Looking for place between Fort Worth and Dallas? (Arlington, Plano: apartments, lease)

[cmmadiso]

Hello,

I'm going to be moving from Ohio to Fort Worth this fall. My boyfriend is going to TCU, and I'm looking for a job in public relations. Ideally, I'll find something in Fort Worth, but I'm aware that lots of the big public relations agencies are in Dallas.

We'd like to find an apartment in a decent neighborhood that my boyfriend can take public transportation to school, and I can have the car to drive. I'd really like to be between both cities, so I don't have an extremely long commute if I find a job in Dallas. Any suggestions on places to look? Thanks so much!

[Konekodesu]

I've lived in HEB my whole life (Hurst-Euless-Bedford a tricity-ish area...) and while it's about a 20 minute drive to Fort Worth, and a 30 minute drive to Dallas, in Hurst at least there's a train station. The Trinity Railway Express a.k.a. TRE... Public transportation otherwise is non-existent, if you don't have a car here, you're kind of screwed... I'm going to UNT, if TCU is like us, then they should have several buses around campus though...

Hurst /can/ be iffy. And it's my hometown. Parts of it are really nice, other parts (like my home) are definitely lower middle class. But Hurst is more inexpensive than almost anywhere else I've been with the convenience of the TRE near by. Bedford is beautiful, Colleyville, Grapevine, Irving have pretty good reputations as nicer places to live, I'm not too sure about apartments in Colleyville though (because it just seems like Colleyville would be too good for them. lol)... and the TRE goes through Forth Worth, Richland Hills (another decent area), Hurst, DFW airport, Irving, then Dallas. Though TRE stops about a mile and a half away from TCU... and it would just be rational of TCU to have a bus that goes by the train station, but I honestly wouldn't know, so... a little more research if you're interested.

Are there any cities in particular that you've been looking at? I think Irving and Hurst are your best bets, personally, but Irving is closer to Dallas, which will be easier for you because traffic can be atrocious. And Irving has a better rep than Hurst. Oh, I forgot to mention, but Euless is also really good, and the train station may not be far from it depending on where you are. HEB are really close together.

I hope I've helped... but there really is very little public transportation. :/ I never see public buses except in special events, on campuses, or in the heart of the big cities.

[txtoal]

Not to be a debbie downer but public transportation isn't something that the DFW area is known for. The "T" which is FW's transportation authority is not that great, is unpredictable and I know there have been complaints about it. IMO, it is hard to live in the DFW area without a car unless you don't plan on ever venturing outside the city. I would definitely find a job in Fort Worth if you are going to have one car and live in FW so that way the both of you are close to your work and he is close to TCU.

[Mckellyb]

Having lived in south Arlington and commuted to Las Colinas, I can say you're not going to live between the cities and have less than a 45 minute commute to either downtown area.

While Fort Worth may lack what Dallas has in business, that's not necessarily a bad thing. I have a sub-30 minute commute to work, downtown, using freeways (I-35W), both morning and afternoon, and I'd not give it up for a 20% pay raise, but have to work in downtown Dallas...or worse yet, north Dallas/Richardson/Plano/Frisco/southern Oklahoma.

txtoal is spot-on. 'Round there-here parts, public transportation is taxicabs, and unless you're at a hotel, good luck in finding one. The area is so spread out, mass transit can't be done in a cost-effective manner, unfortunately.

[Konekodesu]

Originally Posted by txtoal

IMO, it is hard to live in the DFW area without a car unless you don't plan on ever venturing outside the city.

I don't have a car, and in Denton, it's horrible. I'm stuck in my dorm most of the time and take buses to campus. Nothing here is compact... the cities are spread out over huge areas.

There was a concert at the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas, so I took the train from Hurst to Dallas... long story short, what should have been a 30-45 minute walk from the station to the concert turned into... 4 hours... my google map was wrong and I ended up walking out of the city... made it to the concert though.

Even if you have a car, venturing outside of the cities is such a waste of gas because of traffic and long distances, that it just isn't practical to do it very often. :/ That's why I'm adamant about the trains... My stepmom takes them daily. And there's no traffic to deal with.

[Squirl]

Plan on buying a 2nd car, and then dealing with having to park near campus..or living close to TCU campus so bf can walk/bike to school. Hope you find a job on the west side...... Hurst isn't a bad idea, especially if you find a job in Las Colinas which is also a big employment center. Why don't you take a 6 month lease initially so when you are settled in a job you can figure it all out.

[cmmadiso]

Thanks for help everyone. I will check out all those cities and, yes, I think a second car is probably going to be a good idea. I will try for a 6 month lease as well! Thanks again. We're flying down soon, so I'm very excited to look at places.

[cmmadiso]

I have another quick question. I'm looking at drive distances and they give you an estimate of the time in traffic. Is 183 much busier than I-30? The drive times seem immensely different. Thanks!

[Squirl]

yes 183 is more congested than i-30. The worst nightmare is hwy 360 at rush hour going north in the morning and south in the evening

[Konekodesu]

Originally Posted by Squirl

yes 183 is more congested than i-30. The worst nightmare is hwy 360 at rush hour going north in the morning and south in the evening

I don't even drive, so I'm clearly no expert, but my first thought was, yes... 183 is terrible. I hear more about wrecks there then almost anywhere else. :/