Q: What does Dallas have that Fort Worth doesn’t? A: A nice city 30 miles away.
Dallas and Fort Worth are cities thirty miles apart. There is a rivalry and, of course, some jokes:
Q: What does Dallas have that Fort Worth doesn’t have?
A: A nice city 30 miles away.
This “classic Cowtown counterpunch” (as it’s described below) has been cited in print since at least 1997.
Wikipedia: Dallas, Texas
Dallas (pronounced /ˈdæləs/), with an estimated population nearing 1.3 million, the city is the main economic center of the 12-county Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area that according to the March 2009 U.S. Census Bureau release, had a population of 6,300,006 as of July 2008, making it the number one metropolitan area in population growth in the nation last year. It is also the center of the largest metro area in Texas.
Dallas is rated as a beta world city by the Loughborough University Globalization and World Cities Study Group & Network.
Founded in 1841 and formally incorporated as a city in February, 1856, the city’s economy is primarily based on banking, commerce, telecommunications, computer technology, energy, and transportation. Located in North Texas and a major city in the American South & Southwest, 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, a strong industrial and financial sector, and its status as a major inland port (due largely to the presence of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, one of the largest and busiest in the world).
Wikipedia: Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the seventeenth-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city within the state of Texas. Located in North Texas and a cultural gateway into the American West, the city covers nearly 300 square miles (780 km2) in Tarrant, Parker, and Denton counties, serving as the county seat for Tarrant County. According to 2009 estimates by the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the city has a population of 720,250. The city is the second-largest cultural and economic center of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area (commonly called the Metroplex). Fort Worth and the surrounding Metroplex area offer numerous business opportunities and a wide array of attractions.
Established originally in 1849 as a protective Army outpost situated on a bluff overlooking the Trinity River, the city of Fort Worth today still embraces its western heritage and traditional architecture and design.
6 December 1997, Dallas (TX) Morning News:
And it resurrected a classic Cowtown counterpunch: What does Dallas have that Fort Worth doesn’t? A great city 30 miles away.
23 August 2002, Dallas (TX) Morning News:
Its editorial comment even includes its own snide knock-knock joke: “What does Dallas have that Fort Worth doesn’t? A nice city 30 miles away.”
Google Books
October 2002, Dwell magazine, pg. 63:
Fort Worth, TX
Fort Worth humor:
What does Dallas have that Fort Worth doesn’t?
A nice city 30 miles away.
Too Many Chefs
Food Section Digestion - June 24, 2004
(...)
I’m trying not to show a bias against southern cities, but I’ll admit to not loving super-conservative Dallas (What does Dallas have that Fort Worth doesn’t? A nice city fifty miles away).
Dallas Fort Worth Urban Forum
trolleygirl
04-22-2005, 12:06 PM
^ we all love going to Ft. Worth on occasion. Nobody ever said that Forth Worth sucked.
(...)
But I still like this one- What does Dallas have that Fort Worth doesn’t? Give up?
A quaint little city next door.
Fort Worth Forum
eastchaseclean
Feb 20 2006, 10:40 PM
I’m sure we’ve all heard it but I still love the quote. . . . . .
What does Dallas have that Fort Worth does not???....
....A really cool city 30 miles away!