Where to live???? help! 2 commutes+kids to consider...

[mudbelly]

Look in the area North of Frankfurt, and East of Midway in Dallas. That area is Collin County, Plano ISD, and has very easy access to The George Bush Tollway. The GBT has just been completed to link Plano/Frisco to the new Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. There are also lots of established services in that area, as well as a very close Fox and Hound Pub for your billiards, darts, and fish & chips (although I love the black forrest sandwich). That area also has excellent access to the Dallas North Tollway, and is in your range. Stay East of Midway...

[lehifootball]

stay as far away from arlington as possible unless you're going to a cowboy or ranger game!

[Sadlergal]

I live in about a mile above I-20, off Cooper Street, in Arlington and my husband commutes to Plano every day. You just have to take the "Bush" toll road. It's no big deal, just get a toll tag and charge it to a credit card. It takes him about an hour in workhour traffic to get home to/from work. It would be less if he was not driving in work hour traffic. Arlington is a great place to live. I moved here in 1976, raised my family, then traveled the country. I came back to Arlington as it has all the big city amenities but is not hard navigate. Biggest negative is no public transportation system within the city.

[loves2read]

Arlington has all the big city amenities but is not hard navigate
roads are terrible--under construction most of the time and crowded all the time
flooding when there is heavy rain in fall and winter
schools are iffy--the district is concerned that more of them are going to loss ranking at the next TAKS unless they can do something significant to improve their scores/rating...
I know people who live there and they are happy but their kids did not choose to move back to Arlington when they bought they own homes and started families...

[TubaCzar]

Cautionary with Arlington: it is about 7 times larger (population) than Bedford or about 10 times larger than Grapevine or Keller. Therefore add more details before describing all of Arlington as "x".

The secret for getting around Arlington is having alternate routes although I do bog down more in South Arlington around the Parks mall. North Arlington is easier to move around but there are no big box stores within 10 minutes.

[loves2read]

no public transportation eventhough it is turning itself more and more into a city that depends on hotel workers and seasonal employment which in most other citys means low-paying jobs and often illegal work force...
rent is high in Arlington--article I read last year put Arlington as the MOST expensive place to live in the Metroplex if you are a "poor" person...
which may not mean that much if you can afford a 300-400K home or more---but it puts lots of stress on many of the people who live in the town...
and over the past decade Arlington has had rising % of non-college grads, and shrinking % of income per capita...