...Is it lazy to mix up Fort Worth with Dallas? Yes. But it it doesn't have thing one to do with the city's development.
Really? You don't think that name recognition or the perception of a city has any influence on where companies or developers choose to build offices, condos, apartments, retail, etc.? We'll have to agree to disagree, I guess.
Companies that have any hope for success make decisions based on economic and financial factors, not touchy-feely intangibles like name recognition or perception. Someone could make a claim that they do, but if you dig deep enough, you'll find that it all ultimately leads back to the money.
JBB, you speak as though, the two cities do not share the same region within the same state. The non touchy-feely intangibles, include but not solely, recognition and perception. If one of the two cities is perceived as subordinate to the other, then the snowballing effect of momentum in the direction of one of the cities over the other will be the outcome.
Other then scale, would you agree that both cities offer or could offer the same economic and financial factors (transportation, housing, medical infrastructure, etc.). Perhaps money is a factor, but I don't sense that Fort Worth lacks money, but instead lacks a strategy to really compete for high paying jobs. I believe that there is ample money to go around throughout the region, but there seems to be influence to maintain development at a pace that does not rock the status quo.
Clearly, Dallas has a speedier process of getting projects up and running than does Fort Worth, a concern that many developers have expressed when dealing in the city. How quickly, Dallas pounced upon money to expand public transit (streetcar) when the city would not. Add too that national statistics have largely played a role in conglomerating the region into one large selling and marketing entity; shortening the region to be known as "Dallas". for brevity. Omission, rather than inclusion, has become the national norm.
I don't know about you, but whenever you are not apart of the conversation, whether it is for a job promotion or whatever, you will likely be overlooked unless you promote your talents by distributing your resume often and unabashedly. Being a team player is good, but standing out is more likely to get you the results that you seek. Truly, that is how one climbs upwardly; and that is how a city climbs also.
As for this discussion being absurd, its is as absurd as it is for someone to stand by quietly as promotions are being handed out when you have very similar qualifications. You cannot win it, if you are not in it in a partisan way. Of course, no one can or should take away what Dallas has accomplished for itself; but one should boost the city in every way and manner by rabidly promoting it as a economic entity ready to stand on its own and not just another cog within Greater Dallas.