No way, some Dallas politicians and business leaders told us. The city is simply maturing. The disappearance of locally owned and controlled businesses, they explain, is happening all over America. The suburbs are outshining the center cities everywhere. The schools are just victims of a bad news media rap.
Racial tensions are a temporary annoyance.
We don't buy it. We believe that Dallas' problems run a lot deeper, that the changes under way challenge the city's very culture. The city's task is tougher than simply opening the door to widened leadership. It has to change its ways. A fundamental change in cultures has to happen.