First Thread, Please fill me in on Fort Worth. (Dallas: apartments, house)

[Archgeek]

Hello Texans this is my first post and had just joined the forum. I have a quick few questions about the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. More concentrated on the city of Fort Worth. I'd like to come down there sometime in the winter to see it. As I will be graduating from the University of Michigan two years from now. I have read up from numerous sources that the city is growing in population, business, etc. What I would like to see most is that if the city is planned and set up in a truly urban principal? Especially in terms of what neighborhoods provide that? Thanks for reading my first post.

Archgeek.

[Vintrest]

Originally Posted by Archgeek

Hello Texans this is my first post and had just joined the forum. I have a quick few questions about the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. More concentrated on the city of Fort Worth. I'd like to come down there sometime in the winter to see it. As I will be graduating from the University of Michigan two years from now. I have read up from numerous sources that the city is growing in population, business, etc. What I would like to see most is that if the city is planned and set up in a truly urban principal? Especially in terms of what neighborhoods provide that? Thanks for reading my first post.

Archgeek.

Welcome to the C-D Fort Worth Forum. As you suggested yourself, the best way to familiarize yourself with any unfamiliar place is to visit it in person. I've always had a personal saying that if a picture is worth a thousand words then being there is worth a thousand pictures. Fort Worth's growth has slowed somewhat since the arrival of the recession in late 2008 but even as I write, there is still some development going on. I'm not sure what your terminology "truly urban principal" means in the Fort Worth context. If you could be more specific I'm sure we could help you with the answers you seek. If you mean a revitalized active downtown then I think Fort Worth lives up to that expectation. Downtown living is "in" here and several thousand people live within Fort Worth's Central Business District boundaries. As for "planned neighborhoods" do you perhaps mean gated or master planned? We have both in Fort Worth's suburban and exurban areas The areas around Alliance Airport and Trophy Club come to mind but there's no lack of them in the DFW area.

But again, before any anticipated move you need to focus on what your specific needs are and rank them according to priority. For most, employment comes first and then a long list that involves things like housing (type, price-range) commute or no commute, social and entertainment facilities, etc. Of course, if you should be married or have children, quality schools usually have a high priority. If I or other locals can be of further help, please follow up. Here's wishing you the best in your quest for an ideal home location.

[Archgeek]

Thanks for the welcoming Vintrest. I guess what I mean by what I had said previously is that if walkability in terms of the urban layout of Fort Worth. In terms does it relate to say Boston? Can people walk out of their house and go down their block and be at a bar/pub/eatery etc.? I ask this because I'm an architecture/urban planning junkie. Thanks.

[Vintrest]

Thanks for clarifying your question. The influential Bass Family has been instrumental in revitalizing Fort Worth's downtown and have embraced a variety of top-notch architects and planners in the process. David Schwartz & Associates and Canadian architect Bing Thom out of Vancouver have contributed their talents recently to downtown projects. A new 3 building project by Schwartz has just been announced in the Sundance Square area of downtown in the past week so the transformation process continues. Since C-D (understandably) frowns on linking to other fora I'll simply say there's one devoted to Fort Worth architecture and let you find it if you are so inclined. This kind of new, pedestrian-friendly, urbanism you describe is slowly catching on in Fort Worth but the proposed street car system was vetoed by our former mayor. Our new mayor, Betsy Price, is an avid bicyclist so more bicycle lanes are being provided but we are far from being a city like Portland, OR or Boston in terms of public transportation. Downtown in the area around Sundance Square is most like the scenario you describe-a new urban Grocery store has just opened in the area in the past couple of weeks. Also, along Magnolia Avenue in the near southside you'll find such walkable amenities as you describe with a nearby historic district neighborhood (Fairmount) as well as new apartments nearby. I guess to sum it all up, downtown Fort Worth is still car-centric and caters to the suburbs, but a new urbanism or, as some call it, a "back to the cities" movement is slowing making progress. Just a decade or so ago, downtown emptied out after 6 PM with very few permanent residents. All of that has changed for the better in the past decade and will likely gain momentum again once the recession eases. Lot's of "subject matter" to study here for a student of urban planning.