Wrong direction

Dallas-Fort Worth no longer a top 100 place to live, declares U.S. News & World Report

Who wouldn't want to live here?

Courtesy photo

Dallas-Fort Worth has fallen from grace in a closely watched annual report of the best places to live in the U.S. The Metroplex appears at a dismal No. 113 (out of 150) in U.S. News & World Report's Best Places to Live ranking for 2023-2024.

Last year, DFW landed at No. 32; it was No. 37 in 2021.

Why such a plummet from the top tier to the bottom?

It has to do with criteria and how the metrics are weighted, which U.S. News changes from year to year.

“This year’s rankings are a reflection of the current economic, social, and natural factors that impact a place’s livability for its residents,” says Devon Thorsby, real estate editor at U.S. News, in a release. “People are considering more than housing when they look at an area’s affordability – they want to know how much goods cost in that area. The ever-present risk for severe weather and a community’s ability to recover – coupled with the area’s opportunities for social activities – are also taken into account when evaluating a best place to live.”

As in years past, 150 large metro areas were evaluated using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. News' own internal resources. This data was categorized into the four indexes and evaluated using a methodology determined by Americans' preferences, the report's authors say.

In 2023, the report evaluated quality of life (36% of total score); value, including housing affordability (23%); desirability, including net migration (22%); and job market strength (19%).

DFW scored a middling 6 out of 10 overall. Breaking down the categories, ratings were:

Desirability: 6
Value: 5.8
Job market: 6
Quality of life: 6.1
Net migration: 6.3

A few differences from previous years' metrics: 1) The Desirability Index this year included weather temperateness (the number of days annually that the temperature falls between 33 degrees and 89 degrees F). 2) Desirability Index also includes establishment-to-population ratio, meaning the number of restaurants, bars and activities per 1,000 residents. 3) Having been its own Index in previous editions of Best Places to Live, net migration is also now part of the Desirability Index. 4) In light of inflation, the Value Index – which previously focused solely on housing affordability – now factors in price parity, a U.S. census data point on the general cost of goods within an area, they say.

As in past years, DFW gets praised for "both big-city excitement and quiet, suburban living" and "an interesting mix of Texas pride and cosmopolitan offerings."

They cite DFW residents' friendliness and note that there are a lot more of us.

The Metroplex landed at No. 98 in U.S. News' 2023 Best Places to Retire rankings.

Dallas-Fort Worth isn't alone in its downward spiral. Almost every Texas city took a hit in this year's national rankings:

No. 40 – Austin, down from No. 13 last year (and No. 1 from 2017 to 2019)
No. 103 – San Antonio, down from No. 83 last year
No. 122 – Killeen, down from No. 108 last year
No. 128 – El Paso, down from No. 124 last year
No. 131 – Beaumont, down from No. 109 last year
No. 132 – Corpus Christi, up from No. 133 last year
No. 134 – Brownsville, unchanged from last year
No. 137 – McAllen, up from No. 138 last year
No. 140 – Houston, down from No. 59 last year

In U.S. News' separate Best Place to Live in Texas for 2023, Austin landed at No. 1, followed by San Antonio at No. 2 and DFW at No. 3.

Green Bay, Wisconsin, grabbed the No. 1 spot nationally in 2023. Huntsville, Alabama (last year's No. 1) came in second, followed by Raleigh & Durham, North Carolina (No. 3), Boulder, Colorado (No. 4), and Sarasota, Florida (No. 5).

Best Places to Live US News & World Report rankings reports

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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