If you are like many readers of printed publications who open the magazine to the table of contents page – and if you did just that after you picked up this month’s edition of the publication of record for the Arlington/Mansfield/Grand Prairie area – you were treated to a veritable smorgasbord of enticing reading options.
There’s the staple “On the Cover” spot touting a quintet that does some great things while “selling” our great region. You would be well served to get to know Brandee Kelley, Jim Maibach, David L. Cook, and Joy and Chad Bates better by delving into their respective stories, beginning on page 24. There, too, is a collection of interesting pictures designed to lure you into various parts of the magazine, where information about a local home, a local wedding, a local car and a bunch of local ways to keep resolutions will also keep you satisfied that your decision to read this issue was a good one.
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What you probably won’t catch is, to me, anyway, one of the more significant items on the page. In small type just under the Contents heading, it says, “January 2022 • Volume 9 • Issue 1.” That’s publication parlance for, “yes, dear readers, we’ve just turned the corner on our ninth year of celebrating Arlington and its surrounding burgs.”
During the course of that time, the celebration has been virtually non-stop. Consider, for a moment, how the city has been transformed: Where there once were two world-class stadia (I’m going all Latin on you, here), there are now three. Where a parking lot once stood now sits the entertainment capital of North Texas, Texas Live! High up in the air in that locale rises the Live! by Loews hotel, which soon will be joined by a big brother across the street.
If you hop in the car and drive just a slight way, you’ll see a real downtown, with vibrant dining, shopping and living options, all close enough to Levitt Pavilion that you are likely to be able to hear the music from your table, checkout stand or patio.
We’ve had three mayors since the start of the magazine, and each has left or is about to leave indelible legacies that can be summarized in one sentence: “He made Arlington better.” Two more of their ilk lifted or are lifting Mansfield to unprecedented heights, and another one is doing likewise in Grand Prairie. And we still have Six Flags Over Texas.
It has, indeed, been a marvelous run, these first eight-plus years. Here’s to AT LEAST eight-plus more!
