Looks like I’m living in the ultimate ‘playground’…
ARLINGTON, Texas — With two amusement parks, the Texas Rangers’ recently built baseball stadium and the Dallas Cowboys’ $1 billion football stadium on its way, Arlington is transforming itself from an aging suburb to the Lone Star State’s playground.
The city was awarded the Cotton Bowl beginning in 2010, the 2011 Super Bowl — which will bring millions of dollars to the local economy — and is bidding to host an NCAA Men’s Final Four basketball tournament between 2012 and 2016.
The Arlington Convention and Visitors Bureau estimates that city attractions draw between 6 million and 7 million visitors a year. Cluck expects that figure to increase once the Cowboys’ stadium and an adjacent retail and restaurant center called Glory Park open in 2009.
The focus on entertainment is in some ways a return to form for Arlington. During the Great Depression it was home to a horse racing track and a club called Top O’ Hill Terrace, known in an official history as a “gambling playground for the rich, adventurous, mischievous, famous and infamous.”
Arlington’s transformation into northern Texas’ largest suburb began in 1953 when a General Motors Corp. plant went up. By 1970, about 90,000 people lived in Arlington, and today there are about 370,000, making it the state’s seventh most populous city.
Once a prestigious address, the city sprawled outward with little foresight. It remains the largest city in the nation without public transportation.
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