What do you dislike about Fort Worth? (Arlington, Parker: crime, home)

[Lisa_from_Debary]

I miss fudge Love...its a chocolate truffle that I believe is made in the area...they have an outlet over on University near the Kimball Art Museum...man that was some good stuff...an orgasm in a box.

I miss all the antique malls, here I have to drive out to Mount Dora to find that kind of thing but they seemed to be on every corner in Texas.

Another cool thing about Fort Worth as the Justin Boot Outlet over near Shooters Palace...you could get some great deals on cowboy boots.

[beowulf7]

Originally Posted by badab00m

what i HATE the most is when the home builders or land developers chop down tons of trees and flat out a land to make houses and big shopping centers.

Woodlands, about 30 miles north of Houston is one example where they preserved trees... developments and stores were built around the trees. It's a beautiful community. I wish more developers would do more like that... vs. planting one or two puny little trees in the front yard on the new houses. UGLY.

That 1 puny tree in each front yard is going to become a monster! In a few decades.

[janell]

o.k so which is better to live near fort worth or dallas? My husband and I are looking for an area within 15 - 25 minutes of the city. I really don't want to live in tract housing anymore, we are in that situation now in cali. The schools have to be good and racially diverse. we are an interracial family and that is very important to us.

[beowulf7]

Originally Posted by janell

o.k so which is better to live near fort worth or dallas? My husband and I are looking for an area within 15 - 25 minutes of the city. I really don't want to live in tract housing anymore, we are in that situation now in cali. The schools have to be good and racially diverse. we are an interracial family and that is very important to us.

I haven't lived in Dallas, so I can't speak about living there from 1st hand exp. But just from what I've heard and read, FW is better in terms of less traffic and a better school system. Also, the city itself is much safer overall than Dallas. However, it's mostly just white and Mexican. Dallas is more culturally diverse. I'm neither white nor Mexican, but still don't feel out of place living in FW. I hope that helps.

[Roma]

Originally Posted by janell

o.k so which is better to live near fort worth or dallas? My husband and I are looking for an area within 15 - 25 minutes of the city. I really don't want to live in tract housing anymore, we are in that situation now in cali. The schools have to be good and racially diverse. we are an interracial family and that is very important to us.

I would pick Dallas if I was in your situation. Not knowing when you say interracial, what that really means, Blacks, Hispanics, White, Asian etc.? But this just happened not to long ago....

http://www.star-telegram.com/189/story/99577.html (broken link)

Shocking in this day and age. You should of heard all the stuff the judge said to this black lawyer. I just saw all of this on the news the other day.

[Txstar]

I have to say that I was very impressed with Fort Worth. My family and I went to the zoo for the first time and it was awesome. My kids had a wonderful time and is by far the best zoo in Texas. I have been to Dallas many times, but never made it over to Fort Worth so I'm glad we had the chance to go. I will make sure to spend more time over there next time we plan a trip to North Texas.

[Bernrome]

(Hi, all. I'm new to the forum, but I've lived in Fort Worth for 12 years.)

Things I dislike about Fort Worth:
-Public transportation is terrible.
-Sidewalks are far and few in between. (FW is by no means a pedestrian-friendly city.)
-We really don't experience much in the way of seasons.
-Summers are hot, and once we hit a dry spell everything green turns brown.
-FW is a city that loves its chain restuarants. This is a city who, a few years ago, voted Pizza Hut as the best pizza place in town. Sad.

Things I love about FW:
-It's a big city with a small-town feel. I love that, for the most part, we don't experience Dallas-type traffic troubles.
-From Oct-Dec. I love that I get to cook-out and enjoy mild temps., while my brother in Illinois is wishing he had FW weather.
-People are really nice. And the men, mostly always, behave like gentlemen and open doors for me.
-FW has great museums, and, despite the plethora of chain restaurants, many great places to eat.


A couple more things I want to add:
FW will be a perfect fit for some, and not so perfect for others. I have a friend who moved here from San Diego two years ago, and she says she will never leave FW. She's fallen in love with this city.

Although I love FW very, very much, it's lacking a few things that I really miss, like, autumn, sidewalks, and lots of woodsy areas. I'll stay in FW for a few more years, but I have a deep desire to find my perfect place.

Also, I live in west Fort Worth, which is nothing fancy, but I think it's a great place to be. It's a safe area with nice little neighborhoods and people who look out for one another.

[whitenegro]

Originally Posted by janell

o.k so which is better to live near fort worth or dallas? My husband and I are looking for an area within 15 - 25 minutes of the city. I really don't want to live in tract housing anymore, we are in that situation now in cali. The schools have to be good and racially diverse. we are an interracial family and that is very important to us.

Dallas - no one cares if your bi-racial, tri-racial, mono-racial or interracial and it is a City (small) with good points,bad points, but overall, has a metropolitan feel to it.

Fort Worth - country, good ol boys, muncho rednecks and even the trailer park Anglos are arrogant.

You'll notice the difference - both far from perfect, but Dallas is a little more aligned with a progressive mindset.

[drjones96]

Here's Fort Worth from my view.

I came from Poplar Bluff, Missouri; Southeast MO; Small town of ~20k population; surrounded by farm land (lots of rice fields; it's flat, VERY HUMID, and mosquitos will carry you away in the summer from May-September (real mosquitos, not these little bugs you Texas folks whine about all the time). And there is NO crime or so little you hardly notice. We used to leave our keys in our cars and houses unlocked. If your car was not in your driveway your neighbor may have borrowed it but he'd bring it back in a little while.

OK so I went to college and got an Aeronautical Engineering Degree and came to work down here in Big Old Fort Worth Texas....brought my fiancee along also.

1. Appartments in FTW are generally very small and very expensive compared to anything I ever saw back in Missouri. My wife had an appartment that was about 1400sq.ft and was paying less than $500/month. We came here and got a 900sq.ft appartment for $850/month. CRAZY I tell you. We couldn't take it living in that small of a space so we bought a house within the first year we were there.

2. In general houses are super cheap when you compare what an equal sized appartment in mid-town costs.....but you have to pay very very close attention to WHERE you buy the house.

3. Yards are typically small here. I grew up in a neighborhood where everybody had about 1 acre lots and it was NO BIG DEAL. 1 acre is almost the standard. Here it's like some freaking major upgrade. LOL

4. Most houses are Brick here. If you went to the northeast this is a rarity. In MO it's more common but they are much more expensive houses to buy.

5. Basements???? Ain't you Texas folks heard of basements? You'd think this would be a pretty standard thing with all the damned tornados! Yeah yeah I hear you say the ground is solid rock, blah blah blah.

6. All the houses are on slabs! What's up with that? Don't you know that this is the worst! What if you have a plumbing issue??? LOL YOU'RE HOSED! Literally! Foundation cracks too! I can't count how many times I hear foundation repair commercials on the radio.

7. City trash service is a joke. I can't begin to fit everything I need to throw away in that thing only once a week. Right now, as I type this there are maggots in my trash can at home. My wife just called me about it. That's what happens when you throw something like chicken scraps away on saturday when the trash doesn't run till Friday. I like the recycling service though. Certainly didn't have that back in MO.

8. Water is gross. It tastes like dirt. No joke. Dirt. I have a PUR filter that helps but it's still not really good. The city seriously needs to check into their purifying system (if there even is one). When I first moved here I brushed my teeth and cooked with bottled water because it was that damned bad compared to what I had before. And it's EXPENSIVE? You'd think this dirt water had gold shavings in it. CRAZY! I found out how expensive it was when I went to fill up the kids 16ft diameter plastic swimming pool in August the first year we moved into our house and also had the sprinkler system running. I had a $150 water bill and called the water department to find out if it was a joke.....nope. You could leave the hose running in MO for days and the water bill wouldn't be half of that.

9. Electricity is hella expensive here. My parents have a 3500sqft house with 1000sq ft airconditioned workshop and their electric bill has never been much more than $150/month. I regularly pay $300/month for the same square footage in a home that's supposed to be more efficient.

10. Spanish-made wooden fences suck! We bought our new home and it came with a 'privacy fence'. Well it's not very private when the posts rot out at ground level and the first little fart of a storm comes through and blows the damned thing down. I rebuilt it Missouri style! It ain't coming back down!

11. Lenders here don't use much descretion. Said this in another thread but I try to live within my means and purchase my home within my means. So how is it that someone who would appear to have a hard time financing a trip to the zoo end up with a better house than me? The answer is they can't even begin to afford it. This is why we have so many foreclosures and houses that turn into rent property. If you're reading this and thinking about buying a home first consider if you can afford the home in addition to all the other expenses you have and do it on your current income. If you can't make the numbers fit in the box then don't freaking buy the house!

12. I read on the first page about the guy wondering what most people think gang bangers or hoolums are. They're the type of people that will steel your wife's car out of your driveway, toss everything out of it while moving down your street while looking for cash and cell phones and whatever other valuables they can find. Yeah...I know what hoodlums are. And I know where they live...in the neighborhood directly 1/4 mile south of mine where they eventually found her car along with the other 6 cars that were stolen in the same night. A total of 35 cars were either vadilized, broken into, or stolen in my neighborhood alone in a single night. That, my friends, would have never happened in my home town. I'd love to give everybody on the street an equal opportunity but if you look, act, and dress you belong in a gang then I don't trust you....sorry. Go get some clothes that fit. Nobody wants to see your boxer shorts....it's stupid....you look stupid....people will think you are stupid....I gaurantee you people already do think you are stupid....maybe you are stupid if you don't get that.

13. Don't turn on the tornado sirens unless you really mean it. Jeez I've never been in someplace where they were so gunshy about the weather.

14. 1 inch of frozen precipitation does not a snowstorm make! My wife and I really get a good laugh at yall. I'll never forget the first night in our appartment when it got down below freezing. We pulled into our complex and there were signs up everywhere saying "FREEZE WARNING, LET YOUR FAUCETS DRIP, OPEN CABINET DOORS," etc etc. We just looked at each other and cracked up. LMAO. COME ON! But we realize why you are worried about the ice on the roads. It's because there is NO city infrastructure to handle it at all! It's no wonder there are so many wrecks. They don't put down nearly enough ice-melt or sand. And yall don't have a clue about how you should drive in it. Heres a good tip: You can't drive the same speed you did before it iced. LMAO. (Same with rain) There's this little physics term we call the Coefficient of friction. It's what keeps you from spinning out of control. This coefficient of friction is much lower when there is ice on the road. This means there is a better chance you will lose control and spin out on icey or even wet roads. Take it easy for cripes sakes.

I could go on and on...maybe I'll come back and add some more later.

[beowulf7]

^ LOL, drjones, I agree w/ many of your points.

I just discovered another thing I don't like about FW. I was expecting a package via FedEx Ground. It required a live signature and I'm usually not home during the day to accept packages. I called FedEx to ask if I needed to pick up the package, where the holding location is. He told me it's all the way in Zip code 76119, which is in southeast FW, about 20 mi. from me! That is nuts! When I lived in NJ, I was just 1.5 mi. from the local FedEx. Luckily, I was home early enough today and was able to take delivery of the package.