New Dallas Transplant. Can I live car free? (neighborhood, buying)

[BillInDallas]

I live car free in Dallas. It is doable with certain things in mind. While the DART trains are great, the buses are not reliable enough to depend on it to make a connection. You really want to eliminate a bus leg to get to work, so live near the light rail.

Groceries are a huge consideration. You want to live reasonable close to a supermarket. You don't want to have to go too far when it's 100 deggrees out or 35 and raining.

Urban feel is good, but again, only near train, not bus (bare with me). And you don't want crime.

Deep Ellum has lots of "action" both bad and good, very rowdy, and zero appeal as a neighborhood, crime, no groceries.

Uptown is awesome, lots of "action", much more of the good kind, way less of the bad kind. Much, much, lower crime… has a supermarket, has a train station, safe to walk all hours. Clean.

Lower Greenville ave has lots of bars, surrounded by houses and older buildings with apartments that have no central AC/heat and those window units are very noisy and inadequate in the blasting Texas summer.

Uptown has great apartment complexes, some of them right on the Katy Trail which is an awesome bike/jog path - a converted train track. It has McKinney Ave and West Village. Lots of night life but not sleazy.

Uptown has a short walk to the Uptown/City Place DART train station that is less than 10 minutes to downtown.

It has an Albertson's supermarket right in the heart of it on McKinney Ave with a free San Francisco style trolly car that goes up and down McKinney Ave and shoots over to the Arts District.

Uptown Dallas - Home
Friends of Katy Trail
Klyde Warren Park | Klyde Warren Park

Here's the thing, if you move to Downtown, Deep Ellum, Lower Greenville (NO TRAIN!), there's a chance you'll regret it.
If you move to Uptown, you won't reget it and it will totally work for practical reasons.

I live further north around Lovers Lane and (upper) Greenville Ave near the Lovers Lane Station in the south-west part of the Village Apartments. It's a great complex, $750 for a very nice 1br, very close walk to Tom Thumb and Central Market supermarkets. VERY close.

Tons of shops, Post Office, etc, LA Fitness, etc, in the Old Town shopping center. 10 minute walk to train station.
Old Town
The Village Apartments (tenants and management is great)

Less night life than Uptown, a little more my speed, worth a check before settling. But Very easy to get ANYWHERE.

I take the train 1 stop (1 mile) to Mickingbird Sation or 2 stops to Uptown.. I like the art-house movie theaters. Angelika and Magnolia respectively. Mockingbird Station has Trinity Hall traditional irish pub for great guinness and trad music. : )

Mockingbird Station :: 5307 E. Mockingbird Lane, Suite 130, Dallas, TX. 75206 :: 214-452-7180

I also like it here because it's closer to White Rock Lake, which I love. And easy bike ride. They are in the process of connecting it to the Katy Trail.

Dallas Parks - Whiterock Lake

For the Love of the Lake

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro...katy-trail.ece

http://www.dallascityhall.com/commit...n_10262009.pdf

DART has an app now for iPhone and Android that lets you buy tickets right on phone and show the phone to driver or ticket checker. This is very convenient…

GoPass SM

The app in integrated into maps and will even show you, using GPS on the trains/buses, where the train is. Tis is really better for buses which are late, but the trains are on time.. at Uptown Sation there are 3 different trains to take downtown so they are frequent - Orange, Blue, Red.

Hope this helps. : )

[TrueDat]

The problem with Uptown is that apartments can be very expensive and rents seem to be going nowhere but up.

[Ralyks]

Summers will be brutal, but even I make my kids bike to and from school in August and September. (You are still often in the 100's in September here, unlike Baltimore.) it's 1.3 miles each way. They are drenched in sweat when they get home, so you better have showers at work if biking. The east coast can get hot, it's just not quite so hot for sooooooo long. To give you an idea, in august, our pool water is often about 96 degrees.

[HockDad]

I will make this argument again. The OP says that he is moving to dallas for an excellent career opportunity in DT Dallas. Part of your career is how your co-workers perceive you. It might be wrong, but in some fields, co-workers are going to look down on you for not having a car. If you are a kick butt IT guy, no one will probably care. But, if you are a finance or law type, people will think that you are strange. Moreover, co-workers occasionally leave DT dallas for out of office meetings, happy hours, lunches, etc. People may not invite you (since you have to be driven or they are waiting on you to figure out how to take a bus to the Meddlesome Moth). Finally, good luck getting dates.

Personally, I would buy a used car, only get liability insurance, and use it on occasions. If you have a car, but bike to work, you might be perceived as the healthy guy in the office. If you just bike to work, who knows...

[mSooner]

I guess the other thing I would say is you limit yourself SO much in Dallas with a car. Unlike cities like NYC, Boston, etc. there is absolutely no way to get to a lot of cool places without a car or bumming a ride. You can get a lot of places on the DART, but what if you want to check out a festival in Richardson or go hiking at Grapevine Lake? Public transportation in DFW is sadly so limiting, but it is what it is.

[BillInDallas]

Originally Posted by mSooner

I guess the other thing I would say is you limit yourself SO much in Dallas with a car. Unlike cities like NYC, Boston, etc. there is absolutely no way to get to a lot of cool places without a car or bumming a ride. You can get a lot of places on the DART, but what if you want to check out a festival in Richardson or go hiking at Grapevine Lake? Public transportation in DFW is sadly so limiting, but it is what it is.

The sitution here could be better…

The Blue line goes from Uptown Station right to White Rock Lake at NW Hwy and Lawther.

[Atlanta_BD]

I would like to hear from those who live or have lived in Dallas without a car.

[Considering Coming Back]

It's possible, but not preferable. Car-lite is a more achievable goal.

[Metro Matt]

Simple answer, no. You'll still need your own transportation in Dallas.

[TurtleCreek80]

It's possible if both your work and home are in close proximity to one another, and also on key rail / bus routes. Also would need to focus on specific neighborhoods where grocery stores and other essentials are within walking distance.

If you lived in Uptown, Oak Lawn / Turtle Creek, Old East Dallas along Gaston up to Lakewood Shopping Center, in / near The Village apartments in 75206, Lower Greenville area, etc, it can certainly be done. If you want to live in Frisco and work downtown, forget it.