My twin might be moving to TX from CA. Any suggestions

of decent places/communities/developments? to live between Ft. Worth and Dallas, preferably near a lake? Her husband thinks he's going to be transferred. Thanks!

Edited to add: they'd prefer a non-dry county/area. Is Arlington still dry? I was there many years ago, so know a lot has changed. Also, they are Dems, which might make this even tougher!

nt

November, December and January.

However it's all relative: if she's coming from LA, we won't seem too polluted.

Can't be worse than Houston or Southern CA. And remaining sane is pretty subjective. :evilgrin:

Seriously, FW has Benbrook, Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain

Lake Grapevine to the north, near the airport.

Joe Pool Lake

White Rock Lake

Lake Arlington

Possum Kingdom to the West of Fort Worth

Lake Ray Hubband to the east of Dallas

Who is she going to work for?

MidCities starts at the South with Arlington and Grand Prairie, then Euless, Bedford, Hurst, North Richland Hills, Richland Hills and Haltom City to the north, plus Grapevine/Colleyville/Keller in Tarrant County.

Dallas and FW are about 35 miles apart and the area between is pretty full. To drive from the west loop on the west side of Fort Worth to the 635/LBJ interchange in Mesquite on the east side of Dallas is a good 60 minute if the traffic is light. (like in the middle of the night on Sunday)

Depends on where they are going to be working. If they are going to work in FW I would recommend staying on the West side of the metroplex.

Austin, San Antonio, even El Paso BUT not Dallas-Ft. Worth (unless you absolutely have to). It's flat, no trees, too hot. And the home of Dick, and I do mean dick, Armey.

and I live less than five miles from downtown Dallas. If you don't live here how can you have an accurate opinion? Dallas PROPER is a great place, surrounded by a ring of (somewhat icky) suburbs.

by my standards. I'm sure there are nice places but, in general, it was big, fat, and, relative to most places (your yard excepted) treeless. I don't like flat, empty spaces so that's my prejudice. Like I said, Austin, oh yeah, or some of the small towns, e.g., Georgetown and that German place. Sorry, did not mean to offend Dallas; especially after Dallas County elected a lesbian sherriff...on second thought, move there immediately. It's Howard Stern Country.

a trans-sexual city council member. I'm going to go volunteer for her campaign next week. It'll be hard to tell this place from San Francisco. :evilgrin:

Let the healing begin. :cry:

and we have a nice friendly downtown,too. And plenty nice trees,
see below


from my front yard

no it isn't as lush as Austin or Houston but not as humid either.


Great zoo, botanic garden, three fabulous art museums, a science museum, and the CowGirlHall of Fame within spittin'distance of one another,
great live theatre, concerts, symphony, ballet, relaxed lifestyle,
mild winters most of the time, real hot summers unfortunately, friendly people,

If he can live in Dallas proper, White Rock Lake is in the middle of things. It's small but cute and wonderful. Pricey real estate on the west side of the lake -- but probably not to someone moving from CA. East side is a little more affordable. My neighborhood!

Dallas is wet, and Dallas proper is blue. The further out in the burbs you go the redder you get.

I think my sister said closer to Ft. Worth but will have to verify. They've been poring over maps and don't have a clue. I'll find out where they'll be closer to and post.

We have always been dry, but recently a referendum passed where our nearby grocery now carries beer and wine. Yay! And restaurants serve liquor, but you have to show a "Unicard."

And although we could definitely use the company out here, crispini is right. White Rock Lake is the nicest, and the area around it is the bluest.

And after California rents and mortgages, the housing rates here will be positively puny!

Let us know when she gets here, and get her on DU! We're having a meetup just this weekend for DeposeTheBoyKing because she's moving here. We love new people!

FSC

It's to the north of Dallas, and the commute in the morning SUCKS coming down I-35.

Plus, I lived in Lewisville a few years ago, and it was dry. It blew.

I'm not sure if things have changed any there in the last 8 years, but their power company was also different than most of the rest of the area. It was freaking LEGALIZED EXTORTION. January of 1997, I had my heat on as little as possible, used my fireplace, kept tons of blankets on my couch and bed, wore sweats everywhere inside, plus two sweaters and two pairs of socks, and still paid $200 a month on utilities for a ONE BEDROOM APARTMENT.

It was mortifying. The only time in my life I've ever had utilities shut off. I couldn't afford to pay any of my other bills because my utility bills were killing me!

Anyone know if Texas New Mexico Power Company is still around? Because if they aren't, I'm rejoicing right now.

FSC

I don't pay that much for my three-bedroom house in August---and I'm not shy about cranking up the airconditioning.

I asked the manager at the apartment complex if I might have a major insulation leak somewhere, and she said, "Nope, it's the power company. We're paying $100 in vacant apartments just the keep the pipes from freezing!"

I left Lewsiville as fast as was humanly possible when my lease was up!

FSC

I'll be forwarding this thread to my sister. Hopefully I'll get her to post here one day. :hi:

You mentioned close to Fort Worth. Considering gas prices and traffic, I'd say live as close as absolutely possible to the job. My husband's niece and her husband moved here a few years ago. They bought a house in Arlington, knowing that the husband was going to be working in Dallas (pretty close to Grapevine). Now, the niece works on the far northwest side of Fort Worth. Personally, I think it's insane! That's a lot of money, and time behind the wheel, not to mention the aggravation.

Though we can't make an official claim of being blue, there are obviously quite a few of us blue folks living here, and Fort Worth really is a wonderful place to live. If you can let us know where the brother-in-law will be working, at least down to what area of town, we can be way more specific about where to live.

:)

They might want to consider Grapevine. It's in the midcities area. I just moved here from another part of the midcities and I really like it. It's close to a number of freeways, so you can get anywhere, and it's just a really cool city. They have great public facilities and there's lots of cool small businesses around. There's some very low income spots all the way up to multi-million dollar houses, but overall it's pretty nice. Lake Grapevine is near a lot of the housing areas, I live in an apartment about 5-10 minutes away from the lake.

The only detraction for them is that they do sell beer and wine. And the city is very proud of it's wine-making heritage (hence the name of the city) and there's Grapefest celebrating it. But if their concern is with drunk driving or that sort of thing, I haven't ever seen a big problem with that.

No, my family is pretty liberal (well, most of them) and likes to indulge in cocktails occasionally, be it at home or in a restaurant. Again, thanks, and I'm forwarding this thread to sis. BTW, is Grapevine closer to Ft. Worth or Dallas? Ft. Worth seems to be the possible eventual job destination.

for anyone who asked for clarification. Thanks!

Sorry, don't mean to keep bugging you, but the metroplex is HUGE. Fort Worth alone is very large, and surrounded by many smaller cities. There are nice places to live all over the map, and lakes aren't hard to come by, either!

Anyway, details about the specific area would be helpful so that those of us that live here can give you more useful information.

If IN Fort Worth, what part: downtown, south, north, east, west or any variation thereof? Arlington? Mid Cities: Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Haltom City, North Richland Hills, Watauga? Grapevine or DFW Airport area? And there are at least a dozen more options.

For example, I live on the southwest side, between Fort Worth and Crowley. But I wouldn't recommend living here to someone who works in somewhere like Hurst--too far of a commute. It's closer to the northeast side of Fort Worth.

thanks. Will pass this along to my sister and maybe she can pinpoint what area in Ft. Worth he'd be working in. I think maybe they don't realize just how big it is and I'm sure they'll be grateful on any info that would save time commuting, especially coming from SoCal. I'll get back to you!

Well, as a Californian who moved to Texas, I would avoid Irving. It's ok enough, but first of all (as we found out too late) it's dry. It's @#!#@$ dry! I'm still trying to figure how someone in this city didn't get the memo that Prohibition was repealed. Also, in our part of Irving (Valley Ranch), there is more than the average share of Stepford, Hummer-driving soccer moms from Hell, with their W stickers and yellow-ribbon magnets. Same goes for Coppell. Someone mentioned the hellish traffic that is part of Lewisville. I'd second that.

Also avoid Plano and Colleyville, which to me, exemplify the worst of Texas suburban life.

Arlington appears a little rough. Look at the mid-Cities area, closer to Fort Worth. It's not as Red as I had thought. In fact, we may move closer to FW, into Tarrant County.

Ariel

get over here the better!!!!!

And we were told when we purchased that it's approximately 50% "Desi" (from the Indian subcontinent). In our neighborhood I have yet to see anyone who is not "Desi" or from another part of Asia. The other day I had my hair done by a Korean woman, while behind me a Romanian woman was getting her hair done by an Iranian man. I've found this area to be very diverse, at least ethnically. Of course, I haven't gotten into too many political discussions yet!