Okay, so I'm sitting in the bar last night. The subject of Dallas comes up, as it usually does, and, as usually happens, nobody really has anything nice to say about Dallas. It's the people, it's the traffic, it's the landmarks - and it's all worse than Houston. Being a relatively recent Texan in Texan terms (7 years), it's all a bit beyond me. Now, the basketball rivalry I understand - basketball is a competition, but, as far as Houston VS. Dallas in the non-sports sense goes, how'd it start? What fuels it? Who believes in it? Why don't I get it?
A lot of it is based on the fact that the television show Dallas made the city VERY popular. For a long time, despite being the 4th largest city in America and the largest city in Texas, no one knew who Houston was but EVERYONE knew who Dallas was. It didn't help that the Cowboys were extremely popular. Dallas has a reputation of being rather snobbish and looking down its nose at Houston because Dallas was built off of big business, white collar industry (Dallas, not Ft. Worth, which was a cattle town) and Houston was originally a refinery, blue collar kind of place. It's more perception than anything, but it has helped to fuel the rivalry for many years.
I eagerly bought into the Dallas/Houston rivalry. I liked living in Houston, and my first experience with Dallas... and guys from Dallas... didn't turn out so well. The reputation is that Dallas is a town of rich snobs and yuppies and business and high fashion and expensive things and pretentious socialites. There's actually a good deal of truth in that (at least from the parts of Dallas that I have visited friends in). Of course, like any large city, I'm sure it varies depending on where you are. Houston, while it may have its rich neighborhoods, is actually nice and "normal", low-key and accepting and diverse. Of course, the way things are going right now, I'm going to hate Dallas forever after tonight, and it sure will have to do with sports...
I think that personally theres a Dallas/Houston rivalry because of a pride issue. Everyone is proud of their hometown and where they come from. As you make friends from other cities, you want to prove at every opportunity that your city is better than theirs. The addition of the sports element, with teams like texans/cowboys and rockets/mavs and to a slightly lesser degree astros/rangers, it all jus adds more fuel to fire. And also like others, dallas traffic sucks and some of their ppl do as well. haha
I'm kind of an adopted Houstonian even though I've never actually lived there full time; I still go back at least a couple times a year though due to most of my family being in Houston. And I have to say, I can see why an outsider might not like Houston at first glance. I'm sorry, but you have to admit that most of Houston isn't very aesthetically pleasing, not to mention the summers are something close to hell. BUT, I have grown to absolutely LOVE Houston over time for one primary reason: Houston is far and away the most down-to-earth big city I have ever been to. People there are generally friendly. And Dallas, in my experience, is quite the opposite. It wants to be Los Angeles with a Texas drawl. Whereas Houston just wants to be Houston. It's comfortable being itself, while Dallas seems like it wants to be something else Btw, I don't mean to offend any Clutch City Dallasites by saying that...just my own personal opinion
i lived in houston for 10 years and dallas for 8 years (im still here). for the most part people up here say houston is worse because of these 3 things: traffic, pollution, weather. they also can't stand the mosquitos, or the refineries. as far as traffic goes, you get that with any large city, but i think houston takes the cake on that one, and same goes with pollution. weather i can see because humidity is pretty bad, but it gets hot, like seriously hot up here. personally i think i like houston better because of its location, such as a short distance to the ocean (be it the gulf and not the pacific). plus i find that people are somewhat friendlier down there, although the radio stations down there suck compared to what's up here.
Anything attached to the Mavs and Cowbozos can just go straight to hell as far as I'm concerned. You know.... Like any other healthy rivalry.
Having lived in Houston for over 24 years and in Dallas for about 7 now, they each have their pro's and con's. The rivalry, like Jeff said, pretty much revolves around the TV show and the Cowpies. Most of what we call "Dallas" is actually the suburbs. When people say Dallas is "snobbish", it really points to the burbs like the Plano, Richardson, Frisco, Southlake, etc. areas. I still miss a lot about Houston. Dallas seems so generic and sterile sometimes, whereas Houston seemed so much more diverse. But at the same time, I don't miss Houston traffic, congestion, or refinery funk. There seem to be a lot of 10 cent men and women trying to be million-dollar Beverly Hills types here, but I guess that's everywhere - especially after the financial boom period we just went through during the 90's and early 00's. In a nutshell a lot of it does seem like blue collar vs. white collar towns.
Jeff is spot on. Dallas is considered to be the premiere town in Texas (outside of Texas) b/c of the Cowboys and the tv show "Dallas." If I recall, the TV show was huge overseas, and has long been the first thing that people associate the state of Texas with.
okay without dating myself... Anyone remember the Gilley's nightclub vs. Billy Bob's Rivalry! That was also part of the Houston - Dallas Rivalry.
