I am thinking about moving to Dallas for a job - I am wondering if there are any really really bad areas that I should be aware of.

The job that I am looking at is near the Downtown area, so I am naturally thinking about finding someplace nearby for an apartment rental for at least 6-9 months while I wait for my current home to sell.

any advice would be appreciated as to areas to stay away from.

Thanks

IMO - anything IN Dallas County isn't a place you want to live (unless you can afford Highland Park/University Park.  Dallas County has been badly managed by their city council…  I'd suggest you look North into Plano, Frisco, McKinney..   However, if you must live in Dallas proper, stay North of Downtown at a minimum.

"Uptown" area is really nice and only a couple of miles north of downtown. Tons of rentals. After that you need to look around for yourself as there are many great areas if you can deal with the commute.

Anything North of downtown will be safe.  Stay away from east of downtown (deep ellum/fair park), this area is fairly bad.  And stay away from south of downtown.  The one place you can sometimes get good rentals at great prices is Oak Cliff.  10y ago Oak Cliff was a crack infested hell hole that only gangs ran.  But over the last 10y there has been serious effort to revitalize that area.  Because of this there are a lot of houses, town homes, apartments, and condo's that are completely remodeled and are in nice subcommunities but are still haunted by the stigma that was "Oak Cliff".  Grant it, not every section of Oak Cliff has been revitalized, but those parts that have been are now pretty nice.

If you don't want to take a shot at Oak Cliff (and I could completely understand), you can go to Uptown.  This used to be a nasty part of town too, but then the American Airlines center was built and all the warehouses were torn down and upscale apartments/condos were put in place.  There is tons of nightlife, eating establishments, and bars...but it comes at a price.  Uptown is expensive.  But you'll never feel unsafe there.

Then if you want to move a bit further north the next area for a high concentration of rental properties is Addison.  This is similar to Uptown, but not quite the expense.  You'll have a 15-20min drive into downtown from here unlike a 5min drive from Uptown.  But everything is new and nice, with lots of activities to keep anyone entertained.  AND, Addison is kicking around the idea of allowing a huge indoor shooting park that would be pop up targets, fast draw, quick fire, basically anything you want but in a nice air conditioned building.

And if you want a safe bet, and don't mind a bit of a drive, you can always choose Plano, Allen, Frisco or McKinney.  Those are the four "far north" Dallas suburbs that are guaranteed nice, clean and reasonably priced wherever you go.

Garland appears to be a pretty decent place to live. My wife and I have been here a couple of months with no reportable incidents. She grew up in Garland, and I'm from a small town in Mississippi, so I'm still learning how to be a city slicker, but so far, I like Texas very much.

One thing I will say that made Texas feel more like my kinda place is that y'all love the shit outta some guns. I can respect that.

Oh, and OP: Thanks again for the great deal on the Condor Summit. That jacket is fast becoming my favoritie piece of cold weather gear.

I've lived in Dallas area since 1991, and lived in a number of areas around town.

I would avoid anything and everything South of downtown / I-30.
I would avoid anything on the West side of Dallas. West Dallas, Arlington, etc are mostly crap - and the parts that are decent are surrounded by crackheads.
I would avoid almost everything on the East side of Dallas. Most of Mesquite and Garland are bad, and the parts that aren't are surrounded by bad.
I would avoid most of Dallas North of downtown, unless it is North of 635 (our 'beltway' around most of Dallas).

There are some lofts in Deep Ellum (in/near downtown) that aren't bad. The area looks seedy, but some of those places aren't bad (like the lofts along Farmer's Market Way). The area is where most of the arts are (live music, bars, art galleries, etc). The area is pretty heavily patrolled by police and I've walked around there many times, on the way to shows, etc.

'Uptown' is an area just North of Downtown, very convenience if you work there. It isn't terrible other than the parking, and there is a lot of nightlife & restaurants there. The area isn't the worst, but it is surrounded by bad neighborhoods and I have had a few friends mugged walking to their cars there recently.


So, what is good?

If you go East of Dallas past Garland and Mesquite, there is ROWLETT and ROCKWALL. These are both pretty decent, though a bit of a drive to downtown.

If you go North of 635, places like RICHARDSON, PLANO, McKINNEY, FRISCO, WYLIE, etc are pretty nice. LEWISVILLE is a little further NorthWest, but mostly decent. If you go NorthWest, out toward the DFW airport, parts of IRVING and LAS COLINAS are nice.

i live north of downtown, north of 635, right in the nook of 635/tollway/US75.  in the Preston/Beltline area.  everything i could possibly need is right within 5 minutes of my house.

crime happens, but in the past 3 years ive been here its petty car breakins that i have heard of, that people left visible items in their cars (or things like mirrors, tahoe rear seats, etc).  i havent heard of any violent crimes in this area, but that doesnt of course mean they dont happen...i just didnt hear of them thus far.

over all, id recommend looking in this area.  "Dallas Galleria Area".  my house is actually city of dallas, but im in Richardson School District.

Look in Mansfield and drive to Dallas.  Trafffic sux also.

General rule is that you should not live anywhere that has DART Bus access nearby. Any neighborhood for that matter. Keeps the riff-raff out of your life.

Uptown is nice but that area goes from 25 year old girls whose parents pay $3000 a month for their apartment, to straight away, a block later into some real bad slum stuff.

If I were you, looking at a 6-9 month lease, I would look at The Village Apartments off Caruth Haven and US75. Safe and has easy commute to downtown. Bail out to someplace better once you get the lay of the land.

Dallas is slowly going to shit and many nice areas even ten years ago are havens for FSA types. Be careful where you live and where you go.

As far as the Dallas area goes stay in Uptown, Highland Park/University Park or get out of Dallas County.  Less a few exceptions of course but to broad brush it stay out of Dallas County.  

What does FSA stand for?

FSA = Free Shit Army

Really?



We live in Arlington, in a very nice area, surrounded by other nice
areas. Sure, I have to drive by an apartment-filled area to get to the
highway, but I don't consider that a reason to avoid the entire city
like a plague.



I have family inside the loop in the M streets, and family over by White Rock Lake. Neither neighborhood is bad. Yes, there are bad areas around there, but that doesn't make those areas totally plague-infested, avoid-at-all-costs.



I'm not familiar with east Dallas, so no comments.



South Dallas county has good areas in Duncanville, Cedar Hill, etc., and bad areas in Duncanville, Cedar Hill, etc.



If you want to avoid all "seedy" areas, all "bad" areas, and never have to even look at them, ever in your daily life, I don't know where you should live.  



You really just need to drive around the areas you're considering at all
times of the day, night, weekend, and see what kinds of cars are there.
What the people look and act like, what they drive and how they drive,
etc. What helped us out a lot when we relocated up here was renting for a year. That really helped us narrow down areas to look in and areas to avoid.



 

This is pretty much spot on.  If you're young, single, and dont mind renting try Uptown or Addison.  If you're married, have kids, or want a home in a nice, highly desired area then those cities mentioned above are your best bet.

Single?  
Fuck it.  Live close as hell to work.
CCW and lock your shit up

Thanks all for some great advice - I'm hoping to hear from the company sometime in the next few weeks and will see if I can pull in a sit down interview.

I certainly would love to get the hell out of the cold and snow here in the Midwest.

Looking as close to the potential place of employment for the time being until I can get a better idea on travel time.

I guess I have been completely spoiled the last 30 years that i've been employed - all 3 of my jobs have been about a 5 min drive from my home

Stay away from Oak Cliff (only nice areas are some gay/nice areas in north oak cliff), south dallas (south of I-30/crack heads)

Uptown (college/younger ppl), white rock lake (settling down/ 30's area)

There's a whole bunch of new shit directly downtown. I'm sure it's pricey, but if I only had to do it for less than a year, I'd forget driving to my job and find a place within walking distance and get my CHL in order.

Otherwise, just realize traffic will suck.

Uptown is convenient but you'll end up paying more money and have to deal with the younger crowd which could be great if you're experiencing your midlife crisis or interested in cute guys.

Plano/Allen/McKinney is nice. So is Rockwall. Not sure about other on some of the other areas.

 

Word.

Agreed.  I'm single and live in Dallas close to my job downtown.  If I didn't hate dealing with traffic so much I'd live anywhere but Dallas proper.

What else would you expect for driving so far?

The North Dallas area is great, I'm talking about north of downtown all the way to Bush Toll road, between Coit'ish/I75 and perhaps Midway Road.

PS:  Op'er, don't look in Mansfield.

Holy shit.  Do not listen to this guy!

Lots of nice stuff to rent in or near downtown.  An apartment locator is your best bet.

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