Dallas, TX- Dataloungers seem less than impressed

It's boring. Very spaced out, have to drive around everywhere, the downtown is a tiny spot. Lots of rude and uptight people there.

It's pretty nice in the "right" areas, lots of really nice homes and high rises. The roads suck with lots of pot holes and you've got to drive everywhere. It's miserably hot for about a third of the year. I'm mean miserable, too. Nearly every gay guy I've met 1:wears make up and 2:has had some sort of "procedure"...cosmetic surgery or botox or fillers. It's bottomville, too, which is ok by me.

There are no mountains or ocean, it’s flat, it’s hot, and it’s just miles upon miles of strip malls and chain stores. Oh, and the people are bitchy.

R2 - I agree - there are some 'bubbles' in Dallas that are really very nice. It has a lot of what you would want in a big city, within reason.

But it's very spread out. And then there's this cowboy-boot Texan attitude - homophobia is still alive and on display there.

Churches EVERYWHERE. That gives you a sign of the mentality. Yes, there are liberal areas and not everyone is like that, but I certainly wouldn't want to live there.

Dallas is complicated. Tax cheats from LA and New England flock there to incorporate. Traditionally, it is very southern decadence. It is not trying to be NY or LA, because they are liberal. Dallas have castes where social groups, religion, money, and white status collide. If you ride the bus, tough luck, you are not in. The desirables live non-bus accessible like Southlake. Your roads have potholes? Tough luck, that just means you are not rich enough to do the tollway. In a way, they punish you for being poor or gay by the little things. The Gayborhood is VERY bus accessible, so that vagrants can harass the gays. Of course, with CA flocking in, things are changing. Liberal pockets are emerging in suburbia.

Lots and lots of drama in Dallas. OMFG.

It has it's nice places and restaurants but after you've been their for a while, you'll find everything just turns into a homogeneous bland and boring sprawling morass. A large metroplex area that just feels very suburban with repeating strip malls and residential neighborhoods as you drive up from Dallas to Plano, Frisco and McKinney.

The people with money are also typically VERY ostentatious, gaudy, and plastic, especially the women. Something that interestingly enough, I find very different with monied people in NYC who seem more low-key to me.

In some ways, I feel like the high society in Dallas try to emulate what they THINK NYC high society is, but it always falls short.

The city is also VERY VERY self-segrated into ethnic enclaves. It was one of the most notable things I noticed when I lived there for a few years.

Why are there no masculine gays there? You would think being in the south that there would be more masculine gays if anything.

The Dallas troll is probably me, tbh - not gonna lie. I HATE it. Never miss a chance to talk shit. I just think it's hilarious how our town is such a dump, yet the people are so pretentious.

Does anyone remember The Dallas Lipgloss and Prada Queen from about 10 years ago here? It was a meme and it was ubiquitous. Then he/she disappeared rather abruptly.

I hope he/she is okay. Prada isn't what it used to be, either.

To be fair, even though it's not for me, I could see it being fine for a career and carving out a decent life. It is better than 90% of American cities.

R10, if it is a dump then you are not one of the desirables , dear. To be fair, Dallas is a steppingstone if you want to be in NY or SF. Then, you get priced out in liberal elite cities, so you come back here as endgame to raise kids affordably.

There's a shit ton of masc/cowboy/bi-curious guys here, r9 - (I know, they've fucked me, lol.) You just gotta be a little less "fabulous" once you leave the gayborhood - if you don't wanna get your ass whooped. Gotta remember - we're still Klan Kountry-adjacent after all

If it's not New York, it's nowhere and nothing.

Dallas' only interesting places are Southfork ranch (actually in Parker) and the JFK assassination sites.

Fuck you, OP.

[quote]there are some 'bubbles' in Dallas that are really very nice

Care to name names, R4?

[quote]There's a shit ton of masc/cowboy/bi-curious guys here

I'm intrigued, R14, tell me more...

Lip Gloss and Prada!

R9. Next time you’re in town and want a masculine top, hit the Round-Up.

gorgeous fitness physique model Sagi Kalev lives there and has for years.. I've always wondered in regards to him, why of all places DALLAS?

why not l.a., or las vegas or miami/south beach for his career?

Lucky he didn't have to move to these 3 top bodybuilding/fitness/physique model cities to be a success and also his money goes far far further as well in Dallas....

Does anyone remember the "I'm in love with my Father-in-Law thread," circa 2004.

It was the first great EST and truly had everyone fooled. It involved the upper echelons of Dallas society and it even spawned its own troll, "114 and Rochlle" who was going to track down the two main protagonists of this sordid saga and expose them to the light of day and reveal their improper relations to proper Dallas society.

Good times.

DL is easily unimpressed.

It’s like the eighties never ended. White people literally dress like extras from dynasty

I like it here. Low cost of living, safe, reasonably diverse. I liked L.A. when I was younger but Texas is a better place to raise a family

I grew up in Plano/Dallas as a child in the 70’s, and high school and college (Denton) in the 80’s. I knew the metroplex back then like the back of my hand and was naive enough in my early 20’s to think it would never really change (when I moved away to NYC).

All the special areas in all the areas I loved — so many of them — slowly vanished over time. Every time I came back to visit it felt blander and blander. Where did that great bar go? I can’t believe the little market is gone. What happened to that cool Neighborhood. That art gallery is a nail salon. The mall is demolished (lots of malls in DFW… it made sense in the 80’s).

The internet I think killed a lot of the smaller, niche cultural areas, like anywhere. Maybe I’m just looking though rose colored glasses but when I go down there now it just feels like a sprawling ‘burgh and I wonder why anyone would want to live there.

Still, as big cities go NOW, you could do a lot worse. It has everything you need. As long as you have a car.

It’s changed markedly in the last five five years…for the better. More vibrant, walkable neighborhoods, more diverse, a great assortment of restaurants and entertainment venues.

The only downside is, like many cities, the gayborhood is gentrifying and is bars are on the decline.

OP, why don't you try to write intelligibly?

I actually was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked Dallas when I visited for the first time this year. It’s basically a prairie version of Atlanta, but less ratchet and with more Mexicans.

Grew up there and visit regularly for family. Soulless concrete frontage road wasteland with ridiculous wannabe piss elegant queens.

R30 But what about the famous Big D?

That's nice to hear, R27.

r28, seems every one else understands perfectly well. Maybe rinse the sand out of your mussy?

Dallas is the capital of East Texas, north Louisiana and central Mississippi. In other words, it's TRASH. I'm embarrassed for her.

Well downtown is mostly a business district so it’s dead outside of business hours. I remember attending an event at El Centro College, in downtown, on a weekend night a few years ago. It was shocking to see most restaurants closed and it being a hub for the homeless, right outside the school doors.

It sounds like Atlanta (except for the cowboy thing), which may be why I met quite a few guys in Atlanta who had lived in Dallas at some point.

I used to go there for work once a year. It never grew on me.

I work for a company with an HQ in Dallas. Had no idea so many 20th century constructs like “my church” and “the country club” were actually still a thing.

I always find myself wishing I was in Houston when I’m in Dallas. Dallas is Bible Belt panhandle/southern Oklahoma ranch land Texas’ city. The most stereotypically Texan of TX cities. I prefer all the other TX cities over Dallas - Houston has diversity, Austin is hipper/more CA and San Antonio has history and a Tejano culture. Dallas is just a train stop for cattle ranchers that’s turned into a transportation hub with lots of oil money.

[quote]I like it here. Low cost of living, safe, reasonably diverse. I liked L.A. when I was younger but Texas is a better place to raise a family

You must be a straight frau.

Former Dallas resident here. My spouse and I moved away in late 2017. We’re gay and lived in the gayborhood. I miss it. Reading the negative comments about Dallas being Bible Belt, conservative and everything else aren’t accurate at all. It’s one of those cities that’s diverse enough that you can truly make a life however you wanted and it was whatever you wanted it to be.

I lived there for 14 years. You could not pay me to go back.

In fact, I have been offered a sizable jump in salary to go back. But … no.

Meh, there are worse places. But not much.

I was there over July 4 for a circuit party. The natives were VERY friendly!

Granted I was only there for a weekend, but I don’t agree with any observation saying Dallas isn’t diverse - I found it extremely diverse, probably 1/3 black, 1/3 white and 1/3 Latino. The only diversity difference I found between Dallas and Houston was the latter’s significant population of Indian and Southeast Asians.

I also liked that Dallas “felt” like Texas, while Houston does not - Houston is basically a tropical swamp city in Texas drag. In the Houston thread that’s been bumped on here recently, I commented on that city’s identity crisis and how it has no concept of itself other than trying to crib on Texas clichés.

Wow, two totally difficult views. Interesting.

I meant to say between R41 and R42.

There's not enough booze in all of Texas.

One of the most peculiar forms of elitism I’ve seen in regards to Dallas are people complaining how flat it is. I mean, half of America is flat. Chicago is flat. Manhattan below the 100s is flat. The Los Angeles basin is largely flat. I think that if Dallas was hilly, people would complain about its hills.

I think it’s a very American thing to be struck by the “horreur vacuée” and feel like anything deemed “empty” needs to be filled up. Which is why we now have monstrosities like Hudson Yards instead of a park or open air stadium on the site.

Chicago has a Great Lake in front of it and woodsy neighborhoods and suburbs. Dallas has none of that.

The best description of Dallas I've ever heard is "it's the only city in America where rich WASPs try and emulate rich NY and LA Italians and Jews, and not the other way around."

So all the ostentation, none of the ethnic charm.

[quote]I was younger but Texas is a better place to raise a family

blech

[quote] It’s one of those cities that’s diverse enough that you can truly make a life however you wanted and it was whatever you wanted it to be.

which from my limited understanding and experience of the city was being a toiling, poor latino or black or a rich bitch white woman with bleach blond hair and a 2.3 cars and kids in the suburbs. sorry, the city was ugly all the way around. the Downtown has some fun twentieth century historical details but the VAST majority of the metro area is an ugly strip mall

Actually, Houston has an identity as the most diverse city in the U.S., and the city is trading on that strength. It represents the future of America.

yeah, TONS and TONS of Vietnamese and central americans working together - cajuns and Blacks and well, rednecks like my cousin who lives there. Food in Houston is way better than almost anywhere else, and no one hears about it.

It's also stultifying ugly, possibly worse than Dallas.

R53: You can probably say this about places as prosaic as Cleveland and St Louis, or as hipster-ridden as Portland. It’s basically the dull, sunbelt version of this, like Atlanta.

[quote] You can probably say this about places as prosaic as Cleveland and St Louis, or as hipster-ridden as Portland

I've lived in cleveland and it has things like the west side market and university city which don't compare with Dallas at all. it's a has-been town, and knows it, Dallas views itself as the center of the universe.

Laughing. No, Dallas has plenty — too many — lakes, open prairie areas (especially north), parks, woodsy areas, and neighborhoods with old trees everywhere. If anything, the entire metroplex is lousy with big open public parks. Dallas is a very wiiiide and exhaustingly complex connection of large and small cities and towns and neighborhoods and areas. People keep comparing it to Atlanta but I always thought it was more like a mini-L.A.

[quote] how it has no concept of itself other than trying to crib on Texas clichés.

I'm a native of Houston and this to me is an excellent description. There's a not-so-quiet desperation in Houston to create an identity. People grasp at diversity, Texas clichés, and the space industry... it's all kind of pathetic. I still don't care for Dallas. It's very Old South.

Houston is a poorly planned city that is sinking into the swampy ground it was built on because the city fathers were too arrogant to allocate resources for the proper runoff of excess water. So yes, I agree that it represents the future of America, but for different reasons.

I disagree about Dallas being an Old South city; I felt it was essentially a Midwestern city. Having lived in Chicago I did feel a familiarity between the two, both being essentially trading/gateway hubs to the vast American prairie.

Nine months of my life I'll never get back.

Houston is prone to hurricanes too. Fuck that shit.

Growing up in Dallas, all my parents and their older friends: “Why would you want to move to NYC? It all muggers in the subways, scary gangs, godless filth, and everyone has AIDS!”

After moving to NYC, all my hipster and activist friends: “How could you grow up in Texas? It’s all racist rednecks, white evangelicals,, KKK lynch-mobs, and the banjo player from Deliverance!”

*rolls eyes*

I think Houston would be more likeable if it had a sense of humor about itself. Dallas cleverly branded itself by adopting the red Pegasus of the old Mobil Oil Company as a logo; maybe Houston should consider adopting the horned armadillo from the Armadillo Palace.

I don’t think Houston takes itself too seriously. Quite the opposite - Dallas seems to have an undeserved sense of importance along the lines of “everything is bigger in Texas”.

A city as diverse as Houston in which everyone, more or less, works together is nothing to sneer at. It's not done anywhere else.

R67 try visiting Queens for a day, will you, and shut up already.

Maramac published a Dallas guidebook in which they admitted only 10% of Dallasites say Dallas is their favorite city. People do time there: they don't live.

r68 OK.

I find it very hard to believe Houston is as diverse as they say.

It's one thing to have a racial mix, but when a racial group is comprised primarily of the same ethnic background, that's not diverse.

If you say - oh, 38% is Latino, but 95% of those are Mexican - that's nothing like the diversity of the Latino population of NYC or Miami or Chicago.

I haven't been to Houston in a long time, so maybe it has changed. But I will say, I don't recall meeting people from Houston having this Texas chip on their shoulder, always talking about Texas and how great it is. People from Dallas seem to do that.

I feel like the diversity thing is something Houston's Chamber of Commerce has cooked up and manipulated as their marketing tool.

Besides what everyone is saying, Dallas has been trying to steal water from everywhere for years, from other states at that. This so the wannabes can water their grass in a semi arid place. Find you own fucking water in Texas.

Is Houston really that bad, R55?

For me it's the weather. Both in Dallas and Houston. I really feel ill when I'm in that kind of oppressive heat. In cooler climates, you can bundle up. Working outside when it's cool is tolerable because it warms you up. Any activity in that kind of heat just make you hotter. Yuck. Both are basically indoor towns. Very little outside activity. I will say the winters are nice, though Dallas does get a few ice storms. Houston is green all year long which is nice. But it's just not worth it.

It’s probably only fair to compare Dallas to other large southern cities like Houston and Atlanta. Each has it’s individual strengths but if you don’t like the heat, driving and the South you won’t like any of them.

I don’t

[quote] Chicago has a Great Lake in front of it

A lake, even a Great Lake, is not an ocean.

But it’s more than what dallass offers

I had an October temp job at Norcosto circa 1980. Jane Powell came in looking for a long cigarette holder for her act.

^ NorcostCo

There was an informative thread about Houston a few months back

Near downtown, The Cedars is an undiscovered ’hood seems laid-back, cool, quiet and not expensive. Where Botham Jean Avenue was recently named.

Funny not one mention of Fort Worth in this thread.

[quote]Downtown has some fun twentieth century historical details

The fuck?

You know I regret not spending more time in Fort Worth on my first trip to DFW in May, I passed by the downtown area on the shuttle from the train station to the museums and was surprised by how pleasant and lively it looked. Charming old buildings, al fresco dining and small shops. A perfect downtown for a small city.

R57: University City? That’s in Philadelphia. You didn’t remember so well. University Circle has a first rate comprehensive art museum which Dallas doesn’t have, a good natural history museum which Dallas doesn’t, have, trees, which Dallas doesn’t have. Trying to make the case for an entrepreneurial atmosphere that results in strip malls and subdivisions is pretty difficult. Fort Worth, for a city it’s size seems more interesting than Dallas.

OP, just go for the Grassy Knoll and the Book Depository then beat it fast out of town.

R87, don't forget Southfork!

I actually thought Dallas Museum of Art was an excellent art museum, appropriate for a city it’s size and age. Obviously nothing in the South and West will equal the quality of the collections of the industrial North, which accumulated their bounty at the height of gilded age looting.

It's an exhausting place with lots to "do"..

[quote]University City? That’s in Philadelphia.

sorry, i've lived in both

[quote] University Circle has a first rate comprehensive art museum which Dallas doesn’t have

and it's FREE

Be sure to visit the house at 6735 Westlake Avenue (NE Dallas near White Rock Lake). It's where Bobby Ewing was hit by a car and died...which of course was Pam's dream! You can see the house on Google maps...sorry, can't link.

I have three friends in the past year who sold their houses on the West Coast (two in the Bay Area and one in Seattle) and moved to the Dallas area for jobs. The latest told me yesterday and it made me think of this thread. Opportunity makes up for any potential negatives. All big liberals, so at least they’ll help make Texas blue.

What is Southfork?

It's the one below the soup spoon, r95.

Live here. It is, overall, sprawly and not exactly clean. It has many great old neighborhoods that are truly pretty. NOT a walkable city at all and the traffic is getting worse. Too many people moving here w/o infrastructure sufficient to handle them all. Flash flood warnings are ubiquitous be abuse water has fewer and fewer places to absorb. And the housing situation, despite a HUGE building boom in stacked up, tacky apartments, is terrible. Available stock is ridiculously expensive. 'Affordable' any more means taking a big gamble in a neighborhood in or adjacent to a sketchy area. I want to leave. But my house is paid for . . .

It's only a miracle several thousand buildings in Dallas haven't collapsed yet. Building stock is truly incompetent and cheap.

But what do people DO? I'm in the Pacific NW - the gays go hiking, camping, kayaking or to the beach/coast practically every weekend, skiing and snowboarding in the winter (well, I don't, but a lot of them do). You can hardly do any of that in Texas.

Museums, galleries, flea markets? Nothing that compares to the big cities on the coasts. I guess that leaves shopping.

You realize that there is a HUGE airport there with direct flights to basically everywhere in the country, right?

My God, the provincialism of the coasts is beyond parody. "Oh boo hoo, those poor people who live in the interior, whatever do they do? How can they go hiking or camping or skiing?" They hop on a fucking plane and are in Aspen in one hour and 46 minutes.

This attitude reminds me of my last trip to Boston and I was one the Boston to Provincetown ferry and there were some older locals with PAHKED THE CAH AT HAVAHD YAHD accents who couldn't understand how people in Chicago could live without having a Dunkin Donuts on every block.

I grew up in Fort Worth and then spent several years in Dallas. I have lived in several more sunbelt cities over the years and the truth is they all seem the same in the end. There is nothing special about most places in the USA. Just a lot of empty strip malls it seems.

[quote]There is nothing special about most places in the USA. Just a lot of empty strip malls it seems.

I agree with this, and I think this adds to the defensiveness of people, especially people on the NY/California axis, both of which it is generally agreed now have turned to corner into dystopia.

R99 - People on the West Coast are more active in their environment, in general.

However, to say that gays in PNW - or anyone really - goes hiking, camping, or skiing every weekend is complete and utter bullshit. Plus - the beaches can only be used there around 2 months a year.

I wouldn't throw any stones at Dallas if you live in PNW. Seattle is still a small city comparatively and not much in museums or culture. And that cloudy, gloomy weather 8 months out of the year isn't exactly a selling point.

The Dallas rich are all gay-bashing shit weasels.

R105 What are you talking about, poser?! Was that your way of showing off that you hung out with the rich? So tell us about your experiences with your Highland Park friends. Did someone among this crowd call you out on your cattiness? Maybe they pointed how bitchy some uppity gay men behave, bullying other gays, but then crying when they’re put in their place. Please, dish.

I live in Houston and when I go to Dallas it just seems very "white" and bland with lots of stereotypical JR Ewing types with bleached blonde big haired wives in gaudy jewelry and leopard print. Houston seems grimier but more vibrant with more diversity and ethnicities cohabiting.

R107 I suppose if you actually seek those scenes out, those are the people you will find. On my trip to Dallas, I did not go to Highland Park Village, I spent time in the Museum District, in Oak Lawn and in the Bishop Arts District and I didn't see any of those types of people.

[quote] They hop on a fucking plane

R100 wins for most clueless, by counting Dallas' best trait as being easy to LEAVE.

R107. Where the fuck are you going?! 1999?! Today, Dallas is all Mexican with some whites and blacks sprinkled about

Yes, ease of leaving a city factors into its benefits. The last time I checked, the opportunity to engage in weekend recreation such as hiking, camping, or enjoying a pristine beach was not available to people inside New York City, and New Yorkers will often spends hours on a combination of trains, cars and ferries simply to get to their weekend destination.

Yes, R111, but they (we) live in NYC, not "drive to do anything" hideous Dallas.

R89 At the DMA don’t forget to walk around the side by one of the loading docks and peer through the garage door windows at the bottom of Claes Oldenburg’s giant spike. The top of it is through the floor in one of the main halls with a rope attached to the ceiling. The bottom comes through the ceiling in the basement and isn’t open to the public. I always loved that you had to sneak around and maybe climb into a dumpster to catch a peek.

Here…

If you’re in Fort Worth don’t forget to visit the Water Gardens! They’re a little rough around the edges but still there, and still impressive for an old brutalist water park.

R115 And wear your Logan’s Run cosplay outfits.

The best art museum is the Amon Carter. Dallas has done nothing of note culturally ever.

That said, Dallas has been a center of the fashion industry.

Do the guys still wear cowboy hats?

R117 LOL! Well, it is one of the most famous cities in one of the most famous states in the US. Especially globally. It has certainly *added* to culture itself, going way back. Not Houston, not Austin. But Dallas. Its often stereotypical reputation precedes it.

When you travel around the world, tell people you’re from the US and they’re like, “Okay.” Tell them you’re from “Dallas, Texas,” and suddenly there’s a piqued interest and curiosity. As much as saying you’re from NYC or LA.

R97, gee, sounds, uh, lovely. . .

[quote]That said, Dallas has been a center of the fashion industry.

Lip gloss!

Prada!

It was named after Matt Dallas.

Hub airport: A plus if you travel all the time, which probably means the place you live doesn't matter. Not a big selling point for someone who truly plans to live there.

Even Atlanta, which is near the semi-interesting North Georgia mountains is a place where eating out (at pretty forgettable restaurants) and shopping are the big thing. If that's true of Dallas, it's a pretty dull life.

Are people as lacking in curiosity? That's one of the cardinal things about Atlanta, esp. among the gays. No real interest in the rest of the world and an extreme package tour mentality among people who like to travel.

Dallas is the most materialistic city in America, and that includes LA. It's all about money, cars and big houses. If you don't have those things, then it will be a miserable place to live. The 80s Reagan era never ended in Big D. And Dallasites all want to be famous, which is why the city is the first stop for reality show casting directors.

There's a church and liquor store on every corner, which is the perfect metaphor for Dallas society. Lots of lip service is paid to religion and what church you belong to, but that's mostly because it's expected thing to do for straights. Half of those church-goers are alcoholics and/or cheating on their wives. At the end of the day, the only things these god-fearing people worship are money and Trump.

Don't forget DL favorite Troy Aikman lives in Dallas with his new wife!

R120 - the only reason why that happens is because of the Dallas soap opera from the late 70's / early 80's when other countries didn't have a lot of their own content to show on TV. That show played around the world.

That show embodied the Texan rancher / oil prototype which is just so foreign to everyone else - even people living in the US.

The western parts of Fort Worth, including downtown, are nice. Worth a visit. East Fort Worth is as bad as Detroit was at its worst.

It's a tough town.

Watch "GCB" on the (free) ABC app. The show is totally Dallas...with a very hot gay-but-married-to-a-woman character.

but, but, what about Amarillo?!

R31 Not so much. Present company excluded of course.

There was a Top Chef episode where they pay a visit to a mansion in Dallas to cook a dinner for a group of rich people from the neighborhood, all of whom were just AWFUL, just brainless and smug and oh so proud of their money.

Dallas is nothing like what R125 described. Sounds like his head is stuck on watching Dallas the soap. Your experience will be as ordinary as you make it or as fabulous as you make it. In my twenty years living there, I never met any cover-all Dallas-type.

The Alan White homicide has been one of the most frustrating cases in the LGBTQ community. Not only did it take months to find the body after White’s abandoned car was located, cause of death has still not been determined.

Responding to an inquiry from Dallas Voice, Sgt. Sigala of the homicide unit wrote, “The cause of death has not been determined by the Medical Examiner’s office. No new updates to provide. This is still an active an ongoing investigation.”

While the cause of death hasn’t been determined, the case is being investigated by homicide now. Until the body was found, the case was under missing persons.

The difficulty in determining cause of death is possibly because of the state of decomposition of the body when White was finally found in a field in South Dallas near Paul Quinn College