Moving to DFW from NYC (Dallas, Brownsville: fit in, high crime, homes)

[numbersguy100]

Originally Posted by Nn2036

That is why I said I was surprised that people has been recommending Oak Cliff. I think people living in Manhattan would be unpleasantly surprised when they see it in person. Op can look at the area on google map.

Why would they be unpleasantly surprised? My last apartment in NYC was on Park Ave and now I live in Oak Cliff. Anyone moving from NYC to any part of Dallas is in for many surprises - some good, some bad. I love how people mistrust OP's own assessment of what would work for his family in terms of preferences. $4k also isn't so much money that the idea of renting in Oak Cliff should be absurd. It's not like they're going to be able to rent much of anything in Park Cities for that price.

[Ablebodied]

Originally Posted by numbersguy100

Why would they be unpleasantly surprised? My last apartment in NYC was on Park Ave and now I live in Oak Cliff. Anyone moving from NYC to any part of Dallas is in for many surprises - some good, some bad. I love how people mistrust OP's own assessment of what would work for his family in terms of preferences. $4k also isn't so much money that the idea of renting in Oak Cliff should be absurd. It's not like they're going to be able to rent much of anything in Park Cities for that price.

Texas is stuffy conservative with people that think they will be murdered the moment they drive a block south of downtown.

[TurtleCreek80]

Originally Posted by turf3

Working in Irving, and you claim a rental budget of $4000/month, and you are considering living in South Dallas? Huh? You do know that South Dallas is that area around and south of Fair Park, right? I mean, you have looked at a map, right?

OP is considering North Oak Cliff.....which to someone who's never been here before, appears on a map to be in southern Dallas (ie, south of downtown). Not South Dallas, the neighborhood that locals know.

Originally Posted by Nn2036

That is why I said I was surprised that people has been recommending Oak Cliff. I think people living in Manhattan would be unpleasantly surprised when they see it in person. Op can look at the area on google map.

North Oak Cliff is different from Oak Cliff east of 35. I'm sure OP will be pleasantly surprised by the million dollar homes, rolling terrain, and proximity to many of the city's top restaurants that he'll find in North Oak Cliff.

[NP78]

Originally Posted by Walter Benjamin

But have you been to North Oak Cliff lately? It is like urban hipster central. I would bet that a good ol' boy with camo and a gun rack would feel much more uncomfortable in NOC, than a NYC transplant would.

Well said.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Walter Benjamin

I don't want to derail this too much, but according to one biography, Steven Spielberg has "one of the finest gun collections in California, but never refers to it..." LOL

https://books.google.com/books?id=jf...ewhall&f=false

SS is well known for sending "buyers" to The Tulsa Gun Show (maybe the best show in the country and absolutely massive), other great shows and private sales. A friend is an M1 collector apparently SS loves all manner of US WWII issue guns and owns many including a couple of so called "gas-trap" Garands in near perfect condition which are roughly Mona Lisa rare.

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by Nn2036

That is why I said I was surprised that people has been recommending Oak Cliff. I think people living in Manhattan would be unpleasantly surprised when they see it in person. Op can look at the area on google map.

Take a drive/stroll down Colorado Blvd. sometime and report back.

[loves2read]

Originally Posted by Ablebodied

Texas is stuffy conservative with people that think they will be murdered the moment they drive a block south of downtown.

There are many who fit that description but my son n wife live in Dallas and certainly don't
Their friends dont either
Plenty of more liberal attitudes if you look

[Walter Benjamin]

Originally Posted by suttonzach

Thankyou all! Very much appreciate all the considered and insightful on-topic replies. I think the initial decision will be whether to live in Irving/Las Colinas (or potentially Preston Hollow?) or in South/East Dallas - plenty of food for thought here on that topic..

Originally Posted by Nn2036

That is why I said I was surprised that people has been recommending Oak Cliff. I think people living in Manhattan would be unpleasantly surprised when they see it in person. Op can look at the area on google map.

Just for the record, South Dallas is the part of town that's south of downtown and east of the Trinity River (or perhaps east of IH-35E). It's not the greatest area and no one is recommending that.

Oak Cliff is different from South Dallas; it is across the river from the original settlement of Dallas, i.e. on the west (southwest) side of the river. I say it helps to think of Oak Cliff like Brooklyn. It is quite a large area, since people use the term to refer to everything on the southwest side of the river, (i.e. across the river from downtown). Like Brooklyn, there are rich parts and poor parts. Large areas (generally on the southern end) are lower income, and you will see headlines about "Crime in Oak Cliff." But those areas aren't what we are recommending, rather the upscale part, i.e. North Oak Cliff which is the part around Kessler Park. The struggles of the lower-income part of Oak Cliff are pretty well separate from the upscale part, much as crime in say East New York or Brownsville has very little to do with upscale life in Brooklyn Heights.

I still think East Dallas is bad news for a commute, but if you look there, maybe try the M Streets (Greenland Hills Neighborhood Association - M Streets - Conservation District) which is among the less bad commutes, and a nice combination of family-friendly and hipster.

I don't know if this is still true, but in a lot of these areas, rental houses don't necessarily make it onto the MLS or official realtor websites. Traditionally you would just see signs in the front yard. Nowadays, you might look for local Facebook groups to see about rentals, or if you know someone who can look on Nextdoor.


Edit: Couldn't resist looking up some examples. But be prepared for some really slow traffic in any case.

75208 i.e. North Oak Cliff: 12 mile drive to Las Colinas
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...8_M84586-42585

75220 Midway Hollow: 6.5 mile drive to Las Colinas
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...0_M72510-97804

75206 M Streets / Greenland Hills: 15 mile drive to Las Colinas across downtown
https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...6_M75886-17371

[Treasurevalley92]

Originally Posted by Ablebodied

Texas is stuffy conservative with people that think they will be murdered the moment they drive a block south of downtown.

LOL Brah, I'm a gun owning "Conservative" and I spend plenty of time down in South Dallas, PG, and Cedar Crest. One of the biggest pansies I ever met was a rich liberal lady from the M Streets who thought she grew up on the edge of the "hood" (I mean she also thought her daddy's 200k salary made them "middle class" lol)

Plenty of paranoid people on both sides of the isle.

[Nn2036]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Take a drive/stroll down Colorado Blvd. sometime and report back.

Kessler Park has nice expensive homes. I dont see anything hipster about it.

Few one-story stores along Davis street are now hip? The streetscape is neither pretty or walk-able.