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Proof That ‘Far East Dallas’ Does Not Exist

No, don't think that it does.
By Jason Heid |
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Dallas map 10 mile radius 3
The blue circle represents what’s within 10 miles of distance from downtown Dallas. The yellow regions are within the city limits.

Lately I’ve noticed what seems like an increasingly frequent use of the phrase “Far East Dallas” by the Dallas Morning News. It’s especially apparent in crime stories, like today’s about a man shot dead at an apartment complex, or a few weeks back when two women were killed in a house.

My assumption had been that “Far East Dallas” was being defined as east of Ferguson Road, but then there’s the story about marijuana plants found in a house that’s closer to Garland Road. That place, in fact, isn’t far at all from the Walgreen’s where Zoe Hastings was abducted, yet the store’s location is only ever referred to as “near White Rock Lake.” So is Garland Road the dividing line — or the railroad tracks that run just east of there?

However the DMN is going about it, they’re wrong. I’d argue that “Far East Dallas” does not exist.

My case is based on the usage of the only other area of Dallas to have “Far” regularly included in its name. “Far North Dallas” is referred to as such in order to make it distinct from plain-old “North Dallas.” The map image that you see above makes it plain just how far Far North Dallas is from the center of the city.

The yellow you see there are the 11 “regions” of Dallas as we’ve defined them in our neighborhood guides. As I’ve mentioned before, you can perhaps quibble with some of the boundaries as we’ve drawn them, but I feel solid about where we set the southernmost boundary of Far North Dallas: LBJ Freeway.

The blue circle that you see above, overlaid atop the Dallas city limits, represents a radius of 10 miles from the center of downtown. Note how the peninsula that is Far North Dallas sits entirely outside that zone. Far North Dallas really is far.

Now take a gander to the east on the map. Aside from a tiny slice on the far side, all of East Dallas is closer to the central business district than is the entirety of Far North Dallas. Maybe you could make a case for there needing to be a “Far Southeast Dallas” or a “Far Southwest Dallas” — if as many people lived out those ways  — but “Far East Dallas”? Nope, it’s not there.

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