Tell me about arlington (Dallas, Fort Worth: apartment, crime, hotel) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

larryboy0637 · 08-20-2007, 10:10 PM

I am looking at a house in arlington
7000's O'CONNOR St Arlington 76002. Anyone have any info on the area and the schools? Also any idea about what the commute would be like to the DFW air port for my wife and to 635 and luna in dallas (edge of farmers branch)? I currently spend 55 minutes in the care for my commute... I would be working 7am - 4pm... maybe leave a little arlier. My wife would be diffrent times. Also how is shopping and other things in the area. Please give me any info you have about the area.

BSL63087 · 08-20-2007, 11:05 PM

Let me first say I am not from Arlington but I am also thinking about moving there. I am from Southern Indiana and recently took a trip to Arlington and Dallas to look at possible areas to live and also we saw some Rangers games and a Mavericks game...

Anyways, I have had a lot of people give me other options other than Arlington and most seem to say the biggest thing is the traffic and congestion. I am from a suburb of Louisville that is roughly 40,000 people and we didn't find the traffic to be any worse than it is here or in other areas of Louisville. I don't know if some people just don't like any traffic at all or what. We drove all around Arlington at various times including the evening rush hour and it wasn't THAT bad... not as bad as people described it. Everything is huge and spread out so I guess that may have something to do with it. There are freeways everywhere. I found most of the Arlington area to be pretty nice looking and the parts I saw looked pretty safe. We are thinking about moving to an apartment near the stadium(s) in I guess central Arlington. The Parks Mall in Arlington was the biggest and best mall I have ever seen. It was literally quadruple the size of the biggest mall in Louisville and even had an ice skating rink right in the middle of the mall. The whole area seemed pretty upscale to me, like not super rich upscale but nice upper middle class. I loved it. However, I'm sure any city of 400,000+ has it's bad areas though. I have heard there are some pretty good schools in Arlington but I don't know much about them at all.

As far as the commute to DFW Airport, we expected it would be like 20 miles outside of Arlington and take like 45 minutes. It took maybe 15-20 minutes tops going from our hotel next to the ballpark to the airport. This was around 1pm though so rush hour may take longer. We went from the Rangers stadium in Arlington to American Airlines Center in Dallas at around 4pm or so. There was some slow traffic and it took a little longer, maybe 30-40 minutes. The next day we went back into Dallas around 12 or 1 pm and there was hardly any traffic at all. I guess any big city has a lot of traffic at rush hour but in my experience Dallas definitly wasn't like LA where it's just bad traffic all around the clock. Mainly just during rush hour.

I have never really been a small town type of person but I have never lived anywhere really big like DFW and I was expecting it to be very intimidating and almost scary. I didn't find it to be that way at all and it wasn't really any different than here except it was much bigger and spread out but not just an intimidating huge big city like NYC or Chicago. There are freeways everywhere going to all parts of the Metroplex and I felt like the area was just built to handle a crowd. To put it this way, it felt less crowded in all areas of DFW than it does here in Louisville and Louisville itself is maybe the size of Arlington people wise. The highways there were better, the city streets were better, everything was newer and nicer... It just blows Louisville away in every aspect.

Anyways, I hope this helps give you some kind of idea but hopefully some locals who know more can help you. I'm just going by what we experienced on our trip and the research I've done in looking at moving to the Arlington area.

larryboy0637 · 08-21-2007, 12:03 PM

Thanks for the info BSL63087. That is some good information to have... I have also been trying to do some research on the area and have been there a few times and I find the same thing. Hopefully some locals will post some replies as well.

Rabbitwarren · 08-21-2007, 12:47 PM

Watch the local news and read the paper for Arlington references. I rarely see positive things reported from there. It seems like there's a lot of crime but it may simply be that it's such a huge place. My husband always jokes during the news teasers, when they mention a particularly heinous crime, that he bets it happened it Arlington. Nine times out of ten, it seems that's the case. I've spent some time there, a lot of time about ten years ago, and I really didn't like the area I visited - I was mostly on the campus and surrounding areas. Just my .02!

M

tdfwx · 08-21-2007, 12:51 PM

I just found this website and would like to say how great it is.
As for Arlington, overall its a good city. I lived in Arlington for 10 years and just recently moved to Grand Prairie when I moved out on my own. Larryboy the area you are looking at is a good area. If I looked at the map correctly you are looking at a house right at the Grand Praire/ Arlington line. Very close to the lake. You would be much closer to Grand Prairie shopping and entertainment. The area right at HWY 360/Camp Wisdom (Around the corner from O conner) is exploding. Bad thing about that spot is all the new houses being built and the shopping centers going up causes traffic on the 2 lane hwy (360) 360 does open up but not until you get further into Arlington.
I dont know much about the schools on that side since I attended school on the other side of Arlington.
The shopping is awesome. If you came to this area you would be close enough to shop in Arlington, big mall and lots and lots of stores to choose from that surround the mall for miles. But if you were in more of a hurry you could go into Grand Prairie or even Mansfield which have good stores without the headache.
According to the map I only live 3 miles from the O'Conner street. I love this area and will not be moving anytime soon.
Hope this helps a little and Good Luck

KBilly · 08-21-2007, 01:01 PM

Do you speak English? If so, I'd read this post and avoid it, as nobody there speaks English. Not even, apparently, the Dept. of English at UTA.

m00se · 08-21-2007, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maddyzmommy

Watch the local news and read the paper for Arlington references. I rarely see positive things reported from there. It seems like there's a lot of crime but it may simply be that it's such a huge place. My husband always jokes during the news teasers, when they mention a particularly heinous crime, that he bets it happened it Arlington. Nine times out of ten, it seems that's the case. I've spent some time there, a lot of time about ten years ago, and I really didn't like the area I visited - I was mostly on the campus and surrounding areas. Just my .02!

M

I am willing to bet the crime is no more than anywhere else, but simply the fact that Arlington is perhaps several times the size of wherever you live. I don't know any place I'd consider having the market cornered on safety.

Guerilla · 08-21-2007, 01:18 PM

Do not...I repeat...DO NOT move to Arlington. It is the most boring place in the Metroplex. I always find myself going to other cities to have fun (or the Parks Mall, but that is it). Arlington likes to think it is a big city, and say things like, "larger than Cincy, or Pittsburgh". It is all crap. Arlington may be larger than them, but Arlington is nothing more than a bedroom community. They are trying to become a major player in the Metroplex, but it won't happen. There are like no public parks either. The quality of life here is lower than say Irving, or Plano.

larryboy0637 · 08-21-2007, 01:49 PM

Good information so far. I do have a few more questions.

Guerilla says it's a boring place but doesn't this place have six flags and the rangers and soon the cowboys stadiums? Also is it not close enough to other cites if i do get bored to go other places?

Does anyone know about the traffic. looks like to get to farmers branch I would have to take loop 12 to 635 or 360 and 161 to 635. My wife will be working for American airlines call center by the airport so that drive does not look bad. Again I really appreciate the info.

Also if anyone has more info on the neighborhood and or schools I would appreciate it.

BSL63087 · 08-21-2007, 02:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by larryboy0637

Good information so far. I do have a few more questions.

Guerilla says it's a boring place but doesn't this place have six flags and the rangers and soon the cowboys stadiums? Also is it not close enough to other cites if i do get bored to go other places?

Does anyone know about the traffic. looks like to get to farmers branch I would have to take loop 12 to 635 or 360 and 161 to 635. My wife will be working for American airlines call center by the airport so that drive does not look bad. Again I really appreciate the info.

Also if anyone has more info on the neighborhood and or schools I would appreciate it.

Yes, the Rangers stadium is in a nice area IMO and the new Cowboys is going up just down the street. All within that one block you have the two stadiums, Six Flags, a big water park, lots of restraunts, stores, etc. Arlington is called "fun central." Parks Mall has an ice rink inside it if you like to skate. There is a park that is directly outside the Rangers Stadium with a nice lake and a 2 or 3 mile walking trail around the lake. Whoever says there is nothing to do there obviously has something against Arlington. It is indeed basically a huge suburb but if you want urban inner city life go move to downtown Dallas. For some reason Arlington seems like it gets a bad rap and I have yet to figure out why. Name me a city that has no crime, no traffic, no problems... I read a lot of that before we actually went there and I expected it to be a dump filled with bumper to bumper traffic at all times, etc... It was nice IMO. If you want to find something else to do Arlington is basically centrally located between Dallas and Fort Worth. It's approximately 20 miles to either one.