Arlington... what's wrong (Dallas, Fort Worth, Irving: apartments, rent, crime)

[jlonglai]

My husband and I will be moving to the Dallas area in June. He got a job with a company in Arlington. We're both from Wisconsin but have lived in Bloomington, IN for the last two years while he has been in graduate school. The only information that I can seem to get from people is "you don't want to live in Arlington". My question is, why not? We are intersted in buying a house, having a short commute and being in a safe neighborhood. We don't have any children yet but we hope to start a family in the near future. It's not important to us to be close to downtown Dallas. We would like to buy a house that might need some minor interior work with three bedrooms and two baths (more would be fine too). Some of the areas that we've looked at are Irving/Las Colinas; Richardson; Highland Park; Southlake; Colleyville; Flower Mound; Grapevine; Keller; Arlington and De Soto. We're both in our late 20's and interested in being in a fun neighborhood that won't break the bank. We'd like to meet good people.... not plastic Can anyone help me?? We have been out to visit a few times but we're still not sure on what would be best. Thank you so much, in advance.

Jenny

[noname]

Arlington seems like south Irving -- just kind of junky. It's hard to explain.

You'll find a lot of younger upper-middle class families in Keller and Flower Mound, wealthy younger families in Southlake and Colleyville, etc.

[momof2dfw]

No, you really don't want to live there. Maybe over on the Mansfield side but that is only because it is growing out that way. Otherwise, no. At least not in my opinion. My husband lived there and attended school and worked there. Lots of interesting characters. Texas has a law now that if a school ranks below acceptable then your child can attend another school. I guess there are so many unacceptable schools in Arlington that every year when it is time for slots to open up at the schools parents take off from work for a week or two and literally camp out at the isd's admin parking lot in line to be able to find an open spot at another school for their children. It is so bad every year it is reported nightly on the evening news during this time. Not a good sign. Then with the colleges it is a very transient city.

[Vicman]

Most of Arlington, by the way, is in Arlington ISD

Other districts include: Mansfield ISD and Kennedale ISD

[KewGee]

First of all, Arlington schools don't rate badly.

I checked greatschools.net and out of Arlington's 57 elementary schools, only two rated academically unacceptable and one of those was a charter school. There were many recognized and several exemplary schools to go with all the others that were academically acceptable.

Out of 20 middle schools, they all rated academically acceptable except for the same charter school, unacceptable.

Out of 12 high schools, they all had an academically acceptable rating.

You know, the ratings are based on the TAKS tests. I won't get started on that, but you might want to take some of it with a grain of salt. When you decide on an area you like, asked to visit the schools in the district. I believe they'd cooperate with letting you sit in on classes. In this day and age and with babies in the future, I know I would and have done so even long ago when my children were little and life was better per se.

Ask schools for information on violence, disruptions during academic learning time, and just blantant disrepect. All schools are supposed to keep such records from the worst to the simple such as dress code violations.

Keep in mind that Arlington has almost 363,000 people, much higher than many of the other areas you listed. You will find all types there as you would in a smaller town. Unfortunately, this is Texas and it doesn't take a college town to house transients.

In Arlington, you will find the junky areas for sure. South Arlington you might want to avoid. North Arlington is more well-to-do, if you will. Try the area around Martin High School, another well-to-do area. There are also many very nice areas that the well-to-do wouldn't consider such, just down-to-earth middle class people.

Trust me, I'm not an advocate of Arlington or any area of the metroplex as I can't stand it up there, but many love it. I prefer the simple country life to the hectic big cities. I'm from Burbank, CA (L.A. suburb), so I made a huge change and will NEVER live in the city again.

In Highland Park, it will break the bank and if you don't want plastic people, don't live there. Like anywhere, I'm sure there are areas where some are down-to-earth, but I doubt you'll find too many there. They're so impressed with their material things, they can't see the forest for the trees. I certainly know what you mean by plastic as that is one of my biggest pet peeves.

I live in a small town in Central Texas and we have anywhere from trailer "shacks" to over several million dollar "mansions." The population in my vicinity is no comparison to Arlington, like under 4,000. And you don't have to live in a college town to be surrounded by transients.

Check city-data.com for information on crime, taxes, and the like, great site.

I wish you the very best of luck as you search for your "perfect" area.

[jlonglai]

Thank you for all of your postings.... It's a scary move for both of us and leaving the Midwest for the first time. I really appreciate all of your insight!

[Guerilla]

Originally Posted by noname

Arlington seems like south Irving -- just kind of junky. It's hard to explain.

You'll find a lot of younger upper-middle class families in Keller and Flower Mound, wealthy younger families in Southlake and Colleyville, etc.

Arlington gets a bad rap around here...and it shouldn't at all. I live in southern Arlington and go to Martin High School. It is not bad at all. Very hills and wooded. MY sister goes to Wood Elementary, and it had a 97% rating in Reading and a 95% rating in Math. My school got a 89% in Reading and 84% in Math. Not bad at all. The commute into Downtown Fort Worth would be real short.

I suggest you stay south of I-20 in west of Cooper if you move to the Arlington area. New homes and a lot of families. Keller, Southlake, and Colleyville are non-diverse, super-rich areas.

There is plenty to do around here. Visit and if you get the impression that South Arlington is that bad, go to Mansfield which blend in with South Arlington (and Grand Prairie a bit). Mansfield is the southern Metroplex version of Frisco.

[viking64]

I don't know if you are still reading this thread, but here's the thing.

People in the DFW "Metroplex" as it's called, can be stuck up about where they live. They all think their little corner of a metro area of 5.3 million people is the best. So someone who lives in Flower Mound would not deign, NEVER, EVER, to live in, say, Euless. They are a few miles apart, and to someone not from the area, not very different. But to those who live there...

I lived in north Arlington and north Grand Prairie for years. Here is my viewpoint.

- Best location in the region, because you are close to the airport, all the entertainment in Arlington itself, and an easy drive to downtown Dallas or downtown Fort Worth for fun. The most centrally located city in the area.

-Arlington AISD is a very large, urban, ethnically diverse school system. It's high schools are good. Are they the best in the State? Heck no. But on the whole I found the school board and parents to be on top of things. The demographics in AISD are like the real world. That makes some people uncomfortable.

- AISD sends just as many kids to major colleges as other districts their size. And let's be honest, it's not like Texas public schools anywhere are the finest in the nation. Except perhaps University Park.

-Arlington has a diverse tax base. Unlike Southlake, Flower Mound, Frisco, Mansfield, and other bedroom communities, Arlington is a real city. Sixth biggest in the entire state. That means the burden of paying taxes is not as heavy on the homeowners. The downside is, it's a real city with "urban" problems that other cities don't have. Except one. Arlington is the biggest city in the US with no public transportation system.

- Arlington has great ethnic food. You get that when your population is ethnically diverse.

- Affordable. Most houses around 2000 square feet can be bought for about250K. And they are nice houses in walkable neighborhoods. Arlington has quite a few parks, though they need maintenance.

As someone said, north and south Arlington are the "best" areas to live in, in Arlington, the most suburban with the newest housing stock. Central Arlington has older homes, but like any real city, has some crime issues. It's no urban war zone, but people there usually have security systems for peace of mind.

I would live in Arlington again, if that means anything.

good luck.

[jlonglai]

Thank you for all of the information. What parts of Arlington are NOT safe?

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by jlonglai

Thank you for all of the information. What parts of Arlington are NOT safe?

Along Cooper, Pioneer Parkway, Brown, etc. Avoid any area with large concentrations of apartments. I almost had to laugh over the "entertainment" comment on Arlington. Yes, lots mens entertainment venues in the area along w/ the other large nightclubs. Yes, it is a very large urban city and yes it does have it's problems that any large city would have. If your moving from a smaller city in the midwest it is going to be total culture shock to you in Arlington. My husband worked at one of the large grocery stores there that was open 24 hours. He said the late hours were the most entertaining with the clientele that visited. As I said, this is a large city and it shows in receipts for these types of stores. This was and probably still is one of the busiest stores in the state for this one company.

The schools. I am also not a fan of the TAKS testing or the rating system and how it is used but I do watch the news here in the Dallas/Ft Worth metroplex and every year they show nightly the hordes of people camped out for over a week to get their children transferred to another school. Sorry but in my eyes as a parent that just does not sound like a good scenario to put my children in. If the only school I can put them in is so bad that I have to camp out for a week to try and get a shot at getting them in a better school, no thanks. Every school district has it's problems but this is just too much. That along w/ some of the problems that do go on. You can have good kids and they can stay unaware of the problems and out of trouble but when it seems weekly that some school in the Arlington ISD is on a lockdown, fights, etc it just does not bode well. The videos of the fights was great. These fight clubs? Okay. Maybe the Arlington ISD needs a new pr person to make some of this news media go away. Then it is almost weekly in the news that someone was killed in Arlington due to street racing. Again, Arlington IS a VERY large city. Yes it has transient areas but the college and the sheer number of apartments do not help. Most of the transient population is not going to be directly because of the colleges but the apartments and the fact that many of them are on the lower end of the rent spectrum does.

There are some pretty areas of Arlington and the Interlochen neighborhood is well known for years to have the best Christmas Lights in the metroplex. But I'm being honest with you in telling you that there are some problems there (LOL, and I've got two posters telling me in another thread I try to paint too pretty of a picture of the D/FW area and never tell any negatives). These problems are going to be in other areas of the metroplex but on a much smaller scale. I'd say you really need to come down for a visit and get a better feel for the entire area.