When I moved to Dallas back in the mid 90′s, I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that the NFL team was doing well and the main N/S freeway was only (2) lanes in each direction. Fast forward (16) odd years, the NFL team is clinging to life and I finally have an opinion that I’m comfortable sharing.
Some people say Dallas “has no soul”, or that it’s “plastic fantastic”, but I say it’s a great place to live if you travel a lot. One thing I noticed right off the bat was that most women were blond, fake that is. Not that it’s a bad thing and I suppose if I were a woman with mousy brown hair or started to prematurely gray, I would consider hitting the peroxide bottle too. In fact the first joke I remember hearing in Dallas was.. What’s black and blond and black and blond and black and blond? A blond doing cartwheels.
Enough of that, on to the important stuff. Life here is actually pretty good. We have an over abundance of (deep breath) restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, clothing stores, liquor stores, car dealerships, bank after bank after bank after bank after bank after bank, tons of pawn shops, a bazillion car repair places, too many movies theaters, (3d, reg, drive-in, independent, etc..) at least a couple hundred sushi bars, tons of strip clubs, parks, lakes, walking and biking trails, way too many doggie day care centers, lot’s of airports, auto race tracks, sports teams, horse racing, massive arts community, the grassy knoll and way more Churches than you could ever imagine or want to see in one place. You could start your Sunday morning in a Baptist Church, walk to a Lutheran, Church, mosey on down to the Synagogue, skip over a block to the Mosque, drop by the Hindu temple on your way to the Vihara (Buddhist monastery) and wrap up at the 3rd Church of Christ Scientist (whatever that means) all within about one square mile. I’m not joking about that.. they don’t call this the bible belt for nothing and the lord giveth mightily to those willing to venture into the lucrative (and tax free) business of Religion.
Dallas is a great place for the workforce and for business. Texas has as massive economy, great airports, highways and rail systems so goods flow easily in and out. Tech is big here as well since space, bandwidth and electricity are plentiful and cheap. Dell is right down the highway, we have EDS, American Airlines and lots of other big Companies that call Dallas home.
Personally Dallas is a bit drab when it comes to things to do. Sure restaurants, movies, museums and the like are fun but if you want to get away for the weekend, you have to either get on a plane or drive at least (3) hours in any direction (but West) to find anything that does not resemble Dallas. It’s also hotter than hell in the Summer and it gets pretty cold in the winter. We had a full month a few years ago when the temp was over 100 degrees everyday with no rain. We’ve had (2) bouts of snow already this Winter and just saw 12.5″ which is a new record. In fact it was below freezing for at least (5) nights in a row. We can’t really complain though because having lived in NY, I know all too well how mild our Winters are in comparison.
One of my favorite things about Dallas is that I know my way around and I know lots of people. Even in a city of Millions, I find myself bumping into a friend or acquaintance at the market or movies or museum, etc. It’s also a great place to go for long walks if you have a dog (or even if you don’t) although I’m amazed at how may people prefer to sit on the couch when it’s nice outside. I’m not qualified to comment on traffic since I live less than 1mi from my office. That’s by design but I do know that any freeway here can and will become a parking lot at least once during a typical day (weekends included).
So there you have it. Dallas is a fairly new city, it’s mostly clean, fairly safe, nice roads for the most part, great to travel in and out of and most of all it’s economically stable with somewhat mild temperatures. I would have to give it a solid 7 out of 10.
Till next time ~ John