Dallas to Savannah (Atlanta, Denton, Bluffton: apartments, crime, houses)

[BPWilliams]

My wife and I (both 25, without kids) are living in Richardson, a suburb of Dallas, Texas and want out! I grew up in Dallas, and after going to college in a smaller town in Texas and living in Shreveport, LA I'm having a hard time readjusting to a big city and everything that comes with that, I'm missing the small cities and towns I've lived in over the last few years. My wife is from Shreveport, Louisiana and she has never adjusted to this place and the 1 hour commute is driving her crazy. We love the South, and feel that the bigger that Dallas gets the more it loses its Southern and Texan feel, and that breaks our hearts. To put it simply, we want to be back in a place that just oozes Southern.

I've lost my job in the last few months, my degree is in public relations and my last job was in marketing, but I'm not particular. My wife has her degrees in archaelogy and political science and a master's in Art History from UNC. She wants to start a career in historical preservation, but hasn't had any luck so far.

We know we want to move to the Southeast (we haven't exactly settled on which city so I'm trying to find out what I can about the ones we like) so I have been sending resumes out that way for a while now, but I know its going to be hard to land a job without actually be there. We're thinking that if we want to be out there so bad, we might as well just move in the next few months and take the risk and land a job when we get there. We have plenty of savings to get along for the better part of a year. So, any advice, tips or knowledge from moves without having a job lined up and about Savannah itself would be appreciated!

Please let me know if I could provide any more information that would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

[Just Plain Al]

"We're thinking that if we want to be out there so bad, we might as well just move in the next few months and take the risk and land a job when we get there. We have plenty of savings to get along for the better part of a year."

You're young.
You don't like it where you are.
Why wait?
And it don't matter where you live,
You live in Savannah, and don't like it?
Leave.
You live in/outside Dallas, and don't like it?
Leave.
Life is waaay tooo short to waste it hating where you are.

You want Southern?
We got Southern.
There are jobs to be had.
If you need to get a job.
But with enough savings, you would have some time to get a feel for the area, and decide if it's for you.

[hookem89]

I'm actually from Savannah, in Atlanta for college currently, and plan to move to Dallas when I graduate with my degree in accounting, as I've never been west of Georgia. What can you tell me about Dallas/dallas suburbs?

[BPWilliams]

Originally Posted by hookem89

I'm actually from Savannah, in Atlanta for college currently, and plan to move to Dallas when I graduate with my degree in accounting, as I've never been west of Georgia. What can you tell me about Dallas/dallas suburbs?

What kinds of things do you want to know? Are you looking for anything in particular like neighborhoods, traffic, entertainment?

I'll go ahead and say this, since you'd be right out of college and probably want to meet people in a new city, I wouldn't suggest any of the suburbs. Stick with the core areas of Dallas...Uptown, Knox-Henderson and The Village apartments area are social areas for young people.

[BPWilliams]

Originally Posted by Just Plain Al

"We're thinking that if we want to be out there so bad, we might as well just move in the next few months and take the risk and land a job when we get there. We have plenty of savings to get along for the better part of a year."

You're young.
You don't like it where you are.
Why wait?
And it don't matter where you live,
You live in Savannah, and don't like it?
Leave.
You live in/outside Dallas, and don't like it?
Leave.
Life is waaay tooo short to waste it hating where you are.

You want Southern?
We got Southern.
There are jobs to be had.
If you need to get a job.
But with enough savings, you would have some time to get a feel for the area, and decide if it's for you.

Thanks for the advice, I agree. Also, there are some programs at SCAD and USC Beaufort that my wife and I are interested in that would make this move more rational.

[hookem89]

How is Frisco?


As for Savannah, I was born and raised there. Crime was always a problem, but not on the islands where I lived. After elementary/middle school, the only public high schools were in the city, which were all mostly black, so I ended up being the only white guy in most of my classes. I guess it's just natural to dislike the city you were born in and want to move out once you graduate high school, but then again I meet students at GT who lived in the northern suburbs and went to high schools with all white kids, where the students didn't beat up their teachers and wish that I had been able to go to a safe high school.

[BPWilliams]

Originally Posted by hookem89

How is Frisco?

It's a great suburb, my wife actually works there. The Frisco RoughRiders, AA club for the Texas Rangers, play there in a really great stadium, Dr. Pepper Ballpark, that kind of looks like Churchill Downs. There is also Pizza Hut Park where FC Dallas (MLS soccer) play and there are a lot of concerts there. The Dallas Stars have their practice facilities out in Frisco as well. There is a really nice main street area and the shopping is excellent. I suggest you try Babe's Fried Chicken if that is where you end up. My families farm used to be out in Frisco, until we sold it to developers...wish we hadn't done that.

It's basically as far north as you can live, besides McKinney and Denton, and still be considered part of DFW. The downside, to me at least, is that it is pure cookie-cutter. The houses and apartments all look the same, and there aren't a lot of trees. One of the reasons that we want to leave here is because its pretty geographically uninteresting. North of Dallas is basically just prairie land. If it weren't for those personal reasons that my wife and I have then it would be a perfectly great place to be. If you manage to find work in the Plano area then commuting won't be that bad at all, however, a drive from Frisco to downtown Dallas is pretty rough down the Dallas North Tollway. Also, great schools, btw, if that is something you're thinking about for the future. Since you talked about crime in Savannah...I don't claim to know any statistics about Frisco, but I imagine that crime is extremely low or next to none.

Let me know if there is anything else you'd like to know.

[BPWilliams]

My wife is considering a certificate program at SCAD and there is a program at USC Beaufort that I am interested in. Not sure how we'd split the difference...do people live in Bluffton or Beaufort and drive into Savannah?

[ellie]

They do, but it's a long haul.

[BPWilliams]

Originally Posted by ellie

They do, but it's a long haul.

Google Maps says 40 minutes from Bluffton to Savannah. Is that accurate?