This move is financially impossible for them to turn down. They came over and told the wife and I. We are both happy as hell for them but inside both of us feel like a huge piece of our lives is being torn away. My son and I golf, shoot, ski, etc. together very often. We also have each other over to our houses a couple of times a month. FUCK, the wife and I are devastatingly happy. We are now very empty nesters.

Any Dallas-Fort Worth members advice on safer areas to live would be very much appreciated.

The DFW metroplex is pretty spread out. Where about will they need to be for work? Commutes from one place to another can be very long. I currently live in the far north east area, east of Plano, and find everything around here safe.

A way I judge neighborhoods is based on the retailers they have. Excluding downtown, a good neighborhood will have these but not limited to retailers:
1. Rolex
2. Tiffany & Co
3. Apple

You get the point, living near a Rolex dealer is much better than Cricket Wireless and Payday loans.

My sister lives in Plano, West of I-45. Very nice area.

quote:

Originally posted by Jbb45:
The DFW metroplex is pretty spread out. Where about will they need to be for work? Commutes from one place to another can be very long. I currently live in the far north east area, east of Plano, and find everything around here safe.

^^ THIS ^^

I used to live in the DFW Metroplex and still visit regularly. It's 11 counties and is 97% the size of the states of Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island combined. If you choose poorly for living location then your drive to work can be an eternity.

You have to start with a work location and go from there. I went to SMU in Dallas and if I could not live in Florida, I would move back in a heartbeat.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
My sister lives in Plano, West of I-45. Very nice area.

This is physically impossible since I-45 ends in downtown, but 12131's general advice for Plano is sound.

As others said, it depends on where they will work, if they will fly regularly for work and even that comes down to whether it will be mainly Southwest or American/other airlines since they operate primarily out of different airports.

Plano and all points north of that sector are nice. Prices are crazy for homes still. Traffic is awful most of the time, mitigated some by the tollways.

DFW is YUGE(!!) so starting with a 10 mile area surrounding primary needs is key. Yes there are some shitty areas in town roughly the size of other small-sized cities, but very unlikely they'll have any geographic need to be near that.

Been here over 20 years, where they work will impact where they live, unless they enjoy very lengthy commutes.

I live in a town in Tarrant County, closer to Ft Worth than Dallas. Everything I need is here, from low-brow up to high brow, and occasionally when we need to hit the big city for dinner or something, we drive to Ft Worth. Tarrant is a conservative county, my town and surrounding ones governed by conservatives. Life is very nice here, my wife and I love it.

quote:

Originally posted by xd45man:
You get the point, living near a Rolex dealer is much better than Cricket Wireless and Payday loans.

You left out Bob's Bail Bonds.

As for living areas, I'm in the Houston area, so can't help with Dallas. But I will echo what others are saying in that where they will be working is probably the driving decision maker of where they will live. In that sense, it's very much like Houston and the surrounding area.

I hope you and the Mrs. can find a way to cope with their being gone...

Can you be more specific about the area they're moving to? DFW and it's surrounding suburbs is a large area.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
My sister lives in Plano, West of I-45. Very nice area.

This is physically impossible since I-45 ends in downtown...
.

Driving up there, I've always considered US-75 to be I-45, but you're absolutely right.

Like several have already posted, work commute is a major consideration. Highways going toward downtown FW & Dallas will be heavy. Into/out of Dallas - 75, 35E north, I30 east of Dallas, 183/114 and Dallas North Tollway. I30 west between Ft. Worth and Dallas is manageable. The especially heavy areas for Dallas is the small loop around downtown Dallas - Woodall Rogers and the south "Canyon." I30 east of Dallas is also usually bad because of the narrow lanes, and short line of sight due elevation changes and winding highways.

On the Ft. Worth side, there are only two stretch of roads to avoid. 35W from downtown and northward to the 287 split, and 820N between 35W eastward to the interchange in North Richland Hills for 820N/820E/183.

I been living in the DFW area since '78 with the exception of a few years in Houston for college. Any cities on this line of connected cities and northward are good cities to live and raise kids- Keller, Colleyville, Bedford, Grapevine, Coppell, Lewisville(some areas), Carrollton (northern), Plano, Murphy, Sachse & Wylie.

Exceptionally good public school districts are Southlake Carroll, Grapevine-Colleyville, Highland Park, Prosper, Allen and Plano.

For me if I was to relocate, I would look at the Colleyville, Southlake & Grapevine areas. They are centrally located with manageable rush hour traffic if you know the side streets, excellent schools, low crime, mostly conservative, high middle income to affluent neighborhood.

The only southern outlier city to consider is Mansfield. This area is growing incredibly fast and the surrounding areas are still developing. So the only drawback is it is out of the way from most areas where your friends will likely be living up north.

We live in McKinney (Collin County) and I work in McKinney, Allen, , Plano, Farmersville, Celina, Frisco, and Wylie (all in Collin County).

I drive 400-700 miles a month in the county going to 10 college campuses. There are good areas in all these towns, as well as not so good.

My middle daughter lives in Dallas near I75 and Walnut Hill. She works mostly from home but her office is in Addison.

My wife works in Frisco.

If we can be of any assistance, my email is in my profile.

I also have other family in Ft Worth, Dallas near White Rock Lake, Frisco, and South Lake.

Ken

I live in "Dallandson"--the part of NE Dallas that borders Garland to the east and Richardson to the north. This is not a high-class neighborhood, but I've not experienced a lot of crime. Heavy Asiatic presence and mixed neighborhoods by race. My Congressman is a Democrat (drat!). Close to Richland Community College and Restland Cemetery. Hospital nearby. I'm told the schools are pretty good, but don't have children.

I've been in this area now for 42 years, but have been retired since 2006. Don't have any fancy tastes. Indoor range about 3 miles away. Some decent restaurants/cafés within the area are Red Lobster, Outback, Cotton Patch, Dickie's, and Judy's. Lots of Tex-Mex places. Too many fast-food places (but I use them). Closest mall is called Richardson Square--no major department stores, but Target and Lowe's are there (Sears used to be but closed).

Wouldn't actually recommend it for your kid, but it's reasonably safe.

flashguy

I blew it, sorry about that, not posting where the job is. Looks like my son's significant other will be working at the Dannon Co as a plant safety director. The address is 1300 W Peter Smith St, Fort Worth, TX. Looking on the map Looks like it is off of I30 near S Henderson St. more Fort Worth than Dallas. Sorry I know zip about the city(ies) other than their airport. Looks like it's close to I30 intersecting with I35W. Not sure what commutes would be like (probably not so good) for the business hour travel. So safe, and easy commute would come second.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
My sister lives in Plano, West of I-45. Very nice area.

This is physically impossible since I-45 ends in downtown...
.

Driving up there, I've always considered US-75 to be I-45, but you're absolutely right.

I knew what you meant when you wrote I-45.

There is a definite change east of 75. They would do better by comparison to look to the west of Hwy 75 in that basic latitude.

Were I moving here right now, I'd go to Mckinney. Especially if they have kids.

quote:

Originally posted by Bytes:
I blew it, sorry about that, not posting where the job is. Looks like my son's significant other will be working at the Dannon Co as a plant safety director. The address is 1300 W Peter Smith St, Fort Worth, TX. Looking on the map Looks like it is off of I30 near S Henderson St. more Fort Worth than Dallas. Sorry I know zip about the city(ies) other than their airport. Looks like it's close to I30 intersecting with I35W. Not sure what commutes would be like (probably not so good) for the business hour travel. So safe, and easy commute would come second.

Know that area well. Are they going to be looking for an apartment or house?

I lived in Plano for a year and the commute to/fro downtown was approx a half-hour in rush hour. Never could get used to the dry heat, the consistent traffic noise and lack of vegetation. I'll admit to being a somewhat speedy driver but every commute in DFW was a serious testament in defensive driving.

quote:

Originally posted by Ox190:
Know that area well. Are they going to be looking for an apartment or house?

House, they have too much stuff for an apartment.