considering a job in duncanville-where to live (Dallas, Arlington: best town, apartments)

[laurav]

My husband is expecting to get a job offer from a company Duncanville. The interviewer told him that if he got the job, DON'T live in Duncanville. Can anyone tell me about Cedar Hill, DeSoto or suggest places to look? We have two kids so we want a family friendly area to rent a house or duplex if possible. I grew up in Dallas but havent lived there in 10 years. We hope not to have too long of a commute but also want to be in a safe place.

Thanks
Laura

[stargazer]

Duncanville use to be the premier suburban town on the south side of Dallas. That was the 80's and sadly, it has gotten run down. I lived in Duncanville from 99 till the end of 02 and prior to that in Cedar Hill from 93 till 99. I was in Southwest Dallas a long time. Duncanville has some beautiful neighborhoods with very quality built custom one of kind homes that were sold for top dollar in their hey day, however the nice neighborhoods that were started in 80's weren't enough to keep most middle class people to stay or as my aging mother and father in law are, they have their home there but their kids moved out, so there are many older baby boomers there with large spreads and their kids having already left the nest. Also too due to all I mentioned above and that there is a close proximity to areas that are rough, many business's started moving out making it a ghost town so to speak. They had a nice MJDesigns, no more, Albertson's went out of business just a few weeks ago and a host of other nice shopping stores have gone in and out over the years. Don't let the pretty facade of the high school fool you or the school districts rating for their schools. They go beyond ridiculous on some of their policies. I have known a few families who have pulled their children out and home schooled or put in private, some have just been getting by and put up with the system. One in particular is using the high school for her child who has special needs and is happy with it because her daughter is not main streamed however prior to them finding out about her disorder, had her in and she was picked on and she wasn't handling it well.



I would say that the main feeling about Duncanville is that it is land locked and that since the nice neighborhoods are in close proximity of some bad neighborhoods, people are wanting to get out. My inlaws have been in Greenbriar since the early 80's and they have had a couple of attempted robberies but the alarm system stopped them after they broke open the door. I lived in Thoroughbred Hills and the small neighborhood was wonderful, our home was just beautiful and the hills amazing but to go out of the neighborhood and go down about 1/2 mile you would be in a area where grafitti was on the fences. Not nice. Although the town has gone to put, I still liked living there. I wish the fate of the town wasn't what it was.

People thought were very naive about moving into Duncanville from Cedar Hill in 99 because the trend was to get out Duncanville and go to Mansfield or to Midlothian. We though fell in love with the neighborhood we found and a 1/2 acre lot. Public school wasn't an issue to us, we were ready for private school and were lucky to find a beautiful one over on the campus of DBU ( it has since gone away like most things can't stay in business )
I will say too, there were people moving into Duncanville like us, sometimes a big home would be sold and a young couple coming in to redo it. Saw that too but it still wasn't enough. I would say too that since they passed the law to allow beer and wine to be sold in town, I see it has spiraled down economically more so. It was not the best town wise when we lived there but it has seemingly gotten worse.

[stargazer]

Now for Cedar Hill, the premier area to live in Cedar Hill is Lake Ridge and the area over off the old Beltline going past the old downtown, across the rail road tracks. That area is breath taking with the many hillls, trees and views of Lake Joe Pool. If you plan to live in Lake Ridge or that area, it would be important to still look at alternative education. Infact for most of the southwest, private or homeschooling tends to be the trend for several families there. Midlothian and Mansfield ISD's tend to be the better school districts.
Midlothian though has issues in itself due the pollution that its chemical and cement plants put out in the smoke stacks. I do beleive it does affect a large portion of the population with lung issues or people who play lots of sports outside. I have been bothered as of recently with this since some of my precious family decided to move out there, having to go by one of the smoke stack on a daily basis.

De Soto, if you want to look that way, there are some beautiful areas as well. Look west of N Hampton Road and off of Pleasant Run. I call Pleasant Run, mansion row, it truly is. The beautiful neighborhoods over that way and my favorite is Windermere and some areas of Frost Farms.

Other areas to consider would be Ovilla, the homes are nice out that way, country like setting.

[laurav]

You have confirmed what I have heard about duncanville. Luckily, schools aren't an issue yet. My kids are only 1 and 3 and I am really considering homeschooling. I grew up in Dallas and my parents sent me to private schools rather than DISD, but I don't think I can afford them. I will check out the Desoto west of N hampton and the joe pool area of cedar hill. I have heard that Joe Pool Lake has some pretty bad crime areas. Do you agree?

Thanks for the input

[stargazer]

I have not heard that the crime is bad around the Lake. Lake Rige, Juniper Ridge and that area are a bit aways from the lake with lake views. The only area that comes to my mind that would have a couple of lots on the lake would be a road over near Juniper Ridge called Cecila, Celeste or Cecila drive if I remember correctly, also there is a gated community over that way as well.

There is a state park over that way too and the lake does touch Grand Prairie and Mansfeild. I would say that robbery is going to occur more in Duncanville and in neighborhoods where the lots are small and have alleys. I would tell you too, you should get in contact with the police department and ask if you can see a map of where most of the crime is and what type. I did that when we moved to Duncanville and found that no robberies had occured in Thoroughbred Hills but moreso in Greenbriar and central Duncanville. It seems that crooks want to hit homes with alley drives for not being seen and the fact they can hit several homes in one day and not get caught. It is so sad to know that D'ville is like that. Just sad.

[momof2dfw]

It is really sad that Duncanville has gone coput. I remember in the late 70's and early 80's in football and for band competitions we FEARED Duncanville. Their band was AWESOME. And HUGE!!! I actually live very close to two people that went to Duncanville HS at different times and were in the band, one was the drum major. They both say the same, it is not the same. Seems that the school was in the news recently about some chainlink fence they put around the property to try and keep people (read thugs) out but it was not working. I don't personally know much more about those areas as I don't have close friends or family that live out there and I don't get that direction much. The only thing we go to out that way is the softball park in Desoto for a tournament once a year. I was starting to feel a lil out of place at the Walmart up the road (and I looked horrible from being out at the fields all day watching in the heat). I do know that Midlothian is horrible when it comes to pollution. The residents have been raising a ruckus over the high levels of illegal pollutents releases from the companies that are in town. No luck. Seems that $$$$ talks.
Good luck

[laurav]

what do you know about the southern part of grand prairie and the south east part of arlington. I hear there is a lot of crime near I-20 so I was assuming that is not a good place to live. Am I wrong?

[momof2dfw]

No to Arlington and Grand Prarie. My husband went to UTA and it was bad in alot of areas around there then and that was 20 years ago. There are some nice areas of Arlington but they are small pockets. Arlington is a city, a LARGE city that is in the middle of Ft. Worth and Dallas. In Arlington you also will have to deal with the traffic created from Six Flags and the Texas Rangers and soon the Dallas Cowboys . Seems the traffic reports always have some major wreck on one of the highways in Arlington. When the hubby was there and worked at one of the grocery stores he would work nights alot and he could tell you about the interesting characters that shopped at all hours of the night. There are a lot of "gentlemans clubs" on the Grand Prarie - Arlington border. And I guess the Arlington school district has problems w/ some of their schools. In Texas if a school is ranked "Academically Unacceptable" for 2 years in a row the parents can ask to have their child(ren) attend another school. For the last few years on the news they have shown how Arlington parents will take off from work for a week to camp out in line at the admin bldg for the 1st day of the year that they can ask for this transfer. I have a thread under the general Texas topics for how the public schools in Texas ranked for 2006, the scores just came out last week. I did not look at Arlingtons or GP. There are lots of apartments in these areas as it is somewhat of a college town w/ UTA there.

[laurav]

thanks for the input. If my husband gets the job offer we will probably look in the areas of cedar hill and desoto suggested above. And possibly ovilla. If we don't find anything we like there I may try to talk him into the lake highlands area of dallas. It is close to my family but would be quite a commute for him. Please wish us luck.

[socketz]

" In Arlington you also will have to deal with the traffic created from Six Flags and the Texas Rangers and soon the Dallas Cowboys"

I grew up in DC, hardcore Redskins fan.

Is this something I should keep to myself once I'm in Dallas :-) Seriously, is that rivalry still there the way it was in the 80s-90s ? I'm guessing that the answer is no since niether team has been that good in the last 10 years.

What are the prospects this year for the Cowboys ? Is everyone fired up ?

That's one thing I wont miss about Socal.....here, nobody is that excited about the start of the football season.