City News

Risky bike path on downtown bridge finally opens and more Dallas news

From far away, it's a pretty bridge.

Courtesy photo

In this week's roundup of Dallas news, a high-profile bike lane was officially opened. A master plan was adopted to take care of trees in Dallas. Beto was in town. And you can get vaccinated for free this weekend.

Here's what happened in Dallas this week:

High-profile bike path
A bicycle path on the Margaret McDermott Bridge in Dallas was officially opened to pedestrians and bike riders on Thursday. It's one of two Dallas bridges designed by architect Santiago Calatrava, and is opening four years after the bridge opened to motorists because it was not safe enough for bicyclists or pedestrians to use. The Dallas City Council had to allocate $7 million to replace the bridge's cable anchor system. It'll cost taxpayers $400,000 a year to maintain.

Adding bicycle and pedestrian lanes helped get federal funding for the project. They're currently off the beaten path but will eventually be connected to Dallas' bicycle network.

The Margaret McDermott Bridge extends I-30 from downtown Dallas across the Trinity to the post office, Oak Cliff, and beyond.

Beto was here
Beto O'Rourke was in Dallas-Fort Worth this week, part of a statewide tour to promote voting rights, with the Texas Organizing Project, aka TOPS, a grassroots organizing group. He was in Denton on June 7, then in Dallas on June 9, in the Los Altos neighborhood.

Crime bust
Two law enforcement agencies came together in Dallas to execute a large-scale operation in Fair Park, which they said is one of the city's most crime-ridden neighborhoods. FBI agents teamed with the Dallas Police Department in an investigation that began in 2019, and culminated in drug charges against 10 people. In a press conference, they described it as the most dangerous area in North Texas when it comes to gun crimes. According to their statistics, aggravated assaults went from 315 incidents in 2018 to 485 in 2020, and the number of murders climbed from 10 in 2018 to 23 in 2020, which they said represents 10 percent of all the murders in Dallas.

Dallas ADEX is back
The Architecture and Design Exchange (AD EX) is reopening its downtown location at 325 N. St. Paul St. to the public and resuming in-person programs beginning Friday June 11. The AD EX will be open to visitors Tuesday-Thursday from 10:00 am–6 pm and Friday-Saturday 10 am-3 pm. The AD EX was closed to the public in March 2020 due to COVID-19. They resumed walking tours of the Dallas Arts District and Main Street in downtown Dallas, plus Fair Park Tram Tours. The mission of the AD EX is to lead the conversation about architecture to you. There is no charge for admission for exhibitions and for many programs provided by the AD EX.

Free vaccine
Any Dallas adult or child over 12 who's eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine can get it for free at a vaccination clinic open to the public on Saturday in southeast Dallas at the New Millennium Bible Fellowship Praise Center.

Hours on open Saturday will be 12–3 pm at the Praise Center, located at 9026 Elam Rd.

Waste and recycle
The City of Dallas is updating its Local Solid Waste Management Plan to support the city's environmental and sustainability goals, and needs input to inform decisions about Dallas' solid waste and recycling programs, as well as future opportunities to reduce waste destined for the landfill. They're encouraging Dallas residents to take the online survey.

Trees matter
The first Dallas Urban Forest Master Plan was adopted by the Dallas City Council on June 9. Its goal is to maximize the value of the city's urban forest. A release says that the plan addresses urban challenges such as pests and disease control, rapid urban development, and inequitable distribution of tree canopy. It has 14 recommendations and 56 action items including plant 31,000 trees; do a tree inventory of right-of-way and park trees; create a plan to strategically plant and care for trees to ensure equitable access to tree canopy; and identify the best use of the wood when trees are removed.

The plan notes that the majority of the city's undeveloped land is in the southern neighborhoods, where more than one third of the city's tree canopy cover is located. With development occurring in these areas, there has been an 11 percent loss of tree canopy loss and an increase in roads and buildings, which is projected to increase temperatures by more than 1 degree F and decrease overall city canopy cover by 1.4 percent.

city-news-roundup politics

happy go lucky plano

Dallas neighbor dazzles on new list of happiest cities in America

Photo courtesy of Visit Plano

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A new happiness study has ranked Plano one of the happiest cities in America this year, and it once again landed on top as the happiest city in Texas.

Plano has moved up on the list and ranks as the 16th happiest U.S. city in 2026. Last year, it was 17th.

WalletHub determined the happiest cities in America based on 29 relevant metrics based on "positive-psychology research" across three main categories: emotional and physical wellbeing, income and employment, and community and environment. As with most WalletHub studies, it compared the 182 most populous U.S. cities.

Fremont, California claimed the top spot as the happiest city nationwide for another year. Bismark, North Dakota and Scottsdale, Arizona, respectfully, rounded out the top three.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Plano across the three key dimensions:

No. 15 – Emotional and physical wellbeing
No. 22 – Community and environment
No. 72 – Income and employment

Plano and its residents have continued improving their city year after year, whether its through opening new bakeries and restaurants, inviting fun pop-ups for locals, or having a strong job market.

Plano's happiness far outshines the rest of North Texas; according to WalletHub, Irving is the 70th happiest city in the country, the third-happiest in Texas, and the second-happiest city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro. Garland ranked farther behind as No. 92 nationally, and more DFW cities ranked even lower: Grand Prairie (No. 106), Dallas (No. 111), Fort Worth (No. 113), and Arlington (No. 119).

The report additionally found that Dallasites spend the third-most amount of time at work in the nation. The city ranked No. 180 in the national analysis of U.S. cities with the "fewest work hours."

WalletHub also emphasized that money doesn't buy happiness — after a certain point.

"For decades, researchers have explored the science of happiness and identified several core factors, including mental well-being, physical health, strong social ties, job satisfaction, and financial stability," the report said. "Still, income has its limits — studies show that earning more than $75,000 a year does not lead to greater happiness."

Six-figure earners in Plano aren't necessarily as happy as those who don't make as much, as a separate financial study from SmartAsset revealed these big earners are only taking home about $72,653 after taxes and adjusted for the cost of living.

This is how other Texas cities ranked in the report:

No. 39 – Austin
No. 128 – Houston
No. 135 – Lubbock
No. 137 – El Paso
No. 140 – Laredo
No. 143 – Amarillo
No. 150 – Brownsville
No. 154 – San Antonio
No. 155 – Corpus Christi

wallethub plano reports