Leaving Weatherford for the TCU area??? (Austin, Fort Worth: best cities, house, neighborhoods)

[birdrockbomb]

We've recently relocated from Pacific Beach (San Diego beach neighborhood) to Weatherford. I'm a Marine and work at NAS JRB Ft Worth (Carswell). Not Californians, we've lived all over the USA. We thought we'd give the small town experience a try and have figured out that it is not the right fit for us. Very nice, safe, quiet town but not our gig.

We currently live in a very nice subdivision in Weatherford full of great people that are somewhat older than us with kids that have moved out. Ours are in 6th, 7th and 8th grades. Our concerns with Weatherford are school and community related: lack of diversity, focus on athletics at the expense of academics, limited fine arts, and an oppressive focus on the TAKs. <all in our opinion>. The thing that has pushed us to consider moving is the recent decision made to spend $14.5 mil on the renovation of the HS football stadium. Meanwhile the WISD has an apparent lack of funds to purchase enough textbooks for the students and has to resort to photocopied worksheets. Meanwhile the USA is getting outcompeted by India and China in the engineering world. But we have the best football program in the world. Different subject worthy of its own thread....

I don't mean to hijack my own thread before it is even started so on to the point: We have read a bit about Paschal HS and am impressed at first glance by their academic performance that belies their TAKs scores. Also impressive is the fine arts department. The school seems alot like a Jesuit school that I attended in N. Philly. My wife and I drove through a few neighborhoods yesterday that feed into the school and received a mixed impression. Fairmount seems to have nice blocks interspersed by some not so nice. Same with the area north of Park Place Ave & east of 8th ave. Some of the stuff closer to TCU seems a bit more consistent. Old homes are fine with us, we've both grown up in them and understand the commitment. Our price range tops out ~ $250.

I'm looking for any feedback on which areas are the nice ones and which aren't. Sending the kids to a good school isn't worth worrying about the rest of the package. I'd like the wife and kids to be in a safe environment. Any and all feedback is appreciated.

[desol11]

well i live in the hulen area its pretty nice, its a new neighborhood. my sister goes to ft worth school of fine arts. located on hulen blvd its goes from grades k to 12. it has a great rep around the the country, and thats near tcu also

[tjh1]

You should also consider the Mistletoe Heights neighborhood. It is zoned to Paschal and is a very well established area. Tanglewood is also very nice and zoned to Paschal.

[birdrockbomb]

Thanks for all of the comments. We aren't in any hurry and will wait to see what comes on the market come prime season. We've spent a little time driving around Mistletoe Heights and and Tanglewood at different times of the day and generally like what we see. Fairmount seems to be more hit and miss and we like McClean MS better than Dagget.

I read in another post about the traffic on game day. No joke on that one; we saw it first hand while trying to park for the Armed Forces Bowl.

[rogramjet]

I live in Austin, but I'm a big fan of FW. My favorite part of FW is around TCU, Park Hill, Tanglewood, and Fairmount. (Also a big fan of Arlington Heights, but that would put you in the Arlington Heights High School district.) You'll be able to find a great house in any of those neighborhoods for $250K. And you'll be living in one the best cities in Tejas. Welcome to Fort Worth...