Too many people concerned with the burbs (Dallas, Plano: best neighborhood, high crime)

[Dr. Jake Oil]

Originally Posted by mikestrong

If gas gets to 4.50 we are all screwed, our econmy will be going down the drain and the housing industry will die(new and pre existing). Our country, right now, cannot exist with out fairly cheap energy cost.

or drive from the suburbs and spend more gas. Well, I will take gas over crime any time.

The connection/causation of your two statements there is intriguing.

[Overcooked_Oatmeal]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Hold it! Lakewood "lily white" ? -

Lakewood Elementary is:

White, not Hispanic 71%
Hispanic 23%
Asian/Pacific Islander 3%
Black, not Hispanic 3%

Stonewall Jackson is:

White, not Hispanic 58%
Hispanic 24%
Black, not Hispanic 12%
Asian/Pacific Islander 6%

These are the two 'whitest' schools in the area. The figures are a couple of years old, so I do think they are a bit 'whiter' than that..Lee, Mata, Mount Auburn and Lipscomb elementaries are 'majority minority'.

73% of the kids from Lakewood go on to J. L. Long Middle School after 5th grade, where whites are definitely in the minority...

Not the schools, the census tracts:

Originally Posted by ClarenceBodiker

The census map shows the two areas that cover Lakewood as being 92% and 81% white. That's pretty white. Not that it matters though, Lakewood is unaffordable to the vast majority of people moving into Dallas. The parts of east Dallas most can afford is riddled with poor schools and seediness.

Good to see someone in touch with reality here instead of an RE agent with an agenda and commission goals to fulfill. The demographic makeup of a school doesn't always necessarily correlate with the neighborhood the actual school is in.

Even the black middle class that was in South Dallas and Oak Cliff in the past has been fleeing to the burbs in search of "good schools" and lower crime rates. I knew about 10 families who left for Cedar Hill, Plano, Richardson, Grand Prairie, etc.

If there isn't anything appealing in the Alpha city to a large amount of people, this will continue unabated.

[jobert]

Originally Posted by Dr. Jake Oil

The connection/causation of your two statements there is intriguing.

Yes - and a multilayered one at that. White flight creates a vacuum that crime and poverty fill, thus creating the oil dependant suburbs, and high gas prices due to overconsumption, which squeezes the disposable income of the poor through rising energy prices and a resultant higher food costs, which forces them into criminal activity to make ends meet, which causes white flight.


If suburbanites would move back to the city, they could cure the illness instead of just treating the symptoms. It's tough medicine that no one wants to swallow, but could be administered through a draconian fuel tax that politicians would consider political suicide.

The problem of white flight was created by Dallas. What did you think would happen when you paved 5 lanes each way to the Oklahoma border? If you want to retain your tax base, don't give them the means to escape.

[Lakewooder]

Originally Posted by Overcooked_Oatmeal

Not the schools, the census tracts:




Good to see someone in touch with reality here instead of an RE agent with an agenda and commission goals to fulfill. The demographic makeup of a school doesn't always necessarily correlate with the neighborhood the actual school is in.

I am not on commission my dear. Lakewood is made up of several different sections and is 'a small town in the big city' - you can certainly pick out one section and say it is rich and white but you are cherry-picking there...
l

[Lakewooder]

Originally Posted by jobert

The problem of white flight was created by Dallas. What did you think would happen when you paved 5 lanes each way to the Oklahoma border? If you want to retain your tax base, don't give them the means to escape.

I think it is a bit more complicated than that, however the roads did not help -- still people are wanting more of them. Did Plano do itself in by trying to get those big six-lane roads and tollways which lead out of town?

[DaveG99]

I think this has been posted before but it deserves to be posted again

http://www1.umn.edu/irp/webpowerpoints/PlanCartoon.jpg (broken link)

[Westerner92]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

I am not on commission my dear. Lakewood is made up of several different sections and is 'a small town in the big city' - you can certainly pick out one section and say it is rich and white but you are cherry-picking there...
l

Just looking at several real estate listings, there's not one thing in Lakewood that looks affordable for the average family. Sorry, but I don't think most families can spend the amount required to get a 3/2 in the desirable school attendance zones in East Dallas.

[mSooner]

Love the cartoon

This is an interesting debate. I spent all of my high school years in Flower Mound in a bubble that included Coppell and maybe Denton. I would say I was from "Dallas" to outsiders (most people out of state look at you funny when you say "I'm from Flower Mound. Yes, there is an actual mound of flowers/weeds"). I could count then number of times on my fingers we went into Dallas proper--we had everything we needed in the suburbs and it was a great place to grow up. I hardly EVER met people that were from Dallas proper. My then-boyfriend lived in Hackberry Creek and I thought he was a "city kid."

After college, I got married, started working in Plano, and we moved to the M-Streets area. I've gotten to know the city quite well. We love where we live and I cant say one living experience is better than the other. It's just different.

Interestingly, one of my best friends grew up in HP from birth. I thought I lived in a bubble...I know more about Dallas outside of HP/UP than her after a month of looking for a place to rent in East Dallas!

[Prince Mongo]

I have lived in a townhouse in Lake Highlands for the past 6 years and would really like to stay in Dallas when I decide to move in the next couple of years. However, it's going to be really tough for me to find an affordable house in a neighborhood I like in Dallas. I really hate the idea of moving to the suburbs, but it's probably going to make the most financial sense for me to do so. Maybe things will change by the time I get ready to move, but I'm prepared for the worse.

Having said that, I fully understand the appeal of the suburbs. They're not my cup of tea, but I'll probably have to learn to like it pretty soon

[Lakewooder]

OK so let me ask, what is the 'affordable' breaking point? Aren't most of the usual suspects - Allen, McKinney and Frisco usually at least $250K?