Anyone from the NJ/NY/CT area relocate? (Dallas, Austin: appointed, transplants)

[jackimari1]

Hi guys, we are thinking about relocating from NJ to the Dallas area. Anyone care to post their experiences? I've lived here in NJ all my life and find the prospect of maybe moving out there so exciting but terrifying also. Would love to hear how people handled the change. Thanks!

[jcl_cls02]

Food is different here, you won't find any Cuban or South American food here like back east. And if you do find it here, its far from where you will end up living. Its mostly TexMex and bbq, and chain restaurants. Lots of Vietnamese food here too. Believe it or not, there are lots of Yankee and Giant fans in the area.

As for the change, come here open minded and adapt to the lifestyle. Mostly the people in the area are transplants as lots of companies moving here bringing in new jobs to the area. I'd rather live here in DFW than in NJ as the weather is better here compared to NJ. In NJ, summer lasts around 3 months, where as here, its 8-10 months so its always sunny and hot.

[jackimari1]

Thank you! I definitely am open and excited for the change

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Originally Posted by jcl_cls02

here like back east. And if you do find it here, its far from where you will end up living. Its mostly TexMex and bbq, and chain restaurants. .

Wait, what?

There is tons of Indian, Korean, Pakistani, Mexican, Chinese, Central American, African, etc. food here. The variety is pretty good. Its not something were really lacking in.

Its hard to compare anything to NYC food wise and Im well aware that the Dallas area isnt it, but were not lacking. Personally, I think the Indian food here is as good as any Ive ever had and Ive eaten Indian food in the UK on many occasions.

[sossie]

We moved from the north east ….come with an open mind….be prepared to meet a lot of friendly people…we moved with kids and so far everyone is very happy and weather is great ….even in summer!

[SilverGold]

Moved here from NY and found out that quality of life is much better, bigger house, better schools, better weather etc but best thing is ability to see sky and sun ... didn't get much of that as most of my time was spent inside a tiny apartment in an insanely expensive high rise, Manhattan skyscraper that held my office or on subway.

[mm4]

NYC isn't all that for food. Philadelphia has better food than there.

[Kisel17]

Considering it ourselves, three kids and all. Hate Long Island more each day and want a real change. Still frightened though, change in comfort level for sure.

[europeanone]

I am going to repost here a posting I just did for another thread asking for impressions on moving to DFW, and Plano in particular, from the NY/NJ/CT area. A fair amount of the information I wrote about can be applied to the entire DFW area, and is not Plano-specific. I hope this helps you. Good luck!

It's an exciting time for you to be thinking about moving south. I will address your question about the transplant experience as a north easterner lifer (NY/NJ). Husband born and bred on Long Island. We moved to Plano six months ago and have twins who just turned 11.

It is an adjustment for sure, but having moved to Plano has helped greatly, as everything under the sun you could possibly need seems to be within a 5 mile driving radius from my house. I therefore tank up my car only once every 6 days, which is a miracle.

Schools in Plano are amazing compared to what I had up north. If you are seriously looking at Plano, I would recommend that you stay in the elementary school zones that feed into Robinson, Renner, or Rice Middle Schools, especially if you plan to buy down the road. I know I will be lambasted by members of this forum for dissing the east side of Plano. So be it. It's my opinion. My kids will start middle school next year. The academics here are definitely more stringent than what my kids were used to up north. We have found the teachers here to be ultra-supportive here. They will bend over backwards to work with your child, whether a high-performer or an average student (I have one of each). Perhaps this is because the teachers here aren't unionized?? I cannot otherwise understand how the teachers here put more hours being present at school here than where we came from and they earn HALF of what teachers earn in NY/NJ….especially the teachers on Long Island. I tell my teacher friends on LI what the teachers earn here and their jaws drop. The teachers here perform a labor of love. There is no question.

Some people seem to have a problem with the increasing ethnic diversity of Plano. I, for one, do not. It reminds me of a gentrified NYC metropolitan area. I like being able to hear different languages and for my kids to grow up surrounded by different cultures. I also LOVE that I don't have to drive far to eat pretty much whatever mainstream cuisine I feel like. The variety is not quite like NYC, but it's not at all bad considering where we are geographically. My MIL recently commented that one can eat at a different restaurant every day of the year here in the Plano area. It's amazing.

OP, I don't know what your ethnicity is, but I will tell you what I have been told. Some Caucasian people I have spoken with here are not thrilled at having half of their kids' elementary school classmates be asian (Indian and Asian.) They say the pool of friends for their kids is relatively small because many Asians here are not allowed to have sleepovers or play dates with kids outside of their ethnic circle. My kids have encountered this as well since moving here, but there are plenty of kids for my kids to socialize with and we have not had an issue with this. NOTE: I am half Asian myself.

We were thrilled to be able to pay $340 for an annual family membership to the Plano rec centers. They are beautiful. The crown jewel is the Tom Muhlenbeck rec center in West Plano, which has a terrific indoor and outdoor pool, very nice gym, spin classes, etc. In second place (in my opinion) s Carpenter rec center. No pool (though they are building a lap pool next year I believe), but they have a very nice gym and great classes. The City of Plano also runs an unreal amount of classes for the whole family. We receive a thick 75-page booklet every season outlining kids camps, exercise classes, adult learning classes, and more. That all costs separately but it's all well run, well organized, and reasonably priced. We did not have any of this up north.

Some things I have discovered I do not love about living here:

The summer heat. It's my #1 complaint down here. It is really really unbearable. Yes, it is hot and humid up north, but at least at night it would tend to cool down. NOT HERE. It will stay 100 degrees DAY AND NIGHT (maybe dipping down to 90…whoopee) for WEEKS on end in the summer. We moved here end May last year and the heat was A KILLER for me. I don't mind hot weather, really. But this was ridiculous. This summer I am packing up my kids and we are driving back to NY/NJ for 6 weeks to escape the heat.

Which brings me to another point. Up north kids relish the summer months so they can play outside freely. Not here. Why? The HEAT. This is why houses here have huge "game rooms", which are like second living rooms for the kids. I didn't understand their purpose until last summer. So what happens here is that school ends and the kids all hibernate for the entire summer (unless they are in the pool in our backyard.) It is simply too hot to be outside. My street is normally FULL of kids (we have 20+ kids under age 11 on our block and from September to May they are outside after school every day riding bikes, playing ball etc. As soon as June hits, the street is completely deserted. I've never seen anything like it. Indoor trampoline places, movie theaters and malls become hotbeds of activity over the summer.

Good Italian food, and reasonably priced fish. I am still in search of both. I grew up with mom and pop Italian restaurants around me. I didn't frequent them much because in my mind if I went out I wanted to eat food I couldn't make at home. But I do miss having them around me. They really don't exist near Plano. The Italian food here is "eh" at best. Same with fish. I have to go to Central Market or an expensive fish monger to buy fish around here. I used to be able to buy fresh fish at Shoprite up north. You cannot do it here. Bones in it, mealy in texture from having been frozen, etc.

Local Bakery. One does not exist in the surrounding Plano area. Everything I have tried is more than sub-par compared to what exists up north. All I want is a place to buy fresh muffins, maybe a half pound of cookies or a good crusty bread once in a while. The best we have here is Central Market, which is not terribly convenient for me, or Market Street supermarket. Market Street is ok, but not amazing. If I want to order a birthday cake for my kids that's not made of ice cream I am pretty much limited to Market Street. It's like ordering a cake from Shoprite.

Culture. Yes, Cirque du Soleil just performed in Frisco last weekend, and yes, the Dallas Arts Museum and Ross Perot Science Museum in Dallas are nice options, but it's nothing like what NYC has to offer. I'm not saying it's a true deficit for me personally, but I am mentioning it as an observation and worth your consideration. I now realize I didn't quite appreciate the cultural activities that existed in NY until I moved here. But it's not a huge deal. There is still plenty to do.

No beach. I'm not even really a "beach person." I don't love the sand or salt water, and I don't pine to take extended vacations near the beach. At least I didn't. Maybe it's because until now I always lived within an hour or so from one. Not anymore. Now if I want a beach I have to drive to the Florida panhandle -- 11 hours away. The beaches in Galveston and other parts on the coast of Texas are poor at best. You will be disappointed. Again, this is my opinion. The "lakes" that are within reasonable driving distance from here (1-2 hours) are okay, but it's not a beach. And it's missing the neighborhoody seafood restaurants that usually line the beach areas up north. And now I find myself missing the beach.

Plane tickets back home. We have discovered they are expensive! It is cheaper to fly to Florida from NY/NJ than to Dallas, for example. I guess it's because the route isn't nearly as popular as the NY-FL route. But it's something to consider no matter what time of year you would be planning to fly back and forth.

Rush hour to/from Downtown Dallas. As you have undoubtedly read in other posts here, the location of your home in DFW will be primarily driven by its proximity to work. Rush hour here is like rush hour on the LIE heading into/from NYC. It's the same. Just know that.

All in all, we are very pleased so far with our decision to move here. I hope this posting doesn't come across as negative. There is no question that moving here was a big adjustment for my entire family as we have pretty much lived in your neck of the woods our entire lives. But we are enjoying the relaxed nature of life here, as are the kids.

We did take a 3-day trip to Austin recently. The city of Austin reminded us very much of Boston and mini NYC. I don't know anything about the areas surrounding Austin, however. Downtown Dallas seriously lacks in the city-feel department. I LOVED Austin for that reason.

[TurtleCreek80]

Europeanone - I am a native Dallasite who did a 5-year stint working in NYC. I think your post is pretty spot-on with two exceptions--> bakeries and the arts & culture.

For culture, Dallas is FAR MORE than two museums and a stop on the Cirque du Soliel road show. No, DFW can't compete with the Met, the MoMA, and Broadway, but it is not a cultural desert.

How many of these have you visited or attended since moving to the area? How many did you not even know existed?
VISUAL ARTS:
-Dallas Museum of Art, inclusive of their special events like Late Nights.
-Nasher Sculpture Center & Garden.
-Crow Collection of Asian Art
-Meadows Museum @ SMU (wonderful collection of Spanish artwork)
-Kimbell Museum (30 minutes west in Fort Worth)
-Amon Carter Museum of American Art (Fort Worth)
-Fort Worth Modern Art Museum
-The Dallas Contemporary
-Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden (my favorite small art space!) Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden
-Marty Walker Gallery (written up on multiple occasions by the New York Times)
-Conduit Gallery
-Barry Whistler Gallery
-Museum of Biblical Arts (broader than it sounds)
-NorthPark Center also has an outstanding collection of sculputure. One can easily spend an afternoon walking around admiring and learning about the works on display from Andy Warhol, Frank Stella, Antony Gormley, etc.
NorthPark Center | Dallas Shopping | Luxury Shopping | Fashion Apparel - About NorthPark - Art Collection
-There are dozens more galleries worth exploring, mostly found in the Design District, Deep Ellum, and Uptown neighborhoods of Dallas. Dallas also is home to Heritage Auctions (like Christie's or Phillips).
-Also, there is an annual tour of 50+ working artists in East Dallas that is always interesting. White Rock Artists Tour | 2013 White Rock Lake Artists

PERFORMING ARTS:
-Dallas Opera (in the beautiful Winspear Opera House)
-Dallas Symphony
-Dallas Summer Musicals
-Turtle Creek Corale
-Dallas Children's Theatre
-Ballet Follklorico
-Dallas Theatre Center (housed in the only public Frank Lloyd Wright building in Dallas)
-Kitchen Dog Theatre
-Theatre Too/ Three


ARCHITECTURE:
If you like architecture, there are multiple "can't miss" home tours through the year, including the AIA Dallas Tour (AIA DALLAS TOUR OF HOMES - HOMES), Swiss Avenue Historic District Tour each Mother's Day, and the Preservation Dallas Tour. Additional tours in the Park Cities, Lakewood, and Kessler Park are also interesting.

MISC MUSEUMS / PLACES OF NOTE:
-Frontiers of Flight
-George W Bush Presidential Library & Museum
-6th Floor Museum
-Old City Park
-Trinity Audobaun Center
-Dallas Arboretum
-Children's Garden @ Dallas Arboretum
-Japanese Tea Gardens (Fort Worth)
-Fort Worth Botanical Gardens
-Fort Worth Stockyards
-Dallas Arts Districts also hosts mutiple festivals & events throughout the year
-Dallas International Film Festival (coming up in a few weeks)


This list just scratches the surface as I am more of an arts appreciator than someone who is ingrained in the Dallas arts community. But seriously, Dallas is so much more than a traveling cirque du soliel show.



As for bakeries, sure, there may not be a lot of choices out in the burbs, but in the city there are wonderful choices such as:
Village Baking Company - could not be more obsessed with this place. The croissants are straight out of Paris.
Society Bakery - awesome cupcakes and cookies, the best place to order a special occasion cake for a birthday or other party
Jackie Spratt - best wedding cakes in Dallas, period. Buttercream icing heaven!
Stein's Bakery - for petit fors and yummy traditional Jewish bakery treats
La Duni - Nutella cake. to - die -for. Untraditional deserts with a latin flair.
Zaguan - another Latin bakery.
Empire bakery for bread
Rush Patisserie - for yummy French treats like tarts & croissants.

These are just my favorites. Ask another Dallasite and you're likely to get a different list with many more choices to try!