Chicago is a real international city while Dallas is a backwoods of inbred country cousins with only one good set of "big city" clothes they drag out for special occassions, but otherwise needs a change of underwear and a good bath.

I just spent a week in Chicago. I was cold, it snowed, it was windy and cloudy except for two days.  Even so, it was a fantastic trip out of the unreal world of what many people prefer to think of Dallas - an international city.

To those in Dallas who refer to it as an international city I suggest you take a trip out of Dallas, and out of Texas specifically, to see what a real "international" city is like - some city such as Chicago - even during winter, but even better in summer.

The difference is not primarily size - but outlook.  Chicago has it and Dallas does not.  In my opinion the difference has everything to do with an outlook dictated by a government - both local and state - that has no interest in embracing the tolerance, acceptance of the right to a minimal quality of life, despite one's income, and an understanding that being an international city means accepting the fact that those "international" visitors have no interest in adapting their customs and beliefs for the short time they are visiting Dallas.

In Dallas, that which is different is not embraced.  That which is different is not evaluated with mind-set that those differences just might be an improvement  to the status quo. 

Texas, as a whole, is much too far inbred, too insular, too full of prejudice and preconceived notions, for any city, no matter how much they try to truly be considered an "international" city. 

That Dallas is in Texas is not a situation that can be changed.  But one has to ask the obvious question of why the major metropolitan areas such as DFW, Houston, San Antonio don't put their collective legislative might to promote laws, regulatory actions and, most importantly, influence over the state budget, so that these areas who are the primary representatives to the international community, can actually transform themselves  into locations that the international community visiting Dallas would, of there own accord bestow upon these cities the much coveted designation of their being "international" cities.

Next installment.  Why Texas can be such an industrial and economic powerhouse, so large, have so many natural resources, so many natural attractions and yet, can not transform itself from the state that ranks 2nd in size but below median state average in things such as education, environmental quality, racial equality and quality of life.  The answers to those questions are the answers to why Dallas will never be an international city.