City News Roundup

West Dallas housing stays on front burner and more Dallas city news

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge has made the land in West Dallas more valuable.

Photo courtesy of kanonsky/iStock

The West Dallas housing situation continued to dominate city news, DART passed a controversial vote, and Dallas police chief David Brown threw himself a big retirement party. Here's what happened in Dallas this week:

West Dallas evictions postponed
In the ongoing West Dallas housing saga, Judge Ken Molberg issued a temporary restraining order on October 24, postponing the evictions of 300-plus residents who live in homes owned by HMK Ltd.

HMK, owned by Khraish A. Khraish and his father, Hanna, has been renting the homes for more than 10 years at cheap rates between $300 and $450 a month. The land has increased in value, and HMK has been the recipient of a number of code complaints. HMK is now shutting down its rental business.

The saga blew up on October 19, when the Dallas Observer published an audio recording of a meeting between Mayor Mike Rawlings and Khraish, in which the mayor pushed for HMK to sell the land.

Another damning audio tape
On October 26, the Observer published a second audio recording of a meeting between Rawlings, HMK, and city council member Monica Alonzo, who represents West Dallas. They're trying to find a solution to the housing situation. Khraish brought along Bill Hall, the CEO of Habitat for Humanity, in an attempt to broker a deal for the land and preserve low-income housing, but Rawlings would not allow Hall to attend.

The outcome of the meeting was that lawyers for the city of Dallas would look for ways to reduce the number of code violations being written against HMK, and HMK would refrain from immediate eviction of its tenants.

DART board drama
In a controversial move, the DART board of directors approved plans to build the Cotton Belt commuter rail between Plano and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, as well as a subway line in downtown Dallas. A packed house turned out to witness the vote.

Addison residents, who wore yellow T-shirts, were in favor of the Cotton Belt rail; Dallas' inner-city crowd, in green shirts, opposed the Cotton Belt because of the high toll it would take on the system overall. DART executives claim their budget can support both projects.

Chief Brown's big bang
After 33 years as a cop, and six as police chief, David Brown has retired. He announced his retirement shortly after the burst of national attention he received for his handling of the July 7 shooting in downtown Dallas.

Brown went out with a private reception at the Morton Meyerson Symphony Center, where he said he will not run for office but revealed he does "have a great interest in using the media platform to convey a message about bringing people together." He's represented by a talent agency in New York.

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let loose dallas

Dallas earns a slot on new list of America's most fun cities

Photo by Mark Patterson on Unsplash

Dallas is a fun place to be, the study says.

Dallas' fun entertainment and nightlife scenes have helped the city improve in WalletHub's just-released ranking of the most fun American cities in 2025. Dallas now stands tall as the 26th most fun U.S. city this year.

WalletHub's "Most Fun Cities in America (2025)" study compared 182 U.S. cities across 65 metrics — spanning from the number of sports venues, music venues, and shopping centers per capita to the average cost for a restaurant meal — to determine how "fun" each city is. The metrics were split among three main categories: entertainment and recreation, nightlife and parties, and cost.

Las Vegas, Nevada continued its multi-year streak as the No. 1 most fun American city.

Across the three key dimensions, Dallas scored the highest for its nightlife and parties rank (No. 23), but its entertainment and recreation ranks (No. 35) and costs (No. 99) still have room for improvement. But overall, Dallas' level of "fun" is far higher than most U.S. cities.

Dallas' current "fun" status is five places higher than its 2024 rank as the No. 31 most fun American city.

Elsewhere in North Texas, Fort Worth ranked as the 60th most fun American city, while Arlington (No. 71) and Plano (No. 78) lagged farther behind.

Texas' most fun cities
Houston overtook Austin as the 6th most fun city in America and the No. 1 most fun Texas city for 2025. Austin, which ranked No. 6 last year, dropped two spots and now ranks No. 8 on the list.

Three more Texas cities that appeared in the top 100 include: San Antonio (No. 23), El Paso (No. 62), and Corpus Christi (No. 94).

"The decision of where to live could save or cost you a lot of money and fun, so it’s fair to wonder what makes a fun city," the report's author wrote. "In a city with enough variety, you won’t have to compromise with your friends, family, or even yourself about the next fun activity to do alone or together."

Surprisingly, both Chicago and New York City dropped out of the top 10 most fun American cities. Chicago now ranks as No. 11, and New York City ranks 14th on the list.

WalletHub's top 10 most fun U.S. cities in 2025 are:

No. 1 – Las Vegas, Nevada
No. 2 – Orlando, Florida
No. 3 – Miami, Florida
No. 4 – Atlanta, Georgia
No. 5 – New Orleans, Louisiana
No. 6 – Houston, Texas
No. 7 – San Francisco, California
No. 8 – Austin, Texas
No. 9 – Portland, Oregon
No. 10 – Cincinnati, Ohio

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