What happened to Arlington? (Fort Worth, Irving: for sale, apartments, rent)

[lepoisson]

I haven't even lived in DFW for a year, but I've already come to the realization that most people in the metroplex (living outside of Arlington) do not have a good opinion of Arlington, nor would they ever consider living here. The entire metro area is growing very rapidly with new businesses moving in, houses being built, and rapid population increases, yet Arlington feels economically stagnant, but with rapidly increasing population.

Arlington feels like it's stuck in the 80s. It's unbelievable to me that Arlington has about the same number of residents as Minneapolis, New Orleans, Cleveland, Raleigh, and Miami. But most people wouldn't even consider these cities to be in the same league as Arlington. Most people wouldn't even know the name "Arlington, Texas".

This street view image pretty much sums up Arlington. Run down apartments in the background, with a very dated shopping center in front. On the other side of the street, there is a self-service car wash. Very few, if any trees or greenery. https://goo.gl/maps/3WWhG5DDB142

How was Arlington 10, 20, 30 years ago? When did it start to take a nosedive? Why are other areas of the metro rapidly expanding, but Arlington is still stuck? I've been told that it got a lot worse post-Katrina, but I'm not sure how true that is.

[jencam]

Around the corner from your photo is probably tons of hills with trees and multi-million dollar homes. N. Arlington that is for sure you would.

[lepoisson]

Originally Posted by jencam

Around the corner from your photo is probably tons of hills with trees and multi-million dollar homes. N. Arlington that is for sure you would.

I've only seen homes like that around Lake Viridian. It's so far north, that it's not even really Arlington (even though the address is Arlington).

[Stevehanrahan41]

I live in SW Arlington and enjoy it very much. Only been in DFW for a year though so can't comment on what it was like previously.

[WorldKlas]

I agree there are many Arlington haters on this forum. I have noticed vocal objections to both Arlington and Irving by those who formed such opinions a long time ago and have no interest in returning to those areas to see improvements but just want to perpetuate outdated impressions.

Arlington has many desirable parts, it is huge and also has blighted areas -- just like most cities. The schools in the Martin HS attendance zone, in zip codes 76016 and 76017, attract upwardly mobile professionals and there are some great neighborhoods in that area. In North Arlington (NARL) there are beautiful sections surrounding Lamar High School and the Tanglewood area is beautiful.

Arlington suffers from being a really, really large city with no significant public transportation system and a school system that lost its great reputation in the 90's -- in the 80's it was a highly regarded ISD. But these things are turning around. Arlington gets better all the time.

[lepoisson]

Here's something I didn't think of either... I've driven all over Fort Worth. I'd say that 75% of the city looks very safe and presentable. With Arlington, it's pretty much the opposite. Only about 20-30% of the city looks safe and presentable.

I've highlighted the areas of the city which have nice shopping centers, nice homes for sale, and nice apartments for rent. There are very few run-down shopping centers, payday loan, and pawn shops in these areas. Of course, there might be some nice places to live in the non-highlighted areas, but those are outliers and don't represent the area entirely. There are a few places, like the Highlands shopping center, which are nice, but are sort of in the middle of a run-down part of town.

Apparently North Arlington used to be really nice, but even that area has taken a nosedive over the years.

[WorldKlas]

You are missing TONS of areas; but I don't have the skills to highlight maps. Do some driving around Tanglewood, and Woodhaven, Wimbledon, and so many, many areas!

[TheOverdog]

That corner is a '70s- '80s concept called '4 corners retail', and there are corners like that in every single DFW suburb and city. The problem is areas like that are built to 'completion', so when they are built they are the most valuable they will be until they are redeveloped. So they just slide down until it makes sense to bulldoze them. That one in particular looks like it's cruising right along (low vacancy but lots of low paying jobs) so it'll be another 10 years.

Basically way overbuilt retail for the number of people in the area.

[lepoisson]

Originally Posted by WorldKlas

You are missing TONS of areas; but I don't have the skills to highlight maps. Do some driving around Tanglewood, and Woodhaven, Wimbledon, and so many, many areas!

You talking about Wimbledon down south of 20? That's a pretty nice area. I could have extended my highlight south of I-20 more east until Matlock Rd. Generally, I find areas south of 20 to be very safe.

[BigDGeek]

I haven't seen much of Arlington and I rarely go there but we have family friends who live in one of lepoisson's highlighted areas and the neighborhood is very pretty.