1. REDIRECT# Dallas, Texas

Dallas is the third-largest (as estimated by the United States Census Bureau on 1 July 2006) city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The city covers , not including water area, and is the county seat of Dallas County. As of June 23, 2008, U.S. Census estimates the population of Dallas at 1,232,940 people.

The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area—at over 6.1 million people, it is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Dallas is also listed as a gamma world city by the Loughborough University Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network.

Dallas was founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city on February 1856. The city's economy is primarily based on the petroleum industry, telecommunications, computer technology, banking, and transportation. It is the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States and lacks any navigable link to the sea—Dallas's prominence despite this comes from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, its position along numerous railroad lines, and a strong industrial and financial sector.

History

Before Texas was claimed in the 16th century as a part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain by the Spanish Empire, the Dallas area was inhabited by the Caddo Native Americans. Later, France also claimed the area, but in 1819 the Adams-Onís Treaty made the Red River the northern boundary of New Spain, officially placing Dallas well within Spanish territory. The area remained under Spanish rule until 1821, when Mexico declared independence from Spain and the area became part of the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas. In 1836, the Republic of Texas broke off from Mexico to become an independent nation. In 1839, four years into the Republic's existence, Warren Angus Ferris surveyed the area around present-day Dallas. He shot the bears, poisoned the wolves, chased off the natives, and made the area safe for John N. Bryan to "found" the city of Dallas in 1841. In 1845 the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States and Dallas County was established the following year. It is strongly debated whether the City of Dallas, Texas is named after the U.S. Vice President, George Mifflin Dallas.

Dallas' early history is preserved in Old City Park; The Historical Village of Dallas, located on the edge of the downtown. This outdoor museum features architectural and cultural sites such as a restored antebellum mansion and historic bank. The village lies on thirteen lush acres containing a gazebo, blacksmith shop, pottery shop, railroad depot, hotel, and several additional buildings of the 1900 era.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of — of it is land and of it (11.03%) is water. Dallas makes up one-fifth of the much larger urbanized area known as the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex—about a quarter of all Texans live in the Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington metropolitan area.

Topography

Dallas, and its surrounding area, is mostly flat and lies at an elevation ranging from to . The western edge of the Austin chalk formation, a limestone escarpment, rises and runs roughly north-south through Dallas County The uplift is particularly noticeable in the neighborhood of Oak Cliff and the adjacent cities of Cockrell Hill, Cedar Hill, Grand Prairie, and Irving. Marked variations in terrain are also found in cities immediately to the west in Tarrant County surrounding Fort Worth

The Trinity River is a major Texas waterway that passes from the city of Irving into west Dallas, where it is paralleled by Interstate 35E along the Stemmons Corridor, then flows alongside western downtown, and through and alongside south Dallas and Pleasant Grove, paralleled by Interstate 45, where it exits into unincorporated Dallas County and heads southeast to Houston. The river is flanked on both sides by tall earthen levees to protect the city from floods. The river has been treated much like a drainage ditch throughout Dallas's history, but as Dallas began shifting towards a postindustrial society, public outcry about a lack of aesthetic and recreational use for the river ultimately gave way to the Trinity River Project. The project, which began in the early 2000s and is scheduled to reach completion in the 2010s, will result in lakes, new park facilities and trails, and transportation improvements.

As a result, the Trinity River project area will reach for over 20 miles in length within the city and the overall geographical land area addressed by the Trinity River Land Use Plan is approximately 44,000 acres in size – about 20% of the land area in Dallas. Parks and the natural Great Trinity Forest will together encompass approximately 10,000 acres, making it one of the largest and diverse urban parks in the world.

White Rock Lake, a reservoir constructed at the beginning of the 20th century, is Dallas's other significant water feature. The lake and surrounding park are a popular destination among boaters, rowers, joggers, and bikers in the Lakewood/Casa Linda Estates neighborhoods of east Dallas. The Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden lies on the lake's eastern shore. Bachman Lake, just northwest of Love Field, is a smaller lake and park also used for recreation. Lake Ray Hubbard, a lake, is a vast and popular recreational lake located in an extension of Dallas surrounded by Garland, Rowlett, Rockwall, and Sunnyvale. Mountain Creek Lake is a small lake along Dallas's border with Grand Prairie and is home to the (defunct as of September 1998) Naval Air Station Dallas (Hensley Field). North Lake, a small lake in an extension of Dallas surrounded by Irving and Coppell, served primarily as a water source for a nearby power plant, but the surrounding area is now being targeted for redevelopment due to its proximity to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (a plan that the neighboring cities oppose)..

Climate

Dallas has a humid subtropical climate, yet this part of Texas also tends to receive warm, dry winds from the north and west in the summer. Winters are generally mild, with typical daytime highs between and and nighttime lows between and . However, strong cold fronts known as "Blue Northers" sometimes pass through Dallas, plummeting nightly lows below . Snowfall is seen on average 2-4.5 days out of the year and snow accumulation is typically seen at least once every winter. A couple of times each year, warm and humid air from the south overrides cold, dry air, leading to freezing rain, which often causes major disruptions in the city if the roads and highways become dangerously slick. On the other hand, daytime highs above are also not unusual during the winter season. In sum, extremes in weather are more readily seen in Dallas and Texas as a whole than along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, due to the state's location in the middle of the U.S.

Spring and autumn bring pleasant weather to the area. Vibrant wildflowers (such as the bluebonnet, Indian paintbrush and other flora) bloom in spring and are planted around the highways throughout Texas. Springtime weather can be quite volatile, but temperatures themselves are generally mild. The weather in Dallas is also pleasant between late September and early November, and unlike springtime, major storms rarely form in the area.

In the spring, cool fronts moving from Canada collide with warm, humid air streaming in from the Gulf Coast. When these fronts meet over northern and central Texas, severe thunder storms are generated with spectacular lightning shows, occasional torrents of rain, hail, and at times, tornadoes. Over time, tornadoes are perhaps the biggest threat to the city. Dallas was hit by a powerful tornado on 2 April 1957, The tornado would have likely been an F3.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture places the city of Dallas in Plant Hardiness Zone 8a. Dallas has the 12th worst ozone air pollution in the nation according to the American Lung Association, ranking it behind Los Angeles and Houston. Much of the air pollution in Dallas, and the DFW Metroplex in general, comes from a hazardous materials incineration plant in the southern-most suburb of Midlothian, as well as concrete installations in neighboring Ellis County. Another major contributor to air pollution is exhaust from automobiles. Due to Dallas's spread out nature and high amount of urban sprawl, automobiles are the only available mode of transportation for many. All time recorded high is 113 °F (45 ° C), and all time recorded low is -2 °F (-18.9 °C).

The average daily low in Dallas is and the average daily high in Dallas is . Dallas receives approximately of rain per year, much of which is delivered in the spring or summer.

Cityscape

Architecture

Most of the notable architecture in Dallas is modernist and postmodernist. Iconic examples of modernist architecture include I. M. Pei's Fountain Place, the Bank of America Plaza, Renaissance Tower, and Reunion Tower. Examples of postmodernist architecture include the JPMorgan Chase Tower and Comerica Bank Tower. Several smaller structures are fashioned in the Gothic Revival (Kirby Building) and neoclassical (Davis and Wilson Buildings) styles. One architectural “hotbed” in the city is a stretch of homes along Swiss Avenue, which contains all shades and variants of architecture from Victorian to neoclassical.

As a result of the Trinity River Project, Dallas is also seeing construction of a series of bridges designed by Santiago Calatrava. The first one being built the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge will reach a height of over 40 stories above the river basin.

Neighborhoods

Central Dallas is anchored by Downtown, the center of the city and the epicenter of urban revival, coupled with Oak Lawn and Uptown Dallas, new urbanist areas anchored by dense retail, restaurants, and nightlife. Downtown Dallas has a variety of neighborhoods, including the West End Historic District, the Arts District, the Main Street District, Farmers Market District, the City Center business district, the Convention Center District, the Reunion District and Victory Park. North of downtown is Oak Lawn, a densely-populated area that contains parks along Turtle Creek and the popular Uptown area with LoMac, Cityplace and the West Village.

The east side of Dallas contains the community of East Dallas, home to Deep Ellum, a trendy arts area close to downtown, homey Lakewood, the historic Vickery Place, Bryan Place, and historically and architecturally significant homes on Swiss Avenue. Above the Park Cities is Preston Hollow, home to mansions as palatial as Versailles. Preston Hollow is home to the wealthiest residents in the state, along with the most expensive homes in the state. strong middle and upper-class communities north into Bent Tree and Far North Dallas, and high-powered shopping at Galleria Dallas, NorthPark Center, Highland Park Village, and Preston Center. East of north Dallas and north of east Dallas is Lake Highlands, one of the most unified middle-class areas in the city, with the strongest definition—it is in the northeastern part of the city above White Rock Lake and east Dallas.

The southern portion of Dallas is home to Oak Cliff, a hilly area in southwest Dallas that is predominantly African American and includes entertainment districts such as the Bishop Arts District. South Oak Cliff became a predominantly African American district after the early 1970s and has struggled with high rates of poverty and crime. To the east, south Dallas lays claim to the Cedars, an eclectic artist hotbed south of downtown, Fair Park, and areas west of the Trinity River and east of Interstate 35E. The University of North Texas at Dallas, currently located south of Oak Cliff along Interstate 20, is being built in the area along Houston School Road. Further east, above (north and east of) the Trinity River, is Pleasant Grove—once an independent city, it is a predominantly black collection of neighborhoods stretching to Seagoville to the southeast.

The city is further surrounded by many suburbs and encloses the following enclaves: Cockrell Hill, Highland Park, and University Park.

Culture

Politically, Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area is the third most liberal of the Texas metropolitan areas (after Austin and El Paso), (in contrast 54% of Houston and San Antonio voters and an even higher percentage of rural Texan voters are conservative) Nonetheless, Dallas is also a high profile center of conservative Protestant Christianity.

Politics

In 2004, Lupe Valdez was elected Sheriff of Dallas County; she is currently one of only two female sheriffs in the state of Texas., the other being Sheriff Rosanna Abreo of Bastrop County.

In 2007, conservative Republican Tom Leppert defeated Ed Oakley by a margin of 58% to 42% to become the Mayor of Dallas. The city's elections are officially non-partisan.

Cuisine

Arts

The Arts District in downtown is home to several arts venues, both existing and proposed. Notable venues in the district include the Dallas Museum of Art, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center,The Dallas Contemporary, The Dallas Children's Theatre. Venues under construction or planned include the Winspear Opera House and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. The district is also home to DISD's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, which was recently expanded.

Deep Ellum originally became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as the prime jazz and blues hotspot in the south. Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, and Bessie Smith played in original Deep Ellum clubs such as The Harlem and The Palace. Today, Deep Ellum is home to hundreds of artists who live in lofts and operate in studios throughout the district alongside bars, pubs, and concert venues. One major art infusion in the area is the city's lax stance on graffiti; consequently, several public ways including tunnels, sides of buildings, sidewalks, and streets are covered in murals. One major example, the Good-Latimer tunnel, was torn down in late 2006 to accommodate the construction of a light rail line through the site.

The Cedars has a growing population of studio artists and an expanding roster of entertainment venues. The area's art scene began to grow in the early 2000s with the opening of Southside on Lamar, a Sears warehouse converted into lofts, studios, and retail. Current attractions include Gilley's Dallas and Poor David's Pub. Entrepreneur Mark Cuban purchased land along Lamar Avenue near Cedars Station in September 2005 and locals speculate that he is planning an entertainment complex for the site.

The Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff is home to a number of studio artists living in converted warehouses. Walls of buildings along alleyways and streets are painted with murals and the surrounding streets contain many eclectic restaurants and shops.

Dallas has an Office of Cultural Affairs as a department of the city government. The City of Dallas Office of Cultural Affairs is responsible for six cultural centers located throughout the city, funding for local artists and theatres, public art projects and running the city owned radio station WRR.

Sports

Dallas is home to the Dallas Desperados (Arena Football League), Dallas Mavericks (National Basketball Association), and Dallas Stars (National Hockey League). All three teams play at the American Airlines Center.

The Major League Soccer team FC Dallas, formerly the Dallas Burn, used to play in the Cotton Bowl but moved to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco upon the stadium's opening in 2005. However, the college Cotton Bowl football game is still played at the stadium. The Dallas Sidekicks, a former team of the Major Indoor Soccer League, used to play in Reunion Arena.

The Texas Tornado, three-time defending champions of the North American Hockey League, plays at the Deja Blue Arena in Frisco.

Nearby Irving is home to the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. Since joining the league as an expansion team in 1960, the Cowboys have enjoyed substantial success, advancing to eight Super Bowls and winning five. Known as 'America's Team,' the Dallas Cowboys are financially the most valuable sports franchise in the world, worth approximately 1.5 billion dollars. The Cowboys currently play at Texas Stadium with plans to relocate in 2009 to their new 100,000 capacity stadium in Arlington.

Also, Arlington is home to the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball.

Other teams in the Dallas area include the Dallas Harlequins of the USA Rugby Super League, the Frisco RoughRiders of Minor League Baseball in Frisco, and the Grand Prairie AirHogs minor league baseball team. The Dallas Diamonds, the two-time national champions of the Women's Professional Football League Women's American football team, plays in North Richland Hills. McKinney is home to the Dallas Revolution, an Independent Women's Football League Women's American football team.

Cricket is another sport that is popular among diaspora from South Asian countries. Local universities such as SMU and UT-Dallas have their own cricket clubs that are affiliated with USA Cricket.

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Recreation

The City of Dallas maintains and operates 406 parks on of parkland. Its flagship park is the Fair Park which was originally developed to host the Texas Centennial Exposition in 1936. The city is also home to Texas's first and largest zoo at — the Dallas Zoo, which opened in 1888.

The city's parks contain 17 separate lakes, including White Rock and Bachman lakes, spanning a total of . The city is traversed by of bike & jogging trails, including the Katy Trail, and is home to 47 community and neighborhood recreation centers, 276 sports fields, 60 swimming pools, 232 playgrounds, 173 basketball courts, 112 volleyball courts, 126 play slabs, 258 neighborhood tennis courts, 258 picnic areas, six 18-hole golf courses, two driving ranges, and 477 athletic fields.

To the west of Dallas in Arlington is Six Flags Over Texas. Hurricane Harbor, a large water park, is also in Arlington.

Media

Dallas has one daily newspaper, The Dallas Morning News, which was founded in 1885 by A. H. Belo and is Belo Corp's flagship newspaper. The Dallas Times Herald, started in 1888, was the Morning News's major competitor until Belo purchased the paper on 8 December 1991 and closed the paper down the next day. Other daily papers are Al Día, a Spanish-language paper, and Quick, a free, summary-style version of The News, both published by Belo.

Other paper-publications include the Dallas Observer and the North Texas Journal , both alternative weekly newspapers, and D Magazine, a monthly magazine about business, life, and entertainment in the Metroplex.

In terms of the larger metro area, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is another significant daily newspaper, covering Fort Worth/Tarrant County and other suburban areas to the west and northwest of Dallas. The Denton Record-Chronicle covers the City of Denton and Denton County.

The Dallas area television stations for the major broadcasting networks—KDFW 4 (FOX), KXAS 5 (NBC), WFAA 8 (ABC) (also owned by Belo), KTVT 11 (CBS), KERA 13 (PBS), KTXA-21 (IND), KUVN 23 (UNI), KDFI 27 (MNTV), KDAF 33 (The CW) and KXTX 39 (TMD).

Sixty-three (63) radio stations operate within range of Dallas. The City of Dallas operates WRR 101.1 FM, a classical music radio station broadcast from city offices in Fair Park. It was licensed in 1948 and is the oldest commercially operated radio station in Texas and the second-oldest in the United States, after KDKA (AM) in Pittsburgh. Because of the city's centrally-located position and lack of nearby mountainous terrain, high-power class A mediumwave stations KRLD and WBAP in neighboring Fort Worth can broadcast as far as North Dakota at night and can be used for emergency broadcasts when broadcasting is down in other major metropolitan areas in the United States.

Hispanic Broadcasting Corporation (HBC), the largest company in the Spanish language radio station business, was based in Dallas. In 2003, HBC was acquired by Univision and became Univision Radio Inc., but the radio company remains headquartered in Dallas.

The Texas Jewish Post serves the Jewish community of Dallas and Forth Worth, Texas. Local Korean, Chinese, and Vietnamese newspapers can also be found.

Religion

There is a large Protestant Christian influence in the Dallas community as the city is deep within the Bible Belt—Methodist and Baptist churches are prominent in many neighborhoods and anchor the city's two major private universities (Southern Methodist University and Dallas Baptist University). The Cathedral of Hope, a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Protestant church, is the largest congregation of its kind in the world. The city is also home to a sizable Mormon community, which led The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to build a major temple in the city in 1984.

The Catholic Church is also a significant organization in the community—it operates the University of Dallas, a liberal-arts university in the Dallas suburb of Irving. Across the street from UD is one of only 13 Cistercian Abbeys in the United States, the only one operating as a preparatory school as well. The Cathedral Santuario de Guadalupe in the Arts District oversees the second-largest membership in the United States: 70 parishes in the Dallas Diocese. Dallas is also home to three Eastern Orthodox Christian churches.

A large Muslim community, exists in the North and North Eastern part of Dallas. The oldest Mosque in Texas area was built in Denton which is north of Dallas metroplex. Islamic centers and schools exist in all counties of Dallas List of Mosques in Dallas

The city has a large Jewish community, many of whom reside in eastern and northern Dallas.. Temple Emanu-El, one of the largest synagogues in the South and Southwest, was founded in 1873. The community is presently led by Rabbi David E. Stern. See the History of the Jews in Dallas, Texas.

Dallas also has a large Buddhist community. Immigrants from Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Nepal, Tibet, Japan, China, and Sri Lanka have all contributed to the Buddhist population mostly concentrated in Garland, Texas with a temple. Numerous Buddhist temples dot the Metroplex area. The Buddhist Center of Dallas, Lien Hoa Vietnamese Temple Irving, Wat Buddhamahamunee of Arlington TX

Events

The most notable event held in Dallas is the State Fair of Texas which has been held annually at Fair Park since 1886. The fair is a massive event for the state of Texas and brings an estimated US$350 million to the city's economy annually. The Red River Shootout, which pins the University of Texas at Austin against The University of Oklahoma, at the Cotton Bowl and other Cotton Bowl games also bring significant crowds to the city.

Other festivals in the area include Cinco de Mayo festivities hosted by the city's large Mexican population, Saint Patrick's Day parades in Irish communities especially along east Dallas's Lower Greenville Avenue, Juneteenth festivities, the Greek Food Festival of Dallas, and an annual Halloween parade on Cedar Springs Road. Just recently, Dallas has introduced a new way of celebrating New Years Eve. Hosted by the WFAA Channel 8, Big D NYE may become a yearly event that will consist of people from all over Texas and the United States attending Dallas's Victory Park to celebrate the coming of the new year.

Economy

In its beginnings, Dallas relied on farming, neighboring Fort Worth's cattle market, and its prime location on trade routes with Indians to sustain itself. Dallas's real key to growth came in 1873 though with the building of multiple rail lines through the city. As Dallas grew and technology developed, cotton became its boon—by 1900 Dallas was the largest inland cotton market on Earth and led the world in cotton gin machinery manufacturing. By the early 1900s, Dallas was a hub for economic activity all over the Southwestern United States and was selected in 1914 as the seat of the Eleventh Federal Reserve District; by 1925, Texas churned out more than ⅓ of the nation's cotton crop, and 31% of Texas cotton was produced within a 100 mile (161 km) radius of Dallas. In the 1930s, oil was discovered east of Dallas near Kilgore, Texas, and Dallas's proximity to the discovery put it at the center of the nation's oil market. Oil discoveries in the Permian Basin, the Panhandle, the Gulf Coast, and Oklahoma in the following years further solidified Dallas's position as the hub of the market as it was roughly the geographic center of all 5 regions.

The end of World War II left Dallas seeded with a nexus of communications engineering and production talent by companies such as Collins Radio Corp. The telecommunication and information revolutions that ensued still drive a great deal of the local economy. The city is sometimes referred to as Texas's Silicon Valley or the Silicon Prairie because of a high concentration of telecommunications companies—the epicenter of which lies along the “Telecom Corridor”, home to more than 5,700 companies. The corridor is also home to Texas Instruments and regional offices for Alcatel Lucent, AT&T, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Nokia, Rockwell, Sprint, and Verizon, as well as the national offices of CompUSA and Canadian Nortel. In December 2007 Ontario's Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the BlackBerry, announced Irving as the site of its US headquarters.

In the 1980s, Dallas was a real estate hotbed, with populations skyrocketing and the demand for housing and jobs soaring along with it. Several of Downtown Dallas's largest buildings are the fruit of this boom, but over-speculation and the Savings and Loan crisis prevented any further development being added to Dallas' skyline. Between the late 1980s and the early 2000s, Dallas went through a slow period of growth and has only recently bounced back—like much of the country, the real estate market has improved significantly in recent years.

Dallas is no longer a hotbed for manufacturing like it was in the early 20th century—partially due to constraints placed by the DFW Ozone Nonattainment Area—but plenty of goods are still manufactured in the city. Texas Instruments employs 10,400 people at its corporate headquarters and chip plants in Dallas and neighboring Richardson. Oak Farms Dairy also headquarters and has a plant in the city.

Dallas is home to twelve of America's largest companies, including: Centex (construction), Texas Instruments, Dean Foods, Southwest Airlines, Tenet Healthcare, Celanese (chemical), Affiliated Computer Systems, Blockbuster, and Holly (oil). Also, on June 27, 2008, AT&T announced plans to relocate its corporate headquarters to Dallas, from San Antonio. Nearby Irving, part of the DFW metroplex, is home to four Fortune 500 companies, including: Exxon Mobil, the most profitable company in the world and the second largest by revenue, Kimberly-Clark, Fluor (engineering), and Commercial Metals. Additional companies internationally headquartered in and aroung Dallas include, Neiman Marcus, 7-Eleven, Brinker International, id Software, ENSCO Offshore Drilling, Mary Kay Cosmetics, CompUSA, Zales and Comerica Bank. Corporate headquarters in the northern suburb of Plano include EDS, Frito Lay, Dr Pepper, and JCPenney.

The Dallas metroplex has more shopping centers per capita than any other United States city or metro, and is also home to the second shopping center in the United States, Highland Park Village, which opened in 1931. Dallas is home of the two other major malls in North Texas, the Dallas Galleria and NorthPark Center, which is also the largest mall in Texas. These three major shopping centers boast a large number of high-end stores: Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Harry Winston, Oscar de la Renta, Valentino, Ralph Lauren, Escada, St. John, Chanel, Hermes, Jimmy Choo, Harry Winston, DeBeers, Cartier, Roberto Cavalli, Burberry, Versace, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta, Hugo Boss, Diesel, Luca Luca, Michael Kors, Diane von Fursteinberg, Giorgio Armani, and many more.

The city itself is also home to 15 billionaires—concentrated in the Preston Hollow area of north Dallas—placing it 9th worldwide among cities with the most billionaires. When combined with the 8 billionaires who live in Dallas's neighboring city of Fort Worth, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is one of the greatest concentrations of billionaires in the world.

Dallas is currently the third most popular destination for business travel, and the Dallas Convention Center, in downtown Dallas, is one of the largest and busiest convention centers in the country, at over 1 million square feet, and the world's largest singular column-free exhibit hall.

Law and government

In the 2006-2007 fiscal year, the city's total budget (the sum of operating and capital budgets) was US$2,344,314,114. The city has seen a steady increase in its budget throughout its history due to sustained growth: the budget was $1,717,449,783 in 2002-2003, $1,912,845,956 in 2003-2004, $2,049,685,734 in 2004-2005, and $2,218,345,070 in 2005-2006.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas, which exercises original jurisdiction over 100 counties in North and West Texas, convenes in the Earle Cabell Federal Building and Courthouse in the Government District of downtown. The same building additionally houses United States Bankruptcy and Magistrate Courts and a United States Attorney office. Dallas also is the seat of the Fifth Court of Appeals of Texas.

Crime and enforcement

According to the FBI, a city to city comparison of crime rates is not meaningful, because recording practices vary from city to city, citizens report different percentages of crimes from one city to the next, and the actual number of people physically present in a city is unknown. With that in mind, however, Dallas's violent crime rate (12.06) is lower than such major cities as St Louis (24.81 per thousand), Detroit (24.22), Baltimore (16.96), Philadelphia (15.62), Cleveland (15.47), Miami (15.09), Washington DC (14.48), Kansas City (14.44) and Boston (13.39). Dallas's violent crime rate trails such cities as Houston (11.69), Los Angeles (7.87) and New York City (6.38).

Fire protection

In 1995, the Dallas Fire Department Training Academy (now the Chief Dodd Miller Training Academy) began to host firefighter recruits from other Metroplex municipalities in its 22 week basic firefighter training school, effectively becoming a regional training center. The Academy is reverently known as “The Drill Tower” by instructors and graduates, referring to the facility's most taxing structure/activity: a six story tower whose staircase is routinely climbed three times in rapid succession by recruits in full gear and hi-rise hose packs.

Demographics

There were 451,833 households out of which 30.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% were married couples living together, 14.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.0% are classified as non-families by the United States Census Bureau. Of 451,833 households, 23,959 are unmarried partner households: 18,684 heterosexual. 32.8% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.00% and the average family size was 3.37%.

In the city the population was spread out with 26.6% under the age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 35.3% from 25 to 44, 17.7% from 45 to 64, and 8.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 101.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 100.5 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $37,628, and the median income for a family was $40,921. Males had a median income of $31,149 versus $28,235 for females. The per capita income for the city was $22,183. About 14.9% of families and 17.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.1% of those under age 18 and 13.1% of those aged 65 or over. In 2006 the median price for a house was $123,800, and save a 2003 recession, Dallas has seen a steady increase in the cost of homes over the past 6 years.

The racial makeup of Dallas was 52.9% White (U.S. Census),31.2% African American, 2.3% Asian, .4% Native American, 0.49% Pacific Islander, 20.25% from other races, and 5.33% from two or more races. 35.55% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race. Non-Hispanics whites accounted for 35.55% of the city's population. Hispanics outnumbered African-Americans for the first time in the 2000 census as the largest minority group in Dallas.

The city has historically been predominantly white but its population diversified as it grew in size and importance over the 20th century to the point that non-Hispanic whites now represent only one-third of the city's population. In addition, almost 25% of Dallas's population is foreign born, and the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex as a whole consists of 17% foreign-born residents. The largest minority group in the city is Hispanics—Dallas is a major destination for Mexican immigrants, both legally and illegally. The southwestern and southeastern portions of the city, particularly Oak Cliff and Pleasant Grove, consists of a mixture of black and Hispanic residents, while the southern part of the city is predominantly black. The northern part of the city is mostly white, though many enclaves of predominantly black and Hispanic residents exist. In addition, Dallas and its suburbs are home to a large number of Asian American residents—Koreans, Taiwanese, Chinese, Filipino, Vietnamese, Indians, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, and Arabs all have large presences in the area. In addition, the suburbs with the largest populations of Asians are Garland, Texas with Chinese, Korean,& Vietnamese populations, then Richardson, Texas have high South Asian populations, Arabs & Muslims. Plano, Richardson, and Arlington have a fairly mix of Arabs, Indians, Muslims, and Asians with well developed businesses. An ethnic enclave is found in Koreatown, Dallas in North Dallas with a signifant population in Texas & the Southern states. There is a Little Saigon in Dallas with a signifant population of Vietnamese Americans in the Southern United States & Texas.

About half of Dallas's population was born outside of Texas. Many residents have migrated to the city from other parts of the country, particularly the Midwest, Northeast, and other Sunbelt states.

Education

There are 337 public schools, 89 private schools, 38 colleges, and 32 libraries in Dallas

Colleges and universities

Dallas is a major center of education for much of the South Central United States. The city itself contains several universities, colleges, trade schools, and educational institutes. Several major Universities also lie in enclaves, satellite cities, and suburbs of Dallas.

Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a private, coeducational university in University Park, an independent city that, together with the adjacent town of Highland Park, is entirely surrounded by Dallas. SMU was founded in 1911 by the Southern Methodist Church and now enrolls 6,500 undergraduates, 1,200 professional students in the law and theology departments, and 3,500 postgraduates.

The University of Texas at Dallas, part of the public UT system, is located in the city of Richardson, adjacent to Dallas in an area known as the Telecom Corridor. UT Dallas, or UTD as longtime residents refer to it, is r