Weighed down by affordability

Dallas-Fort Worth no longer a top-25 place to live, declares U.S. News & World Report

What's wrong with Dallas, U.S. News?

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Dallas-Fort Worth has tumbled out of the top 25 on U.S. News & World Report’s closely watched annual list of the best places to live in the U.S.

U.S. News' 2021 Best Places to Live ranking, released July 13, puts DFW at No. 37 among the country’s biggest metro areas. That's 13 spots lower than the area’s No. 24 ranking in 2020, and well below its rankings in 2019 (No. 21), 2018 (No. 18), and 2017 (No. 15).

What's going on here?

For the 2021 ranking, U.S. News & World Report crunched data for the country’s 150 biggest metro areas. It's worth nothing that in previous years, they'd looked at the 125 biggest metro areas. The data in 2021 encompasses affordability, job prospects, desirability, quality of life, and migration patterns.

“This year we’re looking at how the most populous metro areas in the U.S. fared for much of the coronavirus pandemic, and seeing how far they’ll need to come to recover,” says Devon Thorsby, U.S. News real estate editor, in a release. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that many metro areas that saw unemployment levels skyrocket in 2020 fell in the rankings, but those with greater employment stability tended to fare well.”

Still, U.S. News lauds the Metroplex — which ranks No. 17 in their subcategory of Best Places to Retire — for "offering both big-city excitement and quiet, suburban living."

"The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area has an interesting mix of Texas pride and cosmopolitan offerings," the report says. "The cowboy life still exists in Fort Worth, while Dallasites love the trendy local bars and numerous retail shops. And no matter which part of the Metroplex they call home, sports fans rally together behind their professional sports teams."

DFW also has the "small-town feel of Friday night football games and backyard parties" in its suburbs, the report adds.

"In those areas, residents can bump into their friends at the local Tex-Mex restaurant, children ride their bikes, and joggers hit the pavement for evening runs," the site says. "But even in DFW proper, many people exude that Texas friendliness with a wave or a 'hello' to strangers."

(That's actually the exact description of DFW that CultureMap quoted from the report in 2019; to be fair, maybe the the Dallas writer hasn't left her house since 2019.)

DFW wasn't the only place to fall hard. Every large city in Texas tumbled down the list this year:

Houston, ranked No. 39 in 2021, was No. 27 last year.

San Antonio, ranked No. 75 in 2021, was No. 41 last year.

Even buzzy Austin came in at just No. 5 this year, two spots lower than the area’s No. 3 ranking in 2020, and four spots below its first-place showings in 2017, 2018, and 2019.

“Housing affordability is always of great concern, but as people solidify their plans to work remotely, struggle to find a house in a hot housing market or consider a cross-country move, a low cost of living is even more important,” Thorsby says.

Who comes out on top in 2021? Boulder, Colorado, appears at No. 1 on this year’s list, followed by Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, at No. 2; Huntsville, Alabama, at No. 3; and Fayetteville, Arkansas, at No. 4.

No other Texas metro area besides Austin showed up in the top 25 of this year’s ranking. Elsewhere in the state, Killeen-Temple landed at No. 114, Beaumont-Port Arthur at No. 124, Corpus Christi at No. 129, El Paso at No. 131, McAllen at No. 139, and Brownsville at No. 140.

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Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

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This is an Dallasite's sign to launch that small business they've been dreaming of.

After six months without a city manager, the city of Dallas has narrowed down the field of replacements to four semifinalists including one serving as current interim city manager, plus candidates from Fort Worth, Michigan, and Georgia.

Dallas has been without a city manager since May, when previous city manager T.C. Broadnax left to take a job with the city of Austin. Since that time, Broadnax's former chief of staff Kimberly Bizor Tolbert has served as interim city manager.

The city retained Baker Tilly, a consulting firm, to recruit and compile candidates. (Baker Tilly famously erred in the brochure it created for the position by featuring a photo of the Houston skyline instead of Dallas; they've since replaced it with Dallas.)

A spokesperson for Baker Tilly did not respond to inquiries but according to D Magazine, an email listing the candidates has been sent to the Dallas City Council.

The semifinalists include:

Kimberly Bizor Tolbert, Dallas’ current interim city manager
William Johnson, an assistant city manager in Fort Worth
Mark Washington, the city manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan
Zachary Williams, a county chief operating officer in Georgia

All have more than 25 years' of public administration experience and have worked in similar capacities in their respective cities.

Before working in Fort Worth, Johnson was Baltimore’s transportation director and Atlanta’s deputy chief operating officer and public works commissioner.

Washington worked in Fort Worth and Austin before becoming Grand Rapids’ city manager.

Williams has mostly worked in Georgia at the county level, including serving as county manager in Fulton County and chief operating officer in DeKalb County.

Tolbert began working for the city in 1998, first as the city manager’s assistant and later in the aviation department. Broadnax hired her as his chief of staff in 2017.

Unlike the Mayor and the Dallas City Council, the city manager position in Dallas is not elected but is instead appointed by the city council, and is tasked with executing policies, overseeing the annual budget, and managing staff at city hall.

The council’s Ad Hoc Committee will choose finalists, introduce them to the public, and make an offer in early 2025.

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