[J_Shelby_J]

Dallas is less expensive than LA. LA with amazing weather, little allergens, and beautiful geography. Dallas with heat and cold enough to be lethal, brutal allergens, and limited natural beauty. No one who knows better wants to live in Dallas- they have to live in Dallas because they can’t afford it elsewhere. Which works out, because Dallas has infinite land to build single family homes. When people move to Dallas they aren’t moving to Dallas; they’re moving 30 miles from the urban core. Dallas’s urban core is decaying from lack of housing - with no affordable housing for young people near the city center - downtown has become a ghost town as jobs follow the housing to the out rings. The smattering of housing that exists near downtown are apartments, very expensive town homes for the wealthy, or the original stock of single family homes from the 50s.

When I lived in downtown Dallas, I would have loved more housing. Part of the reason we left was because it was a ghost town. Very little to walk and see. At night it was desolate and unsafe.

LA has been maxed out for housing for decades. They’re constrained by geography. They can only build up, but they haven’t… only recently started loosening housing restrictions to allow for density at the state level, but even that is a half measure. They need to just swallow the pill and let density be built anywhere. Yeah, change sucks, but at least we’ll stop forcing people to move to Dallas.