I've noticed that people in Dallas hate Houston people, why is that?

Question

I was at in Dallas airport and a man came to me and said, I hate ya'll Houston people and walked off. There have been other bad experiences with Dallas people.

Answer 1

I live in Houston, my sister lives in Dallas.

I call Dallas "the Neiman Marcus City". It is probably the snootiest, most socially exclusive and "proper" place in Texas... which means it is still warm and welcoming by East Coast standards, but you will find more self-important and stuck up people in Dallas than any other City in Texas. The big haired lady with the black American Express Card who looks at you like you smell bad because your polo shirt is LAST years brand is probably from Dallas. The social belles of Dallas spent so much time and effort looking down on Fort Worth it just sort of became a habit.

Houston is just the opposite. Houston is very freewheeling. It is the largest city in American that has NO ZONING. Yes, you can pretty much build whatever you want wherever you want here. (I love this because it means I can walk to the grocery store, the liquor store, the car repair place, and some great Italian resturants). Houston isn't wierd like Austin, (almost every Judge in Harris County is a Republican, yes we elect our Judges here) but Houston is NOT proper. We have both the largest church in the USA (Lakewood Church) and some rather well known strip clubs. Houston is the city where oil workers and port workers live, go to Church, and sometimes get rich. It was best defined by a line overheard at the Republican National Convention... "William, you need to stop drinking now or you will be hung over at the prayer breakfast." Some of Dallas' suburbs are in counties that are still "dry", and people have to drive several miles so they can buy liqour . (Though the Baptists do that anyway so they won't bump into each other at the liqour store.)

While Dallas is trying very hard to be a very "whitebread" city, Houston has a large African-American presence and huge immigrant communities. We have "Little Siagon", Indian and Pakistani neighborhoods, Japanese and Chinese neighborhoods (we used to live in one), and wide and varied Hispanic community with Mexicans, Hondurans, and South Americans. (The resturants here are really good.) We have huge refineries and chemical plants that pay good wages, and when people complain that they stink up the place (which they do at times) we tell people "It smells like money to me."

Because we have money without being "proper" or "well bred" some people up in Dallas think we are uncultured, beer swilling yahoos... despite the fact we have a symphony, balet, more theater seats than any city besides New York, concerts, and opera, Rice University, a suburb full of NASA rocket scientists, and we throw parties where astronauts, moonwalkers, and presidents are on the guest list. I think they resent the fact we also have oodles and oodles of good paying oil jobs and lots of money...(though Dallas is no slouch on the oil and gas industry either, Houston IS THE energy city) but inspite of our money we still know how to have a good time.

We resent Dallas because they look down on us for no reason. Sure they took a chunk of hot, dry, and stunningly ugly prarie and turned it into an exciting, vibrant, and important American city, that's a major accomplishment, but that doesn't automatically put them in the same league with London or Paris or Rome. We find the fact that Dallas seems to think it does as sort of laughable. Also the Cowboys (who play in Iriving, NOT the City of Dallas) only stink periodically, while the Oilers and the Texans have ALWAYS stunk... worse than the chemical plants south of town... so that is the cause for some friction.

The best way to sum up the relationship came in 1993 after the Cowboys won Super Bowl XXVII. When the Cowboys came home the City of Dallas gave them a parade, and people from all over the city came to cheer. This meant that some gangbangers were outside their normal territory, and when they saw each other in the crowd at the parade they had a fight. The Houston reporter finished the report on this by saying "I guess this means the Dallas Police Department STILL hasn't gotten that whole MOTORCADE thing down...."

Answer 2

The whole Houston vs Dallas rivalry is almost as old as Texas statehood itself. It all began roughly just before the turn of the century (1800's-1900's), at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the dawn of the automobile, when both places were becoming actual cities of some importance on a state level. Houston was almost wiped out in the 1800's by a massive fire and a severe Yellow Fever epidemic, but it bounced back on a colossal scale after the "1-2-3 punch" of the discovery of oil in nearby Beaumont, the great hurricane of 1900 that decimated nearby Galveston (which at the time was the golden city of Texas), and the newly widened and expanded port of Houston, which was the "perfect storm" to create a robust and thriving economy that spurred on Houston's first major boom.

Around the same time, Dallas experienced a massive boom due to it's proximity to nearby Fort Worth, which at the time was a major center in the thriving cattle industry, and Dallas became a major business/banking/trade town for North Texas. The stage was set for a race to see who would become the biggest and most "important" city in the state. At the time, San Antonio was actually the largest city in Texas, but it wasn't booming the way Houston and Dallas were.

That's how the rivalry began, from what I can tell. Since then, it has only gotten more intense with the advent of telecommunication, professional sports, neck-in-neck growth rates, rising national and global importance, and media "culture". As for the hate? Who really knows? I think it's just because these two metros have been in a heated competition with each other for so long, that it sometimes spills over into ugly fits of jealousy and anger... and BOTH cities are equally guilty of these attitudes toward each other, from what I've seen and heard (i've lived in both cities).

In all actuality, Houston and Dallas have much more in common than they do differences. They're roughly equal in size, population density, ethnic make-up, crime rates, and growth rate. The only major differences are that Dallas is nearly 300 miles inland, while Houston is close enough to the ocean to be considered a coastal metro. Houston is slightly warmer in winter, and supports more subtropical vegetation than Dallas (ie. Palm trees, Banana plants, Live Oaks), while Dallas is slightly less humid in Summer (though a bit hotter). Houston's economy is more Energy-based and Medical-based, while Dallas is more Banking and IT based. Dallas is heavily zoned, while Houston has no zoning whatsoever. This tends to give Dallas a more orderly, neat appearance than Houston... though both cities/metros sprawl endlessly and have similar growth patterns.

This still doesn't explain the bitterness between the two. I think they've just been at this rivalry for so long they've forgotten why they hate each other so much. Hopefully some day soon the stupid rivalry will end.

Answer 3

Hate is a terrible thing. You seem to be running into the bad Apples of Dallas. Natives of Texas, no matter where they live are wonderful people. Most are friendly and will help out a stranger and expect nothing in return. Houston loves Dallas and vice verse. Just keep on smiling, maybe you will start something.
Good Luck and Merry Christmas. Have a great 2007.

Answer 4

Maybe due to the competition between Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets... You know sports have great influence on public and publicity!

Answer 5

Hey I'm here for the first time. I found this question and I find the answers truly helpful. I'm hoping to give something back to the community and assist others too.

Answer 6

Dallas has alot of fruit cake people. I don't care for anything about dallas or the people who live their. Most of them are playing the game "Keeping Up With The Jones"

Answer 7

Because they are all like Jill. Here's a suggestion Jill....STAY IN HOUSTON.

Answer 8

I don't know why they would hate us...it's ridiculous..after all we live in the same state. Maybe they're jealous LOL...

Answer 9

Yes, there are fools in every city...You just met one in Dallas.

Answer 10

i lived in Freeport,TX. and Lake Jackson,TX. for 2 1/2 years. i noticed that 80% of people in Texas are socially retarded. my work took me all over the state. so i just not talking about the brazoria county area. good luck, and merry christmas to you.