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I finally unpack my suitcases from the Dallas trip, but it’s just a matter of time before I refill them with necessities for the next trip that’s happening in a couple of weeks. No disclosure yet as to where I’ll pop up next, but if I’m lucky I’ll get to hear a few languages totally foreign to my ears. Â And if I’m really lucky, I will finally see the architecture that I’ve been wanting to see for a very long time. OK, one hint: think onions.
The picture above is actually of the American Airlines Center in Victory Park, which is a huge mixed-use project that’s part of the gentrification movement that has changed the landscape of Dallas in the last few years. The whole area is lovely, full of upscale residential, retail, and entertainment choices. But on the two weekends that I’m there, it feels like a ghost town. Â There’s enough vacant retail space to remind me that the urbanization of America can’t always work out like in the movies. Build it and they won’t come, not with the recession looming large over all our heads anyway. And here I was telling myself how far Dallas has finally come; too bad not many people have the confidence to enjoy it.Â
But far be it for me to be the voice of doom and gloom for Big D. Â Compared to many other large cities, the quality and cost of living in Dallas are quite amazing. It’s a good town to raise a family in affordable square footage, and it is a city with an extraordinary art culture–one of my favorites is the Nasher Sculpture Center.Â
Here’s hoping the city of Dallas figures out how to draw more transplants and tourists to its metroplex. Austin can’t be the lone star shining in this big state, can it?
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