Discovery Channel: We Built This City

[gc]

Did anyone happen to see the three episode series of "We Built This City" on the Discovery Channel last night? They covered New York, London, and Paris. It was awesome. Basically, it chronicled some of the cities' major architectural, engineering, and logistical feats that made them the citites they are today. Covers topics like transportation, sewage, water, parks, transporataion, flooding. If you get the chance, check it out.

[snooch]

Yeah, I saw the tail-end of the Paris episode and most of the NYC one. The show can occasionally lay the cheese on a bit thick, but overall I had a blast watching it.

[gc]

True, but they kept my attention nonetheless!

[snooch]

Ain't nothing wrong with a little Discovery Channel cheese.

[MustangMonkey]

Swiss Cheese to be precise.

Very interesting :cool:

[gc]

Is it just me or did watching these shows make DFW seem realy really young and insignificant in terms of the urban city? I mean, I know Dallas is extremely young when compared to London and Paris, but geesh!

[evdallas]

Try living in Europe and coming back to Dallas. My Apartment was 150 years old and it was newish.

[gc]

I saw another good show this evening on the Discovery Channel. Again, the series was "Extreme Engineering" and it was about Boston's Big Dig project. Holy cow...

[freewaytincan]

Originally posted by gc
I saw another good show this evening on the Discovery Channel. Again, the series was "Extreme Engineering" and it was about Boston's Big Dig project. Holy cow...

Hah! I just watched that. Our federal taxdollars at work. And those Bostonians still whine about the past inconviniences.

Jerks.

[drumguy8800]

Wow. here on the boards, we complain about Dallas-bashers.. and then here we go.. profiling other cities. I'm not just saying this to you, Urban.. we were talking about skyscraperspage.com in one forum and how they bash us, and in the other one, we were bashing houston. Talk about hypocrital..

[rantanamo]

Trust me, the bashing of sunbelt cities on SSP far exceeds anything I've read here. Some here don't think Houston is as good as Dallas. Many on SSP think Dallas, Houston or Atlanta shouldn't exist, and think we are all dumb and beneath them for living here. Not to mention Dallas is a bunch of tall buildings in one bunch surrounded by flat expanses of barren prairie with all suburban homes and trailer parks with no trees or sidewalks.

See the difference?

[drumguy8800]

yeah. I despise Houston to, but I prefer not to say it. I see where you're coming from though, Rantanamo.

[gc]

Originally posted by drumguy8800
Wow. here on the boards, we complain about Dallas-bashers.. and then here we go.. profiling other cities. I'm not just saying this to you, Urban.. we were talking about skyscraperspage.com in one forum and how they bash us, and in the other one, we were bashing houston. Talk about hypocrital..


drumguy8800, most of us don't bash other cities..... However, most of us like to compare/copntrast Dallas to other cities...and sometimes that brings out negative comments.

[gc]

Originally posted by drumguy8800
yeah. I despise Houston to, but I prefer not to say it. I see where you're coming from though, Rantanamo.

To be honest, I don't understand why anyone bashes another major metropolitan area/city and their urban efforts. Houston is awesome, as is Austin, San Antonio, Fort Worth, Atlanta, etc, etc, etc.

[drumguy8800]

To comment on the prairie thing Rantanamo.. I agree with you- everyone thinks Dallas is really flat. When it isn't.. I think it was you that posted all those pictures on the High 5 board that had hills on em and stuff. Anyway.. today I drove up the entire extent of 342 (oy) and corinth.. Just south of Ledbetter, on the west side of 342, is the most magnificent view: There's this HUGE (probably 200.. 300 feet down..) valley thing that has all kinds of trees and stuff.. and it really offers a unique view of downtown. About the lower third of downtown is cut off in a curve because of the hills- it really is a cool perspective. I would've gotten a shot, but I wasn't gonig to just pull over into some parking lot on the side of 342 ;). Sorry! The only parking lots I ever saw access to were an apartment complex and an auto-repair shop- Two places I didn't exactly deem 'safe'. But, if anyone's been down there, the V.A. hospital is really nice looking. Quite surprising, to me. Although, the layout of the DART light rail (it is along the median of 342) kind of bugged me.. the stations weren't as decorative and there wasn't any room to add greenspace or art in the median, so it kind of just made it look like a giant power line. Once the blue line leaves the 342 median farther north though, it looks very nice.

[drumguy8800]

My reasoning for the dislike of Houston is more or less because of some of their animosity towards us. Many Houstonians brag and boast about how big Houston is and how large of a population it has. My reasoning for its large population and large size is the fact that area suburbs didn't swallow up all the land and choke off growth. In the Dallas area, suburbs account for what.. probably 3.2 million (rough estimate.. I tried to think of the three major cities.. Dallas - 1.2 mil, Fort Worth, .6 mil, and Arlington, .4 mil..) and the area's population of 5.4 mil minus the combined total of 2.2 mil leaves 3.2 million people living happily in suburbia. Its a really stupid idea, but it would be nice if some cities handed their land over to Dallas. Dallas probably wouldn't want to take care of the maintenance costs, but at least it would push us higher in the ranks! (And yes, I know that a city's worth is not based on its population. A larger popuation though, would make it stand out as a major US city..)

[tamtagon]

There's this HUGE (probably 200.. 300 feet down..) valley thing

It just looks that deep. While Fort Worth is about 100' above sea level than Dallas, the rise is gradual and without escarpment. The only place in Texas you can find a 200+ foot deep valley is in the Panhandle and Trans Pecos region or possibly in the Hill Country. Dallas is flat, Houston is flatter, much much more flatter. It's all about perspecive, though. If you grow up on a plain, any topographical change is noticeable.

[tamtagon]

It is nice to "discover" one of these views in DFW, and I think it would be in the best interest area cities to taylor zoning ordinances to take advantage.

[dallastophoenix]

Originally posted by drumguy8800
A larger popuation though, would make it stand out as a major US city..)

you have to look at atlanta, a city of only 450,000 people, which is known the world over - special thx to the olympics... but they still have the world's busiest airport, and numerous world-class amenities for being such a small "city."

phx, on the other hand, is expanding just like houston. in fact (i've likely said it b4), phx's land mass is greater than LA. when built out, it will be bigger (population) than houston and LA. but it looks - and acts - more like an "irving" rather than a "dallas." when looking at a city as a whole, greater population doesn't mean a thing... but, yes, it is nice to be higher in the ranking...

[aceplace]

Many Houstonians brag and boast about how big Houston is and how large of a population it has


you have to look at atlanta, a city of only 450,000 people

You all continue to confuse a municipal government with an urban area... the word "city" has different meanings in different contexts, I suppose.

Does it really matter how many municipal governments the DFW area is divided into? Or Greater Houston? Or Greater Atlanta?

Let's say that I did the impossible and combined all the municipalities in the DFW area into one government with almost 6 million people. While you may legitimately admire my political finesse at doing something so highly unlikely, and I certainly would be proud of my arm-twisting skills...

The typical citizen of DFW may or may not feel pride... more likely he would feel enormoous frustration in dealing with an expanded bureaucracy.

And... I doubt that people in Houston would collapse in awe and jealousy now that the "City of DFW" had a larger population than Houston.They feel inferior to the DFW area and try to find something... anything... to brag about. They'd just find something else to brag about...

Me, personally, what am I proud of?

I am proud of the DFW area, for being so urbane, and for being so desirable, evidenced by the fact that so many people want to move here, or remain here... for whatever reason.

Am I proud of the government calling itself "City of Dallas"? Not particularly. Why should I be?

[rantanamo]

Originally posted by tamtagon
It just looks that deep. While Fort Worth is about 100' above sea level than Dallas, the rise is gradual and without escarpment. The only place in Texas you can find a 200+ foot deep valley is in the Panhandle and Trans Pecos region or possibly in the Hill Country. Dallas is flat, Houston is flatter, much much more flatter. It's all about perspecive, though. If you grow up on a plain, any topographical change is noticeable.

Take a trip to the Rio Grand Valley and tell me how flat Dallas is. That place has virtually no change in elevation. Maybe not even 10 feet. I would describe Dallas as rolling, but not flat. Not even close. If I remember the SSP thread about elevation change correctly, Dallas was actually on the half of the list(of 100 or so major cities) that was most hilly. Places like Denver, Miami, Chicago, Houston and Toronto topped the list. Dallas was only a few feet below Austin and actually outranked Fort Worth. Dallas may not be as dramatic in elevation changes, but pics like this show that flat, Dallas is not.

<img src=http://img6.photobucket.com/albums/v19/rantanamo/North%20Dallas/Resize_of_DSC06737.jpg>
I would call this pretty typical. And there are dramatic drops in Dallas. I can think of a few. Nothing quite like West Austin though, but not close to flat.

[drumguy8800]

The area I was talking about (SW corner of Simpsons Stuart and Lancaster Road (SH 342) in southern Dallas) has a difference in elevation of a little over 100 feet. I went to dfwinfo.com to look at the topographical differences of Dallas county..

http://www.ovillachurchofchrist.com/derek/pictures/dallas/other/topography/topographic1.jpg

http://www.dfwmaps.com/legend/topography.gif

Just for clarification, this thing is not in Seagoville, and I know it, so don't come barking at me. Its within county lines. It's about halfway between the cities of Wilmer and Seagoville.

Pretty interesting. Looks like the area down near Seagoville (SE portion of county) has some pretty dramatic ridges.. I zoomed in on the topography, but I couldn't get it zoomed out far enough to see enough elevation lines for comparison.. cause the elevation lines cut off after 1:4000. For an idea, it goes from yellow to green.. implying about a 100-300 foot or so difference. not sure though.

Actually, if you follow the Trinity River Basin up (the green area to the east of the brown bluff thing..) to the Tarrant or Collin County lines, only then does the land reach the hight of the bluffs in Seagoville. Someone should go out there and check them out. I don't think there's exactly easy freeway access to get there.. anyone ever seen them? Are they impressive?

[Foucault]

Dallas = low elevation = less exposure to cosmic radiation = good
Denver= mile-high city = two times as much exposure to cosmic radiation = bad