Why is Dallas mayor bashing suburbs when Mavs are staying? Take the win | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Johnson framed regional cooperation as a suburban border battle.
- The Mavericks plan to move to 13331 Preston Road, an old mall site off LBJ Freeway.
- Former Mayor Mike Rawlings promoted the idea that Dallas is part of the larger DFW region.
Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson doesn’t get it.
He could be the leader of all North Texas.
Instead, he acts like a local restaurateur afraid the drive-thru hamburger stand down the street will steal his customers
He treats the business success of Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties as an existential threat.
He actually said last week that Dallas is in a “generational battle” against neighbor cities.
Johnson makes a big city look — small.
When the Dallas Mavericks announced they might move 12 miles north to an old mall site off LBJ Freeway, Johnson acted as if his favorite dog had run off to Oklahoma.
Instead of celebrating a victory — Dallas kept the Mavs inside the city limits — he made it seem like Dallas lost.
“The wolf is not in this room, the wolf is up the tollway,” Johnson said, warning the city to move past the current debate over whether to repair or leave Dallas City Hall.
He said that because the Dallas Stars just announced they plan to move up the Dallas North Tollway to Plano and because the Mavericks are moving halfway there.
But even at the former Valley View Mall site, the Mavericks will still be 5 miles closer to downtown Dallas than to Frisco, now the home of a quarter-million people.
The Mavericks want to move to 13331 Preston Road. It’s not as if they’re moving to The Colony.
They plan to transform a worn-out mall site into a mixed-use playground. It’s one exit east of the Galleria.
That is a win for Dallas. It is not a defeat.
Yes, downtown Dallas has taken some horrible hits.
It’s losing sports teams, Neiman Marcus, the AT&T headquarters and bank headquarters.
But every downtown in America is adapting to a post-COVID, work-offsite world. Downtowns are evolving into government centers, arts and design hubs, convention districts and residential neighborhoods.
Besides, losing 80 nights of hockey and basketball clears the calendar at American Airlines Center.
That means Dallas can fully compete for major arena concerts and events that currently choose the wide-open dates here at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth.
The Mavericks moving out to LBJ is not the end of the world.
And the city of Dallas basically chased the Stars away years ago by claiming a breach of the arena contract.
From the start, Johnson turned regional cooperation into a suburban border battle. He declared that Dallas needed to be “more selfish” and “take a step back” from regional planning.
Remember when he wanted South Dallas to get its own NFL team?
The Dallas Cowboys must not promote the city enough, simply because they play games in Arlington and get their mail in Frisco.
Never mind the 4,000-6,000 out-of-town fans who help fill Dallas hotel rooms and restaurants every single Sunday the Cowboys play.
A tourist flying in from Chicago, Washington or Los Angeles isn’t coming to see Las Colinas.
Unless they’re watched a lot of Taylor Sheridan TV shows about Fort Worth, they’re coming to see Dallas.
Former Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings understood how the world works. He promoted the idea that Dallas is just one part of “a much bigger city called DFW.”
Under Rawlings, Dallas was full of optimism. Downtown and Uptown flourished. Rawlings worked hand-in-hand with former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price to lift the entire North Texas tide. When North Texas wins, Dallas wins.
Rawlings wanted to bring global tourists in from Australia and China.
Johnson is worried about fans going to games in Plano.
Look at what is happening just this month.
The FIFA World Cup matches will bring more tourists to Texas than anywhere else in the U.S.
The numbers are falling short, but the nine matches at the home of the Dallas Cowboys will draw upward of 800,000 fans.
This is the point both politicians and residents often miss:
On the global stage, the name everyone knows isn’t Plano, Frisco or even Fort Worth.
Visitors are coming from London, Tokyo and Mexico City to matches at AT&T Stadium, but it’s temporarily being renamed for the city they know: Dallas Stadium.
No matter where teams play, where fans sleep or how much mayors fuss, the biggest winner worldwide is always Dallas.
