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This is not meant to either reprise or re-start the brawl from the thread about relocating from NYC to Austin, Houston, or Dallas.... Different questions. (Well, not entirely, but mostly.)
1. I'm leaving Manhattan because I can't stand it anymore. No offense to natives. I'm just a Midwesterner. I like people and nightlife and sidewalks, but not so many that walking outside is an assault to every sense, and trying to navigate a sidewalk in a residential neighborhood is like a rough contact sport. Also I miss verbal politeness. And it being socially permissible to make eye contact and smile at strangers, if one is nonthreatening. Oh, and trees. And grass. Without being told to go to Central Park, as though grass and a tree were a destination spot.
Places I have lived and liked and miss, as opposed to fleeing: Cambridge, MA & Oak Park, IL. Both are old suburbs abutting major cities -- well, technically C. is a city itself and OP is a village (a village of 60,000 people!) -- and are suburban in the the sense of treelined streets, non-suicidal bike riding possible, and not ghost towns but not so insanely crowded one gets attacks of agoraphobic smothering; but not subdivisionish -- they have their own downtowns and several bookstores and movie theaters and coffeeshops and libraries and good schools (I don't have kids, but I'm bookish and would have trouble relating to people who were indifferent to the value of education.)
"Cowboy" does not bother me. I have spent time in central Illinois among kinfolk who have shotgun racks in their pickup trucks and liked them fine. I do not do well with entitled yuppies who encourage pushiness in their children; or anybody really materialistic, status-obsessed, or likely to sneer at me because I dry my own hair and wear shoes that permit walking.
I like to walk. Someplace with no sidewalks or that is dangerous for a woman to walk if she stays alert and takes sensible precautions is out (I may get a concealed-carry permit; but anywhere I'd need a gun is bad news). I know I'll have to get a car, but I don't want to have to use it to go two blocks to a store. If I can bike, that's cool. I need exercise that's not a hamster wheel in a gym or I get cabin-fever bordering on psychosis. (A touch of ADD.)
A bookstore or a library within walking distance (= a mile) would be a true blessing and make me feel right at home.
I have my own business but may want to get a job but don't need one right away. The only commuting I anticipate doing is to Saginaw, at odd times of day, to visit my best friend. I am poor by NYC standards, having been a journalist (aka ink-stained wretch), so paying more than about $650 for a 1-bedroom apt will be hard.
I have visited DFW twice, but not had a car, so my friend drove me around to the extent I got around; and he is male, 55, married, from Lawton, OK, and has no idea there are other things one would want in a home town other than that they are convenient to the right interstate. (Unlike many New Yorkers, I can drive; but I don't want to live in my car; unless I become homeless, in which case better than a doorway. Anyway, being near a library is vastly more important than being near an on-ramp. I can drive to the on-ramp; I'll need the car when I get there, anyway.)
So suggestions for neighborhoods? Probably due to my tour-guide, I got the impression the area was nothing but highways leading to civilization in the form of a Lowes next to a Walgreens, wrapped in a really huge parking lot. I shop only out of necessity, so I was much happier to be taken to Billy-Bob's. (sp?) But I didn't notice any nearby housing; and access to a lot of pool tables is nice but not a necessity.
Are there towns that aren't so precious and insular, everybody will whisper about the stranger in town with the sneaker habit; but have some character that's not completely strip-mall-subdivision (trees, libraries, stores that sell things other than cell phone plans -- books, ideally). Or a downtown area that isn't Manhattan zooish by day (no place is) but not so dead at night I can't walk around without being the only person out who's not dealing narcotics? Being female and liking to walk is a hassle, but it's important; staring at my walls because I can't walk outside makes me feel like one of those pacing leopards in a zoo. Not at all happy; will snap if approached.
So. Definitely DFW; need not be Greenwich Village; cowboys cool, esp. if they call me "Ma'am"; but must have sidewalks, preferably that lead somewhere, the odd tree and/or grass, and a reaonably low biking fatality rate. Does not have to be alternative; but some signs of interest in the printed word crucial. (Oh, and I naturally fall back into a Midlands accent when around it -- it's spoken in central Illinois and on down to about Lawton, Oklahoma -- sounds southern to northern ears tho' not Texan; so, anyway, a country/redneck vibe does not bother me at all, unless meth-addicted domestic abusers who will set a pit bull on me for being part Asian. People who have five TVs and no books at all would however be hard to be neighbors with.
This should start less of a war than the other NYC relocation post, as the merits of Austin and Houston don't enter in. Though maybe Ft. Worth and Dallas have fanatical partisans. Anyway, please offer your opinion on where I should look for an apartment that would be, if not perfect, not as alien as the moon.
many, many thanks.
Last edited by Bo; 04-22-2011 at 08:11 PM..
Reason: moved from Texas forum
Wow, what? Durf's right all along? Manhattan is a rat-race, and it's a warning for all the people who wants to move to NY. I don't want to say, "I told you so".
Check East Dallas neighborhoods Junius Heights or along Gaston Ave south of Lakewood Village. Zip 75214. Power Properties are a fairly big landlord there- they have remodeled a bunch of 1910-1950's duplexes & small apartment buildings....they have a website so google that. Definitely some in your price range. Walkable to Dallas library branch @ Lakewood Village, also to Whole Foods, about two dozen locally owned restaurants and bars. You may like the **** & Bull or Lakewood Tavern- believe both have pool tables. Very close to Deep Ellum for indie vibe bars and art scene. Within a mile or less of White Rock Lake- great for biking and running/ walking or just hanging out. It's a friendly and welcoming neighborhood...sounds right up your alley.
You might get more responses if you posted this under the Dallas and Fort Worth forums.
From what I can gather from your post, I would suggest Lakewood area or the Village in E Dallas. I lived in Lakewood a few years ago and loved it. That part of town has lots of character and isn't as sterile/soul-less as the outlying northen suburbs. I completely understand about not wanting to do the "hamster in wheel" routine at the gym. I don't have a gym membership, so all my excersising comprise of running or cycling outside. That particular area would also put you close to White Rock Lake, one of my favorite places in Dallas. Great park that has a 9.3 loop around the lake that is a mecca for cyclists, runners, walkers, ect. It is kind of an excersise destination spot in Dallas, so be aware that during the weekends, it gets ridiculously crowded on nice days. Dallas is a car centric city although bike commuting can be done. I have a couple of friends that commute utilizing bike paths & low traffic streets. Just be aware and know what roads to avoid, especially during rush hour.
Well, a lot of people love Manhattan. I do think it's best suited to people who are very young and ambitious and full of energy; quite rich; seriously urban; or a native, if not of NYC then of another hyperexpensive & sophisticated coastal city. I used to love it, when I was 25 and out to conquer the journalism world. I conquered enough of it to pacify my insecurities and move on to other projects; at which point I noticed that I have never seen anyplace where people live so badly on so much money. I'm a print/web journalist, which means I can't afford red meat or a car. Or my apartment; I co-bought it w/ my mother, which I will never do again, nuff said. (I can afford a used car, but not the parking space. Parking spaces rent for about $400/mo. That's in a garage not guaranteed to be anywhere near where you live; my friend w/ a car takes the subway to get to it. I can't forget from growing up in Chicago that $400 got you a decent apartment. It's probably gone up to $700; but $400/mo. for a patch of oily asphalt is still just whacked.) My friend C. is a producer for CNN and her husband is a lawyer. Together they probably make $200,000+. Sounds adequate to have shelter and a small family, yes? 'Cept they wanted kids, duly had a pair of adorable twins, and had to buy an apartment to fit them (one decent-sized bedroom for the parents and one teensy one for the babies; 1 bathroom; in a decent but not luxe neighborhood--93rd & Lexington, for those who know the place.) That set them back slightly more than a million dollars. Now they are fretting about how to afford to send the boys to kindergarten. (There are about 3 decent public schools, which the entire city tries to get their kids into; most people have to settle for private schools. K-12 at tens of thousands a year; and that's just to have a shot at getting them into a good college, which most parents find to be the big burden.) My apartment is valued at $470,000, which is also insane. It's a one bedroom, less than 700 sq. feet, does get good light but has no frills like a balcony or a dining room or real closet space or anything; it's 2 rooms, a very ordinary bathroom, + a galley kitchen where I had to choose between a microwave or toaster oven because only one fits. (I went for the microwave; also squeezed in a rice cooker, but chopping must be done on the stovetop. ---I used to cook a lot more when I lived elsewhere. Every Manhattan restaurant does deliver, just as advertised; but possibly for reasons like my best friend's -- she has to use her oven for book storage, along w/ her kitchen cabinets. This is a writer successful enough to have been on Oprah twice, and she can't afford an apartment big enough to fit her bookcases. It's a 1-bedroom, $2,700/mo. rent, ritzy for a writer; just the usual lack of storage space. My own books are all over the floors, the storage option for those who like to heat a pizza occasionally.)
I will here confess also that for years I have had vivid, near-sexual fantasies of supermarkets big enough for carts and being able to use aisles w/ an older person already in it; even 2 carts passing each other, when I get really overheated. When my Texan host took me shopping at some national-name supermarket in Ft. Worth, I became nearly delirious and at one point danced a sort of Irish *** in an (uninhabited) aisle, just because there was room to. Also, because of all that red meat; that wasn't all $12.99/lb and up. ---I also suspect I was still high from the air around his house smelling of grass (the lawn kind) and not urine, cigarette smoke, ripe garbage, and diesel fuel, which is how the great outdoors greets your nose in Manhattan.
But many people would never consider leaving Manhattan; it's the only place for them. Different brain wiring, or something.
So I am not condemning the place, merely explaining that I am not trying to reproduce the experience exactly in my new home in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
Yes, that's Manhattan. You either make enough money to stay there long-term, or you don't. You also were incredibly priviledged to have a parent who could help you buy an apartment. Thats not really the real world- neither is someone who doesn't realize Carnegie Hill IS a very upscale, premier neighborhood.
So put it all behind you & come on down to Dallas.
Also, neighborhoods where a $200k income is considered meager and $1M buys you a hovel aren't exclusive to NYC. We have them in Dallas, too, but you don't have to choose to live there as $200k will take you quite far in other neighborhoods. Just like your friend & her hubby could have bought in Riverdale and had a much bigger apartment still in NyC and with better public schools.
Someone please suggest neighborhoods in the DFW area. I cannot last long here. I held out bravely but my endurance is nearly gone. S.O.S. Mayday medical emergency person being squashed please advise destination; transport available but need directions to longer-term facility. 8 O
Someone please suggest neighborhoods in the DFW area. I cannot last long here. I held out bravely but my endurance is nearly gone. S.O.S. Mayday medical emergency person being squashed please advise destination; transport available but need directions to longer-term facility. 8 O
Um, did you read the two posts above with neighborhood suggestions? Also, post on Dallas or FW forums if you want more responses.
No, I only saw them after posting, making me feel like a dufus. I wasn't expecting such a swift response rate. (I guess it's daytime now, and people post more than overnight, duh. --We journalists are kind of nocturnal and forget how normal people's circadian cycles go.)
Thanks for the suggestions, both. I have copied and pasted them into a document so I can save and print them for close study, map in hand.
(It isn't spamming if I repost the same question in the Dallas and Ft. Worth sections too?)
Someone please suggest neighborhoods in the DFW area. I cannot last long here. I held out bravely but my endurance is nearly gone. S.O.S. Mayday medical emergency person being squashed please advise destination; transport available but need directions to longer-term facility. 8 O
I think you should also start a thread in the DFW forum. You will find more DFW posters there than in the Texas forum because some people rarely post outside their home city forum. They will probably be able to give you more info there
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