Neither here nor there
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3/17/2021
I lived here for about 5 years, but my family was from the area and I visited north Texas a lot as a kid. There are maybe as many Dallas' as there are residents, and it changes everyday.
If you want nature, hiking, wildlife, that kind of thing, forget it. Dallas not only sprawls for seemingly hundreds of miles in all directions, it sits in a featureless flat nowhere devoid of any discernible geographic and natural markers. The winters are generally pleasant. There is about a week of spring in early March, then you face six months of often excruciating heat and humidity. It is intolerable, so everyone learns to stay inside. A few years ago temps broke 100 for something like 50 straight days, and that didn't even break the record. I was there. It was hell. Then there are the tornadoes and floods...
Dallas is just all about Dallas. I work in the arts, which is what took me there. There is money, so there is patronage. Until recently the rich still went elsewhere to spend their money, but this keeps shifting. Money means good restaurants, good museums, good shopping, many young people, jobs, and action action action. There are bad parts of town, but you learn where they are and steer clear. You're not likely to hear many Texan accents - even people raised in Dallas assume general flat American dialects. It never felt like the "real" Texas I knew growing up visiting smaller town relatives not that far away. Dallas is a generic sprawling, successful American city. It's neither good nor bad, here or there. The politics skew further and further left, and that is the same dumb song and dance everywhere now. You can find affordable housing, especially the further away from downtown you're willing to go. Be prepared to spend a lot of time in your car. It seems like the freeways go forever, and are always crammed. There are a ton of immigrants from everywhere, which means (among other things) great ethnic restaurants of every description.
If you want big city action and opportunity and don't care one whit about feeling connected to an actual place and culture, Dallas might be for you.
Matt | Denver, CO