Dangerous Dallas ISD? (San Antonio, Arlington, Allen: crime rate, house, neighborhoods)

[khfar]

We talk alot about 'Dallas' on this forum in general, but most of the desirable places to live are North of Dallas in Collin, Tarrant, Denton counties....not Dallas.

SAYS WHO? This is a typical Plano-dweller response. One should never, EVER come into the big bad city that is Dallas. We have restaurants that aren't CHAINS! OMG! And trees - WOW! And non-cookie cutter houses!

It kills me how people that live north of the loop think that Dallas is some pit-hole. Give me a break! Ever been to Lakewood? Or Highland Park? Or Preston Hollow? HP and Preston Hollow put West Plano to SHAME. Note that most of the wealthiest people in Dallas (Perot family, Jerry Jones, etc.) live in HP or Preston Hollow. Not beloved Plano or Frisco. Go figure!

[khfar]

Booker T. Washington and Woodrow Wilson are consistently rated among the best in the nation.

Thank you! I totally agree. And...I went to Woodrow, and I'm a perfectly well-rounded, college educated individual now. Can you believe it?

[socketz]

Khfar....15 posts huh...I'm still trying to figure out if your worth responding to. Why not try contributing a fraction of what I've contributed to this forum before you take some condescending tone with me....I grew up in MD on the border of SE Washington DC - and decided a long time ago that anyone I bring into this world would never live within 2 zip codes of the type of violent and oppressive lifestyle I enjoyed (tongue in cheek). Call me a yuppie, suburbanite, etc - so what - proud to be one and worked my tail off to get here.

What's funny is the same way I painted Dallas with the 'bad place' brush (I never said uptown Dallas was bad....cmon, but that's not but a tiny portion of Dallas), you guys are trying to make it look like Palm Springs.

Look at the city-data crime stats rating for Dallas (higher number is worse)....more than double that of the US average, compare it then to LA, hundreds of points higher than LA (not something to be real proud of).

Then look at overall school rankings, the fact you can buy 25k houses there, the overall opinion of most of the people in the metroplex (ask a cop what he/she thinks), etc. Then consider how most new companies that move to the area avoid locating their facilities in Dallas proper (my company recently moved from downtown because people were robbed in the parking lot). Do I need to post some of the headlines I read in the paper daily here.....or are those made up by us suburbanites. Maybe we paid US News off as well when they voted Plano like the 5th best place in the US to raise a family.

Obviously, I'm not alone in my stereotypes of Dallas (other than uptown, the diamond in the rough).

While it may of been a decent city at one time, it surely has alot of issues now. Admit it.

Stop drinking the Kool-aid. Dallas is not the panacea your attempting to make it out to be. The original poster wanted honest opinions of the city because she has no idea of what to expect. So I told her what I've heard and seen. Teaching in a high school in Dallas is alot different from visiting a bar in Deep Ellum or a museum in Fairpark.

In contrast, I actually love the northern DFW burbs and defend the area daily to people back in CA that treat me like I ran away to join a cult when they learn I moved here....so again, ease up off the rhetoric.

Peace out....

[khfar]

Give me a break. 15 posts or not, I'm born and raised in Dallas, so unfortunately I think my knowledge of the area exceeds yours.

In any event, I don't want to create some big argument here. I have great friends that live in Plano and Frisco. Of course there are things about those areas that I like. But to tell the truth, I'm about to move to the Detroit area, because my husband got a promotion with his company. THAT makes Dallas look like utopia. So it cracks me up when people from the burbs put down Dallas proper. Sure, there are areas that are dangerous. But know what? My mom teaches at Plano East HS, and they have a LOT of dangerous situations there, and scary people, etc. Unfortunately, they are everywhere you go. And my friends that live in the suburbs of Dallas are not SCARED to come over here to do things. We go to the Arboretum, we go to the Dallas World Aquarium (it's downtown - how SCARY), we go to Snuffers. And we never get a gun pulled on us.

To extend the olive branch here...I think it's all in what you are used to.

[texbelle]

Every big city has its issues and Dallas has had its fair share. Growing up here but also living in LA for 7 years has shown me that-Most of DISD's problems have been leadership related. You will be fine I know Plano needs teachers and if you want to look towards the West, Keller has a great system as well. Good luck!

[KewGee]

Originally Posted by khfar

SAYS WHO? This is a typical Plano-dweller response. One should never, EVER come into the big bad city that is Dallas. We have restaurants that aren't CHAINS! OMG! And trees - WOW! And non-cookie cutter houses!

It kills me how people that live north of the loop think that Dallas is some pit-hole. Give me a break! Ever been to Lakewood? Or Highland Park? Or Preston Hollow? HP and Preston Hollow put West Plano to SHAME. Note that most of the wealthiest people in Dallas (Perot family, Jerry Jones, etc.) live in HP or Preston Hollow. Not beloved Plano or Frisco. Go figure!

Wealthy people do not make a place a Utopia of sort. Good grief, just listen to the news about the husbands in the wealthy parts of Dallas murdering their wives and children. Highland Park alone has had several. Do you remember Rev. Walter Railey, a great guy? Even though Cullen Davis, the billionaire, lived in "upscale" Fort Worth, he's just another example of how the wealthy can add "status" to a city.

Wealth has nothing to do with morals, values, and living a good life in non-cookie cutter houses.

[stargazer]

Wanted to add that I don't think Dallas is a total pit hole at all and
I live in Mckinney. I have been in the Metroplex since 1990 and actually adore the area. I wish I could live in Preston Hollow. I love what is going on over there with the homes. The other day I went over to an area off of Tulip, near Hillcrest and just fell in love with the lay of the land, the beautiful oaks ect on that street. There is a nice mix of new homes and some older rennovated. Unfortunatly we can't live there and that is due to prices. A rennovated ranch was 899,000. Just a bit out of my price range. Yes much of Preston Hollow and HP can put Plano to shame but the truth is that most people can't afford to live there and that area is referred to as a bubble so to speak from what I have been told first hand from a ex secretary to a billionaire who lives that way. As my friend puts it, they don't know what Target is. They are old money usually over there and not the nuevo rich that are out in the suburbs who do know what Target is. She knows this because for years she paid the monthly Neimans bills that her boss's wife had and had been given cash to go out and buy her presents, sometimes with thousands on hand. She told me, she often felt like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman going in to shop at a boutique. Many people that way are just as materialistic that but they have a different scale and don't shop in the same stores as the umc do. They aren't as visible and hey they usually don't let their kids drive that fancy of cars. Not really showy. What my friend told me just confirmed to me what I already knew from past experience dealing too with people whom my husband has worked for. l Just like most people have said, all towns and cities have great parts and not so great areas and most people are wanting to move to areas that can offer affordable housing with good schools. That is what led us to Mckinney. We though are going to sell our home and look more into Richardson and see what's there. I know that PH and HP are out of our league for sure. Also too since we can't live in the nice area of Dallas, I will look more towards the burbs due to my kids.

[Spree]

Columbine was in a middle to upper class area. You just never know. I would suggest contacting the school where you will be employed and get the crime statistics for that school. Even in the high school my son goes to here in FL, which draws from middle to upper class demographics, there is a full time police officer on staff. Teacher's really make a difference in the life of their students, no matter which school they teach in.

[socketz]

Preston Hollow and the Park cities are what's referred to as Exurbs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exurb

[kaykay]

I agree with Socketz about the crime in Dallas. And yes, I DID live in Dallas for many years. ( Southeast which admittedly, is a rather bad area) My husband was born and raised here, but it's not the same as when he grew up. You may know from some of my other postings that my husband and I WERE victims of crime in Dallas many times. (All the way from petty vandalisms and theft to attempted armed robbery.) THAT is why we live in Plano now. I can't speak to teaching in the high schools. I'm sure a lot depends on the area.