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I am moving from Austin to the Dallas area for work, not too happy about that but I am open to change. I lived in Houston in a former life and fell totally in love with Austin. I travel a lot so proximity to an airport is important, so far it seems like either airport in the metroplex would serve just fine. I am an Afrrican American professional female in my late 20's like to hang out, shop, good food, good music but not a club scene type of girl. I have received mixed reviews from older colleagues on both Addison and Las Colinas and will appreciate feedback from you guys. I need to make a decision literally, like yesterday.
I would suggest Addison. Its a very laid back, accepting, fun, good eating and shopping kind of place. Its also close to Love Field and DFW. There is also a lot of festivals that go on in this area. Right now there is WorldFest, they have Octoberfest, arts festivals, etc.
Its a really great place for your professionals without the pretentiousness Dallas is known for.
Addison actually has a lot of character, it seems like theres always a festival going on there and its right by the Galleria area and youre close to Plano/Frisco for other things needed. A short trip down the Dallas tollway will get you into the city rather quickly.
Las Colinas, while nice is a glorified office park with random subdivisions and apartment complexes connected by strip malls and fast food joints.
Addison actually has a lot of character, it seems like theres always a festival going on there and its right by the Galleria area and youre close to Plano/Frisco for other things needed. A short trip down the Dallas tollway will get you into the city rather quickly.
Las Colinas, while nice is a glorified office park with random subdivisions and apartment complexes connected by strip malls and fast food joints.
Go with Addison, you'll get bored in Las Colinas.
For those not aquainted with the Dallas - Fort Worth area, because it has lead-in office parks into its primary urban core, Las Colinas should not be considered a "glorified office park." Its urban core will take on more of the characteristics of Uptown Dallas as it fits future development of TODs around the soon to open DART Light Rail stations.
The downtowns of Dallas and Fort Worth are traditional downtowns in appearance only. As they are no longer the primary commercial shopping districts in the metropolitan area and are shrinking as office markets, there really doesn't exist a primary urban core in Dallas - Fort Worth any more. This is why I've suggested referring to it as a "Multipularity."
Last edited by Mister Nifty; 10-24-2010 at 12:18 PM..
Reason: tweaking
Is there a reason you're not looking IN Dallas? Uptown and North Oak Cliff are great areas known for really good food (locally owned indie restaurants, not the chains and chain-lets Addison & Las Colinas are known for), nightlife (not only the pretentious clubs you don't like, but wonderful neighborhood bars like TABC, The Gingerman, Stoneleigh P, Vino 100, etc as well as art galleries, small theatre companies), much more shopping than Las Colinas or Addison, etc. They are also diverse areas where you see lots of ethnicities and hear more languages than just English and Spanish. Lots of black professionals, too.
Both are 10 minutes to Love Field and 15-20 minutes to DFW.
Coming from Austin, If you like the terrain of Austin (tons of trees and rolling hills), the funky, indie owned stores and restaurants, and a real community-feeling vibe where everyone knows everyone, I would HIGHLY encourage you to check out North Oak Cliff- specifically living in or around the areas of Kessler Park, Stevens Park, Winnetka Heights, or around Bishop Arts District. There are no "mass produced apartment complexes", just charming old homes, duplexes, and small apartment buildings for rent & own. It's one of the only neighborhoods in Dallas where professional blacks, whites, gays, and straights live alongside hardworking Hispanics and all love and cherish the same neighborhood. Taquerias and car repair shops are sprinkled inbetween art galleries, popular restaurants, and live music venues.
Check out Good Space for apartments. Also check out Bolsa, Veracruz, the Kessler Theatre, Eno's Pizza, Zola's Everyday Vintage, Hattie's, Tillman's Roadhouse, El Rancho, Hotel Belmont & it's Bar Belmont and Smoke BBQ.
Last edited by TurtleCreek80; 10-24-2010 at 01:07 PM..
Las Colinas, while nice is a glorified office park with random subdivisions and apartment complexes connected by strip malls and fast food joints.
Thats a little unfair. Las Collinas is the center of the Indian community in DFW and the best Indian food to be had in the Dallas area is in Las Collinas. There are also tons of Indo-Pak markets along McArthur and O'Connor.
Is there a reason you're not looking IN Dallas? Uptown and North Oak Cliff are great areas known for really good food (locally owned indie restaurants, not the chains and chain-lets Addison & Las Colinas are known for), nightlife (not only the pretentious clubs you don't like, but wonderful neighborhood bars like TABC, The Gingerman, Stoneleigh P, Vino 100, etc as well as art galleries, small theatre companies), much more shopping than Las Colinas or Addison, etc. They are also diverse areas where you see lots of ethnicities and hear more languages than just English and Spanish. Lots of black professionals, too.
Both are 10 minutes to Love Field and 15-20 minutes to DFW.
Coming from Austin, If you like the terrain of Austin (tons of trees and rolling hills), the funky, indie owned stores and restaurants, and a real community-feeling vibe where everyone knows everyone, I would HIGHLY encourage you to check out North Oak Cliff- specifically living in or around the areas of Kessler Park, Stevens Park, Winnetka Heights, or around Bishop Arts District. There are no "mass produced apartment complexes", just charming old homes, duplexes, and small apartment buildings for rent & own. It's one of the only neighborhoods in Dallas where professional blacks, whites, gays, and straights live alongside hardworking Hispanics and all love and cherish the same neighborhood. Taquerias and car repair shops are sprinkled inbetween art galleries, popular restaurants, and live music venues.
Check out Good Space for apartments. Also check out Bolsa, Veracruz, the Kessler Theatre, Eno's Pizza, Zola's Everyday Vintage, Hattie's, Tillman's Roadhouse, El Rancho, Hotel Belmont & it's Bar Belmont and Smoke BBQ.
But the attitude and outlook of people is a lot more simiar to Austin in Addison since it is so laid back. Uptown Dallas is way too pretentious. It does have good food, but I cant stand hanging out uptown for more than the duration of a meal. To be frank there is no diversity at all in Uptown Dallas and its one of the few areas of Dallas that offers no diversity as I find Dallas a really diverse place overall. North Oak Cliff is a lot better and I enjoy spending time there, but Addison has nicer places to live overall.
Addison offers a lot of the mom and pop type resturants as well. Ferraris and Joes are two of the best Itialian joints in DFW, Saffron House and East West is amazing for Indian, there are also lots of pubs like the Londoner and Sherlocks for English food and a good beer selection.
But the attitude and outlook of people is a lot more simiar to Austin in Addison since it is so laid back. Uptown Dallas is way too pretentious. It does have good food, but I cant stand hanging out uptown for more than the duration of a meal. To be frank there is no diversity at all in Uptown Dallas and its one of the few areas of Dallas that offers no diversity as I find Dallas a really diverse place overall. North Oak Cliff is a lot better and I enjoy spending time there, but Addison has nicer places to live overall.
Your statement about Uptown's lack of diversity shows you spend little to NO time there. I was just in the West Village Starbucks yesterday- saw whites, blacks, Asians, Indians, Hispanics.....gays & straights.....heard English, Spanish, French, and some Asian language I couldn't pick out....saw students in ratty clothes next to young professionals on laptops next to women sporting $2000 designer bags with shopping bags. That's pretty diverse to me, but I'm guessing if you were there, you would just focus on the women with their designer bags & shopping bags and call the entire place "pretentious", right??
The 75204 (zip code for Uptown, including Arts District, Uptown, State Thomas, West Village, parts of Turtle Creek and Oak Lawn, and just east of Uptown including Bryan Place, City Place, and lower Swiss Avenue.) is diverse-->
40% white
40% hispanic
15% black
3% Asian
2% other/ multi
Does that surprise you?
The un-diverse part is the average age (29.7 which is several years younger than Dallas' average), but that goes to show how many young professionals live in the area. 33% are from other countries, including Mexico, El Salvador, Vietnam, UK, Canada, & Cambodia.
Your statement about Uptown's lack of diversity shows you spend little to NO time there. I was just in the West Village Starbucks yesterday- saw whites, blacks, Asians, Indians, Hispanics.....gays & straights.....heard English, Spanish, French, and some Asian language I couldn't pick out....saw students in ratty clothes next to young professionals on laptops next to women sporting $2000 designer bags with shopping bags. That's pretty diverse to me, but I'm guessing if you were there, you would just focus on the women with their designer bags & shopping bags and call the entire place "pretentious", right??
.
Frankly, Ive spent too much time there and frankly McKinney Ave. is full of pretentious douchebags. The M-Streets are nice and LakeWood is cool, but Uptown is definately not my thing. I get stares when I go out with my black friends there. Its the only place in Dallas where this has happend.
The attitude there is thick. Its that one little area that give the whole city of Dallas the bad name of being overly pretentious. When in reality, I dont find Dallas pretentious, racist, or homogenous at all outside the McKinney Ave. corridor.
Why go through that when you can get a good nightlife, good resturants, and a much more chill and accepting atmosphere in Addison? And if the OP wants to live in Dallas, the M-Street, Knox-Henderson, Lakewood, or North Oak Cliff would be much better choices. All the above would be great places to live. They are all diverse, urban, fun, and accepting.
Im done with Uptown and yes it is pretentious. Sugar coat it how you want.
Last edited by Cowboys fan in Houston; 10-24-2010 at 04:24 PM..
Frankly, Ive spent too much time there and frankly McKinney Ave. is full of pretentious douchebags. The M-Streets are nice and LakeWood is cool, but Uptown is definately not my thing. I get stares when I go out with my black friends there. Its the only place in Dallas where this has happend.
The attitude there is thick. Its that one little area that give the whole city of Dallas the bad name of being overly pretentious. When in reality, I dont find Dallas pretentious at all outside the McKinney Ave. corridor.
Why go through that when you can get a good nightlife, good resturants, and a much more chill and accepting atmosphere in Addison?
Im done with Uptown and yes it is pretentious. Sugar coat it how you want.
First, half the people on McKinney Avenue on Saturday night don't even live in Uptown....I can't tell you how many people from work (in Plano) I run into out in Uptown who actually live in Plano, Frisco, McKinney, Addison, Las Colinas, etc. I think some of them "act" how they think everyone else acts in Uptown, which is not the case for all except the 10% who truly are obnoxious $30k-aires. So don't assume everyone you see lives there. They don't.
Second, you want names and numbers of my Chinese friend, my Chinese friend & her British husband, my Philipino friend, my black friends, my Mexican friend & her Irish hubby, etc- who all live in Uptown and are as laidback and cool as can be?
If all you've ever seen in Uptown is Aura and the lounge scene, you're missing out on great burgers & beer at Stoneleigh P, brunch at Dream Cafe, theatre production at Theatre Three, art shows at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary, wonderful Korean bbq at Gui, beers with British ex-pats at the Londoner, darts and beer at The Gingerman, a cup of indie coffee at Crooked Tree, a walk on the Katy Trail, watching a big game at Frankie's, etc. There's a whole world outside of the bars and clubs along McKinney.
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