The New Dallas

About three hours north of Dallas, is a little place called Oklahoma City.  Now while most of us would never dream of visiting the desolate place for fun, many SMU students call it home. This thanksgiving break, not being able to go back to NY for thanksgiving, I was invited to see this city, was I blown away.

In New Yorker during 1976, the cover was of New Yorker's perception of the rest of the country. It displays 9th and 10th avenue, the Hudson river, then a brown blob that represents the rest of the United States, the pacific ocean, and finally, the Asian continent in the far distance. While I would argue that New Yorkers aren't that stupid, they do have the blind belief that New York is the greatest place in the world. They believe that no place on earth is close to New York. While I do not have this belief, I do compare all cities to New York as my golden rule of a city.

Since moving to Dallas, I love it here. It is the perfect of big city life, in a more suburban setting. I might not always enjoy how spread out Dallas is, it is better than living on top of other people all the time. Many people might know this; however Dallas was not always a big city. During the 60's and 70's, it was about the same size as OK City just three hours north.

From talking to many people, they consider OK City to be the ugly cousin of Dallas. Talking to one person, they called it "the only settled area of Oklahoma." These misconceptions scared me before my visit. After visiting, I was blown away. OK City will be the next Dallas in a few decades.

While visiting, I was most impressed with the downtown areas and the neighborhood of Nicolas Hills. Downtown is a wonderful place. With large skyscrapers, great walking areas, and the Ford Center. It is hard to believe that someone could become bored downtown. Nicolas Hills is a great neighborhood just outside of the boundries of the city. The best way to describe the area is a mix between Rye NY and Highland Park TX with Midwestern charm.The people that I meet in the city were sophisticated and  to earth. To say the least, they are some of the nicest people I have meet.

I have two words for Dallas. Watch out. With the growth of OK City the past few years, I could see it becoming a bigger place than Dallas. If anything, I could see Dallas' growth stalling, while OK still keeps growing. OK City is a great place and I hope to visit again soon.