Am I more Houston or Dallas? (Austin, Fort Worth: apartments, hotel, houses)

[JasmineDS07]

Ok... I know that's a weird question but here's my situation... My husband and I relocated from Philadelphia area ( we loved in Manayunk and West Chester) to Richmond VA. So far we absolutely hate it here in Richmond and I'm having the most awful time finding work. We had been thinking about Texas for a long time but for some dumb reason moved to Richmond VA instead. Now we're back to considering Texas and would like to make sure this move is a good one.
I've been doing research on Houston, Austin, and Dallas and I'm trying to figure out which one would fit our needs better...

- We're REALLY young (I'm 21 and hes 22) and are both still in school, but we also both NEED to work. We would like an area where the cost of living is either the same as Richmond VA or lower (we pay $1225 for a 3 bedroom apartment right now but a 2 bedroom is fine for us to) so that work and school is not such a HUGE strain. He's a CDL driver now but he has experience in wharehouse and manufacturing work(which place has more jobs for this?) and I do admin/office work. He's majoring in Electronic Engineering and I'm majoring in Graphic Design
- My 17 year old brother lives with us and he's in high school so the school has to be at least decent
- We are AA BUT we normally try not to go to predominately AA area of any city.... just because in our experience they are not normally good areas... We like a lot of diversity and safety is a HUGE issue
- We need to live near a Whole Foods or some type of Organic Market
- We like to have plenty of things to do (which is why Austin is sort of ruled out because they have no pro sports teams and only 1 major college)

Which one suits us better Dallas or Houston?

Ohh one last thing... maybe because I've watched to much gangland reruns... but I've been leaning towards Dallas because it seems safer the Houston... is this wrong? I mean the city doesn't scare me... the ghetto does but maybe both has a fair share of good and bad areas

[FarNorthDallas]

It seems like you would first figure out what schools in Texas have your programs and then if you could get into them and the figure out where to live based on that information.

[diablo234]

I think either Houston or Dallas would suit you guys.

That being said I believe Dallas has more "Organic Grocery Stores" compared with Houston. Houston however has a lower cost of living.

[Cowboys fan in Houston]

Either place would suit you guys ok. Most people that arent from Texas dont find living in Dallas vs. Houston exceptionally different.

[Lakewooder]

Check out this map at the top, just south of Lover's Lane in Dallas:

http://www.dallasisd.org/demo/schoolinfo/eszones2010/JacksonStonewall2010.pdf (broken link)

- there are some decent, large apartments in that area down to the DART line/Katy Trail Expansion (says UP RR on the map). Excellent transportation - next to Central Expressway (75) and Northwest Highway (Loop 12) and three DART rail stations -with bus service. Also located next to SMU - expensive but if you only need to take a few classes it might work - also not that far from El Centro or Richland Colleges. And UTD is up the road.. Dallas has a lot of distribution centers but most are located some distance from there - Houston has more manufacturing Dallas has more warehouses- this area off Greenville, University and Central Expressway would be good for you to get to adminsitrative or office work. Downtown is ten minutes away. The area has a lot of creative types and you would find other graphic designers. Woodrow Wilson High school which serves the area is very eclectic and diverse and is on Newsweek's Top Schools list.

[Mister Nifty]

Originally Posted by Lakewooder

Check out this map at the top, just south of Lover's Lane in Dallas:

http://www.dallasisd.org/demo/schoolinfo/eszones2010/JacksonStonewall2010.pdf (broken link)

- there are some decent, large apartments in that area down to the DART line/Katy Trail Expansion (says UP RR on the map). Excellent transportation - next to Central Expressway (75) and Northwest Highway (Loop 12) and three DART rail stations -with bus service. Also located next to SMU - expensive but if you only need to take a few classes it might work - also not that far from El Centro or Richland Colleges. And UTD is up the road.. Dallas has a lot of distribution centers but most are located some distance from there - Houston has more manufacturing Dallas has more warehouses- this area off Greenville, University and Central Expressway would be good for you to get to adminsitrative or office work. Downtown is ten minutes away. The area has a lot of creative types and you would find other graphic designers. Woodrow Wilson High school which serves the area is very eclectic and diverse and is on Newsweek's Top Schools list.

More like Houston has more refineries (100 of them) while the Dallas - Fort Worth area has more manufacturing. Indeed, Houston does have manufacturing for its burgeoning oil and gas industry. While Houston is mainly energy companies, D-FW is more diverse with airline, retail, defense and telecommunication industries in the area amongst others. There are about three stores in the Dallas - Fort Worth area to every two in Houston. About three hotel rooms to two in Houston. 700,000,000 square feet of distribution to 450,000,000 in Houston. About 40,000,000 more square feet of office space exists in DFW.
Houston is mainly energy and medicine while it is presently unclear what will become of its NASA business located in the southeast area of Greater Houston.

[k_s]

Originally Posted by Mister Nifty

Houston does have manufacturing for its burgeoning oil and gas industry.

[Mister Nifty]

Originally Posted by justme02

Either place would suit you guys ok. Most people that arent from Texas dont find living in Dallas vs. Houston exceptionally different.

But, see, this just isn't true. Texas isn't like Rhode Island where a person can get up on just any two story structure to look around to see everything within the state.
Texas is larger in scale than the whole region of the northeast plus Pennsylvania. So, it is not possible to conclude that Dallas and Houston are the same vanilla. I don't know why people insist on doing this and why they think it helps out those from outside the state planning a visit.
Texas is immense! It has a lot of the rich, dark soil of our nation's heartland. It has rich brown soil around Ore City and Pittsburg, Texas in east Texas. This is close to Lone Star, Texas and the place where the Steel company manufacturing oil pipe is located. In comparison, east Texas has lots of trees and rich red soil. To the south of this is the Big Thicket area, a confluence of different forests and the thickest forest in North America. There is also the Hill Country, the Great Plains with Palo Duro Canyon, and 40,000 square miles of sand dunes. This area doesn't even include the Chuhauhaun desert, an arid region interdispersed with the mountains and canyons of West Texas. There is also the Valley region close by the tip of South Texas and the sage brush area to the north of that. Of course, there is also the Gulf Coast region.
So, amongst all of this, why pray tell would the cities of Dallas and Houston be similar?

[Mister Nifty]

Originally Posted by k_s

Sorry, I got over dramatic. I guess since Houston is mainly oil and gas, and always has been for that matter, then it wouldn't be burgeoning. Still, I like the sound of that word. I guess blossoming is a similar word. Outside of its energy business, does Houston have anything blossoming industries? Well, one can argue that Houston is the trash capital of the world as it has lots of waste disposal companies based there. So, yes, that would be a burgeoning industry. What else? Well, Houston also has one of the largest gay communities in the world which designates it as a "pink" city almost on the scale of San Francisco. Of course, its recently elected mayor is a openly practicing lesbian. I don't know. Can you mention any other burgeoning, blossoming industries developing in the Houston area?

[JasmineDS07]

Thanks for the responses! I'm REALLY leaning towards Dallas... I just have a good feeling that it would be a great fit for us. Whats the name or zip code of the area the Woodrow Wilson High School serves?