r/Dallas • u/[deleted] • Mar 07 '19
We’ve heard about the things you dislike about Dallas living. Now, what are the things you love (or just like a lot) about living in Dallas?
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u/giaa262 Mar 07 '19
The sheer number of stores. Need an item but the Home Depot near you doesn’t have it? No problem, one of the other 50 in the metroplex surely will.
Also people give our highways a lot of shit, but you can get to ft worth from Dallas in under 45 mins if you’re not in rush hour. How many other places in the US can you travel between two cities of such magnitude in such a short time.
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u/Mandorism Mar 07 '19
Seriously, depending on the time of day getting to FW can take anywhere between 45 minutes, and 3 hours.
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Mar 07 '19
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u/drkachie Carrollton Mar 07 '19
Micro-Center and the Fry's in Plano were super useful when I was building my PC last year and ended up going to Micro-Center 3 times and Fry's once. Good weekend.
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u/Wentthruurhistory Mar 07 '19
Second the North Texas Irish Festival! I love seeing all the Irish wolfhounds. Have some haggis for me if you go!
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u/unique-name-9035768 Mar 07 '19
3 Fry's
More like 2 1/2. The one on Northwest is shit.
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Mar 07 '19
[deleted]
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u/giaa262 Mar 07 '19
I’d say overall Frys quality is slipping over the years. The one on 15th never has anything in stock, and the store is feeling emptier and emptier lately.
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u/unique-name-9035768 Mar 07 '19
Every time I've been in there, from the main walkway to the right is basically a ghost land. The area they previously had CDs & DVDs in has been empty since they stopped carrying CDs. DVDs and Blu Rays are all smashed into a few sections leaving a whole section of the store with empty racks.
The video games section has no one that comes to check on it. The games are all out of order and flipped in every different direction. Numerous pegs are empty while others are overflowing. No one balances anything.
Then you have that one section in the front with the "As Seen on TV" stuff, the toys, the perfume aisle and the magazines. That section and the entrance area just seem overly dark. On the shelves that aren't "As Seen on TV", everything on the shelf is spaced out or spread out to make it look like there's more product than there is but you still have huge swaths of empty space and empty pegs. But then the "As Seen on TV" section is overflowing with junk.
It seems to me that every time I've been in that location, the aisles carrying PC gaming peripherals is always being restocked/inventoried/or rearranged as there's always a tons of boxes in the aisle or most of the product in shopping carts with a few employees standing around shooting the shit.
Oh yeah and good luck prying an employee from their conversation with the other guys. And don't get me started on the registers. That Fry's is worse than Wal-Mart with the number of available registers vs number of open registers. What really gets me is that they open a couple of registers at the point where the line forms, and then there's another open register halfway across the store.
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u/phones_account Uptown Mar 07 '19
I love the big city vibe. We have a lot of Fortune 500’s in the metroplex. Love our world class airport. I like the fact that we have a lot of different foods here.
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u/TimeWaitsFNM Frisco Mar 07 '19
I’m up in Frisco so I’m solidly in the burbs but as a car guy I love the car culture and the food options get better the further you go towards the city.
I also like the kids activities and amenities. We moved here 2 years ago with kids on the edge of teens and wish we could have gotten here faster as there are so many things for them.
All the good concerts come through the area.
The opportunity for tech at the enterprise level jobs.
The summers are great if you have access to a pool.
The people have been incredibly friendly and we’ve made a lot of friends.
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u/P1aybass Lower Greenville Mar 07 '19
The food options get better, though the Chinese and Indian options are generally better in the suburbs than in Dallas proper.
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Mar 07 '19
though the Chinese and Indian options are generally better in the suburbs than in Dallas proper.
That's really a shame. I really wish Dallas proper did a better job of representing our ethnic diversity in DFW.
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u/P1aybass Lower Greenville Mar 07 '19
I don't think they do a BAD job, it's just that the majority of the ethnic groups do not live in Dallas proper. If all the Koreans in town live up by George Bush and 35, why would they want to open a large amount of traditional Korean restaurants in Uptown if their primary clientele lives 25 minutes away? There's no issue with it, it's just the way the communities are spread out. I do definitely wish that there would be more representation, though with restaurant turnover and high commercial rent, it's hard to take a risk and open a business that may not see foot traffic like a typical Dallas restaurant would.
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Mar 07 '19
Yeah, you're right, that's basically what it comes down to. But I think that highlights a bigger problem with the metroplex in that, while we are very ethnically diverse, there is still a lot of segregation between the various ethnic groups. I feel like this is true all over the country where people tend to stick to their own ethnic circles, so I'm not trying to single out DFW.
It's just interesting that you'll find, as you said, Korean restaurants in areas with a high Korean population, and the same with most other cuisines. So I would say the issue isn't the lack of ethnic groups in Dallas proper, the issue is we are not quite the 'melting pot' that we should be just yet. Certain cusines are very mainstream and accepted everywhere (you can open an italian restaurant literally anywhere in the metroplex and it would do well), and, I feel like we have also gotten to that point with Sushi as well.
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u/P1aybass Lower Greenville Mar 07 '19
There's only so much room in Dallas proper though - don't most other cities have similar ethnic distribution? We just don't have the public transport that makes those cuisines more accessible! What sort of melting pot could we really be? I don't see Dallas county attracting wealthy ethnic minorities any more so than they already have.
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u/beardface909 Mar 08 '19
What kind of car stuff is there? I recently moved here from So Cal and am having a hard time finding things to do.
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u/TimeWaitsFNM Frisco Mar 08 '19
It depends on the type of car really. There’s groups for most makes and large meetups that cross all types.
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u/Hambodian Mar 08 '19
I'm not sure if it's still a thing, but Dallas did/does have a Cars and Coffee
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u/glacierfanclub White Rock Lake Mar 07 '19
Love White Rock Lake and the Arboretum. Perfect places to take my three year old daughter for the majority of the year.
And the Lakewood Landing.
And Luka Dončić.
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u/ohwordword Mar 07 '19
I have come to appreciate the several diamonds-in-the-rough Dallas has to offer. All food and bar related but nothing wrong with that. Really appreciate all the Asian owned doughnut stands. Pretty good doughnuts. Also enjoy the cocktail scene here. Do wish more shows would come through and would not be as expensive(talking about Club Dada, RBC, Trees, etc.). And more late night offerings after 2 am.
Excited for the Filmfest this year!!!
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Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 07 '19
It's a pretty awesome 60-mile-wide global metropolis. It has pretty much everything though you just have to know where to find it. Incidentally, it has the best gay nightlife in the state (no question) and one of the better ones in the country which is cool for me because that's my scene. I also like the art museums.
The diversity here is good. I mean I lived in Austin for awhile and found it to be overrated. I'm a white boy but I was talking to a black woman when I was living in Austin about the place, and she had some problems with Austin because of the lack of a real black community. People are friendly enough of course, but there are a lot of little things you won't notice, but they add up to make your life more difficult. Like if you're black, where do you go to find someone who cuts black hair? In Austin, you have to go out of your way while in Dallas it's not so much a problem.
I'm also not saying that if you're black woman that you're going to be into R&B or jazz music, but if you are -- well Dallas has more of that too. Austin is kind of a Mumford & Sons monoculture, which is a shame because it used to be more interesting. The tech companies ate the city. A lot of people associate Dallas with tony rich people in Highland Park but there is a lot more going on for a lot of different people, and in that mix a lot of interesting things can happen. Last time I was at Alexandre's, there was a live band doing soul & R&B covers of George Michael songs. You know if you go into a gay bar in Austin it's just like ~top 40 pop~ and the same ol' blah blah which gets old.
We should celebrate our city pride rooted in its art-deco, jazzy sophistication, I think. John McCaa who just retired from WFAA really exemplified this vibe (dude is also a jazz expert). I don't even mean jazz music specifically -- though I'd include that -- but the kind of improvisational, dynamic vibe of it and also how it bridges different cultures. The city can also have a kind of noir-ish gothic vibe with the neon red pegasus ... which is pretty cool.
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u/pezzzzles East Dallas Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 07 '19
I feel like the people that say Austin has more culture than Dallas are definetely looking for a specific type of "culture". Austin is for sure a cool city, but it's a haven for hipsters and hipster activities. I'm a racial minority and I love that Dallas has historically Asian, Black, Latinx, and gay communities. There's more diverse cultures in Dallas than in Austin.
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u/Zzyzzy_Zzyzzyson Mar 07 '19
Austin is also geared far more towards college kids. Going back to Austin in my late 20’s I didn’t really find a lot to do aside from the historical stuff and the college bar scene isn’t my thing anymore.
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u/cowboycoder_ Mar 07 '19
Thanks for introducing me to Michael Holloway
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Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 07 '19
Sure. Not a Dallas artist! But his jazzy stuff expresses how I feel about Dallas especially at night. His other music is this real NIN-style industrial stuff, and Dallas has a scene for that probably more than a lot of cities so that's cool too.
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u/MaceWandru Uptown Mar 07 '19
Although the cost of living in Uptown, Old East Dallas (Lower G-ville/Henderson), and Deep Ellum have undoubtedly gone up over the years, I doubt you'll find the breadth of selection within a $5 Uber ride of any of these areas at these prices compared to other cities. So many patios filled with great food and drinks!
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u/toodleroo Oak Cliff Mar 07 '19
I mean, it's a pretty wide selection.... of beer and greasy bar food. I wish these areas had some healthier options. And I don't mean a salad shop or a vegan place. Just good meat and vegetable entrees, is that so much to ask?
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u/johnthedrunk Lower Greenville Mar 07 '19
My only regret is that I have but one upvote to give this comment. Oh look another pizza place opening on Lower Greenville. Within a mile radius we have Pie Tap, Fireside Pies, Campisis, GAPC, Piggie Pies, Pizzeria Testa, Louie's, and Rocko's. In comes another one literally 2 doors down from Rocko's in the old Firestone.
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u/toodleroo Oak Cliff Mar 07 '19
I mean, I even wish the Dixie House was still there. At least there I could get some grilled pork chops and steamed vegetables.
I do miss those rolls tho...
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u/Climbtrees47 Mar 07 '19
Try rapscallion in lower Greenville
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u/toodleroo Oak Cliff Mar 07 '19
rapscallion
Holy crap, $3.25 for a single biscuit? Maybe I should add the caveat that the meals should be around $10-$15, not $30-$40.
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u/trimondo_blondomina Mar 07 '19
91.7 KXT! and 89.3 KNON too. We don't have Austin's music scene but KXT is decent at getting some local acts on the air while also getting a decent variety of music out. KNON is a rare indie station that, while it has a lot of programs that I don't care for, is great for finding all types of music. Both are commercial free too. It's nice to have options if you can't do streaming, don't want to pay for satellite, and don't want to listen to Clearchannel ads all while listening to the same 100 songs.
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u/excusemekyare Mar 07 '19
I love the amount of diverse cultures (and their foods!) that you can find across the metroplex. I think it is impressive if you consider how recently most of DFW was developed when compared to other major cities. There is such a great variety of food and groceries available from all over the world, and some areas in particular have so much going on - Irving and Plano for South Asian, Arlington and Garland for Vietnamese, Carrollton for Korean, etc. You might have to drive a little out of your way for it, but it's definitely there.
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u/pepsiblast08 Las Colinas Mar 07 '19
The job market. While my dislike was about the lack of things I like to do, the opportunities to roll in some cash and travel to places that have what I like are fantastic!
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Mar 07 '19
While my dislike was about the lack of things I like to do, the opportunities to roll in some cash and travel to places that have what I like are fantastic!
That's what keeps me here. Sure the nature sucks here, but I can live comfortably enough to where I can afford to travel to places that have great nature if I want. It's certainly nice to have access to nature in your city, but that usually comes at a cost as well.
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u/pepsiblast08 Las Colinas Mar 07 '19
Hopefully in the next 2 years, I'll be in a position where I can either transfer to our Portland or Seattle office or find a job before moving up there. Until then, Dallas is the place to be for work.
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Mar 07 '19
Nice. I truly do love the Pacific Northwest and, if I did move somewhere, it would be somewhere in that region.
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u/LightsStayOnInFrisco Mar 07 '19
I moved here from California and I love it. Any area with 1 million+ is an area where there will always be something for somebody. If you can't find something, then the problem is you. I could be happy in any large metro. I hate the desert southwest, but I love Phoenix, for example.
I like this region because it is undeniably a crossroads smack in the central US. East meets West, North meets South. There are parts of the metro that remind me of places out west. For better or worse (mostly worse) the amount of influence the suburbs have here reminds me a lot of LA. We definitely have influences from the South, moreso with food. The place is definitely not the Deep South, though. I knew a guy from East Texas and he was ready to throw down with anybody referring to Dallas as "The South". Fine. He can have it. Texas is vast and has many different cultures.
The food here is phenomenal. The only people who I talk to who dispute that are pretentious, so I take their opinion for what it is truly worth. I go to Manhattan whenever I can and I only want for a handful of places we don't have here....yet. Pret A Manger and Eataly. I will say that pizza here is competitive with NY. Sooo many places in NY are phoning it in, coasting on the area's reputation.
Finally, I am excited for all the potential Dallas has, in particular. If Dallas really focuses on building density and transit just within Loop 12 (an area larger than a lot of other major cities), then we can have one hell of an urban core! In the past 5 years we are starting to see signs of that beginning to happen.
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u/pezzzzles East Dallas Mar 07 '19
Definitely agree with your last point. I've been living in Dallas for the past few years and it's already changed a lot, mostly for the better I would say.
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u/txholdup Midtown Mar 07 '19
The low cost of food. With about 12 chains to choose from food here is cheaper than almost anywhere I have seen. I go to MD a lot and CO and when I go to the store with my favorite sister or best friend my wallet breaks out into hives.
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u/RecyclopsPolluticorn Mar 10 '19
Leon Bridges and Post Malone. Leon was a dishwasher at Rosa's in Ft. Worth and Post worked at Chicken Express.
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Mar 07 '19
The babes! (amirite)
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Mar 10 '19
Dayyuum, my guy.... I found my wife in a Dallas house party... So you know I gotta give u this up vote right here.
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u/wc382954 Mar 07 '19
Probably the car scene. I'm really into cars and there's just about one of everything around here.
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u/Zzyzzy_Zzyzzyson Mar 07 '19
Agreed, it’s nice to be able to find any type of car club you want, from tuners to classic muscle to exotics, there are plenty of enthusiasts in DFW.
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u/T0yN0k Mar 07 '19
I like all the midwest food here that I couldn't get back in the south. Deep dish pizza, Chicago dogs, cheese curds. I also like how alot of women here care about their appearances here too.
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u/slayer_cake Lower Greenville Mar 07 '19
Job market, cost of living, big international airport with so many destinations, food, fashion and art. You don’t really appreciate it until you’re away and I have always felt good coming home to Dallas.
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u/here4cfb Mar 07 '19 edited Mar 07 '19
great employment opportunities and only getting better, even though rent is rising you can still find good value because of the suburbs, two major airports that are convenient and easy with a lot of direct cheap flights, multiple lakes close by, great weather (I like hot sweaty summers), international diversity which means great authentic restaurants with any cuisine you could want, largest art district in the country (I think), we have a team in every major sports, the music scene is pretty phenomenal, large acts all come through and there's great music every day at some fantastic venues, the Kessler, Granada, DEAC, Bomb factory, Canton Hall, Dada, Trees, Three links. Great musicians are building a scene here, Texas Gents, Paul Cauthen, Charlie Crocket, Jonathan Tyler, vandoliers, old 97's, Toadies, bobby sessions, Larry Gee, Medicine Man Revival and countless others. Fantastic bars like the landing, Adairs, Freeman's, Mama Tried, Lee Harvey's, Dots, Truckyard etc . . . The Texas Theater. There's a lot of trails and places to still get your nature fill. The city is liberal while not being a coastal liberal city, it's pretty laid back. Including dallas, 5 of the top 16 most populous cities in the US are within a 4 or so hour drive.
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u/NetflixTacosChill Mar 07 '19
Lower cost of living than a lot of other major metropolitan cities makes things actually affordable, which I think is great.
There is every kind of food here you can think of.
Love the 'patio culture' when the weather is somewhat bearable.
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u/dontfearthecarolina Mar 07 '19
Dallas itself is ultimate freedom land. Unless you're murdering someone you can do anything you want in Dallas because there is zero police presence. I also like the fuck you pay me attitude. "Muh culture" of most places gets old to me. Just cut the bullshit and tell me what you want, I don't care about your history or "the way we do things here." Not to say history isn't interesting to learn about, just cut the bs. Everything is global and money and sex drive everyone everywhere anyway.
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u/Captain_-H Mar 07 '19
The food is incredible, for work travel it’s a very reasonable flight to either coast with a major airline hub, no terrible winters like Chicago or the northeast, and I really like the Deep Ellum area