This is the 28th Best of Dallas issue I’ve edited in my years at the Dallas Observer. It was one of the first tasks handed to me when I arrived from San Antonio in 1997, and it provided me a crash course in learning about a place that people in the Alamo City then considered a land of money-driven A-types scurrying down endless freeways with lethal abandon.
Turns out they were only partly right. LBJ Freeway hadn’t been rebuilt yet, Central Expressway’s reconstruction was still wrapping up and the North Dallas Tollway was still being extended northward. Driving around Dallas was truly eye-opening, in an eyes-bulging-in-fear sort of way.
Putting together that Best of Dallas issue was eye-opening in another way, though. I quickly learned that off the freeways was an exciting stew of communities and cultures and people striving to cherish its past while building a better, bigger city for tomorrow. In East Dallas, new homeowners were carefully rehabbing old homes to preserve old Dallas; historic Deep Ellum was the heart of a music and arts community devoted to celebrating home-grown creative people; Oak Cliff was rising as a hip and exciting draw to new urbanists; western and southern neighborhoods were organizing and clamoring for attention and redevelopment; and the northern suburbs, now home to large communities of international immigrants, were seen, at least by those of us living in the heart of Dallas, as vast tracts of bland white flight; the downtown Arts District was still a dream.
Those A-types that folks in laid-back San Antonio dismissed were, meanwhile, were laying pavement and throwing up tower cranes that would drive an explosion of growth unrivaled anywhere in America.
There was plenty of tension and debate among these varied communities as they competed for resources and offered different versions of what Dallas should become and what it should preserve, and that holds true today as the forces of change and NIMBYism duke it out over what Big D will be tomorrow. The Observer was there then and exists today to report about those battles, and with support from readers like you, we plan to be here tomorrow, doing the same.
But here’s one thing that hasn’t changed for me personally: Each of the Best of Dallas issues I’ve overseen in nearly three decades has been filled with surprises. There are always hidden corners of the old city and region to learn about, and the endless flow of newcomers brings an unceasing tide of fresh ideas, new cultures and unique businesses that keep the city moving in new and unexpected directions. Best of Dallas is our yearly snapshot of an evolving place.
For the longest time, Dallas leaders spoke of their desire to build a “world class city” to the point that the phrase became a punchline. You don’t hear that much anymore, and for good reason: We’ve made it. That’s why we’re calling this year’s Best of Dallas issue “The Lone Star Metropolis.” Enjoy it. You might just learn something new.
Patrick Williams, editor
