Why so much far N. Dallas/Plano hostility? (Fort Worth, McKinney: middle-class, house)

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by nativeDallasite

You're right; a lot of people have 'tude about Garland. My grandmother lives there, as do my aunt, uncle, and one of my cousins; my aunt and uncle raised their kids in Garland and sent them to Garland schools and one of them turned out OK. The other didn't, but I don't think he'd have done any better anywhere else.

There are some parts of Garland that aren't as nice as they used to be; the part where my relatives live is nearish to La Prada and NW Hwy; basically they're as far east as you can get in Garland without being in Mesquite. I've seen some really beautiful parts of Garland but there's no doubt that the area where my relatives live is in decline; I've been visiting there since infancy and the area has changed a hell of a lot...and not for the better. That's not to say that the whole suburb is bad; it definitely isn't. There are areas in Garland that are gorgeous. There are parts of Plano that are just as bad as parts of Garland, and neither of them can hold a candle to the worst parts of Dallas.

Yep. Those that think Plano, Frisco and McKinney don't have some pretty bad parts............. lol, I can take them on a drive. There are some REALLY rough parts of town in all of those. You think any of them realize that each of those places has a trailer park? Garland does not . It looks just as bad as a bad part of Garland and in some cases worse. I mean, Garland is the 10th largest city in the state so it is going to have a WIDE range of areas. Oh, one of the reasons why Garland never really got hit when the telecom bust happened is because of the wide range of industrial companies and businessess. We don't have all of our eggs in one basket

The area you mention, tucked back on the backside of Audobon Park are some nice areas. I know of tons of people that live in some very nice areas of South Garland. You would never guess some of these houses are back there on these HUGE lots w/ HUGE trees and nice houses.

[ladysrodgers]

Originally Posted by FarNorthDallas

But I'll also say that when very wealthy people relocate here, they only look inside 635 and esp the Park Cities, Preston Hollow and Lakewood. The "real" money folks, the CEOs, the financial people, the big business owners are in Dallas proper.

You've interviewed them all? Do you have any idea how silly the above comment is?

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by ladysrodgers

You've interviewed them all? Do you have any idea how silly the above comment is?

About as silly as people moving to a metroplex area as large as Dallas, living in a far suburb, never venturing 5 miles from their home and thinking that everywhere else in the metroplex is "bad" or "beneath them".

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Yep. Those that think Plano, Frisco and McKinney don't have some pretty bad parts............. lol, I can take them on a drive. There are some REALLY rough parts of town in all of those. You think any of them realize that each of those places has a trailer park? Garland does not . It looks just as bad as a bad part of Garland and in some cases worse. I mean, Garland is the 10th largest city in the state so it is going to have a WIDE range of areas. Oh, one of the reasons why Garland never really got hit when the telecom bust happened is because of the wide range of industrial companies and businessess. We don't have all of our eggs in one basket

The area you mention, tucked back on the backside of Audobon Park are some nice areas. I know of tons of people that live in some very nice areas of South Garland. You would never guess some of these houses are back there on these HUGE lots w/ HUGE trees and nice houses.

I'm not ruling out Garland as a place to live when the BF and I go house-hunting next year. Maybe we could get you to show us around? We're all for keeping our options open and not getting on the Plano/Frisco/Allen/McKinney treadmill if we don't really want to. The BF owns a house in Allen that he'll be selling soon and isn't really married to the idea of buying there again.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by nativeDallasite

I'm not ruling out Garland as a place to live when the BF and I go house-hunting next year. Maybe we could get you to show us around? We're all for keeping our options open and not getting on the Plano/Frisco/Allen/McKinney treadmill if we don't really want to. The BF owns a house in Allen that he'll be selling soon and isn't really married to the idea of buying there again.

Come on over We would LOVE to have ya.

I have a relative that moved to Garland 2 years ago. They LOVE IT! They put it down when we first moved here and thought it was all bad (they lived in West Plano). Even their child (my cousin) said, "well look where their house is" when we bought this one - now they WISH they could sell their Plano home and move over here, lol. Guess what, my house has gone up in value but homes similiar in Frisco/Allen/McKinney have gone down. Hmmm. My aunt even remarked the other day they wish they would have built a home in one of the high dollar gated communities here 2-3 years ago as the values have more than doubled. We almost built there ourselves and sometimes wish we would have but the taxes would have made me faint. LOL!!! I love my house though and my neighbors.

[Spree]

My husband has a co-worker that lives in Garland. His wife grew up there and that's where she wanted to raise her family.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Spree

My husband has a co-worker that lives in Garland. His wife grew up there and that's where she wanted to raise her family.

There is A LOT of that here. There are many professionals living here that grew up here, went off to college, got married (some to hs sweethearts some not) and came back here to raise their families. It really is nice. Both of my kids go to different schools yet they are friends with kids whose cousins go to the my OTHER childs school. They have several sets of cousins that attend their schools too. I've run across parents who grew up w/ parents of another friend - seems everyone knows everyone in some way. People that taught some of our friends when they were growing up here and all. It really is kind of neat and not something you would normally find in a metroplex area as large as Dallas that has seen such expolsive growth. Helps keep it very grounded, imho.

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

Come on over We would LOVE to have ya.

I have a relative that moved to Garland 2 years ago. They LOVE IT! They put it down when we first moved here and thought it was all bad (they lived in West Plano). Even their child (my cousin) said, "well look where their house is" when we bought this one - now they WISH they could sell their Plano home and move over here, lol. Guess what, my house has gone up in value but homes similiar in Frisco/Allen/McKinney have gone down. Hmmm. My aunt even remarked the other day they wish they would have built a home in one of the high dollar gated communities here 2-3 years ago as the values have more than doubled. We almost built there ourselves and sometimes wish we would have but the taxes would have made me faint. LOL!!! I love my house though and my neighbors.

We'll definitely keep it in mind; right now we're trying not to rule anything out but it's unlikely we'll look in certain areas of town and we'll be restricted to Collin County and adjacent counties because of child custody.

Basically if there's a part of Garland that has what we're looking for at the price we're looking for, we could definitely end up there.

[ladysrodgers]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

About as silly as people moving to a metroplex area as large as Dallas, living in a far suburb, never venturing 5 miles from their home and thinking that everywhere else in the metroplex is "bad" or "beneath them".

And why do you address that to me?

You people really NEED to get over yourselves about people who choose to live in suburbs, and quit taking it as an offense.

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by ladysrodgers

And why do you address that to me?

You people really NEED to get over yourselves about people who choose to live in suburbs, and quit taking it as an offense.

Well...you need to understand where some people are coming from, too. The native dallasites seem to be the ones most put-off by it, and that's because we remember what DFW used to be like when there was open space between Dallas and Fort Worth...before the 190 was built...before places like Frisco, Allen and McKinney were even considered as reasonable suburbs to live in because they were too far away...when Plano was the edge of the universe and considered to be pretty far away...and how things used to be before the massive urban sprawl that has erupted over the last 15 years, due in no small part to tens of thousands of out-of-state transplants bypassing Dallas and heading straight for Collin County.

Basically a lot of people here don't like CoCo's explosive growth because some (not all) feel that it has been at Dallas's expense.

I'm not putting down people who choose to live in the burbs, but I also don't like all the sprawl and congestion that the massive growth north of the city has created and I can safely assume I'm not the only one. I'll probably end up in the burbs myself, but I'd rather find a nice, safe, affordable neighborhood with great schools in Dallas itself. It's almost impossible to find that these days, and before anyone says anything I don't consider a 1400 sq ft house for $300k+ in Lakewood "affordable".