4. The Most Surprising Things About Dallas

There are some things that surprise everyone about Dallas.

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People from other parts of the country think that Dallas is full of cowboys, ranch hands, and oil men. Meanwhile, people from other parts of Texas think that Dallas is full of BMW driving trust fund bros. Although there may be some truth in all of those things, there are a lot of surprising things about Dallas. Here are the 5 most surprising things.

#5 Walkability

Dallas has several walkable neighborhoods including Uptown, Downtown, Deep Ellum, the Design District, Bishop Arts District, and Victory Park. According to Walkscore.com, downtown Dallas has a walk score of 91, and uptown Dallas has a walk score of 90. For comparison, New York City has an overall walk score of 88. So these neighborhoods are pretty great and Dallas has walkability that rivals that of other large cities. Practically speaking you should probably still have a car in Dallas, especially if you ever intend to leave your neighborhood, but if you live in the right neighborhood you can walk to everything you need including grocery stores, restaurants, gyms, and if you are lucky – your job, too. Plus with the DART continuing to expand service, you can get to even more places without the need for cars every day.

#4 Greenspace

Dallas has a lot of parks and other green spaces and trails such as Klyde Warren Park and the Katy Trail. According to the Dallas Parks & Rec department, the Dallas Park System is one of the largest municipal park systems in the country with 397 parks totaling over 20,000 acres of developed and undeveloped parkland. Of these parks, it includes over 160 miles of developed trails, 4 dog parks, and 7 lakes. One of the great things about the parks is that a lot of them have regular free or low-cost activities such as yoga, movies in the park, and various recreational sports leagues. If you can’t find anything to do outside in Dallas, you obviously aren’t trying very hard.

#3 Diversity

According to WalletHub.com, Dallas is the 5th most diverse city in the country. Dallas comes in behind Houston, Jersey City, New York City, and Gaithersburg, Maryland. That’s not bad at all. The report took into account things such as industry diversity, income, age, religious affiliation, education, language, worker class, and marital status.

#2 Distance from Fort Worth

I blame the DFW airport name for this. It implies that Dallas and Fort Worth are next to each other. However, Dallas and Fort Worth are actually 32 miles apart from downtown to downtown. This may sound like a quick 30-minute trip, but add in the inevitable traffic on I-30 and that can easily turn into a trek that lasts over an hour. Just to be clear, Dallas and Fort Worth are two separate cities. Also, when someone says they are from Fort Worth, they don’t mean Dallas, they mean Fort Worth.

#1 How cold it gets

Dallas basically has 2 seasons – summer and not summer. Everyone knows that it gets really hot in Dallas. However, it can get really cold too. January is the coldest month with an average low temperature of 37 degrees. But Dallas can get as cold as the teens and twenties during the winter, and that is absolutely no fun. The lowest temperature on record is negative 8 degrees Fahrenheit, but that is rare. Just know that when it comes to Dallas, you have to be prepared for the very very hot and the very very cold.