Moving to Dallas - suggestions?

[Safeway]

If you don't mind a bit of a drive, think Denton or maybe even Lewisville...

Do not move here. Ever.

 

[Safeway]

You don't want your car breaking down by Irving Mall or anywhere south of 183...or pretty much anything off Beltline...if we get into details of why, we might be labeled as racists.

This is, overall, bullshit. The area isn't great, but it isn't as horrible as you imply.

If you live in Valley Ranch and commute to Las Colinas, you will be in new development almost the entire way.

 

[spacejamz]

This is, overall, bullshit. The area isn't great, but it isn't as horrible as you imply.

If you live in Valley Ranch and commute to Las Colinas, you will be in new development almost the entire way.

This is from spotcrime.com from Jan 1st of this year...

EDIT: used a new map..

the top square in red is Valley Ranch and the blue one in the bottom is Irving....Valley Ranch has thefts and robberies which you would expect in area with all of those apartments....But notice all those spray paint cans in the bottom? That is pretty sure sign of gang activity...and higher number of assaults....

OP...this is why your friends told you not to live in Irving...

 

[Phoenix86]

Sure, I wouldn't want to live in that area but I have driven through it a brazillion times. If your car breaks down on the major roads in that area you'll be just fine.

We should do a DFW meetup soon.

 

[spacejamz]

Sure, I wouldn't want to live in that area but I have driven through it a brazillion times. If your car breaks down on the major roads in that area you'll be just fine.

We should do a DFW meetup soon.

Kinda funny that you clarify that with major roads

Had a friend that lived off Belt Line and Shady Grove...fairly new neighborhood but they moved out after being there only a few years...just kept getting worse and worse...

I am up for a meet up....

 

[CountZero]

I live in Richardson and drive to Las Colinas for work. Wife and I have been looking at apartments closer to work because commuting on 635 sucks.

Seems like you can draw a line through the middle of DFW airport and basically you'll want to stay north of it. I'd also highly recommend going to look at the complex. When we've been looking around you'll see apartments near the same price range but one will be worn down and have kids loitering all over and the other will be relatively well kept. Mind you north of 114 nothing is at all ghetto like just some is much better than others.

You mentioned something urban, assuming you mean generally walkable, you'll have to let that go if you want to do Irving. The best bet if you want that is to pick a complex near one of the numerous strip malls in the area. If you are near MacArthur there's usually some strip mall nearby with a few places to eat. According to my Indian coworker Valley Ranch has the nickname Bolly Ranch due to the high number of Indians living there, when we were driving around we did see kids playing cricket sooo... I don't think it matters but it is kind of funny.

I don't know how bad the commute is but some people here commuted through Northwest Highway to downtown/uptown Dallas proper which is the only urban area around.

At $1k for a 1 bedroom you should be able to go to just about anywhere except the highest end stuff.

 

[spacejamz]

Seems like you can draw a line through the middle of DFW airport and basically you'll want to stay north of it.

pretty much the top blue line in the map I posted

 

[Phoenix86]

Kinda funny that you clarify that with major roads

Had a friend that lived off Belt Line and Shady Grove...fairly new neighborhood but they moved out after being there only a few years...just kept getting worse and worse...

I am up for a meet up....

I didn't make up the major roads part, you did with the Beltline/mall comment. No one is suggesting he move to that area, hell no. D: So all he has to deal with is driving through major roads, and that's not an issue.

I'm not an organizer, just sliding the notion out there.

 

[MetalMat]

If you were single I would say move uptown, tons of awesome parties and hot chicks

 

[Safeway]

If you were single I would say move uptown, tons of awesome parties and hot chicks

Uptown Dallas is the antithesis of Austin, TX.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Dallas... Puke...

Small town Texas is where its at. Or at least Fort Worth.

 

[WhoBeDaPlaya]

Farmer's Branch is not Dallas. It is Farmer's Branch. If you want to live IN DALLAS for under $1,000/month, and are OK with a 1-bedroom, there are several non-ghetto areas to choose from: the Village, Uptown, ...

Fair enough. The area is surprisingly okay though, considering I'm pretty much right next to Valley View Mall. Was it that bad before? (only moved here a year ago).

 

[MetalMat]

Uptown Dallas is the antithesis of Austin, TX.

I hear this all the time and it has truth, there are a ton of douchebags and snobs in Dallas. However I made many very cool and down to earth friends while I lived there and overall had a very fun time, just got to weed out the bad people.

 

[Phoenix86]

Dallas... Puke...

Small town Texas is where its at. Or at least Fort Worth.

Fort Worth is awesome, but the commute to the OP's area would blow.

@OP visit Fort Worth, stockyards, just about everything in the culture district, even down town is really nice.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Fort Worth is awesome, but the commute to the OP's area would blow.

@OP visit Fort Worth, stockyards, just about everything in the culture district, even down town is really nice.

I like Fort Worth. Dallas just too big for my taste. Living in the country you just accept the commute sucking. Just make sure the AC blows cold and find some good radio shows and you don't even notice it. Who knows OP might like the city life. Just isn't for me. I can see the advantages though.

Either way I love Texas and I'm sure OP will too. I've rarely seen someone move to Texas and leave. I have a person at my job from up north. He always has told me how bad it sucks here and he can't wait to leave. We'll recently the job expanded and opened a yard up north and was offering to pay for moving expenses and what not for employees that moved up there. Well come to find out the bitchy coworker was offered a position up north but has come up with a million excuses why he can't do it.

 

[spacejamz]

Fair enough. The area is surprisingly okay though, considering I'm pretty much right next to Valley View Mall. Was it that bad before? (only moved here a year ago).

Valley View mall used to be very nice during the 90's and early 2000...

I only go there now to pick stuff from Sears if a good deal on some tools since my office is right off Midway and 635. Alot of stores are vacant now and there is a lot of low income apartments around it. Very sad...

 

[Schadenfreude]

Thanks for all the input so far!

So the wife and I are "urbanites" - we like the city life; from what (little) I've seen of Dallas, I noticed that it's really spread out. Is that right?

 

[Phoenix86]

From the DFW wiki:
The metroplex encompasses 9,286 square miles (24,100 km2) of total area: 8,991 sq mi (23,290 km2) is land, while 295 sq mi (760 km2) is water, making it larger in area than the U.S. states of Rhode Island and Connecticut combined. It is also the sixth largest gross metropolitan product (GMP) in the United States,[8] and approximately tenth largest by GMP in the world.

Dallas to Fort Worth (downtown) is about 35 miles. Dallas is ~30 miles north to south. So yeah, stuff is pretty spread out

 

[CountZero]

Thanks for all the input so far!

So the wife and I are "urbanites" - we like the city life; from what (little) I've seen of Dallas, I noticed that it's really spread out. Is that right?

If you are working in Irving the only 'urban' area is going to be uptown and the surrounding areas and there will be a commute. Dallas doesn't have a strong urban core so much as it has small urban-lite enclaves most of which are around uptown or uptown itself.

That was the biggest disappointment moving here. Wife and I moved near my work in the suburbs figuring we'd figure out where we really want to live later but the handful of urban (really for us walkable was the big thing) areas never really clicked for us so we've stayed suburban. The neighborhoods are ok but just weren't for us. The other downside is that walkable and Texas heat are kind of at odds with each other but what it translates to is the number of malls around here is astounding.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

I hear this all the time and it has truth, there are a ton of douchebags and snobs in Dallas. However I made many very cool and down to earth friends while I lived there and overall had a very fun time, just got to weed out the bad people.

There's also 10x the people in the DFW area as there is Austin.

Valley View mall used to be very nice during the 90's and early 2000...

I only go there now to pick stuff from Sears if a good deal on some tools since my office is right off Midway and 635. Alot of stores are vacant now and there is a lot of low income apartments around it. Very sad...

A lot? The food court selection has gone down hill, but there aren't a lot of vacancies there. As for apartments around the mall, there is only one complex that is adjacent to it, which is directly south of the mall. It's on older complex, and I actually lived there many years ago, but it is hardly a bad neighborhood. It's Plano and just North of Richardson for Christs sake. Not exactly low income cities. Collin Creek isn't as happening as Stonebriar because Stonebriar is the giant megamall of Frisco, where there is a lot of money.
If you want to see what a bad mall is, go check out Redbird Mall.

OP, if you're looking for a house, I got one cheap.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

If you are working in Irving the only 'urban' area is going to be uptown and the surrounding areas and there will be a commute. Dallas doesn't have a strong urban core so much as it has small urban-lite enclaves most of which are around uptown or uptown itself.

That was the biggest disappointment moving here. Wife and I moved near my work in the suburbs figuring we'd figure out where we really want to live later but the handful of urban (really for us walkable was the big thing) areas never really clicked for us so we've stayed suburban. The neighborhoods are ok but just weren't for us. The other downside is that walkable and Texas heat are kind of at odds with each other but what it translates to is the number of malls around here is astounding.

Dallas and really Texas isn't made for big city living. We have some big cities, but we don't consentrate on packing people in like sardins. We have so much land we just keep expanding out.

 

[CountZero]

There's also 10x the people in the DFW area as there is Austin.

A lot? The food court selection has gone down hill, but there aren't a lot of vacancies there. As for apartments around the mall, there is only one complex that is adjacent to it, which is directly south of the mall. It's on older complex, and I actually lived there many years ago, but it is hardly a bad neighborhood. It's Plano and just North of Richardson for Christs sake. Not exactly low income cities. Valleyview isn't as happening as Stonebriar because Stonebriar is the giant megamall of Frisco, where there is a lot of money.
If you want to see what a bad mall is, go check out Redbird Mall.

OP, if you're looking for a house, I got one cheap.

Pretty sure you are confusing Valley View with Collin Creek. Valley View is a run down dump that is fairly close to the Galleria on 635 whereas Collin Creek is on 75 north of Richardson (maybe even technically in Richardson) and recently did some remodeling. It isn't run down really but it does have a crappy food court.

 

[ElFenix]

Uptown Dallas is the antithesis of Austin, TX.

yeah maybe deep ellum is more austinish? similar to the (crime free) montrose in houston.

 

[fjmeat]

colleyeville ftw

 

[slightlyhuman]

i live 3 hours from dallas, was there for quakecon. let me tell you, FUCK IT'S HOT