City News

Bird casualties downtown make this a somber edition of Dallas news

These guys are not just sleeping.

Photo by Ben Jones

This week's roundup of Dallas city news is heavy on transportation, with lots of news about DART and some news about Dallas Love Field. Also some sad news about birds.

Here's what happened in Dallas this week:

Second airport entry
Dallas Love Field will host a virtual public meeting on Tuesday September 22, and it's open to anyone who'd like to try and pepper Mr. LoveFieldCEO with questions about the airport's Alternate Entry Analysis.

The airport is pushing the idea that having only one entry is "risky." But the options for where a second entry might go are limited.

They presented 11 options to the Park Board, but five were bogus and tossed out immediately. A preliminary plan by Dallas Love Field seems to show that a connector would run from Northwest Highway riiight across Bachman Lake. The plan depicts a possible exit but doesn't show what happens beyond airport property.

The meeting will be from 6-7:30 pm and you can register here.

Downtown DART line
Also on September 22 at 6:30 pm, the DART Board of Directors will conduct a virtual public hearing to receive comments on the proposed D2 Subway line, including alignment, grade separations, and station locations.

The project starts near Victory Park and travels through downtown to reconnect with the Green Line near Deep Ellum. It'll go underground between Woodall Rogers Freeway and I-345 on the east, running under Commerce Street.

Five new stations would be built: three subway and two at street level. The Deep Ellum station, currently at Good Latimer and Swiss, will be repositioned to Good Latimer and Live Oak Street.

The Orange and Green lines would shift to D2, leaving the Red and Blue on the original track, to allow room for the system to grow. Right now, trains are limited to stops every 15 minutes and during rush hour and events, a higher frequency is needed.

Written comments and emails received any time before the hearing is adjourned will become part of the official record. Submit via email to dartpublichearingcomments@dart.org prior to the public hearing, or snail-mail to DART Community Engagement - 7232, D2 Subway Service Plan Amendment Public Hearing, P.O. Box 660163, Dallas, TX 75266.

DART service is back on
Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is restoring 90 percent of pre-pandemic service levels beginning October 19. They cut back both bus and rail service on April 6, reflecting a decrease in ridership due to COVID-19.

Service restoration includes 65 bus routes being restored to pre-pandemic service levels. A total of 7 core frequent bus routes, as well as all light rail train operation service, will move to 20-minute frequency until 7 pm on weekdays.

More information on the anticipated service change is on dart.org.

Dead birds
GreenSourceDFW is documenting dead birds in downtown Dallas that died during migration. The birds become disoriented by the city's bright lights and fly straight into buildings to their deaths.

In the past week, two dozen volunteers with Texas Conservation Alliance, a nonprofit wildlife advocacy group, have collected about 30 dead birds including warblers, hummingbirds, and orioles.

The group is part of the Lights Out Texas campaign, which aims to protect migrating birds by reducing light pollution.

The migration will last through the end of October. What would it take for downtown buildings to turn off their lights at night for 45 days?

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who needs a raise?

Here's the income it takes to be in the top 1 percent in Texas in 2026

Hundred dollar bills, top 1 percent earners, income study

Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

The income needed to be ranked among the top 1 percent of earners in Texas has snowballed past $800,000.

In a state where local billionaires are wealthier than they've ever been, high-earning Texans need to make $73,000 more than they did a year ago if they want to be among the top 1 percent of earners, a new report has revealed.

SmartAsset's latest study analyzed income thresholds for the top 1, 5, and 10 percent of earners in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, using 2022 IRS data for individual tax return filers (the most recent year available), adjusted to 2026 dollars.

Texas has the 11th highest income threshold, with residents needing to make a minimum of $817,158 to be considered among the top 1 percent of earners statewide. In 2025, Texans needed to make about $744,000 to be among the top 1 percent.

For comparison, residents living in the nation's capital must make at least $1.16 million to qualify as top 1 percent earners. The District of Columbia led the nation with the highest income threshold to be a top earner.

To be considered among the top 5 percent of earners in Texas, a resident would need to make $312,671. The income threshold to be considered among the top 10 percent is $210,609.

SmartAsset additionally found that 128,130 Texas residents qualified as top 1 percent earners in 2022. Nationally, the report estimated that fewer than 2 million households earn enough to be considered among the top 1 percent of earners nationwide, but 23 million households rank among the top 10 percent.

"In some places, households can enter the top 1 percent at income levels that fall well below the threshold elsewhere, reflecting an uneven landscape of wages and wealth," the report said.

A separate SmartAsset study that tracked the upper and lower thresholds for middle class households found Dallas residents need to make anywhere from $49,549 to $148,646 to maintain their middle class status. But in other North Texas cities, residents can make up to $291,000 — a figure that would place them between the top 5 and 10 percent of earners — and still be labeled "middle class."

The top 10 states with the highest thresholds to be considered in the top 1 percent of earners in the U.S. are:

No. 1 – District of Columbia ($1,156,664)
No. 2 – Connecticut ($1,147,898)
No. 3 – Massachusetts ($1,006,921)
No. 4 – California ($987,325)
No. 5– New Jersey ($969,976)
No. 6 – New York ($959,562)
No. 7 – Florida ($956,449)
No. 8 – Washington ($903,303)
No. 9 – Colorado ($828,772)
No. 10 – Wyoming ($819,014)

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