Cedar Hill, Duncanville Commute Time to Downtown (Dallas, Arlington: fit in, foreclosures)

[EBOP]

I've narrowed my choices down to either Grand Prairie or one of the above mentioned cities. Which one has the better schools, and what kind of commute can I expect into downtown from these cities ?

[stargazer]

I use to live down that way. I would like to understand what are your reasons for wanting to move down that way? If you are going to be working downtown, have you thought of Garland over by Firewheel? That is a good area, much better school choices and the commute would be about 30 minutes.

[Philip T]

I DO live "down that way," and I concur with stargazer -- as soon as the words "better schools" came into play. Cedar Hill is still sort of ok, but that is not the way things are rolling down here.

As far as transit time -- varies WIDELY by time of day. If you are doing a schedule set by an idiot MBA manager (8 to 5 typical with trapped lunch hour) and it matters if you are on time -- budget at least an hour by the time you park, etc. If you can map your schedule outside the masses of asses, it is a half-hour.

[EBOP]

"Down That Way" seems to have a negative inference. I'm a black music producer from Los Angeles, looking for somewhere with some hills and diversity, that is just one freeway away from the downtown area where my wife will be working as a paralegal.

I can sell my home here, for approximately 850K, and pay cash for something in the 300-400K range in Cedar Hill. I've seen a lot of nice properties around a golf course in Cedar Hill, which is also very near a state park. These properties are in the 3000 to 4000sq ft. range, and that is very appealing to me. That is is twice the size of my current place, at half the cost.

I'm aware of all of the great burbs to the north, but the one thing I keep seeing & hearing about these places is how far away they are from "the culture" if you will.

I can also afford to send my kids to private school which they attend in LA. (LAUSD is terrible.)

Also, Cedar Hill is in proximity to my Texas relatives in Grand Prarie. I've also seen some similar homes in Duncanville.

One of the things i've noticed about this site is a bias towards the Northern Suburbs. Is that purely a "caucasian" thing ? My cousins in the southern burbs, are like my wife and myself college educated professionals and live in a beautiful community in a great home.

Am I missing something? Are the northern suburbs really all that?

[momof2dfw]

I would not say that the Northern burbs are "all that" but your children will get a MUCH better education in even some of the Dallas ISD schools than they will in the ones you mentioned. I don't know what subdivision your looking at in Cedar Hill but the nicest one is also not the best and has a fair amount of problems. By going off of what your price range I would gues this would be the one and you DO want to avoid it. Gosh, I can not think of the name of it but I'm sure Stargazer and Phillip know which one I'm talking about. It has been plagued w/ custom homes sitting unfinished and unsold. Builders and investors torching these properties along w/ tons of foreclosures. Not an area you want to sink that much money in. As for the schools they are also plagued w/ many problems and being that you are the type that is expecting your children to acheive educational success it will be an uphill battle if you send them to public schools in some of these areas. They will be told they are "acting white" if they are a black that is trying hard to acheive in school and may not fit in. I would be hard pressed to put my child in the schools there no matter what race they were. Duncanville has put up a huge fence around the high school to try and keep drug dealers off of school property. Lancaster has parents that go up in arms because their kids were assigned reading over the summer (last year on the first day of school a couple of 100 kids were suspended for not doing their required reading and the parents supported the KIDS and not the school). The principal in one of those districts recently tried to push for a 4 day school week. Grand Prarie is not much better. Your children would be much better served finding a more diverse school with a student body that does not look down on minorities being academically successful.

You can find diverse areas in other parts of the Dallas metroplex w/ better schools and easy access to downtown. Being in a place that only has 1 highway to/from is not always the best option because if there is a wreck or road construction - forget it.

You don't have to move to McKinney, Plano, Allen or Frisco to find a very good diverse school for your kids. Try Richardson, Garland and even parts of Dallas. Still a VERY EASY commute to downtown w/ more options actually along w/ DART being available.

[momof2dfw]

Here is a link from the Dallas Morning News on the story about the fence put up around Duncanville. My mistake it was because of crimes and fights (still probably involved drugs on some cases).

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | News: Local News (http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-duncfence_23met.ART.North.Edition2.90f2261.html - broken link)

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by EBOP

"Down That Way" seems to have a negative inference. I'm a black music producer from Los Angeles, looking for somewhere with some hills and diversity, that is just one freeway away from the downtown area where my wife will be working as a paralegal.

I can sell my home here, for approximately 850K, and pay cash for something in the 300-400K range in Cedar Hill. I've seen a lot of nice properties around a golf course in Cedar Hill, which is also very near a state park. These properties are in the 3000 to 4000sq ft. range, and that is very appealing to me. That is is twice the size of my current place, at half the cost.

I'm aware of all of the great burbs to the north, but the one thing I keep seeing & hearing about these places is how far away they are from "the culture" if you will.

I can also afford to send my kids to private school which they attend in LA. (LAUSD is terrible.)

Also, Cedar Hill is in proximity to my Texas relatives in Grand Prarie. I've also seen some similar homes in Duncanville.

One of the things i've noticed about this site is a bias towards the Northern Suburbs. Is that purely a "caucasian" thing ? My cousins in the southern burbs, are like my wife and myself college educated professionals and live in a beautiful community in a great home.

Am I missing something? Are the northern suburbs really all that?

The northern burbs are OK, but yes...there's definitely a northern burb bias here. This is because for so long, so much of Dallas and its suburbs south of the Trinity was just not very nice. Dallas still suffers from a considerable north/south divide and just looking at a map, it's clear that most of the growth is northward.

There's nothing wrong with the southern burbs; I know whites and blacks alike who are very happy in Cedar Hill. Don't let people pressure you into moving someplace like Plano or Frisco if you don't think you'll be happy there.

[stargazer]

Ummm I am not a racist and I happen to belong to a family that is not entirely caucasian either. Actually I miss living down that way.... and I am so shocked to see you say that down that way sounds negative. I live north and down that way means going down south past downtown. We go quite a bit to visit Duncanville and Midlothian to visit our families who are down there. When I lived south, if I went to Plano or Frisco, I would say I am going up to those areas. I prefer the attitudes DOWN THAT WAY compared to where I currently live. People are more laid back and not so much in a rush to get places compared to living where I do. I also love the hills too, it is truly a beautiful area.

I have already emailed you, I encourage you to take a look at that email...

The leadership in the public schools aren't the best there and believe if they treated each child well and had some control over the kids, it would be a different place... for us here, my child currently attends a diverse public school which has strong leadership and I am much happier than where she went last year where most of the people were mainly UPC and felt they had some sort of entitlement going on. Paired with the leadership not doing much when it came to behavior, I had such a fill of it . I won't put my son there and he is in a private school which is so much better....

If you choose to live there, the schools of choice would be Caunterbury, The Oaks Fellowship and Ovilla Christian School that I know. My daughter went to Dallas Baptist University Lab School when we lived there and she was very happy. They though closed the doors which I was sad to hear. There is a non christian private prep in Arlington but the names escapes me.

I live in the burb I do, due to my husbands job when we moved here. They were going to transfer his job to a location about 15 minutes from where we live now... that was some time ago. I do love many things about this part of town. I don't live in a good ole boy area , it is truly very suburbian area which is very accepting of many people regardless of what background a person might be. The shopping is great, I am just 2 minutes from the grocery store and some department stores. The burbs in the north aren't as caucasion as one might think too.


If your children are older and they are fine arts oriented, be aware of Booker T Washington in DISD. It is a school for the performing and visual arts. Even if you don't live in DISD, you can pay tution for them attend.

Good luck and I hope you find a place where you will like living.
Here is my little video to you. My favorite song. I am going to see the artist and group pretty soon.


YouTube - Toby Mac - Diverse City

[aexchange]

Have you looked into Grand Prairie that's served by the Mansfield ISD?

[Acntx]

Originally Posted by nativeDallasite

The northern burbs are OK, but yes...there's definitely a northern burb bias here. This is because for so long, so much of Dallas and its suburbs south of the Trinity was just not very nice. Dallas still suffers from a considerable north/south divide and just looking at a map, it's clear that most of the growth is northward.

There's nothing wrong with the southern burbs; I know whites and blacks alike who are very happy in Cedar Hill. Don't let people pressure you into moving someplace like Plano or Frisco if you don't think you'll be happy there.

I agree with this statement about bias. It seems like any time anyone mentions looking for a home in a southwest Dallas County city (Cedar Hill, Duncanville, DeSoto, or Lancaster), it seems that a majority of posters tell them to avoid the area. It seems that there are fewer posters on city-data from these communities in comparison with Dallas and the northern suburbs, so blanket statements and generalizations made about this area go unchallenged. I've even come across a few negative comments that were down right offensive. Here's an example of what I am talking about - a poster went so far as to describe most people moving into Lancaster, where I stay and moved to recently, as having "few values" and "ghetto mentalities" despite the fact that many of the people moving into Lancaster and the other southwest Dallas County communities are well-educated professionals who, like anyone else, are simply looking for a nice place to stay.

The public schools are broadly perceived as bad without the mention of individual campuses. No district is without its problems, but both Duncanville and Cedar Hill have "Exemplary" and "Recognized" campuses and are very diverse school districts. Opinions of schools in the Dallas area are largely based on standardized test scores alone but that shouldn't be the only factor used when choosing a public school. If you are still unsure about the public schools, then the area does have some good private ones.

EBOP, my advice to you is that if you see something you like in Cedar Hill or Duncanville that you feel is right for you, go for it. Both cities have nice neighborhoods and good people who love where they stay, and they surely outnumber those who are dissatisfied or trying to move out.