DFW suburban cities without the typical suburban bore.. (Houston, Dallas: fit in, college)

[FJB327]

I'd love to hear thoughts from ppls personal experience on which DFW suburbs have some kind of hip/cool factor about them. I know it won't be as hip as an urban city. But which of them defy the typical suburbia bore. Which of them partly defy the stereotypical suburban bore. Which of the more well known suburbs squarely fit into the typical boring suburb.

Let's only exclude Dallas and Ft Worth:

In my experience:

Defying Suburbia bore:
Arlington, Irving, Denton

Partly:
Southlake, Grapevine, Plano, Addison

Squarely fit:
Keller, Burleson, Flower Mound, Richardson

[LeagleEagleDFW]

Southlake and Plano are about as boring suburban as it gets.

[DTXman34]

Originally Posted by FJB327

I'd love to hear thoughts from ppls personal experience on which DFW suburbs have some kind of hip/cool factor about them. I know it won't be as hip as an urban city. But which of them defy the typical suburbia bore. Which of them partly defy the stereotypical suburban bore. Which of the more well known suburbs squarely fit into the typical boring suburb.

Let's only exclude Dallas and Ft Worth:

In my experience:

Defying Suburbia bore:
Arlington, Irving, Denton

Partly:
Southlake, Grapevine, Plano, Addison

Squarely fit:
Keller, Burleson, Flower Mound, Richardson

Denton is the only exception, but it's rather small. The rest of them? All boring. About as hip as a hip replacement. Not to say you can't find some "charm" such as Main St. in Grapevine. But overall DFW suburbs are boring beyond belief with the aesthetics that will make you want to stab your eyes out. Although to be fair, at least they're not the Rust Belt.

[ChristieP]

I know you love Arlington, but aside from the sports stadiums and theme parks, it's pretty typical suburb. It also has some old/run down areas.
Irving is a very typical suburb. I work in Las Colinas. It's chain restaurants and business complexes. The "urban core" area with the canals and retail/residential is nice, but it's fairly small. The residential areas are quite typical.
I agree Denton is different.
I will also agree that Grapevne's downtown area is different, too.
Addison has some fun areas along Belt Line west of the tollway, and Addison Square.
Southlake has the Town Square development, but that's it. Everything else is suburb.
Plano is totally a suburb.

[FJB327]

lol @ As hip as a hip replacement. okay, I thought Id ask the question. Maybe I could have discovered something new.

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by FJB327

I'd love to hear thoughts from ppls personal experience on which DFW suburbs have some kind of hip/cool factor about them. I know it won't be as hip as an urban city. But which of them defy the typical suburbia bore. Which of them partly defy the stereotypical suburban bore. Which of the more well known suburbs squarely fit into the typical boring suburb.

Let's only exclude Dallas and Ft Worth:

In my experience:

Defying Suburbia bore:
Arlington, Irving, Denton

Partly:
Southlake, Grapevine, Plano, Addison

Squarely fit:
Keller, Burleson, Flower Mound, Richardson

The ones that were small cities in their own right before sprawl came their way have some amount of charm. The others mostly don't. Denton was a small college town/city in its own right. I'm sure that its proximity to Dallas and Fort Worth and the ever-expanding northern suburbs has helped fuel its growth in recent years, as has the public transit system that connects it with Dallas. McKinney has a very nice little downtown area with some really great old housing stock. I'd live there in a heartbeat if for whatever reason I HAD to move north due to a job issue. Many of the others like Plano, Carrollton, and Grapevine have very, very small historic downtowns with some charm. Funny that you put Southlake in the middle category. It's far more bland than the others you lumped it with. And while Richardson's built environment is bland suburbia, it's one of the most diverse areas of the metroplex and has some interest simply for the ethnic mix that reflect in the people and the stores. Not sure that gives it a "hip" factor or not, but it's certainly not just another plain vanilla suburb anymore. Irving similar thoughts, though it seems poorer to me than Richardson. Arlington is one of the worst on this list. It has some areas with natural beauty but it's overall really bland.

[TeamLynn]

I don't think of Denton as a suburb, but may be getting close.
Even with UNT there, not sure it has much excitement.
Grapevine is really the only one I can think of.
What is exciting or different about Arlington?
If you like Arlington maybe you would like Frisco.
Now in Frisco you have minor league hocky, baseball, major league soccer, Cowboys practice facility and the STAR.
You've got funky old downtown, new downtown.
That's about as exciting as it gets around here.
We don't have a beach, or a boardwalk, or a riverfront, or a real warehouse district that can be converted.

[hbdwihdh378y9]

Originally Posted by FJB327

I'd love to hear thoughts from ppls personal experience on which DFW suburbs have some kind of hip/cool factor about them. I know it won't be as hip as an urban city. But which of them defy the typical suburbia bore. Which of them partly defy the stereotypical suburban bore. Which of the more well known suburbs squarely fit into the typical boring suburb.

Let's only exclude Dallas and Ft Worth:

In my experience:

Defying Suburbia bore:
Arlington, Irving, Denton

Partly:
Southlake, Grapevine, Plano, Addison

Squarely fit:
Keller, Burleson, Flower Mound, Richardson

Denton isn't a suburb.

And numbersguy100 is spot on.

[lepoisson]

I haven't really found any parts of the DFW metro that don't fit into the boring suburbia stereotype (except for parts of FW and D). Grapevine has some neat areas, but at the end of the day, it's still a boring suburban town.

[#1soonerfan]

Unfortunately a lot of suburbs in "new" cities like DFW are going to be bland and lacking in character. Doesn't make them bad, it just is what it is and it is largely the same in Atlanta, Houston, Charlotte, etc. You will simply not find an Evanston IL or Bethesda MD type place in this part of the world; those are largely older cities that grew around rail stops. Towns here have largely developed along expanded highways, which makes a huge difference in how they developed.

Around here, the closest I can think is probably Denton (but you can argue if it's really a suburb). If we really stretch, I can *maybe* say Addison. Until recently I would say it's just denser suburban development on steroids, but I have noticed some decent non-chain restaurants popping up, along with more unique existing attractions like Addison Improv. If it were to ever figure out how to be more walkable, I could see Addison being the closest we have to a "non suburb" suburb.

Arlington? Absolutely not. A theme park and two stadiums surrounded by a sea of parking does not make it cool at all.

I applaud cities that are trying to introduce more urban-style development, although I must admit I am not really a fan of some of the faux town center developments that have popped up in this area. Its a start, I guess.