Full steam ahead

This Dallas neighbor nails top spot in ranking of fastest-growing U.S. cities

The Cowboys are helping to fuel the engine to this city.

Courtesy rendering

The locomotive known as Frisco — Money magazine’s Best Place to Live in America for 2018— is on a roll. Personal finance website WalletHub just crowned Frisco the fifth fastest-growing city in the U.S. and the fastest-growing city in Texas.

WalletHub published its list of America’s fastest-growing cities October 14. To come up with the list, WalletHub compared 515 cities of varying sizes on 17 key measures of both growth and weakness over a seven-year period. Cities were judged in areas such as population growth, economic gains, and unemployment declines.

Aside from landing at No. 5 among all 515 cities, Frisco claimed the No. 3 spot for midsize cities (100,000 to 300,000 residents). In the category for highest population growth, Frisco tied for No. 1 overall with McKinney, Sugar Land, and three cities outside Texas. Frisco also tied for No. 1 in the category of highest job growth (6.88 percent); McKinney shared that ranking.

Last month, personal finance website GOBankingRates put Frisco atop its list of the “Most Surprising Cities to Live in if You Want to Make a Lot of Money.” It based Frisco’s showing on the difference between the suburb’s median household income ($120,701) and the state’s median income ($57,051).

“Frisco is the best city to live in if you have your sights set on big bucks but want to avoid living in an urban center,” GOBankingRates says.

Frisco’s momentum has been driven, in large part, by its ability in recent years to attract corporate headquarters. For instance, Frisco now is the home base of the Dallas Cowboys and Keurig Dr Pepper, and PGA of America is moving its headquarters there.

On the website of the Frisco Economic Development Corp., Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones brags that Frisco’s leaders have “invested in creating a world-class city” with a skilled workforce and a pro-business climate.

In July 2018, Frisco’s population was estimated at 188,170, up 60.6 percent from April 2010, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Other Texas cities that made WalletHub’s top 30 are:

Round Rock (Austin suburb), No. 10 (No. 6 among midsize cities)
Austin, No. 15 (No. 1 among large cities)
Sugar Land (Houston suburb), No. 21
Pearland (Houston suburb), No. 27

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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.

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