Houston and Dallas
Space City and Big D
The biggest and third biggest cities in Texas, which is impressive, because everything is bigger in Texas.
To say there is a rivalry between the two iconic cities is an understatement.
They are 240 miles, or 386 km apart. About 3 and a half hour drive.
And yeah, both are huge. In fact, with around 2.4 million people, Houston is the 4th largest city in the United States.
With 1.4 million people, Dallas is the 9th largest.
Houston actually is the biggest city in the country by total area.
Orange: Now hold up man, what about metropolitan area?
I know, I know. Dallas is part of the 4th largest metro area in the country (7.6 million).
I mean, it’s close to Fort Worth and Arlington.
Their metro is also known as DFW, or simply The Metroplex. Houston’s metro area is 5th (7 million).
And for the rest of this video, I will give you statistics based on their metros areas, unless I state otherwise, mmk?
First of all, Dallas has a lower population density.
Ok next, so apparently there are these rankings by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network that look at global cities.
While it considers both Dallas and Houston global cities, Houston is ranked Alpha - and Dallas is ranked at Beta +. Have fun with that in the comments.
Houston is a short drive from the ocean. More specifically, the Gulf of Mexico or even more specifically, Galveston Bay.
It’s a Gulf Coast city. Dallas is...uh...a longer drive from the ocean.
It’s at the edge of the Great Plains, and you’re not going to see as many palm trees there.
Due to this, Dallas gets more tornadoes and Houston gets more hurricanes.
Dallas is at the southern end of what’s known as Tornado Alley, where tornadoes are more common.
Dallas has been directly hit by tornadoes multiple times in its history.
Houston has been hit by hurricanes multiple times. Most recently, in 2017 Hurricane Harvey caused parts of Houston to flood.
Flooding is actually a regularly occurring problem in Houston, but not in Dallas as they’ve figured out a way to tame the mighty Trinity River, for the most part.
Related to this...Houston is sinking. Literally. Dallas is not. This is partially due to Houston pumping lots of groundwater.
Both cities technically have the same humid subtropical climate, but you wouldn’t know it being in the two cities.
First of all, you generally don’t want to be in both cities during the summer.
They are hot. Although, the humidity is worse in Houston and its summers drag on longer.
It can be miserable. Both cities have four seasons, although the winters are pretty mild.
If you visit both, obviously you should go in the spring or fall.
This may be no surprise at this point in the video, but Houston gets a lot more precipitation than Dallas.
Both don’t get much snow, although it does snow in Dallas more due to it being further north.
Both are flat...and nowhere near mountains.
But at least Houston has seaside beaches nearby.
Houston has been around longer than Dallas.
Before Europeans arrived, the Caddo people lived in the area where Dallas is today.
The Karankawa people lived in the area where Houston is today.
Land speculator John Kirby Allen and his bro Augustus Chapman Allen founded Houston on August 30, 1836, and named it after Sam Houston, the hero of the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas Revolution, which only happened a few months before.
Five years later, in November 1841, a dude named John Neely Bryan founded Dallas.
Supposedly, Dallas was named after Vice President George Dallas, but this is disputed, as there are a lot of other Dallases it could have been named after.
Houston was the capital of the Republic of Texas until it relocated to Austin in 1839.
Both cities became American cities after the United States annexed Texas in 1845.
By 1860, Houston was a big commercial and railroad hub for exporting cotton, while Dallas was still a tiny town only notable because that year there was a big fire that destroyed most of its business district.
Even though they didn’t have any evidence, Dallas residents blamed slaves for it, and ended up lynching three slaves and ordering all the other slaves in town to be whipped.
After the Civil War, both cities grew rapidly due to industrialization.
Dallas surpassed Houston to become the biggest city in Texas after it annexed East Dallas in 1890.
It also benefited from being at the intersection of the railroad and the cattle drives and cotton producers.
In 1900, after Galveston got hit badly by a devastating hurricane, Houston residents made more of an effort to turn it into a deep-water port city, eventually improving the Houston Ship Channel.
In 1914, the first steamboat service began going back and forth from Houston to New York.
Today the Port of Houston is one of the country’s busiest seaports.
Meanwhile, Dallas had transformed from a mostly agricultural economy to become a booming manufacturing city.
It led the country in producing horse accessories, cotton gins, drugs, books, jewelry, and wholesale liquor.
Later it got into banking, insurance, fashion, and retail.
Houston began to make a lot of money from oil, with twelve oil companies located there by the time the Port of Houston opened.
By 1930, it was once again the largest city in Texas, and it’s been the biggest ever since.
Despite both cities attracting many African Americans to live and work there, both were guilty of discriminating against them with Jim Crow laws.
Today, just over 25% of residents in both Dallas and Houston identify as African American.
Houston has the most ethnically diverse metro area in the country.
Around 145 different languages are spoken by its residents. Dallas is pretty diverse, too.
In fact, a higher percentage of Dallas residents were born in another country compared with Houston. (25%-22%)
This is probably due to a larger Hispanic and Latino presence in Dallas.
42.4% of Dallas residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, compared with 37% of Houston residents.
Dealey Plaza in Dallas of course was where President John F. Kennedy was assassinated right in front of everyone on November 22, 1963.
NASA opened the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston around that same time, and it brought lots of jobs to the city.
Dallas had a real estate boom in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but that came crashing down in the late 1980s.
It was around this same time a show called Dallas was really popular on TV.
Since the show featured millionaires who made their fortunes in the oil industry, you think it would have been based in Houston, but I guess there are cattle ranchers in it, too, which is more associated with the Dallas area.
Speaking of beef, and I don’t want to start a beef, but both Houston and Dallas are known for their tasty beef.
Today, top industries in Dallas include technology, financial services and defense.
Top industries in Houston revolve around oil and gas exploration, refining, and production, but also it’s known for health care, biomedical research, and aerospace.
Houston has the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical complex in the freaking world.
Overall, Houston has a MUCH higher GDP than Dallas.
And yeah, the average annual salary is slightly higher in Houston. (Dallas- $51,250 Houston- $53,820)
However, the unemployment rate is lower in Dallas. (3.5% in Dallas, 4.3% in Houston)
Both are still fairly affordable cities compared to other global cities.
And both are a lot cheaper than nearby Austin, Texas.
Overall, though, it’s a little cheaper to live in Houston than Dallas.
Taxes are also 3.4% cheaper in Houston.
U.S. News & World Report ranks Dallas as #21 on its Best Places to Live list. It ranks Houston at #30.
Dallas has a lower crime rate. The poverty rate is almost the exact same in both cities.
A higher percentage of students graduate high school in Houston. (74% in Houston, 72% in Dallas) but the student to teacher ratio is lower in Dallas. (15:1 in Dallas, 17:1 in Houston)
73% of Houstonians and 78% of Dallasites identify as Christian, with Evangelical Protestants making up the largest group in both cities.
Overall, Dallasites are more religious.
Both tend to have younger residents compared to most other cities around the United States, although Dallasites are slightly younger on average.
Houston has a much better skyline...the fifth tallest in North America as matter of fact.
Both are car cities, and thus commute times are pretty bad in both.
Thankfully there is acceptable public transit. Dallas has Dallas Area Rapid Transit, or DART.
Houston has the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County, or METRO. Uh, no that acronym doesn’t work.
Anyway, both DART and METRO provide both bus and rail service.
By most accounts, the light rail service in Dallas is much better and more expansive, although METRO plans to greatly expand its current rail system.
Both have two major airports. Both have a bike sharing system.
What about pollution? I know you’ve been waiting this entire video to hear about pollution, right?
Well while air pollution is horrible in both cities, it’s worse in Houston.
How about some other random facts? Houston has a better variety of food choices.
This is probably why Houstonians eat out more than residents of any other city in the country.
Ok, here’s a weird sentence. Dallas is ridiculously centrally located.
It’s a four-hour flight from nearly every North American destination.
Houston apparently doesn’t have zoning laws. This is why you see pictures like this.
Dallas has one of the biggest LGBT populations in the country.
For all cities with more than a million residents, Houston ranks #1 for total park space.
Dallas was where Walker, Texas Ranger was filmed.
Uh, I kind of just wish I could show footage from the wonderful show for the rest of this video. So good. Get ‘em! Ok, anyway...let’s.uh..let’s move on.
Oh yeah, what about sports. Let’s see if I can make some folks mad here.
First of all, for Major League Baseball, Houston has the Astros, Dallas has the Rangers.
Right I know they actually play in Arlington but come on now. Stop.
For the NFL, Houston has the Texans...well geez that’s a bit arrogant of a name...claim the state for yourselves...and Dallas has an obscure little team called the Cowboys.
For the NBA, Houston has the Rockets and Dallas, the Mavericks.
For Major League Soccer, Houston has the Dynamo and Dallas has FC Dallas.
Right I know they are in Frisco but come on now. Stop it.
And let’s throw the NHL in there. Dallas has the Stars and Houston...well well well. Houston doesn’t have an NHL team. Interesting.
In conclusion, both cities are amazing places not only to visit, but if you can stand the summers, wonderful places to live.
And if you want to move to either one, you’d better hurry, the cost of living is still actually reasonable and that’s not going to last that much longer.
Mr. Beat: So, I'm here with Will Fox from the channel The Exploration
He grew up in Dallas, so he has a perspective between the, or about the differences between Houston and Dallas.
Will: The main thing is, that people, that Houstonians
think that there's this big rivalry between Houston and Dallas, and
the reality is that, you know people from Dallas, we don't even think about it.
You have friends in Houston, right? You guys ever talk about this?
Will: Uh, no. (laughs) . Mr. Beat: (laughs) that's ok
What about the drivers?
Will: Oh, they're...the thing is going down to Houston is a nightmare
So Dallas for the win again.
It's strange that, you know
you might think I'm biased, but it's just objectively a better place to be.
Mr. Beat: Thanks to Will from the channel The Exploration for letting me interview him and for reading over my script.
Don't worry, I also had a Houstonian read over my script as well.
Jared from the channel Wisecrack
He grew up in Houston. Be sure to check out Wisecrack, for crying out loud.
So which is better? Dallas or Houston?
I’m sure there will be plenty of trash talking in the comments for this one.
Which two cities should I compare next? How many of you actually watched this video up to this point?
Let me know. And yes, I do try to read as many comments as possible.
Yet another reason why I do not sleep. Thanks for watching!