Moving to DFW from NYC

[NJTOOTX]

Originally Posted by numbersguy100

I disagree with just about every word of this. We have friends who moved from N Oak Cliff to Frisco to have a better commute. They hated it. Every day. The people just aren't the same, the way that people live is different, the ease of being a member of the community is different. As you say, everyone expected people to assimilate. No one wants to take the time to get to know new people for who they are - just hoped and expected that they'd be like them. They're moving back to Oak Cliff and sucking up the commute. Why minimize a commute to spend more time in a suburb you hate? There is no sense in that. Also, NOC to Irving is not an awful commute so as far as advice to OP, it's not nearly as relevant. What is true is that they shouldn't expect the neighborhoods here to be the same as NYC, but that's true even if you're going from one "urban" city to another. You can still find neighborhoods here that will have threads of similarity to neighborhoods they like in NYC.

And can we please stop with this nonsense about successful people needing a car that reflects that, or pretending that it is ok? Maybe you need it if you are shallow and lack self confidence. When I started at my job 11 years ago my boss was making 8 figures and driving a 7 year old Ford Expedition (and living in UP). Who cares? If you are smart and good at your job a reasonable, well functioning car should not matter to anyone.

To each his own. I was thinking about a young family and long commute. You’re right that it doesn’t bother some people. It’s a big adjustment if you are not used to commuting by car, that’s all. Might be nice to be able to spend more time with kids and less time driving. OP, best of luck finding a great situation for your family.
Completely agree that it’s silly with the status car thing, but it does exist. Sounds like you are very fortunate with down to earth co workers. Surely the OP can figure out what it’s like at his company when he visits and sees the parking lot.

[DuaneDibbley]

Zach - We moved here from the lower east side in 2011 and I work in the Las Colinas Urban Tower. We bought a house in Lakewood because it was the best public school in Dallas proper, and because East Dallas is one of a number of hipstery/liberal/walkable-ish areas in Dallas. On our block there were 7 NYC refugee families. My wife works downtown so her commute is a breeze but the lakewood-to-las-colinas drive can be a solid 50 minutes each way, which gets tiresome. Its seems OK in the beginning because you're not on a subway and you're in a brand new car and you get two hours to yourself to listen to podcasts, but it gets old pretty fast. There's no great way to get across Dallas so whichever way you go (635, northwest highway, down 75 & up 35) you're looking at a long time in the car. My strategy was to meander through Old Preston Hollow where the houses were pretty and the traffic light, but it still made for a lengthy scenic route.

We ended up sending our daughter to Hockaday so we sold out and moved across the street from the school in the undifferentiated North Dallas/Preston-Hollow-adjacent area which is lovely, but not really a neighborhood since everyone's kids go to different private schools. We loved Lakewood - it has a real neighborhood feel (I'd argue the most ra-ra neighborhoody neighborhood after the Park Cities), but it only works if you're sending your kids to the neighborhood schools. Now my commute is way better and it's still a shortish drive to downtown on the Tollway.

If I knew for sure that our daughter was going to get into private school, I would have bought in Bluffview. That has everything you want - cute houses, walkable to shops and restaurants and movie theaters in the Inwood/Lovers area, very close to Highland Park where all the fancy stores and restaurants are, close to downtown/uptown and a great commute to Las Colinas and to the good private schools. But - if you *don't* get into a private school, then the public schools around there aren't so good. So you're making a big bet on the admittability of your kids -- feel free to review the forums here to see what a soul-crushing process that is.

Feel free to PM me for more.