Addison? (Dallas, Plano, Garland: apartments, renting, find a job)

[bobcat07]

I will be graduating college and hopefully teaching in one of the cities surrounding Dallas (Garland, Plano, Richardson, or wherever I can find a job). I was just wanting to gain some more information on Addison, as I have heard that is an area of town that would best suit someone my age. What areas would be reasonable to commute to on a daily basis from Addison? What is the cost of living like in the city (I will be renting)? And should is Addison the best place to find an active area where I can meet people in other cities? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks momof2dfw, in advance lol.

[momof2dfw]

Bobcat,

Addison would be a great place for a single person to live. If you decided on something in the Addison Circle area there are a few places you could walk. This is also the location of the annual "Taste of Addison" every May (a 3 day event w/ food vendors that are all restaurants from Addison, musical appearances of every variety, arts & crafts, etc). Then the 4th of July Boomtown fireworks show. This years got rained out so they are doing the fireworks this Labor Day Weekend. Addison is right at two main arteries for Dallas, Belt Line Rd and the Dallas North Tollway. With the DNT you can be downtown in no time. I would avoid the Far North Dallas area of Addison w/ apartments all down Midway from Trinity Mills on the South to Hwy 190 (George Bush Turnpike) on the North. There are TONS of apartments in that area but some have kind of slid off the "nice" side. Some are still nice but too many questionable ones close by. Same goes for some of the apartments in the "Bent Tree" area. Bent Tree is a very nice single family residential area on the East side of DNT but the apartments on the West side of DNT are iffy. TONS of restaurants all along DNT in this area, many upscale ones.

The old Prestonwood Mall building has been torn down and they are building shops and residential living in that area.

As for the commute. For any of the school districts you are looking at if you stay w/ the schools located on the extreme West of their area your commute will be okay, 20-30 minutes. Go to the extreme East and it is going to be a lot more only because there is no straight shot to them off of the highways or even w/ the main roads. Unless you find a school that is right on one of the main highways/arteries that will have you going "against the traffic".