TS: Dallas vs. Houston

(I haven't been to Dallas; I hate driving through Houston but have only spent an afternoon there other than on I-10.)

Dallas isn't much better, but it's not as polluted, humid and has somewhat less violent crime. Therefore Dallas wins.

ergo, dallas wins.

Argh. Argh. Argh.

Depends. Do you know where Chacho's is, and can you get me some of their salsa quemada? :)

Is there a Houston corollary to Jerry Jones' face-lift?

Dude, that's right around where I live!

I've never been there, though. Is their salsa quemada supposed to be legendary?

(End of pointless tirade)

I've never been there, though. Is their salsa quemada supposed to be legendary?

Oh man. Well, the salsa itself, no, not really. Nor is Chacho's, exactly. There used to be a different fajita place there, which my ex had gone to all the time when she lived there (this is why I've been to San Antonio so much). We found Chacho's when we went looking for the other place ... and man, between that and a few other places in SA, Mexican food just doesn't satisfy me anywhere else now.

They have the little salsa-and-condiments bar in the middle there, and the salsa quemada -- I have no idea what's in it, but it's brown, and in the mid-to-high range of spiciness, and I'm going to guess chipotle and onion for starters -- is my favorite, especially for the quesadillas and the carne guisada taco.

... damn. Said ex and her friends are in San Antonio this weekend, and I haven't gone since we broke up a couple years back. (I miss Rudy's, too, but that's not in San Antonio proper, that's down ... that loop ... 1604?)

Had an itchy feeling about race relations, but the only places I haven't had that feeling were places where everyone was the same race. So.

Can't speak to club-and-music scene except that I think a large portion of it is really in Austin, but that's only, what, an hour away.

Dee can say more, I'm sure :)

Thank you for ranking the school system here as "good". We're so tough on ourselves in regards to that that it's nice to know the school districts' efforts (well, at least the two largest ones, the NISD and the SAISD) haven't gone for naught.

Agreed about the heat and humidity during the summers, which really encompass May - September here. After September's end, though, when the cooling starts and one is able to do outdoor activities without sacrificing comfort, the payoff for summer begins.

Also agreed about the sheer sprawl of this place. It's not uncommon to spend anywhere between 30 and 45 minutes driving to a destination, and when I was going to high school downtown the commute back home was a good hour or so. Sometimes it does get irritating, but other times, when I've got a CD I love playing on the car stereo I feel happy about the distances. (Right now, most places I go to are within a 20-minute drive of where I live, but if I wanted to go to the "cool local record store", i.e. Hogwild Records, I would have to spend anywhere up to 45 minutes driving there. Which I have, I'll let you know.)

Austin IS the place to go for the really cool music and clubbing scene, but there are still things to do here in San Antonio. We've got like five or six gay bars/clubs lined up almost end-to-end in a strip that's actually not too far from Hogwild Records (these places exist in our "artsy bohemian" area). There are other bars & clubs scattered throughout the city, although I couldn't tell you how they are because I'm not exactly a clubbing/bar-hopping type of person. And I suppose if you're interested in it, we do have a Polly Esther's downtown and a Dave & Buster's in the near-northwest side. Plus, the whole city is DM-friendly because Depeche Mode have been good to us and played here several times in the past. (This totally rocks my own personal casbah, of course.)

The racial atmosphere -- well, honestly it could be improved. But that could describe most places you go to, hm? One good part about living here with the ethnicity I have is that I feel like I'm the norm when I'm here. I don't have to really think about the way I look or my lineage, which frees me up to be whomever I want to be vs. trying to be an example of what my ethnicity is supposed to be about. If I were living in someplace like Hartford, CT, or Birmingham, AL, I think I'd be trying as hard as I could to be the "perfect Latina", but over here I can be all-American and not really hear anything about it or feel like I was a failure to my ethicity.

James, if you've got questions to ask, feel free to ask, either in e-mail or over here on this forum or in chat or a combination of the three. I'd be more than happy to answer your questions.

http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/human_league/tours.jhtml

C'monbecorrectMamawantstohear"Secrets"live. ;)

vs

http://pod-135.dolphin-server.co.uk/~gareth/postcards/houston.jpg

Having lived in both I must say Dallas will make you want to kill yourself far, far less.

which area is the artsy, bohemian side of San Ant? Is it the northeast side? (forgive me, it's been a few years).

Strong words from a man who lives in Arlington! ;)

gygax!, no worries. The part of town I'm thinking of would be the one just north of downtown, right around San Antonio College. I suppose one could make the argument that there are two other artsy, bohemian areas in the city -- the area just west of downtown, right around where the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center is, and another area just north of downtown that borders the King William Historical District. However, the one I was thinking of specifically at the time I posted the above message was the one just right next to the Monte Vista Historical District. You remember the intersection of San Pedro and Main? That's right around where I was thinking.

*reads Orbit's post, is incredibly surprised*

I think my Texas rankings would go:

Austin
Ft. Worth
El Paso
San Antonio
Dallas
Houston

Yeah Aaron, just cause my window got shot out at work in the Cliff doesn't mean it's a bad part of town.

my TX ranking:

1. Austin
2. Dallas
3. San Antonio
4. Ft Worth (my hometown)
. . .
100. Houston

1) Austin
2) Houston
3) Ft Worth
4) El Paso
5) SA
6) Dallas

Dallas is ridiculous. I have learned to like aspects of it, but most of what I like about Dallas is centered around the fact that there's nowhere to go but up; and that whatever interesting scenes or facets there are are so nascent and tiny, and are therefore limitless in their promise, and more accessible/less intimidating.

And for the record the Dallas food scene could not be more overrated. A hudred katrillion restaurants and so very few of them are worthy of note.

Suddenly I feel like honoring something....

*whistles and walks away*

Interesting tidbit of the day: El Paso was supposed to be part of New Mexico but someone fucked up when drawing up the maps. You'll notice how the border jogs north a little immediately west of it, just enough to put it within Texas.

Sorry to say, Sam, but wrong. I've had zits that I miss more.

Put me in a cab, I'm flying away
I'm glad to say I'm finally leaving here...
--Frank Black, "San Antonio, Texas"

Fucking awesome place, and I mean the original definition of "awesome."

http://community.webshots.com/s/image4/2/75/38/55627538ttnCUn_ph.jpg

http://community.webshots.com/s/image2/1/66/98/46816698SLnjKB_ph.jpg

See, your problem is not a lack of natural beauty, it's just that you haven't been to see it in too long.

Keenan, you've just barely left. Wait for when the honeymoon ends. It took about a year of living in nyc before I really missed TX and realized I didn't want to live away from it.

And, hey, if you don't miss it. . .well, quite simply, you weren't much of a Texan to begin with. ;)

defend the indefensible: dallas, tx

Right it's an empty slate. It has the infrastructure in place, now it's up to you/me/time/fate to bring Dallas to relevance. It'll happen. A few years ago Dallas almost broke thru. There were several good bands. There were some local fanzines going around. Good little galleries and restaurants sprouting around Fair Park. But then thing sort of halted and even reversed. Oh well.

I'll continue to add thoughts, but it's 2 a.m. Next I'll talk about how Dallas has more restaurants per capita than any city in the U.S. and that precisely NONE of them are very good.

As much as I hate HATE HAAAAATE Houston, and I think Milo is on the money, it does have way more character than Dallas...so I'm gonna go with H-TOWN, BAY-BEEEEH!!! North Texas people are, for the most part, cooler though.
Ryan: you're a much better man than I'll ever be for promptly dissing the dreaded inhabitants of Austin City.

And I know several nice Austinites, so not all of them are snobs or insufferable. Just FYI.

Yea, I get treated like a god whenever I'm there, 'cuz people think I'm a friggin' local. I reek of so hip that I blend in well. That is, until they find out I'm a Tú-rris! They usually respond with an "oh...", which never fails to make me snicker.

Ha. I never noticed that before. Granted, I suppose I could see how someone who is a non-Hispanic white person around here might feel as though they're in the midst of being swallowed up, even though we are certainly not the only "minority" group here and many of us are so accustomed to seeing others like us that we don't even really think about ethnicity. Er, or I don't. (I had no idea you were a fellow Hispanic, FYI.)

And the Austinites who've been kind to me have known that I'm not from Austin, though I suspect maybe they have feel some sort of connection to San Antonians due to our two cities being so close together and in the same general region of the state. Hm.

Austin, 6 years, of course it rocks but its so-called "hip" folx take the city too much for granted and aren't half as cool as the think they are.

Dallas now going on 3 years. Before I moved here I thought I would hate it due to many of the generalzations listed above. Now, it's home. I planned on moving back to Austin this year but *shock* I decided not to. Not ready to leave my beloved Assassination City just yet. Diamond in the rough indeed.

NATIVE TEXANS DROPPIN' SCIENCE BIIAAAYYTTCHH

;)

Da Funk! :D

"(I had no idea you were a fellow Hispanic, FYI.")

You haven't been reading between the lines, missy! :-@

Assassination city

Search: underrated and overlooked music scene; great dive bars; the E.D.T. (yo); Oak Cliff

Destroy: the school district; the yuppies in north dallas and highland park; the fucking suburbs

Destroy - no selection of Chinese food unless you go to Richardson, I-635 (terrible traffic), downtown (for the most part not much going on), some parts of Deep Ellum, the CD stores here, Ranger games, watching snobs at the Galleria, 103.3 FM (ESPN radio)

Destroy: Reunion Tower and all those other glass-box buildings that went up in the '80s. The Park Cities Baptist Church (has a giant clock tower with "Night Cometh" written on the clock's face, which is actually cool in a goth sort of way, but has historically been a racist force for evil in Dallas). Truly awful urban sprawl and traffic. (Public transportation is generally bad, but there is a nice light-rail system, DART.) The general "anything that's good for bidness is good for Dallas" culture. The Dallas public school system. The fifteen-foot-tall electric fans that cool the golfers at the Dallas Country Club throughout the hot summers (yes, at least 36 huge electric fans outdoors all over the golf course running all day).

destroy: deep ellum. all of it. I'll take greenville anyday. but then I could be biased b/c I live 3 blocks from lower greenville and work at the oldest bar in dallas which is on, yeah greenville.

bar search: fireside lounge, muddy waters, double wide, lee harveys, bar of coke, i mean soap (but not as much as in the past), lakewood landing and, most of all, SHIPS LOUNGE. I hear the girl who works there on weekends is real cute. ;)

destroy: Dallas Observer, Dallas Morning News, whatever that DMN mini-paper that wants to be the Observer, I-30 construction, Laura Miller, the entire Dallas city government, Plano

i lived in the heights and thought it personified everything i hate about houston. yuppies moving to the "inner city" and gentrifying everything. Houston just reeks of upward mobility and shallowness to me.

and i've noticed people who dislike dallas usually associate it with deep ellum and knox/henderson. I used to do the same. if you do this of course you'll dislike it, those places suck!!!

keeping it real in the 2-1-4,
Sam of the E.D.T.

Aren't about half the clubs in Deep ellum owned by one guy/group now?

I worked for him at Liberty Noodles before it shut down.

My aunt dated Corky Campisi when she was an SMU cheerleader in the '70s, until my dad and uncle basically severed the relationship (they weren't gonna let their sister date a wiseguy).

some lame ass velvet rope type club is there now.

sammy, i met "Books" (RivBtGmblrs mgr.) a couple times when he was out here, should i call him up?

the double wide was a little much (lone star cans though).

why didn't you tell me you were here???

on the other hand, houston has the guy that is probably at the top of the reserve list now, and we always have an amazing time when i'm down there. great restaurants, going to the theatre, going to see bands-- all designed to trick me to move there. although i think i'd get sick of it after a week or so.

and i went to austin for the first time, and we liked it because it had: frozen custard, brew and view with good food and 'spellbound' showing, champagne sangria in a lovely garden.

so i like each in their own way.

There are two vietnameses noodle places in the EDT, each within a mile of me: Mai's and VietNam.

Sam (or indeed anyone else here), what are your opinions re: Mesquite? I ask this because this sweetheart of a person I know is now in Mesquite and obv I'm curious about what that place is like.

I consider cities superior to the 'burbs for the cultural bonuses - concerts/shows/music, cinema, museums, shopping (if you have the money and are into that, I suppose), art, etc.. Dallas doesn't have any of those worth mentioning (arguably not even the best in the area for any of them), nor the mass transit/pedestrian culture of a New York.

Dallas is pretty much identical to the rest of the non-Plano/Highland Park/richwhitefuckers Metroplex.

I'm not saying Dallas is worse than anywhere else in the area, but it's not that different, either. Different from the richwhitefucker part of North Texas, but not from the other population centers.

My sister has just announced that her and her husband are moving to Dallas for three years (he's been seconded). So what's our view on Dallas as a holiday destination?

Dallas is wonderful. I've lived here three years now and I love it. (have also spent 6 yrs in Austin and 3 in Houston). If you want more specific info vicky, you can mail me.

Here in Dallas for 48 hours on work. So far: humid and massive electrical storm.

OMG fuck Dallas forever