Dallas

Dallas, the ninth biggest city in the United States and the third largest in Texas, is an astonishing melting pot of cultures and personalities. Dallas, as the uncontested heart of the oil and cotton industries in the late 1800s and early 1900s, slowly evolved to become a quintessential new-age American boomtown, and is now one of the nation’s fastest expanding cities.

Dallas, with its upmarket luxury hotels, many fine dining establishments, and one of the world’s busiest airports, maintains an elite mentality that is mirrored in the city’s rich population, world-class museums, and gleaming contemporary cityscape. Although its past has been tainted by the notorious death of former US President John F. Kennedy, Dallas has remade itself in the eyes of the world; the city is home to several large corporations and serves as an international center for commerce and trade.

Dallas is well-known for its malls, and shopping is an integral part of the city’s cultural fabric.

Many non-natives often struggle to understand Dallas, and fact, the whole Metroplex. Dallas does not conform to many of the preconceptions associated with Texas (Western, laid-back, informal), but it also often fails to live up to some of its own more infamous cliches (pretentious, unfriendly, sterile). The reality, as is often the case, lies somewhere in between.

Dallas is a lovely city that has a lot to offer in terms of sights, cuisine, and people. From the ultra-modern and posh Uptown and Victory developments to the old-world elegance and upper-crust attitude of Turtle Creek to the “real life” feel of largely suburban North Dallas, it is nearly impossible to neatly categorize Dallas beyond this: it is one of the largest cities in the United States, and a metro area where an increasing number of people choose to work and live each year. With that in mind, you should enjoy your vacation to Dallas for the same reasons that others do.

Dallas’ subtropical climate is a result of its location in the American South, with moderate winters, scorching summers, and a highly rainy spring and autumn in between. It may also be a very dry region in the winter and summer, since it gets warmer, drier air from the Mojave Desert to the west and the Great Plains to the north.

Winters are typically warm, with average highs in the 50s and 60s (10-20 °C) and lows around the freezing point. Dallas does get snow a few times a year, and there are rare days when temperatures do not rise beyond the low 30s (0-5 °C), but for the most part, winter in Dallas is quite dry and cold. However, freezing rain and ice storms are a possibility.

While spring and autumn deliver lovely weather, spring is also noted for its storms. Because Dallas is located near Tornado Alley, spring weather may be highly unpredictable, with violent storms occurring often. Summers are hot and dry, with temperatures often exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

Dallas receives an average annual rainfall of 37.1 inches (942.3 mm) and an average annual snowfall of roughly 2.5 inches (63.5 mm).

Dallas’ subtropical climate is a result of its location in the American South, with moderate winters, scorching summers, and a highly rainy spring and autumn in between. It may also be a very dry region in the winter and summer, since it gets warmer, drier air from the Mojave Desert to the west and the Great Plains to the north.

Winters are typically warm, with average highs in the 50s and 60s (10-20 °C) and lows around the freezing point. Dallas does get snow a few times a year, and there are rare days when temperatures do not rise beyond the low 30s (0-5 °C), but for the most part, winter in Dallas is quite dry and cold. However, freezing rain and ice storms are a possibility.

While spring and autumn deliver lovely weather, spring is also noted for its storms. Because Dallas is located near Tornado Alley, spring weather may be highly unpredictable, with violent storms occurring often. Summers are hot and dry, with temperatures often exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

Dallas receives an average annual rainfall of 37.1 inches (942.3 mm) and an average annual snowfall of roughly 2.5 inches (63.5 mm).

Dallas’ early years were sustained by farming, the adjacent Fort Worth Stockyards, and its strategic placement on Native American trading routes. Dallas’ development spurt began in 1873, when the city’s many rail lines were constructed. As Dallas evolved and technology advanced, cotton became its windfall, and by 1900, Dallas had become the world’s biggest inland cotton market, establishing itself as a pioneer in the manufacture of cotton gin gear. By the early 1900s, Dallas had developed into a center of economic activity for the whole Southern United States, and it was chosen in 1914 as the location of the Eleventh Federal Reserve District. By 1925, Texas produced over 13% of the nation’s cotton, with 31% of Texas cotton produced within a 100-mile (160-kilometer) radius of Dallas. Petroleum was found east of Dallas, in Kilgore, Texas, in the 1930s. Dallas’ closeness to the discovery quickly positioned it at the epicenter of the country’s petroleum market. Following years of petroleum discoveries in the Permian Basin, the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, and Oklahoma cemented Dallas’ status as the market’s center.

After World War II, corporations such as Collins Radio Corporation seeded Dallas with a confluence of communications, technical, and production skill. Decades later, the information and telecommunications revolutions continue to power a significant section of the local economy. The city is sometimes referred to as “Silicon Prairie’s heart” because to the region’s large concentration of telecommunications firms, the core of which is situated along the Telecom Corridor near Richardson, a northern suburb of Dallas. The Corridor is home to about 5,700 businesses, including Texas Instruments (based in Dallas), Nortel Networks, Alcatel Lucent, AT&T, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, Rockwell Collins, Cisco Systems, Sprint, Verizon Communications, and XO Communications (which is now headquartered in Miami,FL). Texas Instruments, a Fortune 500 company, employs 10,400 workers in Dallas at its corporate headquarters and chip manufacturing facilities.

Dallas was a real estate hotspot in the 1980s, with the growing metropolitan population creating a need for additional housing and business space. Numerous enormous buildings in Downtown Dallas are the result of this boom, but excessive speculation, the savings and loan crisis, and an oil slump brought the 1980’s construction boom to an end for both Dallas and its city sister Houston. Central Dallas had a modest period of expansion between the late 1980s and the early 2000s. However, since the early 2000s, Dallas’ central business district has seen continuous and considerable expansion, resulting from both the conversion of existing commercial buildings into residential and hotel purposes and the construction of new office and residential skyscrapers. The building of Klyde Warren Park, which spans the Woodall Rodgers Freeway and connects downtown Dallas’ CBD to Uptown/Victory Park smoothly, has functioned in synergy with the extremely successful Dallas Arts District, resulting in both being drivers for considerable new construction in central Dallas.

The Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex’s residential real estate market has not only remained resilient, but has also reverted to a boom condition. Dallas and the surrounding metropolitan area have been the nation’s leaders in apartment building and net leasing, with rents hitting record highs. Single family house sales, whether pre-owned or new construction, are outpacing the rest of the country, as is home price increase.

Due to the extremely diversified structure of Dallas’ economy, a sharp decline in the price of oil beginning in mid-2014 and increasing throughout 2015 has had little effect on Dallas and the larger metro area. Dallas and the DFW metro area continue to have high demand for housing, apartment and office leasing, retail center space, warehouse and industrial space, with total employment growth staying quite strong. While cities and areas reliant on oil have seen substantial consequences of the downturn, Dallas’ economy has remained uninterrupted, even strengthening in 2015. Significant national headquarters relocations to the area (as exemplified by Toyota’s decision to leave California and establish its new North American headquarters in the Dallas region), combined with significant regional office expansions for a variety of corporations and company relocations to downtown Dallas, are all contributing to the Dallas economy’s current boom. Dallas is the most populous city in Texas, according to Forbes’ 2015 list of “The Best Places for Business and Careers.”

The Dallas-Fort Worth MSA is home to one of the highest concentrations of publicly listed company headquarters in the United States. According to Fortune Magazine’s 2015 annual list of the Fortune 500 firms in America, Dallas has nine Fortune 500 companies and the DFW area as a whole has 21, demonstrating the metro economy’s robust growth and an increase from 18 the previous year. Comerica Bank and AT&T established headquarters in Dallas in 2007–08. Additionally, Energy Transfer Equity, HollyFrontier, Southwest Airlines, Tenet Healthcare, Texas Instruments, Dean Foods, Trinity Industries, and Energy Future Holdings have their headquarters in Dallas. Irving is home to six Fortune 500 firms, including ExxonMobil, the world’s most profitable corporation and the second biggest in terms of sales in 2015, Kimberly-Clark, Fluor (engineering), Commercial Metals, Celanese, and Pioneer Natural Resources. American Airlines, Regency Energy Partners, Atmos Energy, Neiman Marcus, 7-Eleven, Brinker International, Primoris Services, Radio Shack, D.R. Horton, AMS Pictures, id Software, ENSCO Offshore Drilling, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Chuck E. Cheese’s, Zales, and Fossil are additional companies with headquarters in the Metroplex. HP Enterprise Services, Frito Lay, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, and JCPenney all have corporate offices in Plano’s northern suburbs. Numerous these businesses—along with others around the DFW metroplex—are members of the Dallas Regional Chamber.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure was formed in Dallas and is the world’s biggest breast cancer charity.

Along with its vast number of companies, Dallas boasts more shopping malls per population than any other city in the United States and is home to the country’s second shopping complex, Highland Park Village, which opened in 1931. Dallas is also home to two more big malls in North Texas: the Dallas Galleria and NorthPark Center, the state’s second largest mall. Both malls are home to upscale retailers and are prominent tourist attractions in the area.

According to Forbes magazine’s annual list of “America’s Wealthiest People,” released on September 21, 2011, the city currently has 17 billionaires, up from 14 in 2009. In 2009, the city was ranked sixth globally (with 14 billionaires) in terms of cities with the most billionaires. The list excludes the eight billionaires who reside in the nearby city of Fort Worth. Dallas was also named No. 13 on Forbes’ 2013 list of the Best Cities for Business and Careers.

Dallas is the third most popular business travel destination in the United States, and the Dallas Convention Center is one of the country’s biggest and busiest convention facilities, with over 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 m2) of show space and the world’s largest column-free exhibit hall.