z31maniac

It's very likely my wife and I will be relocating somewhere in the DFW area in the next 12-24 months. I'm tired of the lack of opportunities for my job in the Tulsa area. It would also benefit my wife who travels every week for work, since leaving DFW would allow her a direct flight to anywhere in her territory.

I'm a Senior-level Technical Writer with a $140,xxx,xxx company, have developed all the standards, implemented the scalable architecture for the new publishing software, etc.


I know the traffic and housing prices will be the biggest shock versus Tulsa. What else should I consider, what are the decent and crummy parts of town, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

z31maniac

A bunch of right ***** you are.

Opti

I live here. I like it. Dallas is a miserable, horrible place. Ive only been there a handful of times and Ill never go back. Cant tell you too much else about it

Cost of living/housing isnt so bad if you big one of the many communities just outside of town, hell its not even that bad in down town fort worth, I have more than a few friends who live in nice apartments in downtown.

As far as bad parts, its a pretty huge metro area, kinda hard to gve you a list of everything, but someone on here said to look up where all the boost mobile locations are and avoid those.

Is there a specific place you're looking at.

Im just outside Fort Worth to the west.

z31maniac

No, not yet. We wouldn't move until next summer at the earliest.

We have to do some stuff to our house to get it ready for sale first. Then get it sold.

Corky Bell

Dallas has a lot going for it if you are under 40, or so. Huge place, fast pace, has everything, going over to the mean side, absolutely chock full of non-Texans. Expensive. A family income of about $150/200k would do reasonably well, otherwise, a long commute or lower your expectations. Many fine restaurants, much entertainment. Sports. Racing at several venues within 200 miles. Dallas has the most beautiful women in the world. No explanation available.

Fort Worth: Almost like a different country. Lots of outlying villages that are pretty neat and entirely habitable. Cheaper, but not cheap. Chock full of Texans.

The entire area is very hot in the summer and frosty in the winter. Three/four freeze ups per year.

There are two class big cities in Texas: Austin and San Antonio. Much more moderate climate. The Hill Country. Lakes, racing, industry, military, science, medicine, R&D, great foods, Universities, friendly, courteous, superb motorcycling, easy access to the great west Texas areas of Alpine, Marfa, Ft. Davis, and Big Bend, hunting, gun shows, major airports, you get the idea.

I've spent 25 years in Dallas, and 24 in SA.

The wonderful fact remains; even living in Big D, you are in Texas.

Corky

jacob300zx

Hustler lives there, he's cute and gives blowies.

z31maniac

I was hoping he'd chime in, but apparently can't pull himself away from being the bukkake receiver to give an answer.

I spoke with a recruiter today and she said if I was ready to move now she'd already have a job for me at a $10k a year raise.

Hopefully as it gets closer, other good opportunities should pop up. Although it looks like most/all of the raise will go toward housing.

Girz0r

iTrader: (1)

Indeed, Austin is awsome!

Loads of activities, lots of business in the area, music capital blablabla. I'm more interested into the hill country, plenty of long roads to stretch out the miata when needed. But don't assume Dallas isn't just as awsome, its a big city that I've never really explored. And simply "Looks fun".

This is why it's fun.

TheBandit

iTrader: (8)

Hate to hear your leaving t-town, but I can understand your reasons. I've worked for several places and have finally found a place that I feel like I will stay for quite a while (McElroy Mfg). I think it would be tough for me as there just seems to be so damn many people. I like living on acreage that's affordable and somewhat convenient.

z31maniac

Agreed. It's not a done deal yet.

But for instance I work for a LARGE manufacturing company here, we are facing at least 80 hours of furloughs before the end of the year with the possibility of 40 more (last week of the year shutdown) if business doesn't turn around.

My last place, a defense company, went through the same thing. MerCruiser before that as well.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

I like living in Granbury. It gets hilly and dry fast as you go West. There's even a difference between FTW and Dallas from that aspect. I'd take FTW over Dallas in a heartbeat. Downtown FTW is really nice.

hustler

iTrader: (6)

I agree with Corky's sentiments on Dallas and San Antonio, I don't think he's been to Austin in ~5-10 years and don't blame him. For some reason it's become the worst of Dallas and Denton. However, traffic is friendly to the cyclist there and it's still a great town if you can afford it.

The reasons I live in Dallas are, well, I have an office in Denton and in Lewisville I'm half way between the office and Dallas. I live on the west side of Lewisville, basically Flower Mound, and it's great for...you guessed it, CYCLING!!!

Move to Dallas if you can be close to your job and don't have to commute because the traffic is getting awful, fast.

Houston will suck your soul out of your *******, it's New Orleans West with extreme crime and big-city problems. You also must only turn left on a green arrow. It takes 30-45 minutes to travel <10 miles in the loop in Houston on a weekday at lunch. Do not move there unless you are soulless.

San Antonio is really cool and it's so close to the proper hill country and desert. Also, I can stay at your place when I go on climbing trips out there on the bicycle.

hornetball

iTrader: (4)

Flower Mound is nice. Has been rating among the top places to live in recent polls.

Houston took in a lot of Katrina refugees. It's never recovered from that. Used to be much more civil. It's always been a hot, sticky swamp though.

Nice to see Hustler posting outside his cycling thread.

z31maniac

I have no soul, but I despise Houston. If I never have to go back, it will be too soon. A company would have to go 3-4x above market value for my services for me to consider it.......and I don't see Tech Writers making $250k+ a year any time soon.


Now it's actually looking more and more like Kansas City might be where we end up. 2nd fastest growing Tech Sector in the country (outside of Silicone Valley), close to Heartland Park and Lincoln. Bigger than Tulsa, but not Dallas huge and still a lot more opportunities.

Pitlab77

iTrader: (3)

No really Houston is not bad at all. There is something for everyone from first class museums (world renown), symphony, one of the better zoos in the country, major sports teams, many parks and out door recreational centers. If you think Houston is souless then you have not really had the time to explore the city.

And when you says Houston what do you mean, Innerloop, BW8 loop, the Hwy 99 loop. You really have to take the whole city and its suburbs into consideration. We have many of the "top" neighborhoods in the country. Hell I can see cows from out my window, be to a state park in 20, be at a ball game in 15, and in an affluent metropolis in 10 either North or East from my house.

Every thing on that map is considered "Houston" to us down here

I personally have found the Big D to be "Souless" and San Antonio to be more rundown than Houston.

Most people that says houston sucks have never really explored it. That even goes for people that live here in Houston.

z31maniac

I hate Houston, I've visited multiple times. I have no interest in being there.

And being a typical woman she has swung back to our initial thought of Dallas, I actually think we are going to come down at the end of December and hang out for a few days.


Side note: Do you guys have vehicle inspections? Emissions testing?

In OK, no inspection, no emissions testing, no nothing. So you're basically free to modify your cars how you want.

calteg

iTrader: (18)

Subtle "I make $70k\yr" post.

Yes, TX has both vehicle inspections and emissions testing. Unless your vehicle is diesel, then it's just inspection.

The inspection is a joke. As long as brake lights work, OBD2 isn't throwing any codes, you have windshield wipers (but not a windshield, it's not required), and the tires look like they might be above 2/32, you'll pass.

I was born and raised in DFW, and while it's not a shithole, there's surprisingly little to do for a city that size. Lots of 30k millionaires...it's definitely the L.A. of Texas. It's also flat and almost completely paved over.

That being said, they have a few really good gun ranges, a burgeoning craft beer scene in Deep Ellum, a more active motorsports scene than Austin, a true international airport, and parts of DFW are still pretty affordable.

Austin > DFW > San Antonio > Houston

bbundy

I lived in Arlington, downtown Ft-worth and Flower Mound over the course of 12 years. Glad I left. Cycling in Texas LOL. I rode my bike from Flower mound to Denton for work for about 5 years and spent way too much time mountianbiking the north shore of Lake Grapevine, worked at Bikes Inc in Bedford for much of my college age career before that with a short stint at Velosports in FTW. If you think that area is a cycling mecca you need to get out more. More recently going back it just seems like a conjested mess and massive amounts of people. Lots of work to do for less money.

Girz0r

iTrader: (1)

TX inspection is a joke, but still a pita I usually have to reset my MSM's codes a day before inspection, get in there 'just in time' before my CEL pops on for misc stuff. I also have a switch to turn off the CEL light before I go in case the CEL decides to come back on during the inspection.

As for the car scene in ATX, its slowly coming back. No where near DFW status but getting there. Most here seem to garage their vehicles and dont take them out daily for fun.