Dallas Thriving
Gee, will Milwaukee emulate this kind of success or continue to follow Detroit’s path?
With low taxes and lots of professionals, Dallas has its own gravitational talent pull and tax revenue wellspring.
“It’s the capital of corporate headquarters second to New York,” says Ed Friedman, an economist at Moody’s. “Texas in general is really strong. It’s the only state that has no trace of an economic slowdown versus anywhere else in the United States.”
Friedman says Dallas’ growth is unique because it doesn’t have a natural feature, like a coast, to explain its growth over the last few decades. Big companies have been relocating there steadily, which has lead to an “agglomeration effect,” where other firms want to be move to be near large businesses.
Nevermind… I know the answer.
People from outside Texas love to make fun of Texans, but fact is, they have it right and enjoy the prosperity we here in Wisconsin can only dream of. 15 years there taught me all that.
“Milwaukee: The New Detroit - And Not in a Good Way”
Posted by Steve on September 13, 2008 at 2155 hrs
So what are you waiting for Owen. U-Haul is just a phone call away.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 13, 2008 at 2316 hrs
It’s simple…the reason everyone is moving to Texas is because they have the hottest chicks…seriously!
Posted by joeythelovesponge on September 13, 2008 at 2356 hrs
It’s also worth noting that Dallas has a lot of other things going for it other than a lack of a state income tax. Winter doesn’t really exist, which is appealing for both personal and business reasons. It has a major airport which serves as a hub for an airline that flies something bigger than Midwest’s toy jets. From what I’ve observed in my visits, it seems like your housing dollar buys you a lot more than it does up here.
Milwaukee lives in Chicago’s shadow, and save for the negative stories that constantly stream out of there, it hasn’t done such a good job of establishing an identity for itself. I mean, if I own a company or if I’m a mobile, young worker, why Milwaukee and not Portland/Denver/Austin/Houston/Charlotte? When people think Milwaukee, they think old school, blue collar industrial. Milwaukee, to the rest of the world, is two parts Laverne & Shirley and one part Little Detroit.
Posted by Recess Supervisor on September 14, 2008 at 0104 hrs
Interesting.
I travel a lot for business and I’ve always said the 2 places I’d love to relocate are Dallas or Denver. (to be specific, Plano is the place to be)
And its funny, when I travel to Detroit I always think it reminds me of Milwaukee.
But I won’t knock Milwaukee. I love it here. I’ll take it over Chicago any day of the week. Try doing busines in Chicago. You can make maybe 2 appointments in a day with that traffic and congestion. Forget it.
When my commute in Milwaukee goes slow a 10 minute drive turns into 15. Compare those numbers to the Metroplex.
I laugh when I wake up in other cities and hear their travel times compared to Milwaukee. We’ve got it good. REALLY good in that regard.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 0138 hrs
Oh and recess supervisor… If your a businessman, try getting to DFW 20 minutes before your flight and see where you end up.
Just a few weeks ago I had a 7:22am flight to Nashville. I pulled in the parking garage at 7:05, got to the Midwest ticket counter at 7:13 and still made my flight, which was ON TIME (and my bag made it too)
So while I’ll totally agree with you that Dallas is a great place and you’re right. You can get a GREAT house for way less money than MKE (and if you think thats impressive, you can get fantastic lake property in Texas for unbelievably cheap compared to lake property up here) But I don’t know how much you really travel, but I’m trying to understand why you are knocking Milwaukee in that regard. This is a great place to fly from.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 0148 hrs
In my honest opinion, except for the weather and the business climate, Milwaukee has it all over Dallas.
The whole metroplex is so strung out that you drive forever to get anywhere, usually in bumper to bumper traffic. And there is no real scenery or “feel” to the place other than hot flat ground as you go from Best Buy to Wal-Marts in the soul-less subdivisions. No character to the place. The most memorable setting there is the Book Depository parkway, but I can watch that on the Zapruder film.
The housing stock is cheaper, but most is cheap frame with no basements. The homes in many subdivisions are spaced about 1 foot apart so you have little privacy. Did I mention your house is usually identical to your neighbors? And hopefully you don’t have termites come up through your slab foundation to take down your house from within. The long vistas are nice, but many times enjoyed in your air-conditioned tomb (your automobile) pumping out the cooling as hard as it can most days.
But back to Owen’s original question, yes Dallas has a far better business climate. They know how to recruit business down there, and it comes from an attitude of “Let’s Grow!” rather than the Mayor Barrett/Jim Doyle Wisconsin socialist approach of “how much in taxes and regulations can we soak you for and still have you stay here?”
I’m not sure we’ll ever get past that until we get new leaders in State government.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 0841 hrs
“Except for the weather and business climate….”? I’m inclined to believe that’s the crux of the whole issue here. If you are taxed out of existence and no business is willing to come here, what else matter?
Posted by Steve on September 14, 2008 at 0904 hrs
The weather and business climate is the issue. I was just trying to knock down some of the other arguments being advanced for the DFW metroplex, because there are none other than the first two. Milwaukee has it big-time over Dallas in all other categories IMHO. And even the weather is a question mark for me because it’s no fun to sit in 100 degree heat all day long.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 0919 hrs
Just as a side note: Most of the county offices and I believe all the judgeships in Dallas County went Democratic in the 2006 elections. I’m not sure what the breakdown had been before then; fairly even, I think, but it’s pretty much completely Democratic now as far as county offices go.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 1102 hrs
True, but ideologically speaking, most Texas Democrats are equivalent to most Wisconsin Republicans.
Posted by Owen on September 14, 2008 at 1112 hrs
There was a scandal and it had such a wide affect it brought down almost all of the Republican judges. Pretty wide sweep of a throw the bums out that pulled everyone in.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 1205 hrs
Not necessarily.
I don’t really know all that much about the Metroplex, to be perfectly honest. I went to North Texas State (now University of North Texas) in the early 70s, but Denton back then was kind of a small hippie town, and it’s a really conservative city now, and even when Texas was almost completely a Democratic state, Dallas had a reputation as Republican stronghold.
So for the Dallas area, you could very well be right, because of course, I don’t know anything about Wisconsin Republicans, except the crazy ones who post here.
I think across most of the state, though, you’ll find that most Democrats are pretty much your garden-variety Democrats, with a fairly wide range of people in the center (and yes, even center-right) to left spectrum. Even the Congressional delegation bears that out. There’s Chet Edwards, who’s fairly conservative (and represents George W. Bush in Congress, by the way) and Lloyd Doggett, who’s one of the most liberal members of Congress. Their districts are about 100 miles apart.
Yes, there are conservative Texas Democrats. In a state as large and diverse as Texas that of course is bound to be true. But to say that all, or even most, Democrats in Texas are as conservative as the general run of Republicans in Wisconsin, or anyplace else, for that matter, simply doesn’t bear up under scrutiny.
Democrats are simply fewer in Texas, that’s all. For now. Chances are good we’ll take Harris County (Houston) this November, and there’s a halfway decent shot to pick up the five seats we need to recapture the House in the Legislature.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 1219 hrs
Having lived in both, I prefer DFW. Many more options (food, entertainment, shopping museums, zoos, etc.), a lack of personal income tax, and warm temperatures. While Plano is good, I think Southlake is better.
Downsides are the hot weather in the summer and accompanying high electricity costs. Oh yeah, and the Cowboys. That said, I’ll take wearing shorts in January.
But the biggest plus, that I think just about everyone in Milwaukee can be envious of? Texas isn’t a swing state. There’s virtually no on-air election money spent here.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 1509 hrs
We do business with a lot of Texas companies and they really hate their summer weather. My sister lived in Houston and she said it was like inverse Milwaukee weather. The kids had to stay inside during the summer months or they would sunstroke.
Now their winters are very mild and nice. But you are really just trading one season for another.
The business climate in Texas is what is driving their growth - not the weather (especially this week.)
Since we are well down the path to becoming the next Detroit for business, I don’t see much hope unfortunately for Milwaukee, and you just saw a wheel tax and more fees increased this last week. The trend is not looking up in Milwaukee.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on September 14, 2008 at 2118 hrs
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