Neighborhoods are whatever we – the hive mind, the wisdom of crowds, the Borg Collective, Wikipedia’s editors, etc. – want them to be. But we don’t always agree. Ask 10 random people on the street what neighborhood of Dallas Victory Park sits in, and you’re bound to get 11-15 different answers.
We here at D Magazine confront this reality every day as we add new restaurants to our online restaurant guide, new shops to our online shopping guide, and new bars to our online bars and clubs guide. We assign each listing to a neighborhood, and we’ve not been consistent in how we classify areas of the city of Dallas, as the many different staff members who work on those online guides have differing opinions of what sits where in the city, and we haven’t been working from the same map. We need to reach a consensus.
In addition, some neighborhoods have grown strong enough that it’s time for them to walk on their own, and to be added to our official list. They’ve earned their own classification. For instance, we firmly believe it’s time for an amicable divorce between Knox and Henderson. They’ve been growing apart for years.
And so we’ve drawn the new map you see below. Take the jump to help us make it even better.
View D Magazine’s Dallas Neighborhoods in a larger map
We’d like you to look at how we’ve divvied Dallas up, and to let us know what you think we’ve gotten wrong, or right. Click on any of the colored areas to find out what we’re calling it. Zoom in to see the exact boundaries we’re using. But please note:
1) The outer boundaries of the city are only crudely drawn. So don’t tell us that we’ve put a portion of Mesquite in southeast Dallas. That’s not what we’re worried about (since anything that deserves to be classified as Mesquite will have a Mesquite address anyway and will be noted as such). All we’re concerned with is the boundaries between the Dallas neighborhoods (those highlighted in various colors on the map.)
2) While there are many wonderful neighborhoods in Dallas – like Lake Highlands, Forest Hills, and the M Streets, to name but a few – keep in mind that we’re drawing this map for the purposes of classifying bars, shops, and restaurants. Therefore, primarily residential neighborhoods (like those I just mentioned) won’t be given their own designation on our site. Do you ever say you’re going to a bar in the M Streets? No, you’re probably headed to a bar in Lower Greenville.
3) For the record, Victory Park is Downtown.
