (also owned by Belo), KTVT 11 (CBS), KERA 13 (PBS), KTXA-21 (IND), KUVN 23 (UNI), KDFI 27 (MNTV), KDAF 33 (The CW) and KXTX 39 (TMD).

63 radio stations operate within range of Dallas.^[69] The City of Dallas operates WRR 101.1 FM, a classical music radio station broadcast from city offices in Fair Park.^[70] It was licensed in 1948 and is the oldest commercially operated radio station in Texas and the second-oldest in the United States, after KDKA (AM) in Pittsburgh.^[71] Because of the city's centrally-located position and lack of nearby mountainous terrain, high-power class A mediumwave stations KRLD and WBAP in neighboring Fort Worth can broadcast as far as North Dakota at night and can be used for emergency broadcasts when broadcasting is down in other major metropolitan areas in the United States.

Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (HBC), the largest company in the Spanish language radio station business, was based in Dallas.^[72] In 2003, HBC was acquired by Univision and became Univision Radio Inc., but the radio company remains headquartered in Dallas.^[73]

Religion

There is a large Protestant Christian influence in the Dallas community and the city is deep within the Bible Belt—Methodist and Baptist churches are prominent in many neighborhoods and anchor the city's two major private universities. The Cathedral of Hope, an LGBT Protestant church, is the largest congregation of its kind in the world.^[74] The city is also home to a sizable Mormon community, which led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build a major temple in the city in 1984.

The Catholic church is also a significant organization in the community—it operates a major university in Irving and its Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in the Arts District oversees the second-largest membership in the United States. Dallas is also home to three Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.^[75]

The city also houses a large Jewish community, especially notable in eastern and northern Dallas.^[76] Dallas's most significant Muslim community lies in the city's northern and northeastern suburbs. A strong Hindu community exists in the city limits,^[77] as well as in Irving and other suburbs.

Events

The most notable event held in Dallas is the State Fair of Texas which has been held annually at Fair Park since 1886. The fair is a massive event for the state of Texas and brings an estimated US$350 million to the city's economy annually. The Red River Shootout (UT-OU) game at the Cotton Bowl and other Cotton Bowl games also bring significant crowds to the city.

Other festivals in the area include Cinco de Mayo festivities hosted by the city's large Mexican population, Saint Patrick's Day parades in Irish communities especially along east Dallas' Lower Greenville Avenue, Juneteenth festivities, the Greek Food Festival of Dallas, and an annual Halloween parade on Cedar Springs Road.

In its beginnings, Dallas relied on farming, neighboring Fort Worth's cattle market, and its prime location on trade routes with Indians to sustain itself. Dallas's real key to growth came in 1873 though with the building of multiple rail lines through the city. As Dallas grew and technology developed, cotton became its boon—by 1900 Dallas was the largest inland cotton market on Earth and led the world in cotton gin machinery manufacturing. By the early 1900s, Dallas was a hub for economic activity all over the Southwestern United States and was selected in 1914 as the seat of the Eleventh Federal Reserve District; by 1925, Texas churned out more than ⅓ of the nation's cotton crop, and 31% of Texas cotton was produced within a 100 mile (161 km) radius of Dallas. In the 1930s, oil was discovered east of Dallas near Kilgore, Texas, and Dallas's proximity to the discovery put it at the center of the nation's oil market. Oil discoveries in the Permian Basin, the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, and Oklahoma in the following years further solidified Dallas's position as the hub of the market as it was roughly the geographic center of all 5 regions.^[78]

After World War II, Dallas was seeded with a nexus of communications engineering and production talent by companies such as Collins Radio Corp. The telecommunication and information revolutions that ensued still drive a great deal of the local economy. The city is sometimes referred to as Texas's Silicon Valley or the Silicon Prairie because of a high concentration of telecommunications companies—the epicenter of which lies along the "Telecom Corridor", home to more than 5,700 companies.^[79] The corridor is also home to Texas Instruments and regional offices for Alcatel, AT&T, Ericsson, Fujitsu, MCI, Nokia, Rockwell, Sprint, and Verizon, as well as the national offices of CompUSA and Canadian Nortel.

In the 1980s, Dallas was a real estate hotbed, with populations skyrocketing and the demand for housing and jobs soaring along with it. Downtown Dallas's largest buildings are the fruit of this boom, but over-speculation and the Savings and Loan crisis knocked the area to its knees. Between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, Dallas suffered a lengthy recession and has only recently bounced back—like much of the country, the real estate market has improved significantly in recent years.

Dallas is no longer a hotbed for manufacturing like it was in the early 20th century—partially due to constraints placed by the DFW Ozone Nonattainment Area—but plenty of goods are still manufactured in the city.^[80] Texas Instruments employs 10,400 people at its corporate headquarters and chip plants in Dallas and neighborhing Richardson.^[81] Oak Farms Dairy also headquarters and has a plant in the city.^[82]

Companies headquartered in Dallas, Irving or Mesquite include ExxonMobil, the largest company in the world (by revenue),^[83] 7-Eleven, id Software, Blockbuster, EDS, ENSCO Offshore Drilling, Kimberly-Clark, TXU, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Southwest Airlines, CompUSA, Texas Instruments, Fluor, and Zales. Corporate headquarters in the northern suburb of Plano include Frito Lay, Dr Pepper, and JCPenney.

The Dallas metroplex has more shopping centers per capita than any other United States city or metro, and is also home to the second shopping center in the United States, Highland Park Village, which opened in 1931.^[84] The city itself is also home to 12 billionaires—concentrated in the Preston Hollow area of north Dallas—placing it 9th worldwide among cities with the most billionaires.^[84] When combined with the 8 billionaires who live in Dallas's neighboring city of Fort Worth, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is one of the greatest concentrations of billionaires in the world.

• Dallas Companies

The city uses a council-manager government with Laura Miller serving as Mayor, Mary Suhm serving as city manager, and 14 council members serving as representatives to the 14 council districts in the city.^[85][86][87] This organizational structure was recently contested by some in favor of a strong-mayor city charter only to be rejected by Dallas voters.

In the 2006-2007 fiscal year, the city's total budget (the sum of operating and capital budgets) was US$2,344,314,114.^[88] The city has seen a steady increase in its budget throughout its history due to sustained growth: the budget was $1,717,449,783 in 2002-2003, $1,912,845,956 in 2003-2004, $2,049,685,734 in 2004-2005 and $2,218,345,070 in 2005-2006.^[89][90][90]

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which exercises original jurisdiction over 100 counties in North and West Texas, convenes in the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in the Government District of downtown. The same building additionally houses United States Bankruptcy and Magistrate Courts and a United States Attorney office. Dallas also is the seat of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas.

Crime and enforcement

Policing in Dallas is provided by the Dallas Police Department which has 2,977 officers.^[4] The Dallas chief of police is David Kunkle.^[92] The central police station is located in the Cedars, a south Dallas neighborhood near downtown.

From 1998 until 2005 (the most recent year with available statistics), the city of Dallas has had the highest overall crime rate for the nine United States cities with over 1 million people.^[93] Violent crime in Dallas was also ranked #1 during the same time period. Murders peaked at 500 in 1991. It then fluctuated from 227 in 2000 to 240 in 2001, 196 in 2002, 223 in 2003, 275 in 2004, and finally 198 in 2005, marking a sharp decline over the two previous years. However, Dallas was again ranked in 2005 as the most dangerous city out of the ten largest cities in the United States.^[94][95]

Fire protection

Fire protection in the city is provided by Dallas Fire-Rescue, which has 1,670 firefighters and 55 working fire stations in the city limits.^[4][96] The Dallas Fire & Rescue chief is Eddie Burns, Sr.^[92] The department also operates the Dallas Firefighter's Museum at Dallas's oldest remaining fire station, built in 1907, along Parry Avenue near Fair Park.

As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there were 1,188,580 people, 451,833 households, and 266,581 families residing in Dallas proper. The population density was 3,469.9 people per square mile (1,339.7/km²). There were 484,117 housing units at an average density of 1,413.3 per square mile (545.7/km²).

There were 451,833 households out of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% were married couples living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.0% are classified as non-families by the United States Census Bureau. Of 451,833 households, 23,959 are unmarried partner households: 18,684 heterosexual, 3,615 same-sex male, and 1,660 same-sex female households. 32.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.58 and the average family size was 3.37.

In the city the population was 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 were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 101.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,628, and the median income for a family was $40,921. Males had a median income of $31,149 versus $28,235 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,183. About 14.9% of families and 17.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.1% of those under age 18 and 13.1% of those aged 65 or over. In 2006 the median price for a house was $123,800, and save a 2003 recession, Dallas has seen a steady increase in the cost of homes over the past 6 years.^[99]

The racial makeup of Dallas was 50.83% White, 25.91% Black or African American, 0.54% Native American, 2.70% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 17.24% from other races, and 2.72% from two or more races. 35.55% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. Hispanics outnumbered African-Americans for the first time in the 2000 census as the largest minority group in Dallas.

The city has historically been predominantly white but its population diversified as it grew in size and importance over the 20th century—almost 25% of Dallas's population is foreign born.^[100] The largest minority group in the city is the Hispanics—Dallas is a major destination for Mexican immigrants seeking opportunity in the United States because it is relatively close, along with the rest of Texas, to the U.S.-Mexico border. The southwest area of the city, especially Oak Cliff, is predominantly or completely Hispanic. The southern and southeastern areas of the city, especially Pleasant Grove and south Dallas, are predominantly black. The northern and eastern parts of the city are mostly white and the northwestern portion of the city is home to a fairly equal mix of Hispanics and Asians. The city also contains localized populations of Caribbean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Indian, German, Muslim, Polish, Romanian, Russian and Jewish peoples.

Colleges and universities

Dallas is a major center of education for much of the South Central United States. The city itself contains several universities, colleges, trade schools, and educational institutes. Several major Universities also lie in enclaves, satellite cities, and suburbs of the city.

The University of Texas at Dallas, part of the public UT system, is located at the convergence of Dallas and Collin Counties in what is referred to as Telecom Corridor. This very young university, which only began admitting freshmen in 1990, is know as the most academically competitive institution in the region, as evidenced by its freshman class, which has had the highest average SAT score in Texas for many years running. UT Dallas, or UTD as longtime residents refer to it, is renowned for its work in combining the arts and technology, as well as for its programs in engineering, neuroscience, speech and hearing, pre-health, pre-law and management. UT Dallas has many collaborative research relationships with UT Southwestern (see below). UT Dallas is home to approximately 15,000 students.

Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a private, coeducational university in University Park, an enclave of Dallas. It was founded in 1911 by the Southern Methodist Church and now enrolls 6,500 undergraduates, 1,200 professional students in the law and theology departments, and 3,500 postgraduates.^[101][102]

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School is a prestigious medical school located in the Stemmons Corridor of Dallas. It is part of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, again one of the largest facilities of its kind in the world. The school is highly selective, admitting around 200 students a year. The facility enrolls 3,255 postgraduates and is home to four Nobel Laureates: three in physiology/medicine and one in chemistry.

Dallas Baptist University (DBU) is a private, coeducational university located in the Mountain Creek area of southwestern Dallas. Originally in Decatur, it moved to Dallas in 1965.^[103] The school currently enrolls over 5,100 students.^[104]

Paul Quinn College is a private, historically Black college located in southeast Dallas. Originally in Waco Texas, it moved to Dallas in 1993 and is housed on the campus of the former Bishop College, another private, historically Black college. Dallas billionaire and entrepreneur Comer Cottrell, Jr., founder of ProLine Corporation, bought the campus of Bishop College and bequeathed it to Paul Quinn College in 1993.^[105] The school enrolls 3,000 undergraduate students.

The University of North Texas at Dallas, currently located at a temporary site south of Oak Cliff along Interstate 20, is being built in south Dallas along Houston School Road.^[39] The school will be the first public university within Dallas city limits.^[38]

Also in the nearby suburbs and neighboring cities are the University of Dallas in Irving, the University of North Texas in Denton, and the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington.

Schools

The city of Dallas is mostly within the Dallas Independent School District, the twelfth-largest school district in the United States.^[106] The school district operates independently of the city and enrolls over 161,000 students.^[106] In 2006, one of the district's magnet schools, The School for the Talented and Gifted, was named the best school in the United States (among public schools) by Newsweek. Another one of DISD's schools, the Science and Engineering Magnet, came in at number eight in the same survey.^[107] Other DISD schools named to the list were Hillcrest, W. T. White and Woodrow Wilson high schools. Woodrow Wilson High School was also named the top comprehensive high school in Dallas by local publication D Magazine.

Dallas also extends into several other school districts including Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Duncanville, Garland, Highland Park, Mesquite, Plano, and Richardson. The Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District once served portions of southern Dallas, but it was shut down for the 2005-2006 year. WHISD students started attending other Dallas ISD schools during that time. Following the close, the Texas Education Agency consolidated WHISD into Dallas ISD.

Many school districts in Dallas County, including Dallas ISD, are served by a governmental agency called Dallas County Schools. The system provides busing and other transportation services, access to a massive media library, technology services, strong ties to local organizations for education/community integration, and staff development programs.^[108]

There are also several highly prestigious private schools in Dallas, most notably St. Mark's School of Texas, The Hockaday School, Episcopal School of Dallas, Jesuit College Preparatory School of Dallas, Bishop Dunne Catholic School, Bishop Lynch High School, and Ursuline Academy of Dallas. Cistercian Preparatory School, attended by many Dallas residents, is in nearby Irving and Greenhill School and Trinity Christian Academy are in adjacent Addison. The Ursuline Academy of Dallas is credited with being the oldest school in the city, having been founded by a group of Ursuline nuns in 1874.

Libraries

The city is served by the Dallas Public Library system. The system was originally created by the Dallas Federation of Women's Clubs with efforts spearheaded by then-president Mrs. Henry (May Dickson) Exall. Her work raising money led to a grant from philanthropist and steel baron Andrew Carnegie, which enabled the construction of the first branch in 1901.^[109] Today the library operates 22 branch locations throughout the city including the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library, the 8-story main branch in the Government District of downtown.^[110]

Health systems

The city of Dallas has many hospitals within its bounds and a number of medical research facilities. One major research center is UT Southwestern Medical Center in the Stemmons Corridor, along with its affiliate medical school, UT Southwestern Medical School. The system includes Parkland Memorial Hospital and Children's Medical Center Dallas.

The city also has a VA hospital in south Dallas, the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dallas is the home of a Consolidated Mail Outpatient Pharmacy (CMOP), part of an initiative by the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide mail order prescriptions to veterans using computerization at strategic locations throughout the United States.

Other hospitals include Baylor University Medical Center in east Dallas, Central Methodist Hospital in Oak Cliff, Charlton Methodist Hospital near Duncanville, Medical City Dallas Hospital and Presbyterian Hospital in north Dallas, and the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Oak Lawn.

Transportation

The primary mode of local transportation in the city is the automobile, though efforts have been made to increase the availability of alternative modes of transit including the construction of light rail lines, biking and walking paths, wider sidewalks, and more efficient public transportation. The city is much like other United States cities developed primarily in the late 20th century—criss-crossed by a vast network of highways which has led to and contributes to Dallas being a very low-density city.

The city of Dallas is at the confluence of a large number of major interstate highways—Interstates 20, 30, 35E, and 45 all run through the city. The city's freeway system, as it has no major geographical inhibitors surrounding it, is set up in the popular hub-and-spoke system, much like a wagon wheel. Starting from downtown Dallas, there is the main downtown freeway loop, the Interstate 635/20 Lyndon B. Johnson loop, and ultimately the tolled President George Bush Turnpike. Inside these freeway loops are other partially-limited-access and parkway-style loops including Loop 12 and Belt Line Road. Another beltway around the city is planned upwards of 46.50 miles (70 km) from downtown in Collin County. Radiating out of downtown as the spokes of the system are Interstates 30, 35E, and 45, US 75, US 175, TX Spur 366, the tolled Dallas North Tollway, and further out TX 114, US 80 and US 67. Other major highways within the city that do not serve primarily as spokes include TX 183 and TX Spur 408. The recently completed interchange for Interstate 635 and Central Expressway, called the High Five Interchange, contains five stacks and is one of the largest freeway interchanges in the United States.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is the Dallas area public transportation authority, providing buses, rail, and HOV lanes. DART began operating the first light rail system in the Southwest United States in 1996 and continues to expand its coverage. Currently, two light rail lines are in service. The red line travels through Oak Cliff, South Dallas, downtown, Uptown, north Dallas, Richardson and Plano. The blue line goes through south Dallas, downtown, Uptown, east Dallas, Lake Highlands, 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. Currently, DART is reviewing plans to expand subway lines in the city.

Fort Worth's smaller public transit system, The T, connects with Dallas's via a commuter rail line, the Trinity Railway Express, connecting downtown Dallas's Union Station with downtown Fort Worth's T&P Station and several points in between. The system of light rail transit, especially through downtown, has skyrocketed land values and has sparked a residential boom in downtown.

Dallas is served by two commercial airports: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (known as DFW International) and Dallas 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. Two more general aviation airports are located in the outer suburb of McKinney, and two more general aviation airports are in Fort Worth, on the west side of the Metroplex.

DFW 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, third busiest in the United States, and sixth busiest in the world. The headquarters of American Airlines, the largest air carrier in the world, is located less than a mile from DFW, in Fort Worth. Love Field is located within the city limits of Dallas, 6 miles (10 km) northwest of downtown, and is headquarters to Southwest Airlines.

Utilities

Dallas is served by Dallas Water Utilities, which operates several waste treatment plants and pulls water from several area reservoirs.^[111] The city's electric system is maintained by TXU Electric Delivery,^[112] whose parent company, TXU, headquarters in the city.^[113] The city offers garbage pickup and recycling service weekly through its Sanitation Services department.^[114] Telephone networks are available from several companies and broadband Internet and cable television service is available for the majority of the city.

Further reading

• Official City Website
• Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau
• Dallas Historical Society
• Historical city maps, including streets, streams and trolley lines, circa 1880-1920
• Dallas Historical Society photographs hosted by the Portal to Texas History
• Dallas Public Library
• USGS Elevation data
• Dallas from the Handbook of Texas Online
• Template:Wikitravel

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