Why Is Dallas A City People Refuse To Visit Again?

This morning, via MSN (Microsoft News) I scrolled through an article titled Avoid These 10 Cities People Refuse to Visit Again.

One of the ten cities people refuse to visit again surprised me.

Dallas, Texas

The ten cities listed...

Cairo, Egypt

Marrakesh, Morocco

Miami, Florida

Atlantic City, New Jersey

Dallas, Texas

Dubai

Hollywood, California

Las Vegas, Nevada

San Francisco, California

New Orleans, Louisiana

Well, Dallas is in some good company of other cities people refuse to visit again. 

The explanatory blurb about Dallas...

Texans say that megachurches, strip malls, subdivisions, and little else populate Dallas. Another person claims the city combines every bad part of Texas and markets it as a city. 

Well. I have visited Dallas multiple times and have never had it cross my mind that I never wanted to visit again. I've always enjoyed visiting Dallas. Fair Park, Deep Ellum, Dealey Plaza, Farmers Market, White Rock Lake, and more, like Pioneer Plaza.

I've been to some of the other cities on this list of cities people refuse to visit again. Hollywood, Las Vegas and San Francisco.

I've been to all three multiple times, so I am not one of those visitors who refuse to visit again.

Well, I really don't think I'd bother visiting Hollywood again. There is not a lot to see in Hollywood. Grauman's Chinese Theater, or whatever it is currently called, and the Walk of Fame. That's about all I remember about Hollywood.

Las Vegas wears me out after about four days, but, I always seem to return. 

San Francisco is a fun town. Just riding the cable cars makes the town special. And San Francisco's Chinatown is the best Chinatown I have seen. Plus the famous iconic bridges, the waterfront, and more. I don't get why anyone would say they refuse to visit San Francisco again.

Is Fort Worth The Biggest City In The World?

 

A few days ago in a blog post about Fort Worth Almost Being The Fastest Growing Big City In America mention was made of the fact that Fort Worth is unique among big cities in that the town has multiple wide open spaces within the town's borders, along with wide open spaces to expand to, unlike towns hemmed in by geography in the form of mountains or bodies of water, or surrounded by suburbs.

Last night, on Facebook, I saw a post from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram's Bud Kennedy, he being the closest that newspaper has to an actual journalist, in which Mr. Kennedy wrote "We're #12: Fort Worth officially passes Jacksonville to become America's 12th largest city at 927,720 people..."

Some of Fort Worth's population growth comes from annexing territory previously not incorporated into a town. Doing this has seemed a bit bizarre, to me, at times. Such as annexing a narrow strip of territory all the way to D/FW International Airport.

I think the annexation actually includes part of the airport property.

Which renders it sort of ironic when landing at D/FW with the pilot welcoming those onboard to Dallas, whilst landing, sort of, in Fort Worth.

Fort Worth has a puny downtown, lacking things like department stores. I think there may now be a small grocery store of some sort downtown. There are few restaurants, and on the busiest shopping day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving, downtown Fort Worth is a ghost town. We have made mention of this ghost town fact a number of times in various venues including Having Fun Looking For Black Friday Shoppers Today In Downtown Fort Worth.

Via the comments to Mr. Kennedy's Facebook post I learned I was not alone in realizing that Fort Worth's population size is a bit misleading when thinking the number of people in a town somehow relates to that town's, well, being an actual big city with an actual big downtown.

Two of those comments...

Michael Doran: While technically true, the area within the Fort Worth city limits is so huge -- 355 square miles -- that I'm doubtful that it makes for a fair ranking by population. I would argue that anyone from Fort Worth who visits Seattle (84 mi²), Denver (155 mi²), Boston (90 mi²), or San Francisco (47 mi²) would say that those cities sure *seem* bigger than Fort Worth.

Paul Allen: Those cities are more urban, vs a sprawling city like Fort Worth. I don't think that should change the rankings though. Just came back from Seattle and you are right, it "feels" like a much bigger city because everything is stacked up. You hardly see anything under 5-6 floors inside the city. Many more skyscrapers and high-rise apartments, real, mostly functioning public transit gets people around. It feels like a city. Fort Worth feels more like a big suburb with a few tall buildings in the city center.

______________________

I did not realize the size of Fort Worth was so huge.

355 square miles!

San Francisco is only 47 square miles. With Seattle slightly bigger at 84 square miles. Denver, at 155 square miles, is like Fort Worth, with wide open space to expand to. I have been to all those towns Mr. Doran mentioned, expect for Boston, and his opinion matches mine, in that San Francisco, Seattle and Denver sure do seem way bigger than Fort Worth. 

And Mr. Allen's observation that Fort Worth feels more like a big suburb with a few tall buildings in the city center, than an actual big city, seems accurate.

At 355 square miles in size, is Fort Worth the biggest city in the world? Likely not or we would have heard such bragged about, over and over again...

UPDATE: After hitting the publish button on this blog post I went to Twitter and what was the first thing I saw?

This...

Apparently we are in full on brag mode regarding Fort Worth's new population status. But, note the image included in this Twitter post. Photo documentation showing how puny downtown Fort Worth is.

Does not look like the downtown of a town with almost a million population, sprawled over 355 square miles...

How Cool Forbes Ranks Fort Worth With Molly The Trolley

I saw this Seattle ranked nation’s No. 2 coolest city — just behind this West Coast rival article this morning in the Seattle Times, which I found amusingly interesting.

Now, if the Texas town I lived in previous to the Texas town I currently live in had been ranked #2 in anything a city wide celebration would be declared by the town's mayor, which is what happened earlier in this century when some obscure Washington, D.C. lobbying group listed Fort Worth as being a Top Ten Most Livable City, with the criteria being something to do with having neighborhoods develop as urban villages, or some such thing.

Tacoma also got this imaginary prestigious "award". Soon there after I had reason to visit Tacoma's then deputy mayor. I told him Fort Worth had a city wide celebration after receiving this prestigious award. The deputy mayor laughed and said you're kidding, aren't you?

Nope, I'm not making this up. Are you saying Tacoma did not have a city wide celebration?

No. said the deputy mayor, we just politely thanked them and then forgot about it.

Now, should Fort Worth be ranked #2 in anything the town's propaganda purveyor known as the Star-Telegram would headline an article full of embarrassing puffery touting their imaginary iconic town, such as what happened a couple weeks ago, which we mentioned in a blogging titled Imaginary Iconic Fort Worth Downtown Opens New Little Hotel With Molly The Trolley.

Now, when you think about it, shouldn't a town  be considered one of the coolest towns in America when its downtown public transit consists of a bus made to look like a trolley, then called Molly the Trolley?

The first few paragraphs of the Seattle Times cool town article are instructive as to how a big city newspaper, wearing its big city pants, covers such a thing, as opposed to Fort Worth's embarrassing excuse for a newspaper of record...

What a bummer, Seattle; we’re No. 2.

San Francisco is officially cooler than Seattle, according to Forbes and Sperling’s Best Places, which found that the former was “crushing” the competition when it came to restaurants, world-class museums, sports teams, good hiking and reliable mass transit.

Seattle, however, trumped all other contenders when it came to, yes, coffee and beer.

“Seattle won on this front with 83 coffee shops, coffee roasters & craft beer breweries per 100,000 residents,” according to the 2017 edition of America’s Coolest Cities, published on Thursday.

The article also had a graphic showing the location of the top 10 coolest cities in America.

Shocking. No Texas town is in the Top 10 coolest. Not even Austin.

Austin does show up on the full list of Top 20 coolest towns, coming in at #13 coolest.

According to Forbes, the west coast dominates in coolness, which is not too surprising to me, having been in all those towns and finding them all quite cool.

Dallas has always seemed sort of west coast cool to me. Making me surprised Dallas is not on this list of cool American towns.

The entire list of 20 Coolest American towns...

1. San Francisco
2. Seattle
3. San Diego
4. New Orleans
5. Portland
6. San Jose
7. Los Angeles
8. New York
9. Boston
10. Denver
11. Charleston, S.C.
12. Honolulu
13. Austin
14. Miami
15. Madison
16. Houston
17. D.C.
18. Las Vegas
19. Orlando
20. Tampa, Fla.

This Afternoon I Got The Good News That Spencer Jack Has Escaped Alcatraz

This afternoon, via email, I received fairly good evidence that Spencer Jack's Big San Francisco Adventure has come to an end.

The email was from Spencer Jack's dad, well, actually it was two emails, containing a total of seven pictures and one line of text with that text saying...

"Spencer Jack and I escaped from Alcatraz, Trolley ride to Chinatown and darted back to the airport via BART."

It was the darting back to the airport via BART part of the text which led me to deduce that Spencer Jack's Big San Francisco Adventure was over.

I am fairly certain that the purpose behind Spencer Jack's dad taking him to San Francisco was not to scare Spencer Jack straight by putting the fear of being behind bars in Spencer's fragile young mind.

Then again, the above picture of Spencer Jack caged up in Alcatraz is a bit disturbing. Spencer looks very worried.

I am guessing, due to Spencer Jack looking relieved, the above picture was taken after the escape from Alcatraz. According to a reliable source, Spencer Jack and his dad escaped Alcatraz to take a trolley to Chinatown, which is where Spencer Jack is in the picture below.

Where Spencer Jack is standing in Chinatown does not look like the Chinatown I remember. But, it has been at least 20 years since I've been in San Francisco's Chinatown, I no longer trust my aged memory. I remember Chinatown as extremely crowded, with sensory overload from all the visual stimulation. And it smelled good.

And then there's BART. Bay Area Rapid Transit.

BART seems an odd acronym for a town's transit system. But not as odd as Seattle's South Lake Union Trolley, which has Seattle people in transit mode saying something like let's ride the SLUT to the Burger King on Lake Union.

Where I am currently located in Texas I need not worry about taking a BART or a SLUT anywhere. The only public transit available to residents of Fort Worth is called the T. The T is made up of very bare bones type buses of the sort no one would consider a luxury ride. Riding Fort Worth's T, to me, is like riding a carnival ride in a very bad theme park. In other words, fasten your seatbelts, you are in for a bumpy ride. However, unfortunately, there are no seatbelts to fasten.

Is Fort Worth the only town in America with a  population over a half million with no public transit in bus or rail form which takes the public directly to its airport?

When a Fort Worth native flies into a modern American city, like San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, San Diego, New York City, Chicago, Portland, Miami.

Or Dallas.

And sees the town is connected to the airport by public transit in the form of bus or light rail or both does it occur to the Fort Worthian that maybe their town needs to do some modernizing?

I just remembered the answer. In Fort Worth only poor people use public transit......

This Afternoon Spencer Jack Took Me Down San Francisco's Lombard Street

My favorite nephew Jason always does what he says he is going to do. Yesterday Jason indicated that today Spencer Jack would be sending me a photo of San Francisco's Lombard Street, and true to Jason's word, that photo arrived about an hour ago, with accompanying text saying....

"Photo documentation of Spencer Jack photographing Lombard Street."

I suspect Spencer Jack and his dad were on some sort of tourist tour and not driving themselves around San Francisco. To get the full Lombard Street experience one must drive oneself up the steep hill that leads to the famous downhill part of the street, you reach the crest and then descend slowly, brakes applied pretty much the entire time.

Lombard Street is memorable to my memory for a couple reasons. One being the last time I attempted to drive down Lombard Street I was unable to, due to the fact my clutch would not allow me to ascend to the summit.

The main reason Lombard Street is memorable to my memory is due to the fact that it was on the last family vacation I was ever to take that we drove down Lombard Street.

The summer after my freshman year of high school we took our first family vacation to California and Disneyland. At that point in time there was an attraction in Disneyland called, I think, America the Beautiful in Circlevision. You stood while moving images surrounded you. You were advised to hold on to the handrails. At one point the Circlevision took us down Lombard Street. It was very dizzying.

We had so much fun on that family vacation to California that we went again the next year, staying longer and going to San Francisco on the way south, where we did the drive down Lombard Street.

I did not know, at the time, that that family vacation was to be my last family vacation. My baby blister was born soon thereafter, which ended going on fun family vacations, at least for me.

On that last family trip to Disneyland, in addition to San Francisco, we also drove across the border, to Tijuana, we did wine tours in the Napa Valley, drove Highway 1 south, past Hearst Castle, staying at Santa Barbara State Park, where I got the worst sunburn ever, leaving a weird white spot on my back which remains to this day, I think. I've not looked lately.

Just a sec, I must go see if my Santa Barbara white spot is still there...

It's still there, about the size of a small pea, currently red due to sun exposure today.

I hope Spencer Jack tours Chinatown before he leaves San Francisco. I've had myself a mighty fine time or two in Chinatown. One time all of us in my traveling group got ourselves Mao jackets and caps in Chinatown. This made us look like revolutionary communists. I recollect us all later wearing our Mao outfits to the Duffy's Disco in Mount Vernon. The gatekeeper hesitated in admitting us, and then I guess he decided we added an interesting visual element and let us enter.

You ain't seen disco dancing til you see a Gang of Four doing the Hustle in full Mao regalia....

Photo Confirmation Has Arrived Confirming Spencer Jack Is Touring San Francisco

Yesterday in a blogging titled The Dog Days Of August Rolling With the Village Creek Indian Ghosts Wondering About Spencer Jack Going To Prison I wrote the following....

Changing the subject from Indian Ghosts to prisons. I just got the oddest blog comment from someone calling himself Anonymous about sending me photos of my favorite nephew and great nephew and Lombard Street in San Francisco. But this sending of photos must be postponed til after Tuesday, because on that day my favorite nephew and great nephew are scheduled to appear in prison.

I have no idea what this means. What in the world did Spencer Jack do at his young age that has him going to prison?

Below is the comment to which I refer....

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Recovering From Lombard Street Triggered Nightmare...":

Weird dream. Perhaps a 'great' and favorite nephew may send you a photo of their Lombard Street experience in a couple days. However both are scheduled appear in prison on Tuesday. 

As I attempt to decipher the above riddle I am wondering if it means that Spencer Jack and his dad are currently in San Francisco, and that tomorrow they are scheduled to tour Alcatraz? I suspect all will become clear eventually.....

___________________________________________

Well. In this morning's email inbox there were a couple emails from Spencer Jack's dad, with a couple pictures, one of which is above, with Spencer Jack standing in front of one of San Francisco's Cable Cars, with the text in the email saying....

Your speculation of your greatest nephew touring San Francisco was spot on.

When Spencer Jack's dad and his brother Joey were kids their favorite uncle used to have himself a mighty fine time taking those two to places all over Washington. But never anywhere as adventurous as San Francisco.

Til they got older.

I recollect Spencer Jack's dad and me riding Vancouver's SkyTrain from its southernmost station all the way to its northern end and then floating the Sea Bus across the harbor to North Vancouver. The only time I recollect taking Spencer Jack's dad and uncle out of Washington was when we went to Las Vegas the summer before I moved to Texas.

Today I suspect Spencer Jack will be winding his way down Lombard Street, with me eventually getting photo documentation. A photo of Spencer Jack in Chinatown would be a good thing. Along with riding BART under San Francisco Bay.

Recovering From Lombard Street Triggered Nightmares Searching For The Missing Village Creek Indian Ghosts

Today was the first day I got around to rolling my bike's wheels after fixing the rear wheel flat that flattened the last time I rolled my wheels with the Indian Ghosts in Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

As you can see,  it was back to Village Creek I rolled today, with my bike's handlebars posed on the overlook which looks over the former Blue Bayou of Village Creek.

The Indian Ghosts were not in evidence today. Methinks they are not fans of HEAT and  HUMIDITY.

Vegetation seems to be choking the water out of the Village Creek Bayou. The first deep freeze of the year should be interesting regarding what will become of all that vegetation. I suspect it will be a mess.

I do not know why, what with this being the mildest summer since I have been in Texas, but the HEAT is getting to me this year. Not enjoying the natural sauna steam bath effect to the level I enjoyed it in Texas summers past.

In addition to HEAT exhaustion I'm also suffering the effects of a slight bout of sleep deprivation. In other words I had bad nightmares last night.

Near as I can tell the nightmares were triggered by reading that the Texan who goes by the name of John Spivey ran down Lombard Street in San Francisco yesterday.

The idea of running the streets of San Francisco would be enough to provoke nightmares, but what Mr. Spivey's Lombard Street running tale triggered was a long suppressed memory of a time back in the last century when my ancient 65 Fastback Mustang's clutch started slipping as I tried to drive up the steep side of Lombard Street which leads to the curvy, scenic downhill side. I had to back down the hill, cars were honking. taxi drivers were shaking  fists at me.

It was traumatic.

Last night my long ago Lombard Street woe morphed into a nightmare where I get an unexpected call from my Little Blister, calling from D/FW airport, insisting I pick her up and deliver her to the University of Dallas. So, I pick up the Little Blister who proceeds to be a bit typically overbearing, unpleasant, humorless and demanding.

Apparently my speedometer makes an annoying repetitive noise that was unacceptable.

The drive to Dallas was very dark. I reached downtown, pulled over to look at a map to try and figure out where the University of Dallas was, due to never having heard of it before. In my nightmare the topography of Dallas was hilly, with Dallas surrounded by water on three sides. Totally not like flat, waterless Dallas.

When I awoke from the unsettling nightmare I realized I'd turned Dallas into the nightmare which is driving around in San Francisco, what with way too many hills, absolutely no freeways and no easy orienting landmarks like I usually use to find my way around a town I am not used to.

If I remember right I think I read on Facebook that Mr. Spivey is planning on going on a run in Carmel.  I had another incident in Carmel. Police were involved. I got out of it unscathed.

Reading about a Carmel run probably will not trigger a nightmare.....

Betty Jo Bouvier Segways Across America (Except For Texas) Dispensing Economic Advice

You are looking at the Wild Woman of Woolley, Betty Jo Bouvier, on the right, and Betty Jo's daughter, Betty Jo, Jr., taking a tour of California's Sonoma wine country.

On Segways.

Does this give you a clue as to why Betty Jo came to be known as the Wild Woman of Woolley?

I have toured a California winery. Or two. But, always on foot.

Betty Jo was in Wine Country due to being in San Francisco visiting Betty Jr. I do not know if the Segways were used to tour Alcatraz or Chinatown.

This morning Betty Jo sent me a funny thing. I'm sure it's been all over the Internet. But, even so, I found it amusing, so I'm copying it below...

What do you think of this plan?

Sometime this year, we taxpayers will again receive another 'Economic Stimulus' payment.

This is indeed a very exciting program, and I'll explain it by using a Q & A format:

Q. What is an 'Economic Stimulus' payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen of it.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is for you to use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the U.S. economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

* If you spend the stimulus money at Wal-Mart, the money will go to China or Sri Lanka ...

* If you spend it on gasoline, your money will go to the Arabs.

* If you purchase a computer, it will go to India , Taiwan or China .

* If you purchase fruit and vegetables, it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala ..

* If you buy an efficient car, it will go to Japan or Korea ..

* If you purchase useless stuff, it will go to Taiwan .

* If you pay your credit cards off, or buy stock, it will go to management bonuses and they will hide it offshore.

Instead, keep the money in America by:

1) Spending it at yard sales, or

2) Going to ball games, or

3) Spending it on prostitutes, or

4) Beer, or

5) Tattoos.

(These are the only American businesses still operating in the U.S. )

Conclusion:

Go to a ball game with a tattooed prostitute that you met at a yard sale and drink beer all day!

No need to thank me, I'm just glad I could be of help.

Do The Hustle In A Mao Jacket

I don't often listen to one of the Golden Oldies radio stations while driving. When the Beatles became Golden Oldies I realized I was one too. Some things are best not realized.

Today I had a strong need for contemplative solitude. I know of one good location for that, it being the best place to stand in Forth Worth, yes the same place I stood yesterday, the Tandy Hills Natural Solitude Sanatorium Area.

The temperature was only in the low 90s and there was a breeze blowing, but I was getting no wind chill factor. Very humid. Steambath humid. Ten minutes in I was a HOT, sweaty, wet mess.

After getting all wet I went to my Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. For you who don't live in urban zones with 100s of Wal-Marts, the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market is different from the Wal-Mart Supercenter, that being the place where a guy rammed through the doors last week, in a hurry to get to McDonalds. I've not been back to see if that entry is still barricaded by upside down grocery carts.

Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market keeps its air-conditioning way too cold. Particularly for someone who is coming in from some ultra-HOT hiking. I was shivering in there.

As I left the Wal-Mart parking lot I turned the radio on. I hit a button and it went to a Golden Oldies station. The disc jockey, or whatever you call them now, it must be something different because they no longer spin disks. Anyway, the guy who tells you what song he is about to play said he was about to play Van McCoy's The Hustle.

I felt vaguely embarrassed as I thought back to The Hustle. I'd been in San Francisco on a roadtrip in a VW van. Post hippie era, but that sounds like a real hippie thing to be doing. The first destination of that roadtrip had been Reno, then, if I remember right, we headed to San Francisco, then up through wine country.

In San Francisco's Chinatown we all bought blue Mao jackets and hats. Home from that trip, back in Mount Vernon, one of my friends knew a Navy guy, fresh in from the Phillipines. In exchange for getting home cooked turkey dinner he would teach us how to do The Hustle. Back then there was this thing called Disco, with all these Disco Dances that you danced to Disco Tunes. It was a very tacky period in our nation's history.

It did not take us long to learn The Hustle. Easier for some than others. Not easy for me. We decided to make our Disco Debut the following Friday night. The four of us who had been in San Francisco decided we'd be real revolutionary and wear our Mao jackets and hat.

We all met up to wait in the line to get into Duffy's, it being Mount Vernon's only Disco. It was a fun place, very popular for a few years. At an appointed hour, I think maybe 8, the disco ball starts spinning and the music starts up. I don't remember how long we waited for The Hustle. Maybe we asked the Disco music guy to play The Hustle, I don't remember.

I do remember the song starting up and about 8 of us hustling out on the dance floor where we did The Hustle. We were quite a coordinated dance team. When the song was finally over there was applause for our stunning performance. At least that is how I'm choosing to remember it. I certainly do not remember how to do The Hustle. Nor would I want to.