Single, African American Males May be Moving to Texas (Dallas: 2013, apartment)

[BobR792]

Hello:

I am a 51 year old, single African American professional. My company is contemplating a move to Texas from Sacramento CA due to the business climate. I would like some advice with respect to Dallas vs Austin in the following areas:

1) I grew up in the Northeast and moved to CA 2 years ago. I am very concern about the attitudes that I will encounter with respect to Race both in terms of dating and day to day encounters. What should I expect? I tend to date educated women of various races.

2) I prefer urban living where I can live in a nice neighborhood that is walkable to good restaurants, clubs, etc. Can you recommend areas that I should look into, typical rents/ condo prices for a 2 bed/ 2 bath apartment, and how a single, middle-aged African American might fare in the dating scene?

3) what is the nightlife/ social and cultural scene?

4) Any good, upscale health club suggestions?

5) Summer and winter weather

I appreciate the assistance!

Bob

[EzPeterson]

1. 99% of your encounters will be a total non-issue. There's always the random moron out there, but it's reaslly no different than Sacto in this regard.

2. Both cities have great downtown scenes. I'm partial to Austin, but it will be more expensive (~$2K/mo for what you're looking for) and it will skew younger, which can hurt the dating scene. Dallas is a bit more mature.

3. There's probably 100 threads on this subject out there. I'd recommend visiting both areas - very much a "different strokes for different folks" dynamic. Dallas probably has a bit more upscale club scene, Austin is definitely more of a college town (although it does have a growing "mature" scene. Both are far better than Sac

4. Lifetime Fitness

5. Austin - Summer = Hot, really hot. No delta effect, so it doesn't cool off at night like Sac does. Again, 100's of threads on this topic in the Austin forum. Winter is cooler, but very nice. The random freeze every now and then, and 1" of snow every 4 years.

Dallas - Summer = Hot. Not as hot as Austin, but close enough that you probably can't tell the difference. Winter is far cooler, most of the arctic fronts make it into N Texas, so you'll find more ice/snow storms through there.

You might want to consider doing a search in the respective sub-forums and posting further inquiries in each one to get a little more info.

[CptnRn]

You already asked this question in the Dallas Forum //www.city-data.com/forum/texas...ay-moving.html

Did you read the responses there?

[xsatyr]

Since you're coming from Cali then I would go with Austin. Also your race is a non-issue for any major city in Texas.

Edit: In regards to your other thread- I suggest you read the opinions in this thread. It's going to be biased in the Dallas forum.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by BobR792

Hello:

I am a 51 year old, single African American professional. My company is contemplating a move to Texas from Sacramento CA due to the business climate. I would like some advice with respect to Dallas vs Austin in the following areas:

1) I grew up in the Northeast and moved to CA 2 years ago. I am very concern about the attitudes that I will encounter with respect to Race both in terms of dating and day to day encounters. What should I expect? I tend to date educated women of various races.

That wouldn't be an issue in either city, but DFW is much more diverse than Austin is. Austin in particular doesn't have near as large a black community as Dallas does, nor as strong professional networking opportunities for black professionals. My black friends in the area would probably laugh if I suggested Austin to them as a place to live. It's a nice enough place to live but it is mostly white (49%) and Hispanic (35%). It's 8% black. Austin is also segregated...I think it's more segregated than DFW. Others may feel differently and if they do I'm sure they'll speak up.

DFW is 69% white, 22% Hispanic, and 14% black. Dallas itself is 51% white (29% non-Hispanic white), 42% Hispanic, and 25% black. (Remember Hispanics can be of any race.) It's only in the last census that Hispanics pulled ahead of blacks as the largest "minority" group in the city...whatever "minority" means these days.

Sadly Dallas itself is also pretty segregated, though it isn't nearly as bad as it was when I was a kid. For the most part, south/southeast Dallas is predominantly black, Oak Cliff and southwest Dallas are predominantly Hispanic, northwest Dallas is Asian/Hispanic, and north/northeast Dallas is white.

2) I prefer urban living where I can live in a nice neighborhood that is walkable to good restaurants, clubs, etc. Can you recommend areas that I should look into, typical rents/ condo prices for a 2 bed/ 2 bath apartment, and how a single, middle-aged African American might fare in the dating scene?

Uptown in Dallas fits the bill from a lifestyle standpoint, though it skews very white and quite young, mostly under 35. Might want to look into downtown Dallas itself, or possibly North Oak Cliff; it has a more suburban feel than the other neighborhoods but many neighborhoods were built before car ownership was common so they have a more 'tight', walkable feel to them. Whether they're your cup of tea isn't for me to say.

I don't think people in Uptown would make you feel uncomfortable due to your age/race. This is 2013, after all. I wouldn't feel comfortable there due to the age/race makeup, and I'm a 38 year-old white woman.

3) what is the nightlife/ social and cultural scene?

Depends on what you're into and who you're asking.

4) Any good, upscale health club suggestions?

Several...it depends on where you end up living and how far you're willing to drive. Lifetime Fitness is nice enough (at Mockingbird and 75); the Cooper Aerobics Center in north Dallas (Preston between Forest and LBJ) offers a country club-like atmosphere but it's pricey and hard to get to from a lot of the 'urban' neighborhoods.

5) Summer and winter weather

Summers here are hell on Earth. What's winter?

[War Beagle]

As far as your concern about race, the northeast is, overall, much more segregated than is Texas.

[Spider-Man 2099]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

Sadly Dallas itself is also pretty segregated, though it isn't nearly as bad as it was when I was a kid. For the most part, south/southeast Dallas is predominantly black, Oak Cliff and southwest Dallas are predominantly Hispanic, northwest Dallas is Asian/Hispanic, and north/northeast Dallas is white.

I hate when people say stuff like this about a place as diverse as Dallas. Going by your logic, NYC---the most diverse city in America---is even more "segregated" than Dallas. One thing you will notice about Dallas is that regardless of what neighborhood people live in, when people are out and about or go out to have fun in bars, clubs, sporting events, etc, they mix VERY easily and know how to have a great time regardless of their race; I don't think you really know what true segregation is and it's sad that you are misrepresenting Dallas in that regard to people who are interested in visiting and moving there.

[Kibby]

Texas is diverse and has been for a long time. Some cities were desegregated soon after WWII in the south and western part of the State and some never were segregated in the ranching areas.

She was probably referring to neighborhoods - there are a lot of majority black neighborhoods in Dallas. No segregation at all, it's choice - blacks have moved out all across the city, but you will definitely find Dallas neighborhoods with no white people.

Austin used to be divided by I-35 - blacks lived east of 35, whites lived west of 35. It was that way 30-40 years ago, but not so much now. A town like Arlington or even most of the mid-cites in the DFW area simply don't have any black neighborhoods. You can't find a single street in all of Arlington that has all black families. That's not the case with the Asian population in the mid-cities - when they came to North Texas after Vietnam, they clustered in certain areas and seem to want to do that. I think that's fairly common in most cities.

[TX75007]

North Dallas Suburbs are the 3rd most diverse region in the US outside of NYC and San Fran. And its friendlier than both. Mixed couples of all age groups from HS to elderly are common as are bi racial kids. Mixed first and second marriages are common. No one even blinks an eye.

Austin is not as mixed and diverse.

I dated a black physician for two years. I look white ( I am more Indian than white) and we had no problems North of 635. She got some push back from blacks in Dallas and the older white Liberals in the Dallas core shunned me after I brought her to some parties. This was around 2001. The same pretty much goes for the darker side of my family - my nephews get pulled over when they drive my Lexus ISF in areas S of 635 but no problems N of it.

As far as jobs go and other activities, Dallas has Austin beat, due to the larger population of the DFW area and the better managing of growth in DFW.

Climate wise, Austin is drier and hotter with less rainfall and far less pronounced seasons. That being said, DFW actually has more cloud free days than Sac does, so winters are not as dreary as the long wet months you can see in California.

As far as "urban" living goes. Uptown is fine. But there are other walkable areas and you should check them out. The Legacy area in Plano and Austin Ranch are both walkable. And there are other developments going in or almost done in the same general area. Las Colinas is also doing well. Ultimately, it will come down to where your job is located.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Spider-Man 2099

I hate when people say stuff like this about a place as diverse as Dallas. Going by your logic, NYC---the most diverse city in America---is even more "segregated" than Dallas. One thing you will notice about Dallas is that regardless of what neighborhood people live in, when people are out and about or go out to have fun in bars, clubs, sporting events, etc, they mix VERY easily and know how to have a great time regardless of their race; I don't think you really know what true segregation is and it's sad that you are misrepresenting Dallas in that regard to people who are interested in visiting and moving there.

Seriously? You're going to look at a map of Dallas broken down by ethnicity and tell me with a straight face that it isn't segregated?