Top 5 things you like (or dislike) about Dallas (tech jobs, school district)

[mysterymachinebl]

Originally Posted by caligurltotx

After watching Househunters on HGTV I wanna add to my likes AFFORDABLE HOUSING!! The couple was looking at a 2bdrm/1bath 631 sq ft SFR for $410,000 in a suburb just outside of downtown L.A. Maybe they announced the sq footage incorrectly. In all my yrs living there I never saw a home that small called a SFR!

I saw that last night! I really couldn't believe the prices of those tiny houses they were looking at!

[First24]

Originally Posted by jdub2447

Also, a couple people have mentioned "Dallitude". Can someone please clearly define this? I must have missed it in my researching here. Is Dallas stuck up, or something?

Well, can one really define the attitude of an entire city of over 1.2 million individuals? Yeah, everyone within Dallas' city limits lives in a McMansion has a new Mercedes Benz and takes their kids to elite prep schools.

I was raised near Ft Worth and have lived in the Metroplex near Dallas most of my Thirtysomething years and have never seen the term Dallitude till I came to this board.

Someone in Austin looked at me stuck up... Austintude.

Hey, someone in Houston was driving a new BMW and appeared conceited... Houstontude.

Wait a minute; someone in San Antonio was wearing Gucci walking like a snob... San Antoniotude.

[jdub2447]

Originally Posted by Dangerfield

Well, can one really define the attitude of an entire city of over 1.2 million individuals? Yeah, everyone within Dallas' city limits lives in a McMansion has a new Mercedes Benz and takes their kids to elite prep schools.

I was raised near Ft Worth and have lived in the Metroplex near Dallas most of my Thirtysomething years and have never seen the term Dallitude till I came to this board.

Someone in Austin looked at me stuck up... Austintude.

Hey, someone in Houston was driving a new BMW and appeared conceited... Houstontude.

Wait a minute; someone in San Antonio was wearing Gucci walking like a snob... San Antoniotude.

Right on. Everywhere you go, you'll run into those types. Everywhere you go, you'll meet people you like and dislike. Nowhere can be everything to everyone.

I was just wondering if I was missing something more specific. Thanks for clearing that up.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by jdub2447

Someone noted the lack of lakes/recreation areas. In looking at the Google map of the area, there seems to be a decent amount of big lakes around DFW. Do they just not have recreation areas set up at those other lakes? Or, is traffic so horrible there, people just don't want to drive to other parts of the metroplex? I'm not trying to be smart, I'm just not from the area, so I have no clue.

Originally Posted by aceplace

There are plenty of lakes with lots of shoreline and state and local parks on them. Plenty of beaches. The poster who said there were no lakes was just ignorant of what dfw has. also, some people discount the value of lakes because they're used to an ocean. Good luck if you want to buy a beachfront house in a major Florida or California city.

Yes, there are PLENTY of rec areas INCLUDING MANY lakes around the DFW area. Yes, they are MAN MADE lakes but they have the SAME WATER that a natural lake has . Some might be an hour or so drive away but they are accessible and pretty easy to get to. We have a lakehouse that is about 65 miles from our house. We can be there on a holiday weekend in about 1 hour. All of our friends come down for the day and hangout, play in the water, boat, pwc's, etc. You will find that a lot of the natives to this area usually have a second home somewhere. It might be on a lake 1-4 hours away, a farm/ranch, near a lake, out in the country, etc.

If you want something much closer to Dallas and don't have to buy or get invited for outdoor rec sports there are several and just depends on your interests. Cedar Hill State Park, Great Trinity Forest, Spring Creek Nature Preserve (in the middle of the burbs w/ development all around but feels like a million miles away while along the creek), the state park out at Lake Tawakoni, etc. It IS there you just have to leave your hood to get to it

[ctrres]

I wouldn't call public transportation in Toronto all that great. Its walkable density near the core makes up for it.

[zatires]

Originally Posted by ctrres

I wouldn't call public transportation in Toronto all that great. Its walkable density near the core makes up for it.

Where did this come from?

Toronto has the second largest public transport system in North America. It is just behind NY.

Stating Toronto public transport system is not great is like saying NY public transport is not great. Daily ridership in Toronto is 2.5 million trips, and this is for a city with a population of 5.5 million residents.

With the stats, the public transport in Toronto is not only great, it is beyond that.

[DWong]

Originally Posted by mysterymachinebl

I saw that last night! I really couldn't believe the prices of those tiny houses they were looking at!

Ya, pretty crazy eh? And that's with a 25% drop in prices recently. I think people are generally amazed when they see the Bang for their buck in Texas. If you come from either coast and have a family to raise... it sure is tempting!

[ctrres]

Originally Posted by zatires

Where did this come from?

Er, from post #5?

All right, so they've got 2 heavy rail lines, one of them kind of makes a u-turn at the lake. Neither one of them goes to the airport. Maybe two surface trolleys running east/west. Just doing this from memory.

---
Updated:
Oh. It looks like they added a line to Don Mills. Still, does this compare to DC, or SF?

It's a nice system.

[mslashondapjohnson]

Well my likes in Dallas:

1. Less traffic.
2. No snow.
3. Plenty of sunny days.
4. Cost of living.
5. Public transportation system.

and the best part of them all the DISLIKES:

1. not such as events and cultural activities
2. Limited activites for children to do, go in the Dallas Area not the 'burbs
3. Illegal immigrants can come and open up a business but if Americans try to YEAH RIGHT!
4. as far as nightlife goes ---clubs never stay around long
5. Punishments for crimes are much harsher.
6. Bush will be relocating there. ( I know it was only supposed be 5 but I had to throw that in)

[renlouis]

BEST:
1. low cost of living
2. weather/sunny days - fall, winter, summer
3. plenty of things to do, restaurants, activities for all family members
4. good public schools available if you pick the right place to live
5. family-oriented

WORST:
1. materialism/"keeping up with the Jones' attitude"
2. focus on external appearance - clothes, make-up, etc. (my 13 y.o. asked me when I am going to take her to get her eyebrows waxed!! I told her to start saving her money and let me know when she wants to spend HER money on eyebrow waxing!!!)
3. competitiveness - everyone wants their kid to be "the best" at whatever they do (esp. sports), which makes the kids feel like they HAVE to be the best and disappointed with themselves when they're not. Or if the kids somehow have their heads really together and see how ridiculous this is, it just pisses them them off and makes them think their parents are jerks.
4. not enough preserved spaces - parks, old-growth trees, etc.
5. the heat in summer

Overall, I like Dallas. Every place has it's good and bad points.