Scots Not Supporting Specialty Plates
As it turns out, the Highland Park ISD specialty plates issued by the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles aren’t selling very well.
The Dallas Morning News has the details on the possible discontinuation of a partnership between the DMV and MyPlates.com that was started in 2010. Poor sales are to blame for the potential elimination of an idea that was meant to boost school pride, something that is never lacking in the Park Cities.
Why do you think the plates aren’t selling? At any rate, apparently they’re now being offered at a discount, so you might want to get yours now. They might soon become a collectors’ item.
Growing up here, we were taught to just say we lived “near SMU” or the like – and to almost be ashamed to say we were from HP, for fear it sounded boastful. I wonder if this is still coming from that sentiment. The plates are cute, though!
What “A local” says above is spot on. I hear myself saying “near SMU” to this day. Most people learn not to draw any extra attention to the fact that they’re from here.
I live in south Highland Park and when asked where I live I always say “Not far from downtown.”
I never wanted that plate on my car for away games or anywhere else in town. It screams “Key me!”
They are not selling for the obvious reasons. “North Dallas, near the Preston Hollow area”.
Id guess thats exactly the dynamic going on – even if I knew that the money went to the school the hassle of some jack ass deciding to key your car, throw a rock through a window, or other such vandalism just would not be worth it. Same reason I wouldnt put my NRA sticker or political affiliation on my car. I never mention HP or UP when telling someone where I live….
For the same reason I have a friend who will never tell folks that she went to Harvard or Yale – you just put yourself in someones crosshairs no matter how nice or sweet you might be.
Growing up here, we never said that we were from HP, unless really pressed, answers varied from ‘near SMU’, ‘north Dallas’, ‘near downtown’ . I think the plates are nice looking, but don’t want to advertise where I live. It makes me cringe when I am with someone who readily says that they live in HP.
Agree w/everyone else. Our standard answer is “near the center of Dallas”.
In the specific case of the plates, I would suspect that there is an awful lot of “don’t care”. From my perspective, I’d rather see Texas get rid of all of the custom plates and go back to the standard black lettering on white background, and then reverse the next year. Any time that you have government-supported contracts like this one, there is opportunity for political opportunism. So keep it simple.
We say ‘near Mockingbird and the Tollway’ to people who live close-in and ‘near downtown’ to people who live farther away.
I have seen very few of the HP plates but the one I saw the other day made me cringe: THEBUBL or somesuch ridiculousness. Didn’t check to see if their car had been keyed.
I agree with 1st anon on the one-size-fits-all plates.
I have an HP sticker on my vehicles and the stickers of the activities my kids are involved in at school. Somehow, the HP plate seemed to push the spirit/pride thing over the top.
I tell everyone I live in University Park. It’s true some people get wide eyed and short of breath when they hear that, but is that really my problem? Heck, look at the shame I have to deal with: my parents and grandparents lived in Highland Park and all I can muster is a res in UP.
It doesn’t seem to be that way over at “Swiss Ave.” Those people practically advertise that they live on Swiss.
My step-mother kicked the tires in your little burg for a home for my newly married youngest sister. I think she referred to it as “Trailer Park.” When I arrived, I thought it was really nice, but certainly no place to be overly self conscious about. The plates are cute BTW.
I’m with HP75, I tell them where I live, if they form an opinion of me based on that, then that is their issue, not mine.
That said, I don’t have any stickers of any kind on my car, and would never consider an HP license plate.
Drive down any street around here and you will find lots of HP school stickers. Every school and most sports teams have them. To worry about getting keyed seems odd. And who drives outside of the bubble?Everything we need is south of NW Highway (with occasional trips to Costco, and NorthPark.)
My guess is most folks who have these HP plates moved here from frisco, et al, in the last 36 months.