Southlake racism (Dallas, Plano, McKinney: home, neighborhoods, buying)

[kangaroo12345]

Hi all, parent of young children currently living out of state considering move to Southlake for the excellent schools (work relocation to Dallas area).

This article has got me worried. Can those "in the know" please comment?

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[Katana49]

Southlake has gotten more than their share of bad press the last few years over racial issues. I can't think of another city in the metroplex that struggles with this as often. You'll find cases of overt racism in all cities, but some are worse than others. I live in Prosper, there have been times where an act of racism gets brought to public attention, though thankfully much fewer and farther between than Southlake.



I've also lived in McKinney, and Plano. McKinney was by far the more integrated city, in our experience, though admittedly my years of actually living in Plano was decades ago, and the city has changed a lot since then, minorities make up a much bigger percentage of the population now.


Most of the places I've lived that were affluent neighborhoods, the primary concern of residents was geared more toward economic status, if you can afford to live there, you are welcome. But if I were a minority looking to move to the area, Southlake would probably be at the bottom of my list. There are plenty of other affluent suburbs with great schools that don't have the same level of issues that Southlake seems to have.

[texstout]

There are many reasons I dislike Southlake ( diversity issues, the fact that it’s 30 miles from Dallas, that it was built on basically a huge pasture, the enormously competitive school, the intense focus on athletics, and the lack of economic diversity). That said, many people love it. It’s definitely not my cup of tea (and I can afford to live there).

Just go in with your eyes wide open of the pros and cons. This is definitely it’s reputation.

[sanz7887]

There are a lot of good school districts in Dallas FortWorth Area. If you have the slightest doubt in your mind, then you should consider another place. I dont think anyone convincing you would work. Here is a listing of the top school districts in DFW region

https://www.hdavidballinger.com/best...tricts-dfw.php

[tcualum]

Southlake is one of the less diverse areas in the DFW Metroplex and has had issues with racism for a very long time. I was born in Dallas and grew up in DFW. Even though we can easily afford to move to Southlake, we decided not to because of the obsession with status and racial issues. We are a biracial family which affected our decision.

One thing you need to consider is how big the DFW area is. Just DFW Airport is larger than in the island of Manhattan and the Metroplex is larger than Connecticut. In addition to being huge, the traffic is brutal. You need to figure out where you will work before you decide where you will live. If you don't, you could easily end up with a horrid commute that's more than an hour each way.

[4Movingeast]

We live in Colleyville, another suburb that borders Southlake, and have our own issues with a Q anon believing city council and made the news for our rougue mayor opening restaurants when Tarrant Co mandate was to close them. We've also had some incidents at the HS level with some racist behavior, but from what I can tell they are isolated incidents (not excusing them AT ALL, but I don't think they point to an endemic situation). I think the difference is our schools are more diverse due to our district including not just Colleyville and Grapevine but parts of Hurst and Euless. I love that both of our HS principals are super dynamic Black men.

I would encourage OP to look beyond scores and look at the whole district when choosing a place to settle your family. Look at the health of the community. Southlake is a non diverse pressure cooker full of generic moderately wealthy families. There are other communities with great public schools that are a reasonable commute to work in Dallas. I know if we had a do over I would have worked harder to find a home in Grapevine rather than Colleyville.

[WorldKlas]

Both my friends with kids in the Southlake schools pulled them out of public school and sent them to privates. Our friends are both probably in the top 1% of income for Southlake but didn’t want their kids in that materialistic competitive environment.

[ChristieP]

Originally Posted by WorldKlas

Our friends are both probably in the top 1% of income for Southlake but didn’t want their kids in that materialistic competitive environment.

Southlake is EXTREMELY materialistic. I’d never seen a high school kid driving a Porsche until I spent some time in Southlake. And yes, the die hard Dragons fans really do look down their noses at those of us from neighboring cities. I’m only half-joking when I say that Southlake requires us Grapevine residents to leave before dark...

[kangaroo12345]

Thanks to all for the very thoughtful feedback. We will be working in Dallas so the initial recommendation was for Highland Park public schools, but we wished for an area that was more diverse. Highland Park seems to us to have a reputation for old money, 97% white - but we've also heard that things may be changing in terms of more diverse perspectives/tolerance (even if the demographics remain). How would Highland Park/University Park compare to Southlake in these respects? Thank you all for your time and insight.

[ChristieP]

Highland Park = old money snobby people
Southlake = new money snobby people

You are very correct that both communities are not really diverse, and that Highland Park is even less diverse than Southlake.

What’s your budget for housing? You could also look at buying in Dallas’ Preston Hollow neighborhood and using private schools.