Dallas, Texas

City of Dallas
Seal
Nickname(s): Big D, D-Town
Motto: Live Large. Think Big.
Location in Dallas County and the state of Texas
Coordinates: 32°46′58″N 96°48′14″W / 32.78278, -96.80389
Country	United States of America
State	Texas
Counties	Dallas Collin Denton Rockwall Kaufman
Incorporated	2 February 1856
Government
- Type	Council-manager
- Mayor	Tom Leppert
Area
- City	385.0 sq mi (997.1 km²)
- Land	342.5 sq mi (887.2 km²)
- Water	42.5 sq mi (110.0 km²)
Elevation	430 ft (131 m)
Population (2007)
- City	1,232,940 (9th largest)
- Density	3,605.08/sq mi (1,391.9/km²)
- Metro	6,145,037 (4th largest)
- Demonym	Dallasites
Time zone	Central (UTC-6)
- Summer (DST)	Central (UTC-5)
Area code(s)	214, 469, 972
FIPS code	48-19000[1]
GNIS feature ID	1380944[2]
Primary Airport	Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport- DFW (Major/International)
Secondary Airport	Dallas Love Field- DAL (Major)
Website: dallascityhall.com

Dallas (pronounced /ˈdæləs/) is the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States.^[3] The city covers 342.5 square miles (887 km²), not including water area, and is the county seat of Dallas County.^[4] As of June 23, 2007, the United States Census Bureau estimates the population of Dallas at 1,232,940 people.^[5]

The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area, nicknamed "the Metroplex." At over 6.1 million people, it is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Dallas is listed as a gamma world city by the Loughborough University Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network.^[6]

Founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city on February 1856, the city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, and transportation. Dallas is the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea.^[7] The city's prominence despite this comes from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, its position along numerous railroad lines, its status as a major inland port, and a strong industrial and financial sector.^[8]

History

Main article: History of Dallas, Texas

See also: Historical events of Dallas, Texas

Before Texas was claimed in the 16th century 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.^[9] 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.^[10] In 1839, four years into the Republic's existence, Warren Angus Ferris surveyed the area around present-day Dallas. Two years later, John Neely Bryan established a permanent settlement that later became the city of Dallas. The Republic of Texas was then annexed by the United States in 1845 and Dallas County was established the following year. It is uncertain whether the city was named after George Mifflin Dallas, the U.S. Vice President under James Knox Polk.^[11]

Geography

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 being land and 42.5 square miles (110.1 km²) of it (11.03%) water. Dallas makes up one-fifth of the much larger urbanized area known as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, in which one quarter of all Texans live.^[12]

Topography

Main article: Geology of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex

The Dallas area is mostly flat with marked terrain differences only found near waterways and along the Austin Chalk Formation. This aerial photo shows White Rock Lake and Downtown Dallas.

Dallas and its surrounding area are mostly flat; the city itself lies at elevations 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. South of the Trinity River (Texas), the uplift is particularly noticeable in the neighborhoods of Oak Cliff and the adjacent cities of Cockrell Hill, Cedar Hill, and Grand Prairie. Marked variations in terrain are also found in cities immediately to the west in Tarrant County surrounding Fort Worth, as well as along Turtle Creek north of Downtown..

Dallas, like many other cities in the world, was founded along a river. The city was founded at the location of a "white rock crossing" of the Trinity River, where it was easier for wagons to cross the river in the days before ferries or bridges. The Trinity River, though not usefully navigable, is the major waterway through the city. Its path through Dallas is paralleled by Interstate 35E along the Stemmons Corridor, then south alongside the western portion of Downtown and past south Dallas and Pleasant Grove, where the river is paralleled by Interstate 45 until it exits the city and heads southeast towards Houston. The river is flanked on both sides by 50 feet (15 m) tall earthen levees to protect the city from frequent floods.^[13] Since it was rerouted in 1908, the river has been little more than a drainage ditch within a floodplain for several miles above and below downtown Dallas, with a more normal course further upstream and downstream, but as Dallas began shifting towards postindustrial society, public outcry about the lack of aesthetic and recreational use of the river ultimately gave way to the Trinity River Project, which was initialized in the early 2000s and is scheduled to be completed in the 2010s. If the project materializes fully, it promises improvements to the riverfront in the form of man-made lakes, new park facilities and trails, and transportation upgrades.

The project area will reach for over 20 miles (32 km) in length within the city, while the overall geographical land area addressed by the Land Use Plan is approximately 44,000 acres (180 km²) in size—about 20% of the land area in Dallas. Green space along the river will encompass approximately 10,000 acres (40 km²), making it one of the largest and diverse urban parks in the world.^[14]

White Rock Lake, a reservoir constructed at the beginning of the 20th century, is Dallas's other significant water feature. The lake and surrounding park are a popular destination among boaters, rowers, joggers, and bikers, as well as visitors seeking peaceful respite from the city at the 66-acre (267,000 m²) Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden, located on the lake's eastern shore.^[15] Bachman Lake, just northwest of Love Field Airport, is a smaller lake also popularly used for recreation. Northeast of the city is Lake Ray Hubbard, a vast 22,745-acre (92 km²) reservoir located in an extension of Dallas surrounded by the suburbs of Garland, Rowlett, Rockwall, and Sunnyvale.^[16] To the west of the city is Mountain Creek Lake, once home to the Naval Air Station Dallas (Hensley Field) and a number of defense aircraft manufacturers.^[17] North Lake, a small body of water in an extension of the city limits surrounded by Irving and Coppell, initially served as a water source for a nearby power plant but is now being targeted for redevelopment as a recreational lake due to its proximity to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, a plan that the lake's neighboring cities oppose.^[18]

Climate

Main article: Climate of Dallas, Texas

The spring and fall seasons are pleasant in Dallas, as seen in this March photograph from an Oak Cliff park

Dallas has a humid subtropical climate, though it is located in a region that also tends to receive warm, dry winds from the north and west in the summer, bringing temperatures well over 100 °F (38 °C) at times and heat-humidity indexes soaring to as high as 117 °F (47 °C).

Winters are generally mild, with typical daytime highs between 55 °F (13 °C) and 70 °F (21 °C) and nighttime lows between 35 °F (2 °C) and 50 °F (10 °C). However, strong cold fronts known as "Blue Northers" sometimes pass through Dallas, plummeting nightly lows below 30 °F (−1 °C). Snowfall is seen on average 2–4 days out of the year and snow accumulation is typically seen at least once every winter.^[20] A couple of times each year, warm and humid air from the south overrides cold, dry air, leading to freezing rain, which often causes major disruptions in the city if the roads and highways become slick. On the other hand, daytime highs above 65 °F (18 °C) are not unusual during the winter season. In sum, extremes in weather are more readily seen in Dallas and Texas as a whole than along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, due to the state's location in the interior of the United States.

Spring and autumn bring pleasant weather to the area. Vibrant wildflowers (such as the bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush and other flora) bloom in spring and are planted around the highways throughout Texas.^[21] Springtime weather can be quite volatile, but temperatures themselves are mild. The weather in Dallas is also generally pleasant between late September and early December, and unlike springtime, major storms rarely form in the area.

Snow on the campus of Southern Methodist University in nearby University Park

In the spring, cool fronts moving south from Canada collide with warm, humid air streaming in from the Gulf Coast. When these fronts meet over north central Texas, severe thunderstorms are generated with spectacular lightning shows, torrents of rain, hail, and occasionally, tornadoes. Over time, tornadoes have perhaps been the biggest natural threat to the city.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture places Dallas in Plant Hardiness Zone 8a.^[22] According to the American Lung Association, Dallas has the 12th highest ozone air pollution in the nation, ranking it behind Los Angeles and Houston.^[23] Much of the air pollution in Dallas, and the Metroplex in general, comes from a hazardous materials incineration plant in the small town of Midlothian, as well concrete installations in neighboring Ellis County.^[24] Another major contributor to air pollution in Dallas are automobiles. Due to the area's spread-out nature and high amount of urban sprawl, automobiles are the only viable mode of transportation for many.

The city's all-time recorded high temperature is 113 °F (45 °C), while the all-time recorded low is -2 °F (-18.9 °C). The average daily low in Dallas is 57 °F (14 °C), and the average daily high in Dallas is 77 °F (25 °C).^[19] Dallas receives approximately 37.1 inches (942.3 mm) of rain per year.

Cityscape

Dallas skyline from the Trinity River floodplain

Architecture

See also: List of tallest buildings in Dallas

Dallas's skyline contains several buildings over 700 feet (210 m) in height, making the city the fifteenth-tallest city on earth.^[25]

Although some of Dallas's architecture dates from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most of the notable architecture in the city is from the modernist and postmodernist eras. Iconic examples of modernist architecture include Reunion Tower, the JFK Memorial, I. M. Pei's Dallas City Hall. Fountain Place, Bank of America Plaza, Renaissance Tower, JPMorgan Chase Tower, and Comerica Bank Tower are good examples of postmodernist skyscrapers. Several smaller structures are fashioned in the Gothic Revival style, such as the Kirby Building, and the neoclassical style, as seen in the Davis and Wilson Buildings. One architectural "hotbed" in the city is a stretch of historic houses along Swiss Avenue, which contains all shades and variants of architecture from Victorian to neoclassical.^[26]

As part of the Trinity River Project, Dallas is also seeing construction of a series of new signature bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava. The first one to be built the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge will reach a height of over 40 stories above the river basin.

Neighborhoods

Near the Farmers Market in Downtown

Central Dallas is anchored by Downtown, the center of the city and the epicenter of urban revival, along with Oak Lawn and Uptown, areas characterized by dense retail, restaurants, and nightlife. Downtown Dallas has a variety of named districts, 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, and the Reunion District. "Hot spots" north of Downtown include Uptown, Victory Park, Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek, LoMac, Cityplace and West Village.

East Dallas is home to Deep Ellum, a trendy arts area close to Downtown, the homey Lakewood neighborhood, historic Vickery Place and Bryan Place, and the architecturally significant Swiss Avenue. North of the Park Cities is Preston Hollow, home to Texas's wealthiest residents, as well as the most expensive homes in the state. The area is also characterized by a variety of high-powered shopping areas, including Galleria Dallas, NorthPark Center, Highland Park Village, and Preston Center. In the northeast quadrant of the city is Lake Highlands, one of Dallas's most unified middle-class neighborhoods.^[27]

Kidd Springs Park in Oak Cliff

The West Village in Uptown

Southwest of Downtown lies Oak Cliff, a hilly area that has undergone gentrification in recent years in neighborhoods such as the Bishop Arts District. Oak Cliff originated as a township founded in the mid-1800s and was annexed by the city of Dallas in 1903.^[28] Today, most of the area's northern residents are Hispanic. South Oak Cliff, on the other hand, became predominantly African-American after the early 1970s. Much of the southern portion of the city has struggled with high rates of poverty and crime.^[29]

South Dallas, a distinct neighborhood southeast of Downtown, lays claim to the Cedars, an eclectic artist hotbed south of downtown and Fair Park, home of the annual State Fair of Texas. The area, predominantly African-American, is arguably the poorest in the city. While Oak Cliff is mostly lower-income but fairly vibrant, South Dallas contains large numbers of boarded-up buildings and vacant lots.

To spur growth in the southern sector of the city, University of North Texas opened a Dallas campus in October 2006 in south Oak Cliff near the intersection of Interstate 20 and Houston School Rd.^[30] Large amounts of undeveloped land remains nearby, due to decades of slow growth south of Downtown. Further east, in the southeast quadrant of the city, is the large neighborhood of Pleasant Grove. Once an independent city, it is a collection of mostly lower-income residential areas stretching all the way to Seagoville in the southeast. Though a city neighborhood, Pleasant Grove is surrounded by undeveloped land on all sides, including swampland separating it from South Dallas that will in the future be part of the Great Trinity Forest, a subsection of the city's Trinity River Project.

Dallas is further surrounded by many suburbs and includes three enclaves within the city boundaries—Cockrell Hill, Highland Park, and University Park.

See also: List of neighborhoods in Dallas, Texas

Culture

Pedestrians in Downtown

Main article: Culture of Dallas, Texas

Politics

In terms of voting patterns, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the third most liberal of the Texas metropolitan areas after Austin and El Paso. In contrast, 54% of Houston and San Antonio voters and an even higher percentage of rural Texan voters are conservative.^[31] Nonetheless, Dallas is known to many as a high-profile center of evangelical Protestant Christianity.

As a city, present-day Dallas can be seen as moderate, with conservative Republicans dominating the upper-middle class suburban neighborhoods of North Dallas and liberal Democrats dominating neighborhoods closer to Downtown as well as the city's southern sector. As a continuation of its suburban northern neighborhoods, Dallas's northern suburbs are overwhelmingly conservative. Plano, the largest of these suburbs, was ranked as the fifth most conservative city in America by The Bay Area Center for Voting Research, based on the voting patterns of middle-age adults. However, the city of Dallas (excluding its suburbs) generally votes for Democratic political candidates in local, state, and national elections. In the 2004 U.S. Presidential elections, over 75% of Dallas voters voted for John Kerry over George W. Bush, making the city the 32nd most liberal city in the United States by sheer percentages and more liberal than traditionally left-leaning cities such as Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati.^[32] Dallas County as a whole was split evenly, with 50% of voters voting for Bush and 49% voting for Kerry.^[33] In the 2006 elections for Dallas County judges, 41 out of 42 seats went to Democrats.

In 2004, Lupe Valdez was elected Dallas County Sheriff. An open lesbian, she is currently one of only two female sheriffs in the state of Texas, the other being Sheriff Rosanna Abreo of Bastrop County.

Nevertheless, in 2007, conservative Republican Tom Leppert defeated liberal Democrat Ed Oakley by a margin of 58% to 42% to become mayor of Dallas. Had Oakley been elected, he would have become the first openly-gay mayor of a large U.S. city. Though candidates' political leanings are well publicized in the media, Dallas's elections are officially non-partisan. The city's previous mayor was Laura Miller, a liberal Jewish woman who had previously written for the Dallas Observer, the city's most popular alternative newspaper.

Cuisine

Dallas is renowned for its barbecue, authentic Mexican, and Tex-Mex cuisine. Famous products of the Dallas culinary scene include the frozen margarita and the chain restaurants Chili's and Romano's Macaroni Grill.^[34] The French Room at the Hotel Adolphus in Downtown Dallas was named the best hotel restaurant in the US by Zagat Survey. A number of nationally ranked steakhouses can be found in the Dallas area, including Bob's Steak & Chop House, currently ranked #3 according to the USDA Prime Steakhouses chart behind Ruth's Chris Times Square and Bones Atlanta.^[35]

Arts

The Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in the Arts District

The Arts District in the northern section of 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, The Dallas Contemporary, and The Dallas Children's Theatre. Venues under construction or planned include the Winspear Opera House and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts.^[36][37] The Arts District is also home to DISD's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, a magnet school which was recently expanded.^[38]

Deep Ellum, immediately east of Downtown, originally became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as the prime jazz and blues hot spot in the South.^[39] 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.^[40] A major art infusion in the area results from the city's lax stance on graffiti, and a number of public spaces 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.^{[citation needed]}

Like Deep Ellum before it, the Cedars neighborhood to the south of Downtown has also seen 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, an old Sears warehouse converted into lofts, studios, and retail.^[41] Current attractions include Gilley's Dallas and Poor David's Pub.^[42][43] Dallas Mavericks owner and local 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.^[44]

South of the Trinity River, the fledgling 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.^[45]

Dallas has an Office of Cultural Affairs as a department of the city government. The office is responsible for six cultural centers located throughout the city, funding for local artists and theaters, initiating public art projects, and running the city-owned classical radio station WRR.^[46]

Sports

American Airlines Center in Victory Park

See also: U.S. cities with teams from four major 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.^[47] 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, as did the Mavericks and Stars before their move to the American Airlines Center.^[48]

The Texas Tornado, three-time defending champions of the North American Hockey League, plays at the Deja Blue Arena in Frisco.^[49]

Nearby Irving is home to the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. Since joining the league as an expansion team in 1960, the Cowboys have enjoyed substantial success, advancing to eight Super Bowls and winning five. Known widely as "America's Team," the Dallas Cowboys are financially the most valuable sports 'franchise' in the world, worth approximately 1.5 billion dollars.^[50] They are also the second most valuable sports organization in the world. The Cowboys are only out-valued by Manchester United, a soccer club from England, who are valued at 1.8 billion dollars.^[51] The Cowboys currently play at Texas Stadium and are relocating in 2009 to their new 100,000-seat stadium in under construction in suburban Arlington.^[52]

Also in Arlington is Rangers Ballpark,^[53] home of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball.^[54]

NASCAR and other auto racing leagues have a presence in the area as well. Races are held every year at Texas Motor Speedway north of Fort Worth, a major stop on the NASCAR circuit. About halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, horse-racing takes place at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie.

Other teams in the Dallas area include the Dallas Harlequins of the USA Rugby Super League, as well as the Frisco RoughRiders, the Fort Worth Cats, and the Grand Prairie AirHogs—all minor league baseball teams.^[55] The Dallas Diamonds, the two-time national champions of the Women's Professional Football League, plays in North Richland Hills.^[56][57] McKinney is home to the Dallas Revolution, an Independent Women's Football League team.^[58]

Cricket is another sport that is popular among diaspora from South Asian countries. Local universities such as SMU and University of Texas at Dallas have their own cricket clubs that are affiliated with USA Cricket.

Major league sports teams in Dallas:

Recreation

A local league baseball game at Reverchon Park

The City of Dallas maintains and operates 406 parks on 21,000 acres (85 km²) of parkland. Its flagship park is the 260-acre (1.05 km²) Fair Park, which hosted the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936. The city is also home to Texas's first and largest zoo, the 95 acres (0.38 km²) Dallas Zoo, which opened at its current location in 1888.^[59]

The city's parks contain 17 separate lakes, including White Rock and Bachman lakes, spanning a total of 4,400 acres (17.81 km²). In addition, Dallas is traversed by 61.6 miles (99.1 km) of biking and 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.^[60]

To the west of Dallas in Arlington is Six Flags Over Texas, the original franchise in the Six Flags theme park chain. Hurricane Harbor, a large water park owned by Six Flags, 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.^[61]

Dallas has one daily newspaper, The Dallas Morning News, which was founded in 1885 by A. H. Belo and is Belo Corporation's flagship newspaper. The Dallas Times Herald, started in 1888, was the Morning News' major competitor until Belo purchased the paper on December 8, 1991 and closed the paper down the next day. Other daily newspapers are Al Día, a Spanish-language paper published by Belo, Quick, a free, summary-style version of the Morning News, the Jewish community's Texas Jewish Post, and a number of ethnic newspapers printed in languages such as Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese.

Other publications include the Dallas Observer and the North Texas Journal, both alternative weekly newspapers, D Magazine, a monthly magazine about business, life, and entertainment in the Metroplex, and TRAVELHOST Magazine, local visitor information available in hotel rooms. In addition, the Park Cities and suburbs such as Plano also have their own community newspapers.

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. It also publishes a major Spanish-language newspaper for the entire Metroplex known as La Estrella. To the north of Dallas and Fort Worth, the Denton Record-Chronicle covers the city of Denton and its adjacent county.

Area television stations affiliated with the major broadcasting networks include KDFW 4 (FOX), KXAS 5 (NBC), WFAA 8 (ABC) (owned by Belo), KTVT 11 (CBS), KERA 13 (PBS), KUVN 23 (UNI), KDFI 27 (MNTV), KDAF 33 (The CW) and KXTX 39 (TMD). KTXA-21 is an independent station formerly affiliated with the now-defunct UPN network.

Sixty-three (63) radio stations operate within range of Dallas.^[62] The City of Dallas operates WRR 101.1 FM, the area's main classical music station, from city offices in Fair Park.^[63] 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.^[64] Because of the city's centrally-located geographical position and lack of nearby mountainous terrain, high-power class A medium-wave stations KRLD and WBAP can broadcast as far as southern Canada at night and can be used for emergency messages 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, is based in Dallas.^[65] In 2003, HBC was acquired by Univision and became Univision Radio Inc., but the radio company remains headquartered in the city.^[66]

See also: Newspapers of Dallas, Texas, List of radio stations in Texas, List of television stations in Texas#Dallas/Fort Worth, and List of movies set in Dallas, Texas

Religion

The Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe

There is a large Protestant Christian influence in the Dallas community, as the city is deep within the Bible Belt. Methodist and Baptist churches are prominent in many neighborhoods and anchor two of the city's major private universities (Southern Methodist University and Dallas Baptist University). The Cathedral of Hope, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Protestant church, is the largest congregation of its kind in the world.^[67] 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 Dallas area and operates the University of Dallas, a liberal-arts university in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Across the street from the university is one of only 13 Cistercian Abbeys in the United States and the only one that operates a private preparatory school as well. The Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in the Arts District oversees the second-largest Catholic church membership in the United States, with 70 parishes in the Dallas Diocese. Dallas is also home to three Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.^[68]

Further, a large Muslim community exists in the north and northeastern portions of Dallas, as well as in the northern Dallas suburbs. The oldest mosque in Texas is located in Denton, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Downtown Dallas.

Dallas and its surrounding suburbs also have one of the largest Jewish communities in the United States. Most of the city's Jewish residents reside in North Dallas, particularly within 3 to 4 miles (5 to 6 km) miles on either side of Hillcrest Road.^[69] Temple Emanu-El, the largest synagogue in the South/Southwest, was founded in 1873. The community is presently led by Rabbi David E. Stern. For more information, see the History of the Jews in Dallas, Texas.^[70]

Dallas also has a large Buddhist community. Immigrants from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, Tibet, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka have all contributed to the Buddhist population, which is concentrated in the northern suburbs of Garland and Richardson. Numerous Buddhist temples dot the Metroplex, including The Buddhist Center of Dallas, Lien Hoa Vietnamese Temple of Irving, and Kadampa Meditation Center TexasandWat Buddhamahamunee of Arlington.

The UT-OU Red River Shootout in 2006

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, bringing in an estimated $350 million to the city's economy annually. The Red River Shootout, which pits the University of Texas at Austin against The University of Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl also brings significant crowds to the city.

Other festivals in the area include several Cinco de Mayo celebrations hosted by the city's large Mexican population, an Saint Patrick's Day parade along Lower Greenville Avenue, Juneteenth festivities, the Greek Food Festival of Dallas, and an annual Halloween parade on Cedar Springs Road. With the opening of Victory Park, WFAA Channel 8 has begun to host an annual New Year's Eve celebration in AT&T Plaza that the television station hopes will reminisce of celebrations in New York's Times Square.

Economy

A portion of the downtown skyline

In its beginnings, Dallas relied on farming, neighboring Fort Worth's cattle market, and its prime location on Indian trade routes to sustain itself. Dallas's key to growth came in 1873 with the building of multiple rail lines through the city. As Dallas grew and technology developed, cotton became its boon, and by 1900, Dallas was the largest inland cotton market in the world, becoming a leader 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, with 31% of Texas cotton produced within a 100-mile (161 km) radius of Dallas. In the 1930s, oil was discovered east of Dallas near Kilgore, Texas. Dallas's proximity to the discovery put it immediately 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.^[71]

The end of World War II left Dallas seeded with a nexus of communications, engineering, and production talent by companies such as Collins Radio Corporation. Decades later, the telecommunications and information revolutions still drive a large portion of the local economy. The city is sometimes referred to as the heart of "Silicon Prairie" because of a high concentration of telecommunications companies in the region, the epicenter of which lies along the Telecom Corridor, home to more than 5,700 companies.^[72] The Corridor is home to Texas Instruments and regional offices for Alcatel Lucent, AT&T, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, Rockwell, Cisco Systems, Sprint, and Verizon, as well as the national offices of CompUSA and Nortel. In December 2007, Ontario's Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the BlackBerry handheld computer, announced Irving as the site of its U.S. headquarters.

In the 1980s, Dallas was a real estate hotbed, with the metropolitan population skyrocketing and the concurrent demand for housing and jobs. Several of Downtown Dallas's largest buildings are the fruit of this boom, but over-speculation and the savings and loan crisis prevented any further additions to Dallas' skyline. Between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, central Dallas went through a slow period of growth and has only recently bounced back. This time, the real estate market in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has proven to be much more resilient than those of most other parts of the United States.

Dallas is no longer a hotbed for manufacturing like it was in the early 20th century, but plenty of goods are still manufactured in the city.^[73] Texas Instruments employs 10,400 people at its corporate headquarters and chip plants in neighboring Richardson, and defense and aircraft manufacturing still dominates the economy of nearby Fort Worth.^[74]

The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex as a whole has the largest concentration of corporate headquarters in the United States. New additions to the list include AT&T, which announced plans in June 2008 to relocate its corporate headquarters to Downtown Dallas from San Antonio, and Comerica Bank, which relocated in 2007 from Detroit. Suburban Irving is home to four Fortune 500 companies of its own, including Exxon Mobil, the most profitable company in the world and the second largest by revenue,^[75] Kimberly-Clark, Fluor (engineering), and Commercial Metals.^[76] Additional companies internationally headquartered in the Metroplex include Southwest Airlines, American Airlines, RadioShack, Neiman Marcus, 7-Eleven, Brinker International, id Software, ENSCO Offshore Drilling, Mary Kay Cosmetics, CompUSA, Zales and Fossil. Corporate headquarters in the northern suburb of Plano include EDS, Frito Lay, Dr Pepper Snapple, and JCPenney.

In addition to its large number of businesses, Dallas has more shopping centers per capita than any other city in the United States and is also home to the second shopping center built in the United States, Highland Park Village, which opened in 1931.^[77] Dallas is home of the two other major malls in North Texas, the Dallas Galleria and NorthPark Center, which is also the largest mall in Texas. Both malls feature high-end stores and are major tourist draws for the region.

The city itself is home to 15 billionaires, placing it 9th worldwide among cities with the most billionaires.^[77][78] The ranking does not even take into account the eight billionaires who live in the neighboring city of Fort Worth.

Dallas is currently the third most popular destination for business travel in the United States, and the Dallas Convention Center is one of the largest and busiest convention centers in the country, at over 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m²), and the world's single-largest column-free exhibit hall.^[79]

See also: List of companies in Dallas, Texas

See also: List of shopping malls in Dallas, Texas

Law and government

Main article: Law and government of Dallas, Texas

The city uses a council-manager government, with Tom Leppert serving as Mayor, Mary Suhm serving as city manager, and 14 council members serving as representatives to the 14 council districts in the city.^[80][81][82] 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 $2,344,314,114.^[83] 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,^[84] $1,912,845,956 in 2003-2004,^[84] $2,049,685,734 in 2004-2005,^[85] and $2,218,345,070 in 2005-2006.^[85]

National and state legislators representing Dallas:

The Dallas Police headquarters in the Cedars neighborhood.

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.

See also: List of mayors of Dallas, Texas and Sister cities of Dallas, Texas

Crime and enforcement

Policing in Dallas is provided predominantly by the Dallas Police Department, which has 2,977 officers.^[4] The Dallas chief of police is David Kunkle.^[87] The Police Headquarters are located in the Cedars neighborhood of South Dallas.

According to the FBI, a city to city comparison of crime rates is not meaningful, because recording practices vary from city to city, citizens report different percentages of crimes from one city to the next, and the actual number of people physically present in a city is unknown. [12] With that in mind, Dallas's violent crime rate (12.06 per 1,000 people) is lower than that of St Louis (24.81), Detroit (24.22), Baltimore (16.96), Philadelphia (15.62), Cleveland (15.47), Miami (15.09), Washington (14.48), Kansas City (14.44) and Boston (13.39). However, Houston (11.69), Los Angeles (7.87), and New York City (6.38) have lower violent crime rates than Dallas.^[88]

Fire protection

Fire protection and emergency medical service in the city is provided by Dallas Fire-Rescue, which has 1,670 firefighters and 56 working fire stations in the city limits.^[4][89] The Dallas Fire-Rescue chief is Eddie Burns, Sr.^[87] 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. In addition, the department operates in mutual aid agreements with several surrounding municipalities.

In 1995, the Dallas Fire Department Training Academy (now the Chief Dodd Miller Training Academy) began to host firefighter recruits from other Metroplex municipalities in its 22-week basic firefighter training school, effectively becoming a regional training center. The Academy is reverently known as "The Drill Tower" by instructors and graduates, r