Questions about Cedar Hill and Forney (Dallas, Duncanville: homes, safe area, tornado)

[ladihawkae]

Hello, Can someone who lives in Cedar Hill or Forney please tell me about their communities? my husband and I planned to look at homes in Cedar Hill but realtor steered us from there in favor of mansfield. She said Cedar Hill was getting a bit unsafe. is this true? The cost of housing seems a little better in Cedar Hill, plus it is a little closer to lancaster where I will be working. I hear Lancaster is definitely not a safe area and the area that I saw kind of confirmed it although we did see some nice developments.
Would prefer a nice town, complete with streets and a main street that has a nice family atmosphere where we can walk around after dark. the housing developments in lancaster was only that. looking for something with character and large backyards where we can put in a garden and maybe a pool and still have a little room to move around.
Does Cedar Hill or mansfield or forney flood? tornado activity? any homes have basements? my husband and i are truck drivers and we would like a nice community where we can leave and come back and still have our house!
We don't mind a mixed community as long as everyone gets along and no racial tension..if there is such a place today.

[momof2dfw]

If those were my choices I'd pick Forney hands down.

[stargazer]

I use to live in Cedar Hill and I would suggest Forney over Cedar Hill. Midlothian has concrete plants that spew toxic dust in the air that goes right over Cedar Hill. My family since we moved away from southwest Dallas County have been much healthier with our lungs. If your family has a case history of pulmonary problems or currently have asthma or other lung related issues, I would not move that way.

[CedarHillian]

Cedar Hill is a perfectly safe area. Lived here since 2001 and never have had any problems.

BUT ... yes, the air quality is a concern. We're just a little too close to the toxic air that spews from Midlothian. Mansfield, too, gets a big of that bad Midlothian cement plant stuff.

But there are lots of nice, affordable neighborboods to live in here. And the people are pretty pleasant, too.

[ladihawkae]

Thanks for your input and honesty. Going to look around a bit more and make a decision. So many choices and hard to decide

[SprintRider]

I don't understand why people only single out Cedar Hill and Midlothian when they talk about pollution. According to Pollution Scorecard, the entire Dallas County ranks as the dirtiest/worst 10% as far as air pollution of all counties in the U.S. Maybe the fallout from the cement plants makes it even worse in these areas, but let's face it; Dallas is a big city and that's the price of living in such. Please don't think I'm knocking Dallas, because I'm moving there. I think people need to be realistic though when moving near a big city.

[itscindergirl]

I just moved here from the dallas area and I think that cedar hill is a fine community but midlothian is a town on the rise. I think it is a matter of where you live in any of them.

[sonnybunny]

Originally Posted by ladihawkae

Hello, Can someone who lives in Cedar Hill or Forney please tell me about their communities? my husband and I planned to look at homes in Cedar Hill but realtor steered us from there in favor of mansfield. She said Cedar Hill was getting a bit unsafe. is this true? The cost of housing seems a little better in Cedar Hill, plus it is a little closer to lancaster where I will be working. I hear Lancaster is definitely not a safe area and the area that I saw kind of confirmed it although we did see some nice developments.
Would prefer a nice town, complete with streets and a main street that has a nice family atmosphere where we can walk around after dark. the housing developments in lancaster was only that. looking for something with character and large backyards where we can put in a garden and maybe a pool and still have a little room to move around.
Does Cedar Hill or mansfield or forney flood? tornado activity? any homes have basements? my husband and i are truck drivers and we would like a nice community where we can leave and come back and still have our house!
We don't mind a mixed community as long as everyone gets along and no racial tension..if there is such a place today.

I just bought in Highland Homes Skyline Estates, north of Hwy 80, and I love it. My development is on the side of a hill, with the wetlands for the east fork of the Trinity River at the bottom of the hill, so we're safe because the wetlands boundary is federally protected.
The last time Forney had a tornado was in the early 1930's. People keep telling me that thermals from Lake Joe Pool and Lake Ray Hubbard actually can turn/deflect tornados to the northeast, thereby missing Forney.
No basements here. No "restored" Main Street, just ordinary. My lot is 75 x 120 and I added the 3rd car garage and still have plenty of room. The thing I like best is that my neighborhood is all baby boomers, like me, and VERY quiet!
I looked @ Cedar Hill/Duncanville and found that it's cheaper because it has problems. I moved from Miami because I was sick of living in an unsafe area.

[miokie]

Originally Posted by sonnybunny

The last time Forney had a tornado was in the early 1930's. People keep telling me that thermals from Lake Joe Pool and Lake Ray Hubbard actually can turn/deflect tornados to the northeast, thereby missing Forney.

You were misinformed. I live about 20 miles from Forney. The tornado activity (watches, warnings, funnel sightings) there is at least as great as any other North Texas community.

from the City-Data Profile for Forney

Forney-area historical tornado activity is above Texas state average. It is 197% greater than the overall U.S. average.

On 4/25/1994, a category 4 (max. wind speeds 207-260 mph) tornado 15.0 miles away from the Forney city center killed 3 people and injured 48 people and caused between $50,000,000 and $500,000,000 in damages.

On 10/4/1959, a category 3 (max. wind speeds 158-206 mph) tornado 7.9 miles away from the city center injured 5 people and caused between $50,000 and $500,000 in damages.

[stargazer]

Hey I see this thread again.... Moved on up. That is interesting about the tornadoes. I remember the tornado of 1994. It went to Lancaster and did lots of damage. My husband and I were in our half bath in Cedar Hill scared to death. My husband when he went to work, one of his co workers lived on a street in Lancaster that the tornado went through. His side of the street was fine but the tornado took out the other side. His co worker took in a few neighbors families that lost their homes. It was a devastating time. I remember Janie Frickie, a very popular country artist at the time, came down to sing to help raise funds to money and awareness for relief.

I also wanted to respond to this..

I don't understand why people only single out Cedar Hill and Midlothian when they talk about pollution. According to Pollution Scorecard, the entire Dallas County ranks as the dirtiest/worst 10% as far as air pollution of all counties in the U.S. Maybe the fallout from the cement plants makes it even worse in these areas, but let's face it; Dallas is a big city and that's the price of living in such. Please don't think I'm knocking Dallas, because I'm moving there. I think people need to be realistic though when moving near a big city.

I felt the same way, that there was a price for living in the city because of people everywhere, cars everywhere, industry many places however it was different than just regular pollutants.

I live currently about a 1 1/2 from the freeway, go to the city on a regular basis and take in pollutants but my family has not been sick like we were for years when we lived in southwest Dallas county .