"State of the City"

STORYTELLING CATEGORY

The Dallas Morning News
04/26/2021

The pandemic forced many Americans to reset their goals and expectations for how they work, live and socialize. It was a time to reassess.

For The Dallas Morning News, it was an opportunity to gauge the resilience of Dallas as the region began to emerge from the biggest health crisis of modern times. In a series of news stories titled State of the City, what we found was both remarkable and discouraging.

-- Economically, the D-FW region bounced back faster than other major cities to regain jobs lost to the pandemic. But that recovery was starkly uneven.
-- Cutting-edge medical care and innovation were more than offset by a troubling bottom line – a 20-year life expectancy gap in neighborhoods only 7 miles apart.
-- In Dallas, home to the state’s second-largest school district with 55,000 students, the pandemic threatened to erase a decade of academic gains in math and reading.
-- A long-discussed rapid rehousing plan was put into action to reverse persistently steady growth in the region’s homeless population.
-- Murders and aggravated assaults – key barometers of a city’s safety climate – spiked in Dallas in the two years leading up to the pandemic.

The staff’s comprehensive work led to a yearlong dialogue with our readers through a series of virtual events where our deputy publisher, reporters and editors shared our findings and gathered community perspectives. Hundreds of readers participated via Zoom, Facebook Live and our social media channels.

But this series wasn’t only about illuminating problems. It also was about spotlighting solutions.

We discovered how the region’s premier public hospital system was using data analytics to identify the biggest health needs in the community. We found cities where employers were rapidly moving to remote or dispersed workforces as a way to keep workers engaged. We examined a signature Dallas school district turnaround program that was showing tremendous success one school at a time.

The lingering pandemic will bring changes for years to come. But we’re confident we’ve informed our readers about where Dallas stands on key measures of vitality, pinpointed the challenges ahead and pointed to a roadmap for the future.

We proudly submit our staff’s work on State of the City.

LINK to content online
Video: How we connected our community during the State of the City initiative

Submitted by Arnessa Garrett.