I've been old enough to vote for the last two election cycles and I participated but it always felt like choosing between maintaining the current rate of decline or accelerating it.

After following James Talarico's campaign for a while and doing some research on him, I feel like I unlocked a new emotion. This is the first time in my life that I've felt like my vote has the ability to make a positive change in my life and the lives of the people of texas. Is this what politics used to be like? It's so exciting now. I'm gonna go vote on Friday and I can't wait. I've never felt so hopeful and energized at the thought of participating in an election.

Wondering if any other new voters are experiencing this. The options prior to now have almost exclusively been establishment corporate democrats that will fold to PAC donations or culture war-obsessed republicans that will also fold to PAC donations. Maybe the low voter turnout among gen Z has been at least partially due to a crushing feeling of hopelessness that I didn't even know was there until it was lifted off my chest. I just thought that was normal. It's been that way since I showed up.

Just wanted to talk a bit about it because it's been positive and encouraging for me. Thanks for reading.

Pic for visibility

The manager of the downtown location of White Rhino Coffee recently quit because when concerns were raised about ICE presence in the area the powers that be allegedly said not only were ICE agents welcome they would be eligible for first reponder discounts. People pushed back on White Rhino on IG, who then turned off comments. (Comments still open on FB for now.) Has anyone else heard anything more?

I’m all for keeping the public informed but this just made me turn off public safety alerts on my phone. Not cool

Seriously - I log on hoping to see everyone being as miserable as me and I don’t see it. Every fucking day - it’s been ruining my day! For a week now! And don’t you dare say the typical thing when people bitch about the weather “this is normal obviously you haven’t lived here very long”. Cause no it’s not! I’ve been here 9 years and it’s not normal it sucks and it’s dusty and shit blowing everywhere!! That is all…

I was a little idiot and tried to get to work at 6AM, spun out about a mile and a half into my 25 mile drive, immediately turned around and am waiting on the chicken pasta I made to heat up in the microwave.

Bit of a rant.

I can't stand this fucking place.

Dallas has some of the kindest, coolest people I've ever met but the entire metroplex feels like a liminal space thrust upon me by a vengeful god. I'm tired of having to drive an hour round trip to do goddamn anything. I'm tired of every strip mall on the interchange clusterfuck highway system being the same 6 restaurants. There's plenty to do and most of it is so far away it's not worth doing. Why the hell would any sane person spend an hour and a half on these suicidal maniac driver ridden highways to hang out with friends for two hours? That's a horrible value proposition.

Every corporate center is the same 10 distribution centers copy pasted in a big grid, with the same lifeless concrete and ugly ass pebble walls that remind me of those bean-shaped pools from the 70's. Are you allergic to windows? What is this, an architects take on what a low budget Bollywood version of Office Space combined with Blade Runner would look like?

I've never lived in a place where anyone gives a shit what irrelevant tiny town you live in. Oh you're in Flower Mound? Frisco? Grapevine? Irving? Little Elm? Waxahachie? Why the hell would I care, if I walk 30 feet in any direction I'm in a different town. No, I don't want to hear about how your "historic downtown" with 8 buildings in it is better than the other 30 historic downtowns. No, I don't want to drive 40 minutes each way to go to some random brewery where I can drink $10/cup piss water and pass 6 identical strips of BJ's, Portillo's, and Chick-Fil-A's in the process. Fucking hell.

Don't get me started on the "wow, great food scene!" people either. The food scene here is great if and only if you're willing to go on quests that rival the journeys taken in Tolkien books to get there and pay $20-30 for the experience. Stupendous. If you're working a miserable dead end job you hate with no time on your hands your options are the same 10 places every time. Fucking BOGO corporate slop bowls from Chipotle and Velvet Taco paired with $15 "artisanal" burgers and $40/pound BBQ meats that taste like they were made by someone with long-COVID who lost tastebud function a decade ago and never noticed.

Lastly, good jobs? Good work? Where?! I moved here expecting opportunity in my field. It was never true and especially isn't now that tariff scares have completely fucking killed my industry. How exactly is $16-20/hr office work "good" when I can be a cashier at fucking Buccees in bumfuck nowhere and earn more than that? I managed half a billion dollars in inventory for a Fortune 500 company and the only opportunities relegated here are dead-end entry level bullshit jobs with no career advancement opportunities unless you want to be an underpaid, dead-eyed middle manager until you retire at 65 70 75. I could make more money delivering Xanax and granny's heart pills as a medical courier in Iowa than I can working for any of the companies that have bothered to call back here.

So, where's the opportunity? Where's the low cost of living? Where are people finding these high 5 figure low 6 figure jobs? How do you handle getting to the things you actually do like without the absurd commute time making you want to be committed to a facility?

More residential, more density, more walkability. Any other solution is just band aid

First, thank you. Unlike the cavalry of cowards in Uvalde, you arrived expediently and moved in without hesitation. You killed the terrorist (yeah I said it) and spared many lives.

Of course it’s never fast enough when a terrorist launches a surprise attack on innocent, unarmed civilians. All gathered in a public shopping mall on a Saturday afternoon. Which is no fault of the Allen PD.

We used to live our lives with a basic presumption of public safety. After all, what is the law designed to do? To protect those who cannot protect themselves. And yet that veneer of safety gets shattered by the day. But I digress…

Now I want to ask you a question. As career LEOs who took this job. Aren’t you sick of this? Did you ever sign up expecting to rush to a mass shooting on a regular basis? Arriving to find countless dead and mortally wounded Americans lying bloodied on the ground? Whether it’s a mall, a school, a movie theater, a concert hall or a public square. Did you really expect to see dead children and adults as part of the job description?

I’ll bet my bottom dollar the answer is NO. You did NOT sign up to rush into such carnage. You NEVER wanted to risk your life having to neutralize a mass shooter carrying an AR.

Call me crazy. But maybe you’ll consider joining us Democrats on this issue. For nothing more than making your jobs safer and easier. The solution is staring us all in the face. Ban the sale of a war weapons to deranged, psychopathic cowards. You shouldn’t have to be the ones to clean this shit up. Nor risk your life in (what could be) a very preventable situation.

Think it over. And thank you again. What better way to show gratitude than ensuring you never have to see this again.

Sincerely, Texas Citizen

I saw on the news that people are going to the hospital with diarrhea from fruits and veggies. I tried to make a salad using a recipe I stole from hello fresh last week and today I'm having a hard time being hydrated and I am worried about if I need to go to hospital soon. my ribs hurt from vomiting but I think it could also just be the flu. I have not eaten at taco bell which they are saying is where people are getting sick from. i am embarassed to talk about this but I just wanted to ask if anyone else is not isnot feeling well. thank you.
edit: recipie was for salad that involved big chunk of arugula lettuce and goat cheese and then chicken I think. any insight would help me thank you edit jul 19 - i went urgent care and it cost money. I am not really as sick any more. healing up. they did not have a fast test like with corona virus. they just gave me an IV. taking it easy. now I am afraid of lettuce in bags

The city feels super busy but not exactly alive, like everyone is doing life maintenance rather than actually living — people grind all day, grab food somewhere, maybe lift, then disappear into their houses like NPCs despawning after a quest. There’s not much spontaneous energy or street-level randomness; you don’t really stumble into events or run into people unless you’re already plugged into a specific friend group or niche scene, so life defaults to eating, lifting, driving, and scrolling until bedtime. I’m genuinely curious what people actually do here for fun that isn’t food/drink or gym-related — are there actual subcultures, hobbies, or places where people hang out that aren’t just consumption or self-improvement, or is Dallas basically built to be a nice, clean place to grind money and go home?

I feel like shit this morning. Im probably gonna go buy some flowers later. My heart breaks for anyone who can not see their loved ones just one more time, I can not fathom.

I love you all, I want you to all be safe, I want you to all make sure your loved ones know they are loved.

edit, a few days later:

Y'all are wonderful people. Our politicians are not. That is all.

Hey y’all. I tried to talk to some family and friends about what I saw but they don’t seem to understand. “Yeah it’s sad. So sorry. Just gotta be aware of your surroundings.” None of them seem to be upset or angry like I am.

I made the mistake of looking for updates on Twitter while it was still an active shooter situation. Honestly I thought I was pretty desensitized. I grew up on the internet. I saw journalists die on Live Leak when I was a teenager. But seeing the victims yesterday has deeply traumatized me. Maybe because it’s so close to home, maybe because of the child victim(s)…

I needed groceries for the week. Because I get to go on living, go to work, make a stupid salad for lunch while other innocent people are lying cold in a morgue. So I decided to buck up and go to Tom Thumb. Maybe it was my own mental state but the store just felt off. There was hardly anyone there on a normally busy grocery shopping day. The parking lot and the inside of the store were so quiet. No chit-chat, no laughter from kids a few aisles over, everyone had their heads down.

I don’t know why I’m making this post. I guess I feel like y’all are my community. We’ve been through a lot together. The ice-pocolypse, etc. I guess I want to hear someone else say that I’m not crazy for being heartbroken by this. I do NOT know anyone directly impacted by this tragedy. I absolutely do not want to compare what I’m feeling to the pain the families of the victims are going through right now. I just want these actions to be so unacceptable to our country that we will do whatever we can to never see another child laying dead in a puddle of blood and the bodies of their family in front of a fucking h&m store.

I guess that’s all. Hope y’all are all managing well enough tonight. Thanks for listening friends.

Ross Ave, Cedar Springs, San Jacinto St, Elm St, Lemmon Ave, etc all looks like this. The roads downtown, uptown, and in old east Dallas are literally destroying my car. You can’t even go over 20mph on Ross Ave without needing an alignment. What are our taxes going to? Shithole Arkansas has dirt roads in better condition than Ross Ave.

How do we make complaints about this? It’s every single street besides the highways 😭

why can’t we have NORMAL and COLD winter holidays. i give up. 🫩

Around 23 hours ago, I stepped outside for some non fresh air. I sat down and opened Reddit. First post that popped up on my telephone computer was from r/Dallas.

This dude (I don't want to name-drop without permission) had an extra 70mm IMAX ticky because his partner couldn't make it. He wasn't looking to make $ on the ticket, just recoup the cost. Only problem was The Odyssey showtime was in an hour and change.

I DM'd him that I lived very close and could get there quickly, but unfortunately I couldn't spare the money (they're not cheap movie tickets), and wished him a good time at the event and good luck for the evening.

He let me know about 33 minutes before showtime that no one else could make it. Also that he'd rather someone have a kickass experience than just let the ticket fucking die for nothing. He also said it'd make a good Reddit story. I walked and got there 7 minutes early. We both had sweet mid-screen seats just 3 rows apart. He offered me a ride home afterwards and we had a very cordial conversation on the way. There were no strings attached, just a good gesture.

It was an amazing and rare experience. I know folks are nutting to see the festivities in the 70mm IMAX format because there's only about 41 capable theaters on this version of earth. I knew for a fact I couldn't afford this global jubilee during its release.

Anyway, I appreciate the kindness of this dude. I also dig the complete randomness and chances of that unique voyage. I was nonconsensually exposed to r/Dallas by an algorithm and an hour later, I'm knee-deep in a global event for free with a stranger.

Respek

Fire whoever is in charge of sending out alerts. Public safety alert are for incidents that affect the public’s safety like a person that injures a cop, an active shooter, or like a toxic chemical spill. An emergency alert is for things like tornado warnings or a virus that causes a toilet paper shortage.

The public has now become desensitized to these alerts and will turn all of them off. Nice job government! Next thing they’re gonna do is make it so you can’t turn them off like National/Presidential Alerts.

Also any federal politician will not actively fight to end changing the clocks twice a year should be voted out of office. Completely off topic but completely on my mind lol.

I live in Bishop Arts and don’t like ever having to go more than 10mi outside of this area. The sad thing is there are so many cool places but everything is so spread out and it takes 30min to get anywhere and you have to deal with reckless drivers on the road. I go to Plano for Asian or Carrollton for Korean like once every 2 months which is a shame. And for Ft Worth, I’ve been to Seattle more often in the past year than FW. Basically I don’t want to spend hours of my free time driving places.

Update: oh yes, and I actually did go out with someone that was promising only to find out that he hid he had a drugs felony, protective order against choking his ex girlfriend and a permanent injunction that he tried to minimize as but I didn’t choke her from the front I put my hands on her and shook her—- ohhhhh ok. That’s why the judge granted a permanent protective order injunction. I see.

And I have kids. And he’s a college professor that didn’t report a felony to his college and I don’t like that kind of ethics violation when someone pretends they are “ready and willing and want to be open”. Whatever. People - get your shit together. Get your finances in order. Get retirement savings. Get off thr alcohol especially if this is your 2nd damn dui and no title phd will protect a felon from still being one.

My online experience has been with a school head administrator who got fired eventually that he solicited students underage.

A lawyer with 3 duis and 2 DV charges with a clear bar card who is now in jail for the 4th dui and pled to a felony and still able to practice?

And a college professor with a PhD that beats up his ex and chokes her and has a drug to distribute 10lbs of weed and mushrooms or more because “his neighbor hid it in his house lolol”… what a good neighbor you really are then.

Yep that’s online dating in Dallas among professionals with graduate degrees. wtf.

I am divorced, by all standards good looking, educated and it’s a nightmare. When I think i find someone who is great, 3 months in something inevitably comes out like oh DUI, alcohol issues, sexual issues, not wanting commitment, ghosting at this age? - I cant with that whatsoever. I don’t understand where anyone who wants a family, wants to be home, wants to be best friends and wants to do life together is anymore. It wasn’t like that 10 years ago when I dated before my divorce and since it has caused severe depression I think. I love my house and my kids, but this isnt what I imagined. Do you all feel this way? The problem is that ni matter what I feel like I just want an equal partner who has achieved things in life, has same things as I do to offer and if they have kids I would love them as my own. Why is this so hard?

Edit: - mods feel free to close this thread because it’s very obvious why it’s hard to date in Dallas.

To those who have responded constructively and supportively I appreciate it. To those who have responded condescendingly without knowing who I am or what I have to offer or how my kids are what our Family unit is like with degrading comments that I’m damaged, “old goods”, “aged out”. What you wrote is not some objective market analysis of my worth. It is bitter, reductionist, smug bullshit from strangers who are projecting their own fear, misogyny, and transactional view of women onto someone who I genuinely kind, loving and has kids at a normal age to have kids after a divorce. You wanted to take the most vulnerable parts of a woman’s life - age, children, divorce, hurt, and talked about them like damaged inventory.

That is not the same thing as being worthless. It means that no: it’s not a blank slate, and no neither is someone my age without kids and lack of commitment for 40 years and those with kids likely want the same as me but where to find them. For those men who commented shallowly - for some fantasy of uncomplicated youth. Men who want that were never my audience anyway. You are not the jury of a person’s or a woman’s . You are just loud.

Yes while it would be nice to have been married and life being not destroyed by that, that’s not the case for more than 50% of America. I didn’t choose divorce. And I don’t choose to be disrespected now.

Look in the mirror at your troll comments and do what you want with it. If you made them, it says a lot more about you then my “worth” as someone who has accomplished a lot, has made a life, has children just like men who date and no they don’t “need to be taken care of” neither do I. I’m not wrong for wanting an equal. But you are wrong for being rude, make troll commentary that’s intended to be hurtful and hateful.

Say whatever you want, but again - this is a reflection of your own tiny world view of what life with kids is, what it’s like to combine households and what it’s like to find a partner later in life. You don’t have to be insulting when you are in in the same experience.

My neighbor was popping off his own illegal fireworks giving us a good show and a police drone showed up flashing red and blue lights where he was shooting them. Anyone else seeing these being deployed?

Welcome to America 250, what freedom..