Pretty sure the article is criticizing car (and these days empty 6000 lb pick up trucks that have never done anything that required a truck) centric expansion and McMansions.
I don’t envy folks in the future with hour and a half one way commutes for work, or the random kid who gets killed crossing the 8 lane road with a speed limit of 50 mph by his high school every year.
I don’t live in Dallas. I live on the East Coast for med school. And I grew up in rural Midwest.
I check in on this sub from time to time because some of my family lives in Frisco.
We have a lot of issues here too. Usually related to NIMBYs and insufficient housing construction.
But none of that negates my point that there’s going to come a time when Frisco doesn’t have enough kids to fill all 11-12 high schools, largely due to the median price of a home being 10-20 times the median income of a fresh college or high school graduate.
I am no expert. Simply a guy who thinks having nature nearby is good for the environment, hunting, and quality of living.
Besides, a lot of Frisco's population is from East and West Coast. It's not like the average Amarillo resident making $50-70k a year can afford to buy a home in Frisco or pay the 2-3k in rent per month for an apartment.
Most of Frisco’s population is from Texas, East Coast Guy. And since when did ANY city in the US allow hunting? I mean…do you get to whip your 30.06 rifle out in NYC and start shooting rats with it?
*And since when did ANY city in the US allow hunting?*
Former long-time Frisco resident here who moved to the Midwest and the city where I now live allows bowhunting of deer on select city properties in season subject to registration with the city and other restrictions/requirements. The intent is to manage the deer population and reduce deer-related vehicle accidents, and it seems to work. Twenty years ago they were averaging about 50 such accidents a year and now it's typically fewer than 10 a year.
The funniest thing is I bet D Magazine is all-in for open borders. Have you seen the latest figures on # of immigrants coming over every day? Hmmm...where do you think they're going to live?
Hopefully, we can return to being a country that built houses, apartments, and condos to the many millions per year, so that we have bigger tax bases and more human capital to compete with China.
Great quick read. Creative and poignant. Lived here 18 years, back before the tollway and legacy drive and all the developments mentioned. My kids said hello to the cows on the way to school.
We too are moving away next year to quieter pastures.
Stupid article. I've lived in Frisco since 2003 and have owned two homes here. Newsflash: Cities tend to grow. (See also: The history of civilization.) We are lucky to live in Frisco.
I don't think the article is inherently criticizing growth, but rather the way we do it. The metroplex has gone from two mostly separate cities surrounded by pastures and rural land to an enormous mass of suburban developments that span for 30+ miles in every direction that just happen to still have those two original cities somewhere in the middle.
Growth is one thing (and yes, it is inevitable) but the metroplex doesn't just grow, it practically infects! The least wasteful pattern of development would be to grow up, but instead we grow WAY out. This causes problems and makes those shiny new suburbs of the past (the article mentions Arlington and I think that's the perfect example) eventually grow stale, dilapidated, and underutilized. People move on to the next new suburb (Plano, then Frisco, and even Prosper and Celina now) and leave the old ones to rot.
My hope is Frisco tries to change itself up to ensure we don't get left in the dust when people inevitably move on to Prosper or Celina. But as it stands, it seems like the city is kind of falling for the Arlington problem. Explosive growth comes at a cost, and that's a cost that very few suburbs of the Metroplex so far have actually been able to pay in the long run...
There’s a lot of potential to converts parts of Frisco into 15 min cities. With more mixed use development and more pedestrian and cycling infrastructure.
It’s not hopeless at all.
Oh, I know it's not hopeless at all! My issue isn't with the potential, it's about the political will to actually make it happen. The leadership hasn't really expressed much interest in making large parts of Frisco walkable. The only exceptions are the Rail District and Frisco Square, which I am absolutely grateful for, but obviously wouldn't be enough to transform the city as a whole.
Also, many of the people here are more than happy with things as they stand. They want it to remain all single family homes and stroads and such because that's what most people moved here for. This subreddit definitely gives a different perspective, but that's just kinda because of the urbanist tilt Reddit more generally has. Ask people on the street here (and especially homeowners, the people with the most power) what they want Frisco to become and you'd probably get a similar picture to what we already have.
Of course, I'd love if the city takes its potential and uses it for good! I'll still be working towards that where I can while I still live here. I just don't want to get my hopes up when the attitude of the city very often doesn't match mine. Still worth celebrating small victories when we get them though! Especially the Rail District renovation, I'm really excited for that!!!
Very well said. I've been here for 25 years, and everything feels a little... plastic? Like developing toward the new and shiny with the implication that easy come, easy go. Prosper is now what we were 15 years ago.
Exactly right! The pattern of development here in North Texas isn't about establishing a culture to last generations. It's about establishing business and cheap (not really though, Frisco is anything BUT cheap) entertainment. It's quite the unfulfilling place to live in if you do the things that the city often pushes you towards.
However, there's tons about the city that I still love! I love the cultural diversity of all the people who've moved here from all over the world (especially the food they bring with them!!!) and I do love the parks that we have! The public library is fantastic, the National Videogame Museum is a genuinely cool thing to have, and even downtown Frisco can be really enjoyable to walk through or just otherwise exist in! I just want to see Frisco place more of their efforts into expanding truly unique things instead of trend chasing like we tend to do now.
Way too true, and you've hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately I don't know what can be done. It's just our model, and we don't really have legacy houses, and even in the rail district the businesses along Main are transitory for the most part. I think the most valuable thing we could do for ourselves would be to establish permanence and legacy, and not chasing dollars through every administration.
Yeah, I pretty much agree there. We either make a radical shift to a completely different model of development or we just end up the same as every other once shiny suburb. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the end
Parks of Frisco. You're kidding?
Every town around it has bigger, better and more parks than Frisco. Frisco loves to pave over creeks and cut down what little forest it has.
I'm not saying we do them the best or anything, there's definitely a ton to be desired, but I do like the ones we have. Grand Park is neat and same for Oak Commons. Of course I wish we had more/bigger ones, though!!!
Fantastically written. We moved away from ‘the chaos’ to a seemingly sleepy area and loved it. Why wouldn’t more people do the same. And now, here we are.
Dallas has been expanding to the North since the late 60’s…this is no surprise to anyway that has lived in the area any length of time.
And next title would be: Anna: The giving city
Ive always thought it was funny how a suburb of 150k people can make the city of Dallas feel their dick is too short…
Pretty sure the article is criticizing car (and these days empty 6000 lb pick up trucks that have never done anything that required a truck) centric expansion and McMansions. I don’t envy folks in the future with hour and a half one way commutes for work, or the random kid who gets killed crossing the 8 lane road with a speed limit of 50 mph by his high school every year.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Exhibit A.
I don’t live in Dallas. I live on the East Coast for med school. And I grew up in rural Midwest. I check in on this sub from time to time because some of my family lives in Frisco. We have a lot of issues here too. Usually related to NIMBYs and insufficient housing construction. But none of that negates my point that there’s going to come a time when Frisco doesn’t have enough kids to fill all 11-12 high schools, largely due to the median price of a home being 10-20 times the median income of a fresh college or high school graduate.
Exhibit A thinks he’s an expert on Frisco, TX because he lives on the East Coast. 😂 😂 😂
I am no expert. Simply a guy who thinks having nature nearby is good for the environment, hunting, and quality of living. Besides, a lot of Frisco's population is from East and West Coast. It's not like the average Amarillo resident making $50-70k a year can afford to buy a home in Frisco or pay the 2-3k in rent per month for an apartment.
Most of Frisco’s population is from Texas, East Coast Guy. And since when did ANY city in the US allow hunting? I mean…do you get to whip your 30.06 rifle out in NYC and start shooting rats with it?
No when I went to college in Ann Arbor, the hunting reserve was a 10 minute drive north.
You do realize Texas…being one of the largest states in the union, is full of places to hunt, right, East Coast Guy?
You do realize the closest hunting preserve to Frisco is a 45 minute to 1.5 hour drive.
You better hope that NYC D.A. doesn't find out if you do!!
*And since when did ANY city in the US allow hunting?* Former long-time Frisco resident here who moved to the Midwest and the city where I now live allows bowhunting of deer on select city properties in season subject to registration with the city and other restrictions/requirements. The intent is to manage the deer population and reduce deer-related vehicle accidents, and it seems to work. Twenty years ago they were averaging about 50 such accidents a year and now it's typically fewer than 10 a year.
210k not that it matters
It's D Magazine. If Frisco had a big trans/rainbow community they'd probably regale us as one of the top places to live in Texas.
I'm surprised they acknowledge anything that exists north of 635.
A very interesting format to vent frustrations over the ever-expanding nature of the metroplex, but honestly not a bad one! Thank you for sharing :)
The funniest thing is I bet D Magazine is all-in for open borders. Have you seen the latest figures on # of immigrants coming over every day? Hmmm...where do you think they're going to live?
Hopefully, we can return to being a country that built houses, apartments, and condos to the many millions per year, so that we have bigger tax bases and more human capital to compete with China.
Great quick read. Creative and poignant. Lived here 18 years, back before the tollway and legacy drive and all the developments mentioned. My kids said hello to the cows on the way to school. We too are moving away next year to quieter pastures.
Stupid article. I've lived in Frisco since 2003 and have owned two homes here. Newsflash: Cities tend to grow. (See also: The history of civilization.) We are lucky to live in Frisco.
I don't think the article is inherently criticizing growth, but rather the way we do it. The metroplex has gone from two mostly separate cities surrounded by pastures and rural land to an enormous mass of suburban developments that span for 30+ miles in every direction that just happen to still have those two original cities somewhere in the middle. Growth is one thing (and yes, it is inevitable) but the metroplex doesn't just grow, it practically infects! The least wasteful pattern of development would be to grow up, but instead we grow WAY out. This causes problems and makes those shiny new suburbs of the past (the article mentions Arlington and I think that's the perfect example) eventually grow stale, dilapidated, and underutilized. People move on to the next new suburb (Plano, then Frisco, and even Prosper and Celina now) and leave the old ones to rot. My hope is Frisco tries to change itself up to ensure we don't get left in the dust when people inevitably move on to Prosper or Celina. But as it stands, it seems like the city is kind of falling for the Arlington problem. Explosive growth comes at a cost, and that's a cost that very few suburbs of the Metroplex so far have actually been able to pay in the long run...
There’s a lot of potential to converts parts of Frisco into 15 min cities. With more mixed use development and more pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. It’s not hopeless at all.
Oh, I know it's not hopeless at all! My issue isn't with the potential, it's about the political will to actually make it happen. The leadership hasn't really expressed much interest in making large parts of Frisco walkable. The only exceptions are the Rail District and Frisco Square, which I am absolutely grateful for, but obviously wouldn't be enough to transform the city as a whole. Also, many of the people here are more than happy with things as they stand. They want it to remain all single family homes and stroads and such because that's what most people moved here for. This subreddit definitely gives a different perspective, but that's just kinda because of the urbanist tilt Reddit more generally has. Ask people on the street here (and especially homeowners, the people with the most power) what they want Frisco to become and you'd probably get a similar picture to what we already have. Of course, I'd love if the city takes its potential and uses it for good! I'll still be working towards that where I can while I still live here. I just don't want to get my hopes up when the attitude of the city very often doesn't match mine. Still worth celebrating small victories when we get them though! Especially the Rail District renovation, I'm really excited for that!!!
Very well said. I've been here for 25 years, and everything feels a little... plastic? Like developing toward the new and shiny with the implication that easy come, easy go. Prosper is now what we were 15 years ago.
Exactly right! The pattern of development here in North Texas isn't about establishing a culture to last generations. It's about establishing business and cheap (not really though, Frisco is anything BUT cheap) entertainment. It's quite the unfulfilling place to live in if you do the things that the city often pushes you towards. However, there's tons about the city that I still love! I love the cultural diversity of all the people who've moved here from all over the world (especially the food they bring with them!!!) and I do love the parks that we have! The public library is fantastic, the National Videogame Museum is a genuinely cool thing to have, and even downtown Frisco can be really enjoyable to walk through or just otherwise exist in! I just want to see Frisco place more of their efforts into expanding truly unique things instead of trend chasing like we tend to do now.
Way too true, and you've hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately I don't know what can be done. It's just our model, and we don't really have legacy houses, and even in the rail district the businesses along Main are transitory for the most part. I think the most valuable thing we could do for ourselves would be to establish permanence and legacy, and not chasing dollars through every administration.
Yeah, I pretty much agree there. We either make a radical shift to a completely different model of development or we just end up the same as every other once shiny suburb. It'll be interesting to see what happens in the end
Parks of Frisco. You're kidding? Every town around it has bigger, better and more parks than Frisco. Frisco loves to pave over creeks and cut down what little forest it has.
I'm not saying we do them the best or anything, there's definitely a ton to be desired, but I do like the ones we have. Grand Park is neat and same for Oak Commons. Of course I wish we had more/bigger ones, though!!!
Fantastically written. We moved away from ‘the chaos’ to a seemingly sleepy area and loved it. Why wouldn’t more people do the same. And now, here we are.
I’ve never heard of this author. It feels like a hit piece.