[JOCELYN]

'DALLAS
I got bored and, well, I'm giving some information about Dallas. Cause well, it's not what most people think. Yes I live in Dallas County so I should know. The nearest farm is roughly two hours away from my house. So here's some stuff I found on Wikipedia, if you get bored you can read it if not the above should give you some information. Historically we were a cotton and oil city but we've grown. Read some of the below. I only got a few clips, not the entire thing.


Dallas the third-largest city in the state of Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The city covers 342.5 square miles (887 km2), not including water area, and is the county seat of Dallas County. As of June 23, 2007, the United States Census Bureau estimates the population of Dallas at 1,232,940 people.

The city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth metropolitan area, nicknamed "the Metroplex." At over 6.1 million people, it is the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States.

Dallas is listed as a gamma world city by the Loughborough University Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network.

Founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city on February 1856, the city's economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, and transportation. Dallas is the core of the largest inland metropolitan area in the United States that lacks any navigable link to the sea. The city's prominence despite this comes from its historical importance as a center for the oil and cotton industries, its position along numerous railroad lines, its status as a major inland port, and a strong industrial and financial sector.

[JOCELYN]

'PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Cause that's what we're doing here: a school rp. And yes, it's public school, not boarding or private.


Most neighborhoods in the city of Dallas are located within the Dallas Independent School District, the 12th-largest school district in the United States. The school district operates independently of the city and enrolls over 161,000 students. In 2006, one of the district's magnet schools, The School for the Talented and Gifted in Oak Cliff, was named the best school in the United States (among public schools) by Newsweek, retaining the title in 2007. Another one of DISD's schools, the Science and Engineering Magnet, placed 8th in the same 2006 survey and moved up to the #2 spot the following year. Other DISD high schools named to the list were Hillcrest, W. T. White, and Woodrow Wilson high schools. Woodrow Wilson was also named the top comprehensive high school in Dallas by local publication D Magazine.

A few areas of Dallas also extend into other school districts, including Carrollton-Farmers Branch, Duncanville, Garland, Highland Park, Mesquite, Plano, and Richardson. The Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School District once served portions of southern Dallas, but it was shut down for the 2005-2006 year. WHISD students started attending other Dallas ISD schools during that time. Following the close, the Texas Education Agency consolidated WHISD into Dallas ISD.

Many school districts in Dallas County, including Dallas ISD, are served by a governmental agency called Dallas County Schools. The system provides busing and other transportation services, access to a massive media library, technology services, strong ties to local organizations for education/community integration, and staff development programs.



'COLLEGES
Cause most kids go to school near home or in Texas.


The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School is a medical school located in the city's Stemmons Corridor. It is part of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, one of the largest grouping of medical facilities in the world. The school is very selective, admitting only around 200 students a year. The facility enrolls 3,255 postgraduates and is home to four Nobel Laureates—three in physiology/medicine and one in chemistry.

Dallas Baptist University (DBU) is a private, coeducational university located in the Mountain Creek area of southwest Dallas. Originally located in Decatur, Texas, the school moved to Dallas in 1965. The school currently enrolls over 5,100 students.

Paul Quinn College is a private, historically black college located in southeast Dallas. Originally located in Waco, Texas, it moved to Dallas in 1993 and is housed on the campus of the former Bishop College, another private, historically black college. Dallas billionaire and entrepreneur Comer Cottrell, Jr., founder of ProLine Corporation, bought the campus of Bishop College and bequeathed it to Paul Quinn College in 1993. The school enrolls about 3,000 undergraduate students.

The University of North Texas at Dallas, currently located at a temporary site in South Oak Cliff along Interstate 20, is being built at a nearby location along Houston School Road. The school will be the first public university within Dallas city limits when completed.

Dallas Theological Seminary, also within the city limits, is recognized as one of the leading seminaries in the evangelical faith. Situated 3 miles (4.8 km) east of Downtown Dallas, it currently enrolls over 2,000 graduate students and has graduated over 12,000 alumni.

At the 2-year level, the Dallas County Community College District has seven campuses located throughout the area with branches in Dallas as well as the surrounding suburbs.

Dallas is a major center of education for much of the south central United States. In addition to those located in the city, the surrounding area also contains a number of universities, colleges, trade schools, and other educational institutions.

Southern Methodist University (SMU) is a private, coeducational university in University Park, an independent city that, together with the adjacent town of Highland Park, is entirely surrounded by Dallas. SMU was founded in 1911 by the Southern Methodist Church and now enrolls 6,500 undergraduates, 1,200 professional students in the law and theology departments, and 3,500 postgraduates.

The University of Texas at Dallas, part of the state public university system, is located in the city of Richardson, adjacent to Dallas and in the heart of the Telecom Corridor. UT Dallas, or UTD, is renowned for its work in combining the arts and technology, as well as for its programs in engineering, computer science, economics, international political economy, neuroscience, speech and hearing, pre-health, pre-law and management. The university has many collaborative research relationships with UT Southwestern Medical Center. UT Dallas is home to approximately 15,000 students.

The University of Dallas, in the suburb of Irving, is an enclave of traditional Roman Catholicism in the mostly-Protestant religious landscape of Dallas. St. Albert the Great Dominican Priory and Holy Trinity Seminary are located on campus, while the Cistercian Monastary and Cistercian Preparatory School are located just to the southeast. The Highlands School, a PK–12 Legionary school, is connected to the east by jogging trails. As a center for religious study, the Cistercian Monastery continues to be notable in scholastic developments in theology.

Also in the nearby suburbs and neighboring cities are the University of North Texas and Texas Woman's University in Denton, as well as the University of Texas at Arlington in Arlington. Fort Worth also has two major universities within its city limits, Texas Christian University and Texas Wesleyan University. A number of colleges and universities are also located outside the immediate metropolitan area.

[JOCELYN]

'NEIGHBORHOODS
Cause it's where your character will live.


Central Dallas is anchored by Downtown, the center of the city and the epicenter of urban revival, along with Oak Lawn and Uptown, areas characterized by dense retail, restaurants, and nightlife. Downtown Dallas has a variety of named districts, including the West End Historic District, the Arts District, the Main Street District, Farmers Market District, the City Center business district, the Convention Center District, and the Reunion District. "Hot spots" north of Downtown include Uptown, Victory Park, Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek, LoMac, Cityplace and West Village.

East Dallas is home to Deep Ellum, a trendy arts area close to Downtown, the homey Lakewood neighborhood, historic Vickery Place and Bryan Place, and the architecturally significant Swiss Avenue. North of the Park Cities is Preston Hollow, home to Texas's wealthiest residents, as well as the most expensive homes in the state. The area is also characterized by a variety of high-powered shopping areas, including Galleria Dallas, NorthPark Center, Highland Park Village, and Preston Center. In the northeast quadrant of the city is Lake Highlands, one of Dallas's most unified middle-class neighborhoods.

Southwest of Downtown lies Oak Cliff, a hilly area that has undergone gentrification in recent years in neighborhoods such as the Bishop Arts District. Oak Cliff originated as a township founded in the mid-1800s and was annexed by the city of Dallas in 1903. Today, most of the area's northern residents are Hispanic. South Oak Cliff, on the other hand, became predominantly African-American after the early 1970s. Much of the southern portion of the city has struggled with high rates of poverty and crime.

South Dallas, a distinct neighborhood southeast of Downtown, lays claim to the Cedars, an eclectic artist hotbed south of downtown and Fair Park, home of the annual State Fair of Texas. The area, predominantly African-American, is arguably the poorest in the city. While Oak Cliff is mostly lower-income but fairly vibrant, South Dallas contains large numbers of boarded-up buildings and vacant lots.

To spur growth in the southern sector of the city, University of North Texas opened a Dallas campus in October 2006 in south Oak Cliff near the intersection of Interstate 20 and Houston School Rd. Large amounts of undeveloped land remains nearby, due to decades of slow growth south of Downtown. Further east, in the southeast quadrant of the city, is the large neighborhood of Pleasant Grove. Once an independent city, it is a collection of mostly lower-income residential areas stretching all the way to Seagoville in the southeast. Though a city neighborhood, Pleasant Grove is surrounded by undeveloped land on all sides, including swampland separating it from South Dallas that will in the future be part of the Great Trinity Forest, a subsection of the city's Trinity River Project.

Dallas is further surrounded by many suburbs and includes three enclaves within the city boundaries—Cockrell Hill, Highland Park, and University Park.

[JOCELYN]

'DART & TRANSPORTATION
Cause when you live here, you don't exactly need a car.


Like many other major cities in the United States, the primary mode of local transportation in Dallas is the automobile, though efforts have been made to increase the availability of alternative modes of transportation, including the construction of light rail lines, biking and walking paths, wide sidewalks, a trolley system, and buses.

The city is at the confluence of three major interstate highways—Interstates 20, 30, 35E, and 45. The Dallas area freeway system is set up in the popular hub-and-spoke system, shaped much like a wagon wheel. Starting from the center of the city, a small freeway loop surrounds Downtown, followed by the Interstate 635 loop about 10 miles outside Downtown, and ultimately the tolled President George Bush Turnpike. Inside these freeway loops are other boulevard- and parkway-style loops, including Loop 12 and Belt Line Road. Another beltway around the city upwards of 45 miles (72 km) from Downtown is under plan in Collin County.

Radiating out of Downtown Dallas's freeway loop are the spokes of the area's highway system—Interstates 30, 35E, and 45, U.S. Highway 75, U.S. Highway 175, State Spur 366, the Dallas North Tollway, State Highway 114, U.S. Highway 80, and U.S. Highway 67. Other major highways around the city include State Highway 183 and State Spur 408. The recently-completed interchange at the intersection of Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway (Interstate 635) and Central Expressway (U.S. Highway 75) contains 5 stacks and is aptly called the High Five Interchange. It is currently the only 5-level interchange in Texas and is one of the largest freeway interchanges in the United States.

Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) is the Dallas-area public transportation authority, providing buses, rail, and HOV lanes to commuters. DART began operating the first light rail system in the Southwest United States in 1996 and continues to expand its coverage. Currently, two light rail lines are in service, the Red Line and the Blue Line. The Red Line travels through Oak Cliff, South Dallas, Downtown, Uptown, North Dallas, Richardson and Plano, while the Blue Line goes through Oak Cliff, Downtown, Uptown, East Dallas, Lake Highlands, and Garland. The Red and Blue lines are conjoined between 8th & Corinth Station in Oak Cliff and Mockingbird Station in North Dallas. The two lines service Cityplace Station, the only subway station in the Southwest. DART has also begun construction on its Green and Orange lines, which will serve DFW Airport, Love Field Airport, Irving and Las Colinas, Carrollton, Farmers Branch, the Stemmons Corridor, Victory Park, downtown, Deep Ellum, Fair Park, south Dallas and Pleasant Grove.

Fort Worth's smaller public transit system, The T, connects with DART via a commuter rail line, the Trinity Railway Express, linking Downtown Dallas's Union Station and Downtown Fort Worth's T&P Station, with several points in between. As is happening in other cities around the country with high-speed regional train service, DART's rail system has skyrocketed land values in parts of Dallas and has led to a flurry of residential and transit-oriented development.

Dallas is served by two commercial airports: Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) and Dallas Love Field (DAL). In addition, Dallas Executive Airport (formerly Redbird Airport), serves as a general aviation airport for the city, and Addison Airport functions similarly just outside the city limits in the suburb of Addison. Two more general aviation airports are located about 35 miles north of Dallas in McKinney, and another two are located in Fort Worth, on the west side of the Metroplex.

DFW International Airport is located in the suburbs slightly north of and equidistant to Downtown Fort Worth and Downtown Dallas. In terms of size, DFW is the largest airport in the state, the 2nd largest in the United States, and 3rd largest in the world. In terms of traffic, DFW is the busiest airport in the state, 3rd busiest in the United States, and 6th busiest in the world. The headquarters of American Airlines, the largest air carrier in the world, is located less than a mile from DFW within the city limits of Fort Worth. Similarly, Love Field is located within the city limits of Dallas about 6 miles (10 km) northwest of Downtown, and is headquarters to Southwest Airlines.

[JOCELYN]

'SPORTS
Cause you have to cheer for them. They're your home team.


Dallas is home to the Dallas Desperados (Arena Football League), Dallas Mavericks (National Basketball Association), and Dallas Stars (National Hockey League). All three teams play at the American Airlines Center.

The Major League Soccer team FC Dallas, formerly the Dallas Burn, used to play in the Cotton Bowl but moved to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco upon the stadium's opening in 2005. However, the college Cotton Bowl football game is still played at the stadium. The Dallas Sidekicks, a former team of the Major Indoor Soccer League, used to play in Reunion Arena, as did the Mavericks and Stars before their move to the American Airlines Center.

The Texas Tornado, three-time defending champions of the North American Hockey League, plays at the Deja Blue Arena in Frisco.

Nearby Irving is home to the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. Since joining the league as an expansion team in 1960, the Cowboys have enjoyed substantial success, advancing to eight Super Bowls and winning five. Known widely as "America's Team," the Dallas Cowboys are financially the most valuable sports 'franchise' in the world, worth approximately 1.5 billion dollars. They are also the second most valuable sports organization in the world. The Cowboys are only out-valued by Manchester United, a soccer club from England, who are valued at 1.8 billion dollars. The Cowboys currently play at Texas Stadium and are relocating in 2009 to their new 100,000-seat stadium in under construction in suburban Arlington.

Also in Arlington is Rangers Ballpark, home of the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball.

NASCAR and other auto racing leagues have a presence in the area as well. Races are held every year at Texas Motor Speedway north of Fort Worth, a major stop on the NASCAR circuit. About halfway between Dallas and Fort Worth, horse-racing takes place at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie.

Other teams in the Dallas area include the Dallas Harlequins of the USA Rugby Super League, as well as the Frisco RoughRiders, the Fort Worth Cats, and the Grand Prairie AirHogs—all minor league baseball teams. The Dallas Diamonds, the two-time national champions of the Women's Professional Football League, plays in North Richland Hills. McKinney is home to the Dallas Revolution, an Independent Women's Football League team.

Cricket is another sport that is popular among diaspora from South Asian countries. Local universities such as SMU and University of Texas at Dallas have their own cricket clubs that are affiliated with USA Cricket.

[JOCELYN]

'ARTS
Cause you go to this district all though school. Just as much as you've seen where JFK got shoot. If you didn't know its in downtown Dallas.


The Arts District in the northern section of Downtown is home to several arts venues, both existing and proposed. Notable venues in the district include the Dallas Museum of Art, the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, The Trammell & Margaret Crow Collection of Asian Art, the Nasher Sculpture Center, The Dallas Contemporary, and The Dallas Children's Theatre. Venues under construction or planned include the Winspear Opera House and the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts. The Arts District is also home to DISD's Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, a magnet school which was recently expanded.

Deep Ellum, immediately east of Downtown, originally became popular during the 1920s and 1930s as the prime jazz and blues hot spot in the South. Artists such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Johnson, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, and Bessie Smith played in original Deep Ellum clubs such as The Harlem and The Palace. Today, Deep Ellum is home to hundreds of artists who live in lofts and operate in studios throughout the district alongside bars, pubs, and concert venues. A major art infusion in the area results from the city's lax stance on graffiti, and a number of public spaces including tunnels, sides of buildings, sidewalks, and streets are covered in murals. One major example, the Good-Latimer tunnel, was torn down in late 2006 to accommodate the construction of a light rail line through the site.

Like Deep Ellum before it, the Cedars neighborhood to the south of Downtown has also seen a growing population of studio artists and an expanding roster of entertainment venues. The area's art scene began to grow in the early 2000s with the opening of Southside on Lamar, an old Sears warehouse converted into lofts, studios, and retail. Current attractions include Gilley's Dallas and Poor David's Pub. Dallas Mavericks owner and local entrepreneur Mark Cuban purchased land along Lamar Avenue near Cedars Station in September 2005, and locals speculate that he is planning an entertainment complex for the site.

South of the Trinity River, the fledgling Bishop Arts District in Oak Cliff is home to a number of studio artists living in converted warehouses. Walls of buildings along alleyways and streets are painted with murals and the surrounding streets contain many eclectic restaurants and shops.

Dallas has an Office of Cultural Affairs as a department of the city government. The office is responsible for six cultural centers located throughout the city, funding for local artists and theaters, initiating public art projects, and running the city-owned classical radio station WRR.

[JOCELYN]

'EVENTS
Cause there are fun things to do. Like get drunk and party.

The most notable event held in Dallas is the State Fair of Texas, which has been held annually at Fair Park since 1886. The fair is a massive event, bringing in an estimated $350 million to the city's economy annually. The Red River Shootout, which pins the University of Texas at Austin against The University of Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowlalso brings significant crowds to the city.

Other festivals in the area include several Cinco de Mayo celebrations hosted by the city's large Mexican population, an Saint Patrick's Day parade along Lower Greenville Avenue, Juneteenth festivities, the Greek Food Festival of Dallas, and an annual Halloween parade on Cedar Springs Road. With the opening of Victory Park, WFAA Channel 8 has begun to host an annual New Year's Eve celebration in AT&T Plaza that the television station hopes will reminisce of celebrations in New York's Times Square.

[JOCELYN]

'TAKS TEST
Cause you need to pass the test to graduate.


Texas high school seniors cannot graduate unless they pass exit-level TAKS tests in English language arts, social studies, math, and science. During their junior and senior years of high school, students are given five chances to pass the test.

Students new to Texas public education who enroll after January 1 of the school year in which they are otherwise eligible to graduate may use scores from the SAT or ACT to replace the ELA and Math TAKS. However, students are still required to pass the exit level science and social studies TAKS test as as well as satisfy all coursework requirements in order to be eligible to receive a Texas high school diploma.


Having taken this test myself, every year the test gets harder and harder. You take the test your junior year and if you don't pass you have five chances to take it or else you don't graduate with every one else. Most people fail the math once. A lot of people fail science too. It got so bad that the year I graduated, one high school had like two hundred graduates out of seven hundred seniors.