A nod to North Texas

Nature-filled Dallas suburb flourishes as Money’s No. 4 best place to live in 2021

Flower Mound is known for its outdoorsy offerings in places like Stone Creek Park.

Facebook/Flower Mound Parks and Recreation

The Dallas suburb of Flower Mound is enjoying a blossoming reputation.

Money magazine awards Flower Mound the No. 4 spot on its new list of the 50 best places to live in the U.S. Just one other DFW community appears on the list: No. 19 Frisco.

The only other Texas city to make it is No. 25 Round Rock. Chanhassen, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis, lands in the No. 1 spot this year.

Flower Mound bumped Rockwall from the fourth-place perch it earned last year. Money says that to “keep the list interesting,” it disqualified the top five finishers from 2020, including Rockwall.

“Locals say Flower Mound still has a small-town feel, but it’s growing quickly. The city saw the highest job growth of any place on our list over the last five years. It also comes in second for the highest projected job growth over the next five, just after Round Rock down near Austin,” according to Money.

The publication highlights Flower Mound’s:

Recreational activities such as camping, boating, hiking, and horseback riding.
Annual Fourth of July bash.
Close proximity to Dallas.
Location near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.
100 percent graduation rate at Flower Mound High School.
New campus of Midwestern State University.

And about the name itself, "Flower Mound," Money writes, "According to town legend, in the mid-1800s in what is now Texas, settlers came across a hill covered in an unusually large number of wildflowers and aptly named it The Flower Mound. Now, 150 years later, more than 175 types of wildflowers, plants and grasses have been identified on the mound, and the area surrounding the hill is a thriving Dallas suburb..."

For the list, Money considered communities with populations ranging from 25,000 to 500,000. Flower Mound is home to about 76,000 people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

The magazine then narrowed the list to 50 towns or cities based on factors such as:

Crime rate.
Median income.
Population growth.
Diversity.
Cost of living.
Economic opportunity.
Education.
Amenities.
Health and safety.
Housing market.
Quality of life.

"Flo Mo," as it's affectionately known, is no stranger to making lists. In 2019, it topped Chamber of Commerce's list of best places to live in Texas; came in No. 4 on Apartment List's ranking of best cities for young families; and nabbed SafeHome.org's title as the safest city in Texas.

lists rankings

Politics News

Dallas narrows down field for new city manager to 4 candidates

Photo by R K on Unsplash

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.

politics