Coppell area - any downtown focus? Moving there from Japan. (Dallas: rental homes, condo)

[technogeekery]

First off – thanks for all the advice and information so many people have contributed to this site – cheers!

It looks very much like I’m going to be relocated to USA, and based in DFW area. My family are from London UK & Sydney Australia, but we’ve been living in downtown Tokyo (Shibuya), Japan for the last 3 years and have never lived in the USA – so I expect this will be a bit of a shock…

My office will be in Coppell, and I’ll be travelling a lot domestically & internationally too so will want easy access to DFW and Love Field. My wife will be looking for work now that the kids (4 & 6) are at school, so we don’t want to be too remote from downtown Dallas. Coppell itself looks nice and is well reviewed, and from what is written I also like the look of Flower Mound, Southlake, Grapevine areas. Good public schools, nice neighbours, a bit of demographic diversity, affordable housing with a bit of green space / established garden are all important to us. We’ll probably be renting as we only expect to be in USA for 3 years or so. Property seems cheap to us compared to Tokyo (and even to Sydney) so our budget of about $2500 for rentals looks fine to get a nice house in a nice area with above requirements. I hope to come across for a sighting visit in the next few months, and can take time to drive around a lot, look at some properties and get a feel for the place. Meanwhile, I hope you can help with 2 main questions:

1) Apart from above, community involvement & making friends is really important to us. Its tempting to rent a huge place a bit further out and revel in the space compared to Tokyo! But ideally we’d like to live somewhere where there is some civic focus – ie a real town centre or downtown, rather than pure suburbia with malls as the only focus. Somewhere we could possibly walk to restaurants, shops, bars, neighbours etc. We are 40-something and love to go out for good meal, good wine, good company, some entertainment. Are there any towns / areas with this kind of cool urban centre that I should check out? Or will we really need to go into downtown Dallas or Fort Worth for that?
2) We are also pretty active people with two VERY active boys! In Sydney its very easy to get to beaches, bush or mountains, and even in Tokyo, it is only a couple of hours to the sea or to mountains. We love to go camping in the bush, I’m a keen rock climber, we all love to swim – what is there in the way of outdoors adventure near DFW? I see there is climbing near Austin and at Hueco tanks, and the lakes (Grapevine etc) look good for swimming, sailing etc – any other suggestions along these lines?

Thanks people – looking forward to living in your good city for a while

TG

[dallasdean]

As a general rule of thumb, in this area, you drive to dining/shopping/neighbors ... instead of living there and walking. There are some exceptions, but they are so small of an area, that you would quickly get bored going night after night.

90%+ of downtown Dallas is basically shutdown at night. As far as surrounding cities, basically the same thing in their downtown.

This doesn't mean there isn't a lot of shopping, dining, bars and visiting going on. It only means that you drive to it, instead of walk to it.

[loves2read]

Grapevine downtown is an historical area that has boutique type shops (for gifts more than normal items for living), restaurants and couple of places with live music--
but the homes that are within walking distance are not really what you would be looking for as a rental; if you are willing to pay 2500 a month...

you might consider checking out FTW itself--say in the museum area--there are good pre-schools and FTW ISDs elementary schools in some areas are quality--
FTW has great downtown--very safe with restaurants and live music--and also has some greenspace
there is Stockyards to the north as well--

FTW has fairly decent economy--not as large or diverse as Dallas but depending on what your wife might be looking for there are jobs available
and it is about a 20 min drive to DFW airport--

you won't find the same type of living environment in this area where you have people living/shopping/working in same walkable area--
some areas of Dallas that are urban and semi-walkable will have apt/condo rentals butprobably not home with garden space

[Lakewooder]

You should check out the Uptown/Turtle Creek/Oak Lawn and Knox-Henderson areas...which would fufill some of your desires. Sydney or Tokyo to Coppell is going to be quite a change.

[FarNorthDallas]

Why does your wife have to work in downtown Dallas?

[TurtleCreek80]

There is nothing close to Tokyo about Dallas- nothing. However, if you want to live in a fairly walkable, semi-urban area with good schools, do consider the M Streets area of Dallas, about 3 miles north of downtown Dallas (straight up US75). Walkable to restaurants / nightlife/ shops along Greenville Ave and possibly Henderson Ave, depending on location. $1600-2000 will be plenty to rent a charming Tudor cottage with 3 bedrooms / 2 bathrooms in a community-oriented neighborhood with mature trees and an Exemplary-rated elementary school named Stonewall Jackson. Short drive to the arts district downtown, the museums at Fair Park (wonderful children's program at the Museum of Nature & Science). White Rock Lake is a 10-minute drive east and while you can't swim in it, there is plenty of room to play on playgrounds, tennis courts, ride bikes, canoe/ kayak, etc.

The M Streets area is about 10-12 minute drive from Love Field, 25-30 minutes to DFW and about 25-30 minutes to Coppell. 5 minutes from downtown Dallas.

The suburbs of DFW are simply that- traditional American suburbs with strip malls and lots of driving. The area was just not developed for walkable, dense, urban living because there is so much land here. The suburbs are nice and offer bigger homes than in the city, as well as very good schools, but be realistic about your expectations. Coppell has no downtown / Main Street. Neither does Flower Mound. Southlake has a nice town square but there aren't really any homes within walking distance- you'd have to run across a 6-8 lane street with 40mph+ traffic. Grapevine has a cute old downtown but I can't think of any residential areas nearby. Grapevine & Southlake are definitely more than a 30 minute drive to downtown Dallas, especially with the road construction on 114 (which you'd have to take) for the next 3 years....probably looking at a consistent 45-60 minute rush hour commute to downtown. Coppell and Flower Mound would be about 30-40 minutes into downtown, with traffic. (Whereas the drive from M Streets to Coppell is against traffic once you're on I-35 northbound.

[technogeekery]

Thanks all for your replies. Yes, I understood nothing will be comparable to our past experience, but your replies lay it out very clearly that we will have to adjust our expectations even more.

TurtleCreek80 - thanks for that advice. I will look at M Streets area in some depth. I think we might have real difficulty adjusting to "pure" suburbia where we have to drive to everything and there is no urban focus at all. My wife would especially have issues with it (I could adjust easier as I'll be working full time and travelling a lot anyway) and your point about commuting against the traffic flow is good - if my wife finds work in/near the city, M Streets area may be more convenient.

FarNorthDallas - my wife is a food writer and stylist. She writes, edits and styles food for magazines, books, advertising companies etc, and has had many cookbooks published. Typically she would work (freelance) for book / magazine publishers, and work from home and in photographers' studios when shooting the articles / books / commissions. So it is likely that she will need to work in / around Dallas & Fort Worth metro areas, and we don't want to be too far out (Flower Mound perhaps as far out as practicable).

Lakewooder - will look at those areas, thanks.

Lovestoread - will also check out downtown FTW too, thanks

Thanks for all your advice.

TG

[ChristieP]

Downtown Fort Worth to Coppell every day will be an AWFUL commute. You will be going into traffic, and believe me it, 183 and the 121/114 interchange is a parking lot in morning and afternoon rush hour. (I did the reverse commute for 4 years, so I saw everyone sitting on the other side of the road!) The alternative is a toll road that would make you go a fair distance out of your way. Google says the shortest route is 26 miles will take 45 minutes in traffic! I would not wish that commute on anyone! Also, Fort Worth's public schools are not known for being excellent.

Please do look at Grapevine as Loves2Read suggests. DH and I have lived here for 8 years and we love it! While it IS suburbia, it is also the oldest town in Tarrant County (yes, older than Fort Worth) and our historic downtown is listed on the National Register. There are numerous shops, restaurants, and a few bars downtown. We also have two wonderful festivals on Main Street each year! Grapevine-Colleyville ISD schools are very well-regarded, and there are plenty of rental homes in your price range.

The reason that many of us live in suburbia is because we would rather have that shorter commute to be able to spend more time with our families in the evenings. Also, the urban areas in texas tend to not have good public schools, while the suburbs' schools are usually excellent.

Good luck with your decision!

[mSooner]

If you are renting and your kiddos are elementary age, I second Lakewood/M-Streets. Though, while Coppell doesn't have a Main Street, it does have a real sense of "community."

Though I love Flower Mound, it might not be the best fit for you coming from Tokyo.

[technogeekery]

Thanks people. Looks like 2 good options then -

1) in Coppell ISD itself (for example - Irving near North Lake looks really nice, great elementary schools in Mockingbird and Valley Ranch, 8 mins drive / 30 mins cycle from my work on South Beltline, very close to DFW and not bad for Love Field. Also only about 30 mins from downtown Dallas. Suburban for sure, but not as country as Flower Mound and much more convenient. Looks like some great properties in our price range to rent too.
2) Lakewood / M-Streets area - still suburban, but more on urban side, possible walk/cycle to shops / restaurants etc, and much closer to the city. Longer commute to work in Coppell or to DFW, but not bad, about 30 mins as against traffic. Smaller properties, more expensive, but good walkability. Not too much on the market at the moment.

OKay, thats great info, thanks, I think the rest will have to wait until we can come and visit and look in person. Thanks all.