What activities do you do in Dallas? (Houston, Fort Worth: apartment, foreclosure)

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by CGGirl

Whole Foods and CM are way overpriced. Trader Joe's is way cheaper. The liquor store was right next door to the Trader Joe's I frequented so that wasn't an issue

Well, you ultimately get what you pay for. Isn't that a fundamental truth about life?

Actually, no, I don't think Central Market is overpriced.... or Whole Foods... and if I had the misfortune of living in Columbia MD, I'd be glad to have a WF or a CM. If I had to worry about cost, I'd shop at a Wal-mart and eat their rotten produce.

That may be one advantage of living in a wealthy consumer society like Texas, as opposed to a deteriorating economy on the East or West Coast... you can afford the better things of life on a middle class pay grade.

[CGGirl]

How exactly do I live in a bubble? As soon as I moved here, I started reading all of the weekly papers, the monthly magazines, websites, etc. So how on earth am I living in a bubble???? LMAO

And as far as the flea market, bigger isn't better. So what if there are things that happen once a month or once a year? I am talking about daily or at least WEEKLY life here.

And Honey, D.C. isn't a state. It does, however, border Maryland. In fact, the retail stores I mentioned? If you cross the street you are in D.C. Cross the street again and you're back in Maryland. Shop at one of the stores and you will get charged MD sales tax. Go across the street and you'll be charged the D.C. sales tax. It's not like Texas, where you would need to travel for hours to get to a different state. If I jumped on the Amtrak, I'd be in Philly in about 90 minutes. Get back on the train and I'd be in NYC in another 90.

So I guess while you might be familiar with "cities around the globe", you're not too familiar with cities in your own country.

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Zatires, most of us mentioned things around the ENTIRE DFW area based on what the OP asked. He specifically said, "DFW area".



Yes, we all know that there are plenty of things for a visitor to see in the Dallas area. But don't ya get it..... it is not what they are USED TO! Come on dude... get with the program

We know that it is all easily accessible to anyone willing to get out of their bubble. Some people just can't do that unless it is only in the city they are from or others have raved about over and over. Theirs is a different kind of "rave" than ours though for some reason.

Yes, it is outside of Dallas. I'm pretty sure if a flea market the size of First Monday were to set up shop in DC there would not be any room left for much else in town.


WAIT!?!?!?! I thought you were trying to compare living IN WASHINGTON DC with living within the city limits of Dallas. And the things that were within the city limits of the city you actually LIVED IN!?!?!?! Last time I checked DC was not in the state of Maryland???? To see the things in DC you actually had to LEAVE the state you LIVED IN.

If you have not found all of the discount clothing options here in the Dallas area........... wow. You really have been missing out. Oh, and MANY of them are right next to the higher end stores and boutiques we have here and the ones you mentioned

Hate to burst your bubble, but many Dallasites LOVE to travel the globe. We LOVE to get out and explore. That is just something that is in our blood I guess. While we come back home to live we love to get out and see the sights. We know what other cities outside of the South and outside of the US have and what they offer. Guess that is why we don't mind "driving for miles and miles" to do something we might want to at that point in time.

[CGGirl]

Originally Posted by aceplace

Well, you ultimately get what you pay for. Isn't that a fundamental truth about life?

Actually, no, I don't think Central Market is overpriced.... or Whole Foods... and if I had the misfortune of living in Columbia MD, I'd be glad to have a WF or a CM. If I had to worry about cost, I'd shop at a Wal-mart and buy their rotten produce.

That may be one advantage of living in a wealthy consumer society like Texas, as opposed to a deteriorating economy on the East or West Coast... you can afford the better things of life.

It is way overpriced. Are you kidding me?! There is no way I could spend $30 for groceries for a week for just me at CM or Whole Foods.

Again, I know nothing about Columbia Maryland so you're talking to the wrong person. Correction - I do believe that I know that it was a planned community planned by the actor Ed Norton's granddad

I've only been to a Walmart once and that was when I was in a small town in upstate NY and the airline lost my luggage prior to my sister's wedding. That was about 6 years ago.

I don't think the economy in D.C. is deterioriating at all. I don't keep up to date since I don't live there but b/c the govt and most of its agencies are there so they are always pretty much recession proof. Of course, housing prices are down but they were over inflated for a long time. I lived a few minutes outside of DC and when I moved, you couldn't get a condo in the area where I rented for less than 400K.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by CGGirl

It is way overpriced. Are you kidding me?! There is no way I could spend $30 for groceries for a week for just me at CM or Whole Foods.

Again, I know nothing about Columbia Maryland so you're talking to the wrong person. Correction - I do believe that I know that it was a planned community planned by the actor Ed Norton's granddad

I've only been to a Walmart once and that was when I was in a small town in upstate NY and the airline lost my luggage prior to my sister's wedding. That was about 6 years ago.

I don't think the economy in D.C. is deterioriating at all. I don't keep up to date since I don't live there but b/c the govt and most of its agencies are there so they are always pretty much recession proof. Of course, housing prices are down but they were over inflated for a long time. I lived a few minutes outside of DC and when I moved, you couldn't get a condo in the area where I rented for less than 400K.

We'll have to agree to disagree about overprice. $30 per week is probably what I spend at Starbucks.

Yes, Columbia is a planned community... badly planned, in my opinion. Pre-New Urbanism. Their "downtown" is an enclosed indoor mall.

Of course the economy in the Washington area is stable. The capital of a third world country usually is the one place that has even a modicum of wealth. The US isn't quite Third World... yet. But there are some hard economic times ahead, and Texas will bypass most of it.

[CGGirl]

Oh my! I would never spend $30 a week at Starbucks even back when I was making 6 figures. I make a great espresso and my friends and their boyfriends/girlfriends would always comment how much better my coffee was than Starbucks' coffee

I did, however, spend a bit of time at Starbucks when I was in undergrad and we got our first Starbucks since I did not have access to a stove (living in a dorm) to be able to make my daily espresso.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by CGGirl

How exactly do I live in a bubble? As soon as I moved here, I started reading all of the weekly papers, the monthly magazines, websites, etc. So how on earth am I living in a bubble???? LMAO

And as far as the flea market, bigger isn't better. So what if there are things that happen once a month or once a year? I am talking about daily or at least WEEKLY life here.

And Honey, D.C. isn't a state. It does, however, border Maryland. In fact, the retail stores I mentioned? If you cross the street you are in D.C. Cross the street again and you're back in Maryland. Shop at one of the stores and you will get charged MD sales tax. Go across the street and you'll be charged the D.C. sales tax. It's not like Texas, where you would need to travel for hours to get to a different state. If I jumped on the Amtrak, I'd be in Philly in about 90 minutes. Get back on the train and I'd be in NYC in another 90.

So I guess while you might be familiar with "cities around the globe", you're not too familiar with cities in your own country.

Reading the paper or magezines does not get one "out of a bubble". One has to actually go out and experience what is around them.

I guess if one lives for flea markets on a daily basis that would be important. However, in Dallas there are enough "discount" stores for high end merchandise open daily that there is not much need for "flea markets".

Yes, I know that DC is not a state. It is also NOT part of the state of Maryland and I do know that it borders it. One can also be in many areas of Texas and pay a different sales tax rate on one side of the street vs what one pays across the street. Take the fine folks up in Texarkana. They can literally go to a post office that is in 2 states at one time. They can also shop on one side of the street and pay Texarkana, TX sales taxes and cross the street and be paying Texarkana, Arkansas sales taxes.

Oh, and it depends on where in Texas one lives how far they have to travel to be in another state. Those same folks up in Texarkana can be in another state in a matter of seconds. Same for folks in other cities around this HUGE state of Texas. It is much larger than just the City of Dallas. El Paso, heck they can be in a different country in 5 minutes. If I jumped on I-20 I can be in Louisiana in 90 minutes as well.

Guess I'm more familiar with cities in my own country than you think

[grindin]

Originally Posted by aceplace

Well, you ultimately get what you pay for. Isn't that a fundamental truth about life?

Actually, no, I don't think Central Market is overpriced.... or Whole Foods... and if I had the misfortune of living in Columbia MD, I'd be glad to have a WF or a CM. If I had to worry about cost, I'd shop at a Wal-mart and eat their rotten produce.

That may be one advantage of living in a wealthy consumer society like Texas, as opposed to a deteriorating economy on the East or West Coast... you can afford the better things of life on a middle class pay grade.

Actually, Columbia, MD is quite a lovely town, and known for being one of the better places to live in the country (It usually ranks high on those Quality-Of-Life lists right along with D/FW burbs such as Plano or Southlake). And the DC area economy has held up quite well during these perilous economic times (not great, but it's not in the crapper). However, you have to pay to play, because that is one of the more expensive parts of the DC/Balto area, which is one of the most expensive regions in the nation.

Atlanta, which has a cheap COL like D/FW has an economy that has deteriorated quite a bit. Georgia is #2 in the nation for job losses after Michigan . Mostly in construction and tourism and retail, which are hurting nationwide.

And Honey, D.C. isn't a state. It does, however, border Maryland. In fact, the retail stores I mentioned? If you cross the street you are in D.C. Cross the street again and you're back in Maryland. Shop at one of the stores and you will get charged MD sales tax. Go across the street and you'll be charged the D.C. sales tax. It's not like Texas, where you would need to travel for hours to get to a different state. If I jumped on the Amtrak, I'd be in Philly in about 90 minutes. Get back on the train and I'd be in NYC in another 90.

So I guess while you might be familiar with "cities around the globe", you're not too familiar with cities in your own country.

Why all the hostility? You were the one complaining and whining about how you have to drive outside the city to get anywhere. As someone who has family in the DC area and visits quite frequently, crossing over to VA and MD was quite common.

While the public transportation up there is excellent by American standards, we had to drive quite a bit to get to quite a few places. IIRC, for example, if I wanted to go shopping at Tysons Corner, it's out there in McLean, VA, not in DC. More than likely, someone would have to drive to get out there. There are all sorts of points of interest within the District, but we had to travel to MD and VA quite a bit to go to points of interest as well or even going to certain retail destinations.

The DC metro area is the District, and parts of Maryland and Virginia. You can't have one without the other. Same with D/FW. You have to look at it as the whole, not just the parts.

Because many of my relatives live in a county that retail has passed over, we would have to drive long distances to Waldorf, MD or to Alexandria, VA to go to something as simple as a Sam's Club. Obviously, that is not the case in the entire metro area, but the county they live in is substantial in size to have these sort of retail options, but they dont (there are partially demographic reasons for this, but thats neither here nor there on this board).

I know you learned in geography class that Texas is the 2nd largest state in the country. What did you expect? Ever hear of the saying "The sun has ris, the sun has set, and here we is in Texas yet!"? There is a lot of truth to that. Distances are longer, cities are farther apart and much more spread out than the more densely packed cities of the Northeast. Don't be mad at Dallas for that, because that isn't exclusive to just that city.

I do notice that Easterners sense of distance is a lot different from people in the south and the west. A 45 minute drive to the other side of town is not a big deal here the way it would be for someone who lives in say, NYC or Philly. Even my DC relatives are always saying stuff like, "That's way over in VA!" as if it is a foreign country, and not a 10 minute drive across the river (okay, during those pre-dawn hours that the Wilson Bridge isn't filled with traffic )

[grindin]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

If I jumped on I-20 I can be in Louisiana in 90 minutes as well.

Good Lord, how fast are you driving! It takes me at least 3 hours to get from Shreveport (it's right over the border) to the Big D. And that's me driving 75-80. LOL.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by grindin

Good Lord, how fast are you driving! It takes me at least 3 hours to get from Shreveport (it's right over the border) to the Big D. And that's me driving 75-80. LOL.

I fly a black helicopter............ shhhh

[CGGirl]

Not a daily basis. Geez! And the kind of flea markets I am talking about are the ones where people handcraft things and sell them. Unique things. Apparently, the community of unique and artsy people is relatively small in the Dallas area. But again, I was told that before I moved here. I was told that Austin had much more an artsy and intellectual scene than Dallas. That Dallas was more about consumerism and materialism and status. All things that I can't stand.

Additionally, if there is nothing interesting to experience, what's there to go out and do? And obviously, I would need to read to find out what there is to do before I could get out and do them. That's just common sense! I'm not going to just start walking aimlessly around Dallas! LOL

Your examples don't really make any sense because we were talking about comparisons with major cities. And specifically, I was discussing DC vs. Dallas in my examples of why I have issues with Dallas. You acted like I was crazy for giving an example of shops that are right across the street from the Friendship Heights Metro station which is IN the District of Columbia. (Although I think, one of the 5 exits is actually in Maryland proper)

One could live in Maryland be a few minutes from PA but that was not my point. My point was about D.C. the city and Dallas the city.

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Reading the paper or magezines does not get one "out of a bubble". One has to actually go out and experience what is around them.

I guess if one lives for flea markets on a daily basis that would be important. However, in Dallas there are enough "discount" stores for high end merchandise open daily that there is not much need for "flea markets".

Yes, I know that DC is not a state. It is also NOT part of the state of Maryland and I do know that it borders it. One can also be in many areas of Texas and pay a different sales tax rate on one side of the street vs what one pays across the street. Take the fine folks up in Texarkana. They can literally go to a post office that is in 2 states at one time. They can also shop on one side of the street and pay Texarkana, TX sales taxes and cross the street and be paying Texarkana, Arkansas sales taxes.

Oh, and it depends on where in Texas one lives how far they have to travel to be in another state. Those same folks up in Texarkana can be in another state in a matter of seconds. Same for folks in other cities around this HUGE state of Texas. It is much larger than just the City of Dallas. El Paso, heck they can be in a different country in 5 minutes. If I jumped on I-20 I can be in Louisiana in 90 minutes as well.

Guess I'm more familiar with cities in my own country than you think