Odd as it may seem, dallas does not have a chamber of commerce.
Sure, there’s the Greater Dallas Chamber. But it changed its mission 20 years ago to promote the entire region. It claims, in fact, to represent 12 counties, and it doesn’t even put Dallas County at the top of the list. The Dallas Citizens Council is concerned with regional and statewide policy issues—the environment, school finance, etc.—not business growth in Dallas.
North Dallas has a chamber, as does Oak Cliff, Northeast Dallas, West Dallas, and, under a different name, Downtown Dallas.
There’s a Black chamber, an Asian chamber, a Korean chamber, and a Hispanic chamber.
Richardson has a very effective chamber, and it wages pitched battles with chambers in Frisco, Plano, Irving, and the other suburbs. Even Red Oak has a chamber. Fort Worth, as you would expect, has a major chamber.
So what’s the deal with Dallas?
Looking at the data, one might conclude that Dallas is getting along just fine without one. Of the 43 Fortune 1000 companies located in the region, 20 are headquartered within the Dallas city limits. And the Greater Dallas Chamber, for all its efforts, can’t escape its historical roots. When it announces that the mayor is going to address its membership, it means the mayor of Dallas, not the mayor of Fort Worth or Denton.
But what happens when a company calls looking to relocate to Dallas? The Greater Dallas Chamber refers it to the city’s economic development department.
From what I hear, the city’s economic development team is first-rate. It is also, people tell me, understaffed and overworked. One deal can tie it up for weeks. There’s another point. The city staffers are, well, city staffers. They aren’t business people. Nor do they have the business ties and connections that might enable them to marshal ammunition in a contest against the suburbs and Fort Worth. They can do the best job of any economic development team in the country and still get outgunned.
Does it matter? It matters if you own a home in Dallas. In 1990 residential property taxes footed only 34 percent of the tax bill in the city. By 2003 the burden had increased to 42 percent. The business flight to the suburbs means higher taxes in the city.
But I would argue a larger point—and I haven’t found anyone at any suburban chamber who disputes it. As Dallas goes, so goes the region. When Dallas sneezes, the region gets the flu. It is in everyone’s interest that the Dallas economy be vibrant and that the Dallas tax base be strong.
Does Dallas need its own chamber of commerce? Either that, or a development unit within the Greater Dallas Chamber with its own board of directors and its own professional staff. Dallas is a business city. Business is the only reason we exist. The issue of economic growth in the city is too important to be left to whimsy or accident.
I’ve signed our membership check. Just tell me the payee and the amount to fill in, and I’ll put it in the mail.
